Before taking the stage at their Jan. 12 show at Williamsburg’s Spike Hill, New York Times singer/guitarist Rebecca “Roulette” apologizes in advance for the evening’s performance. She motions toward the lanky redheaded guitarist who plays music under the name Rory Store.
“Rory broke his foot. It’s just a small fracture, but still, something to keep in mind,” she explains with a grimace, before chalking the injury up to New Year’s Eve shenanigans. The fact that the room is packed clearly adds to her apprehension.
However, broken bones didn’t stop Store from pogo-ing up and down on stage, his manic enthusiasm mirrored by Rebecca, drummer Tom Stephens and bassist Tara McPherson.
The Brooklyn-based quartet (well, mostly Brooklyn-based. Store lives in D.C.), comprising a visual artist (McPherson), actor (Stephens), non-profit worker and poet (Roulette) and trade magazine correspondent (Store), take their cues from the rough, under-produced elements of ’90s indie rock without crossing over into nostalgic or dated territory. One can only guess how many copies of Goo the members of New York Times must have collectively worn out during their high school years. Driving the sound is Rebecca’s uninhibited wail, undoubtedly cultivated from many hours spent getting intimate with the Kill Rock Stars back catalog.
“I love Heavens to Betsy and Bikini Kill,” gushes Rebecca, asserting her affinity for the early ’90s riot grrl bands. “It’s hard for me as a vocalist not to be influenced by the musicians I loved when I was 15.”
When I ask Rebecca about the strange band moniker—the one that makes it impossible to Google the band and forces them to replace letters with asterisks on their MySpace page—she gives me a garbled answer along the lines of “We’re reclaiming something larger than ourselves...” When I ask her to clarify this, she has a difficult time giving me an explanation that’s remotely coherent, coming across as one of those b.s. answers you give in your freshman humanities class when you get called on and haven’t done the reading.
Despite the name problem, the fledgling group has already played a small string of shows in England, including a show in Brighton at the invitation of some collectors of Tara McPherson’s artwork. Although the fledgling band is unsigned—self-releasing their EP through iTunes and CD Baby—the quartet has also had the opportunity to collaborate with novelist and Brooklyn resident Jonathan Lethem.
“Rory and I went to a reading of his at BAM a few years ago. We couldn’t afford his new book, so we had him sign our programs,” Rebecca recounts with the kind of excitement one would reserve for meeting Bowie.
Under its former moniker, The Night Time, the band eventually finagled an invite from the author to cover their interpretation of the single “Monster Eyes”—penned by the fictional and nameless L.A. indie band in Lethem’s novel You Don’t Love Me Yet. The Night Time’s version of the song was posted on the writer’s site along with myriad other bands’ translations of the novel’s songs as part of the author’s Promiscuous Materials Project.
The Night Time’s version of Monster Eyes was singled out by Salon.com as an Exclusive Song of the Day on its Audiofile music blog, in addition to earning the praise of Lethem himself.
“The ‘Monster Eyes’ cover is a little less riot grrl and a little more Grace Slick and Pat Benatar,” notes Roulette.
Now that New York Times can count a famous author as one of its admirers, one has to wonder what they want to accomplish next.
“We’d love to be able to one day record music without having to pay for it out of pocket. That would be nice,” Rebecca laments.
Dare to dream.
Feb. 9, Cake Shop, 152 Ludlow St. (betw. Stanton & Rivington Sts.), 212-253-0036; 9, $6.
“Rory broke his foot. It’s just a small fracture, but still, something to keep in mind,” she explains with a grimace, before chalking the injury up to New Year’s Eve shenanigans. The fact that the room is packed clearly adds to her apprehension.
However, broken bones didn’t stop Store from pogo-ing up and down on stage, his manic enthusiasm mirrored by Rebecca, drummer Tom Stephens and bassist Tara McPherson.
The Brooklyn-based quartet (well, mostly Brooklyn-based. Store lives in D.C.), comprising a visual artist (McPherson), actor (Stephens), non-profit worker and poet (Roulette) and trade magazine correspondent (Store), take their cues from the rough, under-produced elements of ’90s indie rock without crossing over into nostalgic or dated territory. One can only guess how many copies of Goo the members of New York Times must have collectively worn out during their high school years. Driving the sound is Rebecca’s uninhibited wail, undoubtedly cultivated from many hours spent getting intimate with the Kill Rock Stars back catalog.
“I love Heavens to Betsy and Bikini Kill,” gushes Rebecca, asserting her affinity for the early ’90s riot grrl bands. “It’s hard for me as a vocalist not to be influenced by the musicians I loved when I was 15.”
When I ask Rebecca about the strange band moniker—the one that makes it impossible to Google the band and forces them to replace letters with asterisks on their MySpace page—she gives me a garbled answer along the lines of “We’re reclaiming something larger than ourselves...” When I ask her to clarify this, she has a difficult time giving me an explanation that’s remotely coherent, coming across as one of those b.s. answers you give in your freshman humanities class when you get called on and haven’t done the reading.
Despite the name problem, the fledgling group has already played a small string of shows in England, including a show in Brighton at the invitation of some collectors of Tara McPherson’s artwork. Although the fledgling band is unsigned—self-releasing their EP through iTunes and CD Baby—the quartet has also had the opportunity to collaborate with novelist and Brooklyn resident Jonathan Lethem.
“Rory and I went to a reading of his at BAM a few years ago. We couldn’t afford his new book, so we had him sign our programs,” Rebecca recounts with the kind of excitement one would reserve for meeting Bowie.
Under its former moniker, The Night Time, the band eventually finagled an invite from the author to cover their interpretation of the single “Monster Eyes”—penned by the fictional and nameless L.A. indie band in Lethem’s novel You Don’t Love Me Yet. The Night Time’s version of the song was posted on the writer’s site along with myriad other bands’ translations of the novel’s songs as part of the author’s Promiscuous Materials Project.
The Night Time’s version of Monster Eyes was singled out by Salon.com as an Exclusive Song of the Day on its Audiofile music blog, in addition to earning the praise of Lethem himself.
“The ‘Monster Eyes’ cover is a little less riot grrl and a little more Grace Slick and Pat Benatar,” notes Roulette.
Now that New York Times can count a famous author as one of its admirers, one has to wonder what they want to accomplish next.
“We’d love to be able to one day record music without having to pay for it out of pocket. That would be nice,” Rebecca laments.
Dare to dream.
Feb. 9, Cake Shop, 152 Ludlow St. (betw. Stanton & Rivington Sts.), 212-253-0036; 9, $6.
