New York City Queens
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New York City Queens

Houston, Texas, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2011 | SELF

Houston, Texas, United States | SELF
Established on Jan, 2011
Band Pop Rock

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Music

Press


"Neither New York nor Queens - Cat5, Beaumont Enterprise"

Whatever it is, Houston six-piece New York City Queens has all the makings of great pop sound: It’s bright, upbeat and filled with saccharine male-female vocal harmonies and a driving backbone of indie rock. Listening to this band, I get elements of Phoenix, Pinback, ’90s rock and The Strokes — Strokes fans will find themselves very at home at a New York City Queens show. - cat5 | Beaumont Enterprise


"Yr. Weekend Pt.2 - Space City Rock"

I keep wanting to say they’re one of the most “promising” bands in town, but that makes ‘em sound like they’re not already where they need to be, and that’s definitely not the case — last year’s Burn Out Like Roman Candles came awful close to cracking my top 15 albums of the whole year, and given the competition, that’s saying something. They’re sharp but warm, like Houston’s answer to The Strokes if that band still had any real relevance; they’ve got a distinctly “city-life” sound to ‘em, but a defiant heart beating beneath. - See more at: http://www.spacecityrock.com/2013/05/04/yr-weekend-pt-2-new-york-city-queens-a-sea-es-brand-new-hearts-p-funk-summer-street-fest-craig-kinsey-more/#sthash.E7QWq599.dpuf - Space City Rock


"Yr. Weekend Pt. 1 - Space City Rock"

Over at the Houston House of Creeps, then, there’s a show that’s bound to be a bit, erm, louder and wilder, and hey, that’s no bad thing from where I sit. I’ve heard good stuff about Deep Cuts and Belaire both, but the band that really gets me for this one is the excellent, excellent New York City Queens. - See more at: http://www.spacecityrock.com/2013/04/05/yr-weekend-pt-1-the-wheel-workers-lila-downs-new-york-city-queens-she-has-hope-vestibule-more/#sthash.FK4v8uSn.dpuf - Space City Rock


"Nevermind the Bollocks: Future of Music Showcase - Austin Fusion Magazine"

Houston’s own New York City Queens brought their tightly woven, dance-able songs to the showcase with their influences proudly borne on their sleeves. The band seems to look back on rock history as though it were a buffet line; load up on some Queen and Beatles, pick up a few pieces of The Gorillaz, add a side of Otis Redding, and you have their sound, which pieces catchy guitar riffs, a tight rhythm section, and slick harmonized vocals into an amazing set of songs. - Austin Fusion Magazine


"Houston Calling's Favorite Releases of 2012 - Houston Calling"

Great melodic indie-pop–with hints of Starsailor-esque Britrock–that you’ll find yourself humming along to almost instantly. The familiarity of the group’s songs doesn’t come from influence or homage, but rather from a solid sense of songwriting that captures the listener’s attention and demands focus. This ranks among the best albums to come out of Houston in a while, and was an easy choice for my top favorites of 2012. - Houston Calling


"My Favorite Releases of 2012 - Ocean of Noise"

This Houston-based group worked tirelessly to write, record and produce their sophomore album. It’s composed tracks are both breezy and electrifying. This is the kind of rock that oozes promise of a bright, full future. - Ocean of Noise


"Friday Night at Fitz - The Good Groupie"

"Post-Houston Press Music Awards, Twitter has been abuzz with praise for the New York City Queens. And now I know why. The band played an amazing set - more solid rock-n-roll with a dreamy, melancholic vibe mixed into their sound." - The Good Groupie


"New York City Queens Reign Supreme - houstonightlife.com"

"If you haven't caught wind of them, New York City Queens are quickly becoming known for their penchant of writing catchy riffs that are as refreshing as diving into a pool on a hot day." - www.houstonightlife.com


"New York City Queens takes music to next level - The Battalion"

With their latest album, Somewhere Different, Something New, New York City Queens manages to take their music to the next level. The beautifully cohesive and entrancing rock-pop tracks are full of contagious vocal harmonies, dreamy guitar tones and tight rhythms that take you on a quick journey to the beach before making a stop at that all-night dance party across town. - The Battalion


"Last Night: Ringo Deathstarr & Friends At Walter's - Houston Press"

Lead singer John Stephens provided great vocals, particularly successfully varying from higher- to lower-pitched singing while performing final song "Roman Candles." All three well-pitched vocalists were neither drowned out nor overpowered by their own jangly yet melodic guitar riffs. - Houston Press


"Introducing: New York City Queens - weworemasks.com"

The multifaceted band played everything from jangly surf riffs, to complex, modular rock all the while keeping dreamy harmonies between their three vocalists. - www.weworemasks.com


"A Summer Fest Blind Taste Test - Houston Press"

