The Strange Boys are a phenomenal young group from Austin, Texas.
They are at the same time, both timeless and refreshingly avant garde. Set to appeal to anyone who has a liking for top quality beat and blues influenced rock n’ roll, The Strange Boys have provoked excitement and reaction in the Rough Trade offices the like of which has been unseen since the signing of The Strokes. They played their first European shows this summer to wild reaction and their live return to the UK is hotly anticipated. Having played across Europe this summer, they’ve since returned to the US and recorded their 2nd album in Costa Mesa. Entitled, ‘Be Brave’, it is the follow up to their debut ‘And Girls Club’, which was released on In The Red in the US and became a hugely popular underground record in the UK via import copies alone.

With their fourth full-length album to be released in as many years, The Men proudly present the sweeping New Moon, their most intensely personal and immersive installment yet. Never content to draw on the same methods twice, nor to recline under the heel of expectation, The Men quit the city in early 2012 to head for Big Indian, NY - transforming a remote Catskills locale into a full-fledged stray dog studio home. Taking complete advantage of dry eyes and clear mountain mornings, the band has never before so thoroughly surrendered their writing process, or themselves for that matter, to the recording environment.

Entering with only the most skeletal sketches, the house was selected as an incubator for its technical limitations, 32-hour orbit and predisposal to celestial intervention. Familiar faces remain, the core of guitarists Nick Chiericozzi and Mark Perro, with drummer Rich Samis all returning from 2012’s much-acclaimed Open Your Heart. In addition, friend and producer Ben Greenberg (Pygmy Shrews, Hubble, Zs) officially joins the ranks as bassist on paper, and full-bore compositional partner in practice. Wayward brother Kevin Faulkner occupies his most substantial sphere to date, dreaming aloud on lap steel as before along with whatever else was demanded of him.

The Men’s oft-cited commitment to their “no-one-is-frontman” maxim surely insists itself all the more emphatically here... so much so that it practically creates a new band in the process. This unique situation induces a fresh fluidity amongst their roles and instrumentation, allowing for an expansion of palette and a contraction of focus. Piano, mandolin, harmonica, four-part vocal harmonies and even no-input harsh noise all weave their way through New Moon. Spiritually, it is hedged with as much leaden dirge and ecstatic abandon, as it is genuine saccharine steel-string levity, and an ever-tightening, no apologies pop concision. Summarily: New Moon is the remembrance of why green grass has to lean on the dirt beneath; it is a love letter devoted in bowed humility to the grand continuum, exposing the hoax of the great divide. Allegiances to the glowing patinas of Detroit and San Francisco, New York and Nashville all abound, but ‘nostalgia’ is not her name. The essence of New Moon is to revisit -- never retread. Vibrational bonds are the silver that comes to line the long road home.

New York Night Train’s POP NIGHT:
DJ JONATHAN TOUBIN plays songs you know – one night only

Jonathan Toubin (Soul Clap & Dance-Off, etc.), known worldwide for perfecting the science of making masses get down to the most obscure 45rpm recordings, plays the hits for one night only. This is not an April Fools, an ironic art project, or an old-fashioned sell-out. The DJ is serious. He put this night together because he has come to understand something you may have never thought about…

YOU PROBABLY HAVE NEVER HEARD YOUR FAVORITE RECORDS! For real! Teams of specialists recorded, mastered, and pressed songs to sound amazing with painstaking deliberateness. Over the years these original 45s have been remastered for CD, mp3, and even record – losing their rich dynamic qualities and becoming another animal entirely – sounding nothing like what the artists’, producers’, and engineers’ original intentions. But tonight you have an opportunity to dance to your favorite tracks in their purest state – the original mix undigitized and uncompressed. This is not audiophile mumbo jumbo - you are not likely to recover from hearing your favorite songs on the ultimate sonic medium through Bowery Ballroom’s first-class sound system. And like good wine, you won’t go back to the bad stuff once you’ve had a taste.

Jonathan Toubin has made a career out of playing atypical musical selections because his goal has been to give you a unique life-changing nightlife experience. He spends all of his time and money pursuing 45rpm records because the warm tone, wide dynamic range, big drums, and fleshy presence make the 1960s 7-inches Jonathan Toubin’s favorite audio format of all time. By playing a familiar Motown hit or a Beatles anthem on the original 45 instead of the usual high quality obscurities, Toubin wants his dancers to recognize the sonic difference from the mediums they are accustomed to - and hear and feel their favorite classics as never before.

This is an unprecedented opportunity to witness America’s most prominent 45 DJ (and America’s most popular soul party DJ) playing the hits. This is also Jonathan Toubin’s first 18+ dance party since his Lincoln Center Midsummer Night’s Swing silent disco nearly a year ago. And get ready to experience the excellent visuals, go go dancers, guest DJs, and other surprises you’ve grown accustomed to in a New York Night Train parties!

Wait ‘til you hear the original “Honky Tonk Woman” or “The Clapping Song” on 45! You will NEVER go back!




"DJ Jonathan Toubin is creating his own kind of dance revolution" (Village Voice, 2011)

"The most-liked man in the soul music scene" (Rolling Stone, 2012)

"Jonathan Toubin is the only person we can call a "professional DJ" without involuntarily making a jack-off motion with our hand... His parties are like what Ancient Stonehenge was like if it was, as archaeologists theorize, filled with people dressed many times better than you completely losing their shit." (VICE, 2010)

"A legend among Lower East Side entertainers and fans" (ABC News, 2012)

"To friends and fans, Mr. Toubin is the man behind New York Night Train, whose musical arsenal is made up of lesser-known artists from the 1950s and 1960s, captured on 45 r.p.m. records." (NY Times , 2012)

"New York Night Train's Jonathan Toubin throws the raddest underground rock parties in New York" (Paper Magazine, 2008)

"The best soul DJ in the land" (Flavorpill, 2013)