The New Yorks
Indie rockers The New Yorks have announced their new single We Enjoy This Too Much, a seriously fun, guitar-driven bop reminiscent of The Wombats. An endearing clip, featuring the charismatic half wolf/half human frontman Sir Wolf, accompanies We Enjoy This Too Much with a perfect nostalgic quality. This lively track is the second taste of their sophomore EP I Wish I Was You, But That’s Just Me, a collection of clever and irresistibly catchy song writing, set for release on July 31. To celebrate the release, The New Yorks will be hitting the road, kicking off with a free show at Hotel Steyne in Sydney on August 18, then heading through their hometown of Adelaide on August 25 and wrapping up in Melbourne at the The Reverence on September 22.
We Enjoy This Too Much is so steeped in mid-2000s influences, yet somehow it exists as new today, and audiences will surely be grateful that it does. Evoking thoughts of The Strokes, Catfish And The Bottlemen and early offerings from The Jungle Giants, We Enjoy This Too Much goes hard and fast, guitars and riffs abound, and buoyed by clever lyrics and lead vocalist Vinnie Barbaro’s energetic performance. Of the inspiration behind the track, Vinnie says, “We Enjoy This Too Much is a rant about an irrational adoration for constant debate and agitation between a couple. It’s a bit of a complicated relationship... the idea of love-hate and what is actually healthy is one that is dwelled upon, with conversational lyrics intended to represent bickering about what to watch on Netflix. The temptation to push the quarrel in order to get one’s way is unanimously accepted to be a waste of time, instead they both take comfort in meaningless argument.”
The clip is a VHS-soaked alternate universe where it’s somehow completely normal for a wolf/human hybrid to start a band in their garage and ultimately suffer a meteoric fall from grace. Directed by Oliver Del Vecchio of EAT SLEEP EMPIRE (The Coconut Kids), the concept behind the clip sounds a bit off-kilter but somehow makes perfect sense when all is in motion. Vinnie explains, “The film clip is a prequel to the video of our previously released track, Sir Wolf. Sir Wolf was established as a dominant character, a gobbling narcissist of a business man that’s interested in the dollars generated behind the music. Sir Wolf is extravagant in order to out-shadow his dissatisfaction. We Enjoy This Too Much provides a backstory to how he became this figure. Set in 1985, the clip shows the failure of Sir Wolf’s band, ‘Steppe & The Hunting Men’ and his adoption in the music business. A love for being a musician results to be detrimental, with his failure turning him bitter.”
The EP encompasses this world, cleverly crafted by the band, and spins it into an indie pop/rock wonderland. Upon listening to I Wish I Was You, But That’s Just Me, you would be forgiven for thinking you had transported back to the time where Hot Fuss by The Killers was first doing the rounds. Recorded at Chapel Lane Studios in Adelaide by Michael Carver and Simon Kither and mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound (Paolo Nutini, The National, Talking Heads), the songs fold into each other with ease, swelling and deflating most sweetly; crescendoing at Truman and taking a gentle breath in at Death In Modern Time. Speaking about the EP, Vinnie says, “The main themes of the EP are admiration and resentment; love/hate relationships and the irrelevance of questioning juvenile morality. The notion of love/hate relationships is not necessarily based on human interaction, but rather how a love for something and the search for admiration or approval can rob that process of the elements that made you love it in the first place.”
Anyone who listens to these recordings will likely be hungry for the live show, and luckily The New Yorks are set to deliver. The group are thrilled to be stopping by Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne in August and September, and more than ready to hit the ground running with high-energy live shows. Vinnie enthuses, “The recently built set is an honest representation of the recordings. We have always been a traditional band with an organic set up, little time for smoke, mirrors and bullshit.”
