Album Notes

New York Times hold an MFA, a Screen Actor’s Guild Card, a Congressional Press Pass, and have illustrated for Dark Horse and DC Comics. They are one artist, one reporter, one poet, one actor, one part UK, one part New York, two parts California, three parts Portland.

Rory Store and Rebecca Roulette began writing songs on the couch, while in withdrawal from past projects, The Stores and The Roulettes. They enlisted the help of every drum-inclined person they knew. Seven drummers later, enter Tom Stephens.

Rory and Tom met at a CMJ party as both lunged for the last can of free Red Stripe floating in a bucket of melting ice.

After squatting semi-illegally in the perfect practice space, New York Times found themselves and their equipment without a place to call home, shuffling from one dive to another. But when you're paying for under-ventilated rehearsal spaces, you develop a keen work ethic. The sounds of New York Times began to coalesce as they recorded a demo with Major Matt Mason of Olive Juice. All they needed was a bass player. With fingers firmly crossed, they approached their bass-player-artist-friend extraordinaire, Tara McPherson.

New York Times have since played at venues such as Union Pool, Glasslands, Cakeshop, Pianos, Sin-e, and the Tank, and have performed with author Jonathan Lethem as The Night Time. In summer, 2007, the band met at The Fort in Brooklyn to record an EP with little to no air conditioning and even less time. Engineer Jim Bentley worked patiently, aided by block parties and ice cream trucks, as did Jon Cohrs of Spleenless Mastering, aided by a wall of antique clocks, vaulted ceilings, and a view of Manhattan.

A few weeks later, New York Times escaped the sea of hot trash they call home and made their overseas debut in the UK. They were set to play Truck Festival in Oxford until torrential rain swept the British countryside. But the mini-European tour was saved by gigs at the Windmill (in Brixton and Brighton) and Fleche D'or in Paris, earning it the unofficial name, The Windmill Tour. New York Times were recently featured on Filter magazine’s “Discovering the Undiscovered” blog and in the New York Press. They perform next at Spike Hill in Brooklyn on 6/20.