New York Times

Broken bones didn’t stop Rory 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...take their cues from the rough, under-produced elements of ’90s indie rock without crossing over into nostalgic or dated territory...Driving the sound is Rebecca’s uninhibited wail, undoubtedly cultivated from many hours spent getting intimate with the Kill Rock Stars back catalog.
--Maggie Serota, New York Press
- Maggie Serota, New York Press

On the back of one-year-old Brooklyn-based rock band The Night Time's [New York Times'] freshly-pressed single "Monster Eyes" (B-side: "Astronaut Food"), under a photograph of a glittery heart on a stick entwined by the stems of two pink roses, is printed: "Lyrics by Jonathan Lethem and The Night Time. Music by The Night Time." These days, Lethem, 43, best known as a prolific novelist (Motherless Brooklyn, The Fortress of Solitude) and MacArthur Fellowship recipient, is moonlighting as a rock lyricist. Or, at least, his characters are...

So he went in search of tunes for the song fragments in You Don't Love Me Yet via the Promiscuous Materials section of his website, inviting bands to complete the lyrics and write and record the songs from his novel. "People kept asking. They'd say, 'Well, what do the songs sound like?' and I'd have to confess that really all I had was on the page. I'm just so resolutely not a musician. I can't make up melodies." Several bands did make up melodies, and submitted them to the Promiscuous Materials Project. "I was surprised by a bunch of them, delightfully." In his opinion, The Night Time's [New York Times'] version of "Monster Eyes" got closest to his idea of the song. "It's kind of like a little hit song of the mind. There ought to be a hook, and those guys did find one. And they're sort of cute and young in the right way. Cute like adorable."

That's why he asked The Night Time [New York Times] to open for him when he read with his friend George Saunders at the Housing Works Bookstore in SoHo, soon after You Don't Love Me Yet was published... - Zoom-in.com, Megan Gilbert

Listening to the Brooklyn based New York Times, one can't help but thinking of the multitude of bands that they sort of resemble. Bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Sleater-Kinney immediately spring to mind thanks to the female vocals, but just comparing any band to another band is selling them short. The Brooklyn quartet is certainly an original entity, even though they wear their influences on their sleeves.

By blending elements of New Wave, Post-Punk, Pop, and other musical genres, New York Times are creating sounds that are immediately appealing to any music lover's ears. It's accesible music that's just the right amount of interesting and catchy together. Lead singer Rebecca Roulette has the kind of voice that sounds like its yearning to get out the emotions she's feeling. It's powerful and raw, yet somehow remains tender and very feminine. That's completmented well by the rest of the band with pounding rhythms and blistering guitar riffs that push the music to new heights.

I've been listening to their self-titled, debut EP for a couple of days now and I am very impressed by everything I'm hearing. The music is tight, and it's instantly recognizable but still new. Good stuff.
- Pat Duffy, Pop Tarts Suck Toasted

"At their best, they sound like a subdued Yeah Yeah Yeahs, with fiery female vocals and a (duh) New York rock scene sound. At times, I tasted hints of the Velvet Underground and perhaps, just maybe, a scootch of Autolux. All of those bands (and NYT) have that eerie, spooky rock vibe that one would normally have to invest in some serious downers to experience."
- Instrumental Analysis

New*York*Times: The Band! In DC!
5/8/08

Titles are not my strong suit (at least not today) but seriously, come on in and take a gander:

In an ongoing effort to make you make a point to see bands you don’t know you love yet, we decided to shed some light on New York Times (ex-The Night Time) who are playing Velvet Lounge this Saturday.

From their sassy bio, an intro of the 2 boys and 2 girls en route here:

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. Bring your art degree.

They play literate pop that has been compared to everything from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Pavement, and other lo-fi treats, and has had Jonathan Lethem (of “Motherless Brooklyn” fame) say “I’ll be Andy Warhol to their Velvet Underground.” after they made a pop nugget version of his poem “Monster Eyes”.

Are you excited/intrigued/feeling hot around your collar yet?
Thought so.

