New Jersey Hipster Approved: New York Times

The story of New York Times began when Rory Store and Rebecca Roulette began writing songs on their couch in 2004, in withdrawal from their past projects. After going through a series of drummers, they settled on Tom Stephens after Rory met Tom when both dove into a beer bucket for the last can of Red Stripe at a CMJ party. Finally a complete band, NYT rehearsed/squatted in their practice space for awhile, shuffling from dive to dive in their quest for their big (or at least medium-sized) break. The band then recorded a demo and recruited bass player/artist/friend extraordinaire Tara McPherson, and the rest was history.

Well, not yet. The indie-epic story of the founding of New York Times is fitting for a band with an equally epic name.

It seems as though New York Times looks to Pavement (among other lo-fi indie bands) for their musical inspiration, capturing their recording sound and coupling it with catchy hooks. They also mix in some of Sleater-Kinney's punk rock attitude. One of their greatest assets, however, lies in lead singer Rebecca Roulette. If Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein had a love child, Roulette's voice would be the result. In songs like "Burn" and "Monster Eyes," Roulette shows traces of the amazing wail of SK lead singer Tucker. She also exhibits signs of Brownstein's lower range, and goes down an octave to match slower, more deliberate songs such as "Terminal Five," and still sound confident and strong.

The band describes themselves as "one part New York, two parts California, three parts Portland," and all three locations make themselves heard. Obvious is the Sleater-Kinney reference I already made (with its location being Portland.) But the melody of "Burn" is reminiscent of California surfing, and the faster tempo of "China Lounger" matches the pace of New York City. Three musical places and one band as a result; pretty successful, if you ask me.

New York Times is playing Fontana's this Saturday (April 19th.) Details can be found here. As per the Fontana's website, this show is FREE! (Bring your art degree!)

New York Times- Burn (mp3)
New York Times- China Lounger (mp3)