“Sound check is always easy,” explains Daniel Balk lead singer for the young twenty-somethings New York City band, the Postelles. “When we play gigs we just plug in our instruments and play to have fun. There's no synthesizer or computer to set up. It’s about the songs, not the sounds we’re able to make.” This is a sentiment that distinguishes the band - bassist John Speyer, drummer Billy Cadden, and lead guitarist David Dargahi – from many of their contemporaries. Of late, the New York city's music scene has been defined by a set of Brooklyn bands. But the Postelles are Manhattan kids—born and raised in the city and influenced by a different lineage of music. “We’re not trying to be different,” further explains John “We just feel that we’ve found the right medium for our music.” With the release of the “White Night” EP and their debut full-length to follow in June, the band defines itself both as an antidote to the dominant trend of quirky, self-referential rock and as a powerful new voice in the classic pop lineage.

The Postelles are part of an ideological bloodline that connects The Velvet Underground to the Ramones to Blondie and Television to the Walkmen, artists with unique and varied sensibilities, certainly, but who have in common an allegiance to the unabashedly unadorned rock song. In fact, it was during the late 90s, when New York had no unified sound to speak of and the members of the Postelles were just kids pouring over their parents' record collections, that the seeds of the band's sound were sewn. They were all reared on 50s and early 60s rock and roll – Buddy Holly, Sam Cooke – these were the bands they heard as kids, these were the bands they aspired to be, and these were the bands that initially brought them together. David and Daniel bonded over a mutual love for the Stones and the Beatles. Music also drew John into the fold. One day Daniel was walking by the music rehearsal room at school and heard John playing the Beatles "Yesterday" on the Cello. "Next thing you know, while everybody else is studying during free periods, we're spending ours locked in a music closet playing songs," John remembers.

Tickets