Anyway, we sat down, keyboard to keyboard with the very lovely Rebecca Roulette (lead singer, and darling) and did a little listening party. Just for you.
Ready?
OK.

Monster Eyes- We had so much fun writing this one. Jonathan Lethem had already written the chorus and part of first verse, so in fleshing out the song, we tried to embody the spirit of the fictional band in his novel, You Don’t Love Me Yet. Usually the music comes before the lyrics, so this was the reverse process for us— once we had most of the lyrics, Rory sat down with a guitar and immediately came up with the hook. Tom and Rory stopped me from adding a line in second verse that sounded like it was about birthing an ice storm, but the second verse does include the title of my MFA thesis. (If you can guess what line that is, I’ll send you a copy of the thesis. Kidding.) I felt like I was doing karaoke when we first started performing this one, which gave me more freedom to whip my hair around and stuff.

Terminal Five – I started writing this song on my porch in Portland, Oregon. It was my before-bed-depressed-
lullaby, but then Rory and I finished it in New York and titled it after the defunct 60’s air-terminal at JFK where we went to an infamous party/art opening a few years ago. The song, to me, represents the bicoastal dilemma of where and whether to settle down, especially in these “interesting times,” and it has my favorite line about shiny new $12 martini New York: “Go to the ATM again.” The latest live incarnation of the song features our new instrument: a very nautical bell I got on 23rd Street.

Tiny Secrets- This is an all Tara production. You can tell cause in some ways it’s more driving than our other stuff, especially when Tom starts playing it at breakneck speed. Tara says: This song is about the little devil we all have sitting on our shoulders, and how he really is an inherent part of our lives. It’s because of him we all have these tiny secrets…

want more:
befriend them socially here
and make your way to Velvet this Saturday (Koko and Nerd Parade round out the very classy line up) - Svetlana, BrightestYoungThings.com

When I popped Brooklyn based New York Time’s EP into the stereo I was greeted with straight forward curb side indie rock that kicks and punches before it swoons and kisses. Thirty seconds into the first track I found myself assisting their drummer on my steering wheel as I was driving to work. By the fifth song I was chiming in on the choruses and on the second time through the EP I was thinking that this band was friggin good. - Laurent, Pastaprima.net

A star-powered week at Audiofile, as tracks from Wilco, Patti Smith and Richard Thompson shared space with a bonus exclusive song from Brooklyn band the Night Time [New York Times]-- 'Monster Eyes' -- based on the description of the music made by the fictional band in Jonathan Lethem's new novel. - David Marchese, Salon.com

In less than a year of existence the New York Times have gone through a handful of band members, changed their name, recorded a demo, and played a few shows. Essentially the project of Rebecca Roulette and Rory Store, The Night Time’s aptly titled debut endears intself by sounding very much like a first release. It’s got the feel of a guitarist carrying a travel bag worth of arpeggio riffs crossing paths with a singer that’s been itching to test out the vocal ideas floating around her mind. The resulting sound is redolent of mid-90’s alterna-acts like K’s Choice and Joydrop that succeded in melding clean picking verse/crunchy chords chorus arrangement style with pastel-shaded female vocals. Roulette’s smooth, Nightingale voice is the sweetest treat here, but they are a little low in the mix leaving the lyrics hard to grasp and the songs a bit undefined. Once this band evolves from apartment-couch recording project and logs a couple hundred rehearsal hours they will mature into the proposed dynamics of First EP. The Night Times play Pianos on June 2. - The Deli Magazine, David Aaron

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 melody of "Burn" is reminiscent of California surfing, and the faster tempo of "China Lounger" matches the pace of New York City
- New Jersey Hipster, Dan Wassington

...They have a whole 90's indie pop girl vocals thing happening. They have been compared to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sleater-Kinney, Autolux, VU, and Pavement. So, if you want me to throw in another band to compare N** Y*** T***** to, I will. I choose a band with a different Rebecca in it... The Spinanes (but, you know, not as sparse). Anyway, they rock.
- Rob Reich, Gimme Tinnitus