A lot of bands could learn a thing or two about how to balance multiple vocalists from these Houston natives. Whether they're harmonizing or just working in harmony, the vocals always seem to just work. - Houston Press Rocks Off


"Musician to Musician: New York City Queens - Space City Rock"

New York City Queens - who burst onto the scene last fall fully-formed, with full-length Somewhere Different, Somewhere New already in hand and their sound already firmly in place. Catch them early; it’s worth it, trust us. - Space City Rock


"Kingwood's New York City Queens Rock Cactus Music - Examiner.com"

"It‘s a true accomplishment and unnecessary anomaly to see such a great local band with unlimited potential and maturity this early in its development. If you were lucky enough to be there, consider yourself graced by indy rock royalty." - Examiner.com


"Kingwood-based band lights it up on 'Roman Candles' - chron.com"

"Burn Out Like Roman Candles, a lean and slinky guitar album long on danceable hooks. Stephens and company are sly with their vocals, offering up power-pop harmonies here and cheery call-and-responses there. The group is definitely one to watch." - Houston Chronicle, chron.com


"The Endless Sour: Sour Notes Tour Kickoff at Red 7 - Pop Press International"

The meat of the bill had to be Houston’s New York City Queens who destroyed the inside stage with their high-energy rock and preceded a set by the Sour Notes themselves who delivered an equally powerful set. - Pop Press International


"New York City Queens, Burn Out Like Roman Candles - Space City Rock"

"Throughout Burn Out, the Queens mash together pretty much every type of pop imaginable, from surf-pop riffage to jangly, Elliott Smith-esque folk to ’70s-retro power pop (which brings to mind The Push Kings, for me) to shimmery dreampop to head-nodding, upbeat New Wave, and heat it up ’til it all melts and intermingles and mixes, coming out a candy-colored, thoroughly great pop-rock amalgam that’s just about impossible for a pop-song fanatic like myself to resist.
Some bands take years to hit their stride — these five kids apparently only needed 10 months or so. My hat’s off to y’all." - Space City Rock


"The New York City Queens of Kingwood - Houston Chronicle"

Before we get to the music, the drama, the indie-pop nostalgia of “Burn Out Like Roman Candles” — a few important things about the New York City Queens.

No one in the band is from the East Coast. Vocalist and guitarist/bassist Daniela Hernandez grew up in the Washington, D.C., suburbs; and drummer Isaac Chavez-Garza moved to Texas from Minnesota to escape the cold.

“We’ve all known each other, or at least who we were, for years,” says frontman John Allen Stephens, who got to know most of his bandmates at Kingwood High School. “I knew from the beginning that I wanted Dani (short for Daniela) to play with me. We had done duets together, and I always really liked the male-female dynamic.”

Despite the female flourish of the name, the lineup includes three guys and two girls. And none of them are of the royal or RuPaul variety. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

After a series of discarded ideas inspired by S.E. Hinton’s “The Outsiders” (see the list below), Stephens was inspired by a thrift-store shopping trip in Montrose.

“There was this military fatigue shirt, and it had all these hand-sewn patches. It had this pink patch on the side that said New York City Queens. It just blew me away,” he says. “What occurred to me was that this could either be some person who is gay or transsexual and really proud about it and down with that, which I thought was super-cool, or it’s just repping for Queens the borough.

“I was looking through my laundry, and I see the shirt in the dirty hamper pile with the patch sticking out. I just kept coming back to it. There was some (sense of) disenfranchisement there, and I felt like we were that kind of band. We were coming in from the suburbs, and no one knew us in the city. I felt like there was some underground quality about it.”

The band played its first show almost a year ago to the day and had a completed EP in hand, along with music videos, completed months earlier. The lineup includes vocalist and guitarist/bassist Kitty Beebe and guitarist Tom Guth. (Chavez-Garza replaced Stephen’s’ brother on drums in October.)

“Two years ago, I never thought I would be in a band,” Hernandez says. “It was kind of terrifying, actually. I had to get over it quickly.”

It’s a rare thing for a band to have so much polish, even a year into the music. To break out of the gate with a strong audio-visual attack is unheard of. It helps that Stephens is an audio engineer, and Hernandez graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in photography. (She shot the album’s cover photo.)

“I just knew if we were going to do something real and see progress and see fans that weren’t related to us, we were going to have to do something very different,” Stephens says. “We’ve always tried to do everything from the standpoint of the viewer. The audience wants video. The audience wants the full artistic statement. The audience doesn’t just want what you can afford or the sound that you can get in your bedroom.”

That first EP, “Somewhere Different, Something New,” was largely a solo project for Stephens, who initially built the band around a retro-pop sound, complete with wistful guitar licks, hand claps and yearning vocals. There’s even an adorable, electro-tinged take on the Ronettes’ 1963 classic “Be My Baby.”

