music2002

They Will Rock You

Rock/Pop/Garage

THE WALKMEN: Jonathan Fire*Eater and the Recoys came together to make this 5-man garage-rock band.

(Photo: Josh Rothstein)

The Walkmen

Sounds Like: A symphonic, keyboard-rich blend of U2, Joy Division, and the Pogues-"even though we sound nothing like them, we steal from them the most," says lead singer Hamilton Leithauser.
Signature Lyrics: "I'm a modern guy. I don't care / much for the go-go or the retro / image I see so often," from "We've Been Had." from the ashes: Back in 1996, Walter Martin, the organist of the Walkmen, had a band called Jonathan Fire*Eater-the Strokes of its day, with a DreamWorks contract to boot-but within a year it had imploded. The Walkmen were born in 2000 when Jonathan Fire*Eater members Martin, Paul Maroon, and Matt Barrick teamed up with Leithauser's band the Recoys. (Martin and Leithauser are cousins who grew up together in D.C.)
Downtown (North OF 125Th Street): When not hanging out at St. Dymphna's bar on St. Marks Place, the Walkmen can be found at Marcata Recording, the studio they own in Harlem. "Having our own studio is great. It's nice not having to worry about time," says Leithauser. "Except we wind up overworking," says former Recoy Peter Bauer. "We can get a little obsessed." Art Band by Day? The Walkmen are semi-big, and getting bigger (they're on MTV2 constantly), but Leithauser is still working at the Met, and Barrick at the Museum of Sex. "Matt seems to think it's a real museum," says Leithauser, "but every time you talk to him, he's just gone to pick up pornography from some old man's house."

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French Kicks

Sounds Like: Vintage Brit pop meets post-punk (or Squeeze meets Fugazi).
Signature Lyrics: "I wish you weren't so tired to me / But you are," from "Wrong Side."
The Boys in the Band: After graduating from Oberlin in 1997, Nick Stumpf (vocals, drums) and Matt Stinchcomb (guitar) relocated to Brooklyn, where they met keyboardist Josh Wise. Nick's little brother, Lawrence, joined them on bass. The Strokesishly good-looking group then made its way up the indie chain with its first underground hit single, "Young Lawyer."
Not-So-Simple Minds: Now, with their first full-length album, One Time Bells, the French Kicks are gaining steam for their clever, can't-get-it-out-of-your-head pop sensibility. "The idea that we've sort of used from the beginning is to make music that is catchy without being silly," says Stumpf. "We think that you can be catchy and intricate at the same time."

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Longwave

Sounds Like: Way-early U2, if Bono sang more about his loneliness than about dead Irish revolutionaries, plus pre-experimental Radiohead.
Signature Lyrics: "Look back on the days you've lived before / Look back on the nights and ask for more / When there's no one left you see me there," from the unreleased "I Know It's Coming Someday."
Is Queen the New Brooklyn?: After high school, front man Steve Schlitz fled Rochester for Astoria, snared a bassist, Dave Marchese, and a drummer, Mike James, and talked his fellow Citibank box-moving temp, Shannon Ferguson, into being a second guitarist. "I didn't even know how to play a chord," Ferguson admits.
Stoked with the Strokes: Early this year, Longwave toured with the Strokes, wowing U.K. crowds with their bombastic, amp-throwing close to every show. But Ferguson says their behavior isn't as rebellious as it appears: "Our label wanted us to make an impression, so the A&R guy gave us a £3,000 budget to wreck all our gear. We did, but not so badly. A rental amp, who cares? I just didn't want to smash my guitar."
Up Next: While recording its first album (on RCA, due early next year; an EP comes out October 8), Longwave is squatting with the psych-pop band the Flaming Lips in producer Dave Fridmann's studio upstate. "It's like camp," says Schlitz. "There's a pond and a beaver dam and badminton, and every night everyone's drinking and just beatin' the hell out of this birdie. It suits us."

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The Rogers Sisters

Sounds Like Quit-complaining-and-get-your-ass-out-of-that-chair rock and roll.
Signature Lyrics: "I don't wanna have to do the crime / I don't wanna be the agitator / I don't wanna have to do my taxes again / I don't wanna be the calculator," from "Calculator."
Two Girls and a Guy: The twentysomething sisters Jennifer and Laura Rogers, formerly of indie outfit Ruby Falls, teamed up with bassist Miyuki Furtado about three years ago, playing "scary basements with fire-code problems" throughout Williamsburg.
Sixties Salvation: Yes, they've got a taste for post-punk dissonance, but their love of sixties psych-garage ("My sister would always say, 'Play the Munsters beat on every song,' " Laura, the drummer, says with a laugh) keeps them from sounding like early-eighties retreads.
Up Next: Their second single, "Calculator," is due out any day now, and after the release of Purely Evil, their debut LP, in October, they'll hit the road, but not for long -- someone has to look after Daddy's, the Williamsburg bar the sisters own.

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The Star Spangles

Sounds Like: A guitar-shredding bangfest: the Replacements meet the Ramones. Signature Lyrics: "You turn the oven on / I'll light the match / You stick your head in the oven / We'll all go up in one big flash," from "Which of the Two of Us Is Gonna Burn This House Down." Get Into Town: Singer Ian Wilson and guitarist Tommy Volume (yes, his stage name) -- the "outcasts among outcasts" of Brewster, New York -- left their inevitable fates as "truckers or Carvel employees" and got some equally inevitable jobs in the city (at Kim's Video on Avenue A), where they met drummer Joey Valentine and bassist Nick Price. The Clothes Make the Band: Recently, Capitol Records execs -- drawn by a photo of Price in newsboy cap and Wilson in a plaid-on-plaid "clown that's on the wagon" getup -- checked out one of their gigs. Soon, the Star Spangles were off to L.A. to negotiate the release of their first album, due next year. They've used the windfall to buy amps and guitars, but they say those lucky clothes are staying on -- "though we have heard complaints of certain smells," says Wilson.

The Witnesses

Sounds Like: A barroom band to brawl by, the Bushwick-based Witnesses evoke Exile on Main Street–era Rolling Stones.
Signature Lyrics: "It used to be like cookies and cream / Now it's more like a nightmare, less like a dream," from "Stop Pretending."
The Great Escape: In the summer of 2001, singer and guitarist Darian Zahedi saw a sign near his Avenue B apartment that said FARMHOUSE FOR RENT: $500/month, and soon he and the other four members of the band were summering in the Catskills. They sold vegetables to make rent and played music "all day and all night." At one point, Social Services paid a visit, afraid they were runaway minors. Their first show in the city was on September 17, 2001. "Outside, the air was stinking. Inside the Luna Lounge, you could forget about everything for an hour," says Zahedi. "A lot of people showed up." They're still recording their debut album, but look for an EP in late October.