Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs Highlight YES NEW YORK

The red-hot New York rock scene will be comprehensively represented for the first time on an album with the release of YES NEW YORK (Wolfgang Morden/Vice), a 16-track compilation due June 3rd. "We wanted to capture NYC's early millennium rock renaissance," said New York-based artist manager Chris White (AKA Hallogallo), who co-executive produced the album with booking agent Brian Long.

The album features many (although not all) of the best New York-based bands. The collection "was never designed to be anything but a document of the best bands and their best songs," White said. "We had been watching and rooting these bands on from the sidelines like [at] a football game, watching this amazing connection happening. We wanted to document this triumph we were witnessing."

The album is highlighted by a previously unreleased live recording of "New York City Cops" by The Strokes, and an intense acoustic version of "Our Time" (AKA "Year to Be Hated") by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (listed on the CD as Unitard). White said that "the bands liked the project and the cause so much" that getting the tracks from both The Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs was easy.

Other album highlights are recordings by Radio 4 ("Save Your City"), Calla ("Strangler"), The Rapture ("Olio"), Interpol ("NYC"), and a dfa remix of Le Tigre's "Deceptacon." Also featured are the Rogers Sisters, Ted Leo/ Pharmacists, The Fever, Longwave, The Walkmen, the Natural History, The Witnessess, Icd soundsystem, and Secret Machines. (Missing, however, are the Liars and French Kicks.)

The title of the project is taken from the infamous 1978 post-punk, no wave, Brian Eno-produced compilation NO NEW YORK, which followed what some consider the Golden Age of New York rock. New York's mid-'70s punk explosion (which in turn inspired the English punk scene) included bands such as The Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie, Television, the Patti Smith Group and Richard Hell and the Voidoids. The current New York rock scene has been developing since the late 1990s, but it burst into international consciousness in 2001 with the release of The Strokes' "The Modern Age" and has been gaining momentum and attention ever since.

White said 95% of the net proceeds from the album will benefit the progressive Musicians on Call, (MOC), a non-profit organization that brings musicians and their music to hospitals. Founded in 1999, MOC works to promote and complement the healing process of patients in health care facilities by providing music and entertainment in addition to their medical treatment. Both White and Long had been trying to find a way to donate their skills to MOC for a long time and "this project was a perfect opportunity for us to contribute our expertise to the cause," White said.

For more information about YES NEW YORK, check out the Vice Recordings Web site. — Michael Goldberg and Nicole Cohen [Friday, May 23, 2003]