“The first record’s just very dry, and everything’s very clean. The idea behind the band initially was to take this 1950’s, early-1960’s pop influence, and blend it with modern-rock elements like the Strokes and Arcade Fire and Beach House,” Stephens says.

“With the new record, I think we’ve identified what we want to do. I think the lines between the influences are much harder to discern.”

“We’re finding our footing together as a band. Now we know more so how to write together than separate.”

New record “Burn Out Like Roman Candles,” then, is a proper reintroduction of sorts, the evolution of an already solid idea into something the entire group could sink their teeth and talents into. The album was again written, produced, engineered and mixed by Stephens.

The songs have a modern edge, a bigger feel, a more confident glow. “Karma” (co-written by Guth) slides along a bluesy groove; and “Suburbs” is reminiscent of ’‘80s-era power pop. “Roman Candles” simmers for several minutes before breaking into a wall of guitars; and closer “Leave a Light On” features a chorus of soft na-nas supplied by various kids, nieces and nephews.

The band calls the entire thing a “concept album” about friendships, relationships and the process of recording the actual album while trying to maintain personal connections. (Stephens and Hernandez are a couple.) Needless to say, it proved challenging at times.



“It was really difficult,” says Chavez-Garza.

“It was rough,” adds Hernandez.

“It was very hard,” chimes in Beebe.

Stephens has a more diplomatic take on the process.

“There’s this struggle there, but there’s also this underlying message of real hope for the future. I believe very passionately in what we’re doing and that the five of us together made something really special,” he says.

“I think we’re stronger now than we’ve ever been as a result of making this record. I think each mistake that we’ve made has contributed to that progression.”

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Failed pre-NYCQ band names
Ponyboy
Call Iit On
Killed in 1963
Johnny Cade
Johnny Killed Bobby - 29.95.com | Houston Chronicle


"The Best Local Music of 2012 - Houston Chronicle"

The entire band creates a wall of sound sturdier than anything else this year. - 29.95.com | Houston Chronicle


"Yr. Weekend Pt. 1"

It’s the first show in a while for the truly-cool New York City Queens, who I think have been off touring the country, and I’m glad to see ‘em back around; they’re a damn fine band, one that makes a surprisingly urgent-sounding kind of indie-pop/rock with a bit of a retro-’70s glam tinge to it. You really ought to hear their 2012 release, Burn Out Like Roman Candles, if you haven’t already. - See more at: http://www.spacecityrock.com/2013/10/04/yr-weekend-pt-1-new-york-city-queens-second-lovers-young-girls-blackmarket-syndicate-le-castle-vania-mills-mccoin-more/#sthash.0jLovFw1.dpuf - Space City Rock


"Neither New York nor Queens"

Whatever it is, Houston six-piece New York City Queens has all the makings of great pop sound: It’s bright, upbeat and filled with saccharine male-female vocal harmonies and a driving backbone of indie rock. Listening to this band, I get elements of Phoenix, Pinback, ’90s rock and The Strokes — Strokes fans will find themselves very at home at a New York City Queens show. - cat5 | Beaumont Enterprise


"Musician to Musician: New York City Queens"

New York City Queens - who burst onto the scene last fall fully-formed, with full-length Somewhere Different, Somewhere New already in hand and their sound already firmly in place. Catch them early; it’s worth it, trust us. - Space City Rock


"Artists To Watch: New York City Queens"

New York City Queens are wasting no time; proving they are a force to be reckoned with and truly Artists to Watch. - www.TheYayOrNay.com


"Houston's New York City Queens"

It's promising for a really great record deal with Sub Pop..." - Houston Press


Discography

Still working on that hot first release.

Photos

Bio

2014 Houston Press Music Awards Readers' Choice Winner New York City Queens (NYCQ) is a Houston-based Indie Pop/Rock quintet that has performed with the finest bands in Texas and around the country, toured both coasts and the southeastern United States and is currently completing its second full-length album, scheduled to be released in 2015.

Recently named by Green Label as one of "10 Indie Rock Bands from Houston You Need to Know About" and veterans of major music festivals such as SXSW, CMJ Music Marathon and Houston's Free Press Summer Fest, NYCQ was featured by Houston Press Rocks Off in January 2015, and by Space City Rock and Way Too Indie, and in Houstonia magazine and Houston Modern Luxury magazine in 2014.

Formed in 2011, the groups' first full-length album, "Burn Out Like Roman Candles", was released in the fall of 2012 to critical acclaim, earning a place on several local "Best of 2012" lists, including the top spot on the Houston Chronicle's list of Best Local Music of 2012.

Blending influences that range from early pop to contemporary modern rock, NYCQ has solidified a signature sound that has not only garnered critical praise but also earned the band a sync license with Hyundai for an ad campaign.







Band Members