Taper’s Choice’s Guest-Packed Relix 50 Show Unveiled as First Relix Sessions Cassette
Taper’s Choice at Relix 50, photo by Andrew Blackstein
Last January, Relix celebrated its 50-year legacy with a very special show at New York’s Brooklyn Bowl, helmed by Taper’s Choice. The “subversive jamband” supergroup of bassist Alex Bleeker (Real Estate), drummer Chris Tomson (Vampire Weekend), guitarist Dave Harrington (Darkside) and keyboardist Zach Tenorio-Miller (Arc Iris) exemplified the magazine’s core values of collaboration, community, historical reverence and mind-bending innovation with a star-studded cast of “friends and casual acquaintances” who lent their talents to two sets of originals and covers of scene staples. Now, fans can take that unforgettable concert home with a limited edition cassette.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you can stop refreshing Etree…” Tomson said. “The official tape has arrived.”:
“Relix 50 was a dream both experientially and in terms of something, somehow, coming true. You know that guy who played on Live/Dead with the confirmed best initials in jam (TC)? He was, miraculously, there. And how about the guy who wrote “Scent of a Mule” and, famously, says “No”? He, too, graced our stage. How about Mikaela, Scott, a different Tom, Jake, Robert and many more? Legends, all. Taper’s Choice is a jamband (one word) and, as such, to be asked to play the 50th anniversary of Relix magazine was an amazing honor. We hope that our covers from the canon were judicious and that our own songs do the tradition justice. We are very proud that we pulled this show off and hope you enjoy this limited run of cassettes commemorating it. Thanks for listening and here’s to many more Relix anniversaries to come!”
Relix 50: Live at Brooklyn Bowl captures the magic of Relix’s one-night-only anniversary event in the format that gave rise to the magazine and an underground, international network of live music obsessives. Beyond the core quartet, now affectionately remembered as Taper’s Choice 1.0, the artists featured across the nine-track distillation of the three-and-a-half hour concert include Tom Constanten, Mike Gordon, Mikaela Davis, Jake Brownstein, Scott Metzger, Robert Walter, Tom Hamilton Jr. and a horn section of Stuart Bogie, Jordan Mclean, Lynn Ligammari and Dave Smith. The setlist matches Taper’s Choice jam vehicles like “The Dave Test” and “Darkness on the Edge of Midtown” with immediately recognizable tributes to the genre’s forebearers, including the Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star,” Phish’s “Possum” and the Allman Brothers Band’s “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More.” Budding tapers can purchase the cassette bundled with a player.
Taper’s Choice’s Relix 50: Live at Brooklyn Bowl cassette is available now, exclusively via Relix.shop. Read on for the full tracklist.
Relix 50: Live at Brooklyn Bowl – Taper’s Choice
Side A:
1. The Dave Test (No) > w/ horns
2. Lick the Toad w/ horns + Jake Brownstein
3. Darkness on the Edge of Midtown
4. Mountains of the Moon >
5. Dark Star w/ Mikaela Davis + Tom Constanten
Side B:
6. Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More w/ Scott Metzger + Robert Walter
7. Close Encounters w/ Scott Metzger + Robert Walter + Tom Hamilton Jr.
8. Exit Wound w/ Mikaela Davis + Robert Walter + Mike Gordon
9. Possum w/ Robert Walter + Mike Gordon
