Every once in a while, a new band comes along and immediately floors you. QTY are one of those bands. The New York duo shared their debut track ‘Rodeo’ this morning and it’s a one-way trip to jaw-on-the-floor excitement.
That’s partially because it combines elements of almost every great New York band in living memory. There’s hints of The Velvet Underground, The Strokes, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Television, The Ramones in its grotty guitars and Dan Lardner’s drawled vocals. It’s so New York it practically builds the glittering Manhattan skyline and the grimy streets of the Lower East Side in front of you as you listen.
It’s also because it’s just immediately and undeniably brilliant. From the opening chords to the cool-but-giddy chorus, it’s the sort of song that you can listen to 100 times in a row and still get the same fresh feeling of pure joy each time it restarts. When Lardner yells “Eight-hour day at work!“, you feel weirdly fine about being stuck at your desk all day. ‘Rodeo’ is the ultimate pick-me-up – it’s basically impossible not to crack a very broad grin when it’s playing.
Lardner and bandmate Alex Niemetz are native New Yorkers, having grown up five blocks apart in Chinatown. They met on the street, “ate ice cream and talked music while laying down the groundwork for what would much later become QTY”, according to a typewritten letter from the duo. Humble beginnings (“Grew up with words like ‘less’,” goes one line in ‘Rodeo’) they might be, but this pair are onto much greater things.
‘Rodeo’ is released on Dirty Hit on December 16. Listen below.