The Strokes

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The Strokes
The Strokes performing in March 2006
The Strokes performing in March 2006
Background information
Origin New York City, USA
Genre(s) Garage rock revival
Post-punk revival
Years active 1998– present
Label(s) SonyBMG/RCA/Rough Trade
Website Official website
Members
Julian Casablancas (Vocals)
Nick Valensi (Guitar)
Albert Hammond, Jr. (Guitar)
Nikolai Fraiture (Bass Guitar)
Fabrizio Moretti (Drums)

The Strokes is an American rock band formed in 1998 that rose to fame in the early 2000s as a leading group in the garage rock revival. Upon the release of their acclaimed debut album Is This It in 2001, many critics hailed the group as the "saviors of rock."[1] Since then, the band has maintained a large fan base and has enjoyed much success.

Contents

Lead singer/songwriter Julian Casablancas, guitarist Nick Valensi, and drummer Fab Moretti started playing together while attending Dwight School in Manhattan. Bassist Nikolai Fraiture had been friends with Casablancas and was attending the Lycée Français de New York. At age 13, Casablancas was sent to Le Rosey, a boarding school in Switzerland to resolve his drinking problems and improve his academic performance. In Switzerland, Casablancas met guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr..

Later, when Hammond came to New York to attend New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, he shared an apartment with Casablancas. They started a band which performed on the Lower East Side of New York, and at Manhattan's popular Mercury Lounge. Ryan Gentles, the Mercury Lounge's booker, quit his job to become the band's manager.

The band began rehearsing a twelve song set which included "Last Night", "The Modern Age", "This Life" (an early version of "Trying Your Luck"), "New York City Cops", "Soma" and "Someday". Most of these songs now feature different lyrics. The Modern Age EP was released in 2001, and sparked a bidding war among record labels; the largest for a rock and roll band in years.[2] The Strokes became the subject of enormous hype, causing a great divide among rock fans.

The Strokes released their debut album Is This It in the US in October 2001 on RCA after some delay due to changes made from the UK-released version (released 27th August 2001). The cover of the latter features a black-and-white photo of a gloved hand on a woman's naked backside, shown in semi-profile, and is said to reference Spinal Tap's fictitious Smell the Glove. The North American version replaces this with an image of particle collisions and the song "New York City Cops" with "When It Started". The replacement of "New York City Cops", which contains the refrain New York City Cops, they ain't too smart, was made in good faith following the September 11 attacks.

The album received positive reviews from both mainstream and independent publications, including 4 stars from Rolling Stone, and a 9.1 from Pitchfork Media; it made many critics' top 10 lists, and was named the best album of the year by Entertainment Weekly and TIME. NME, in an article previewing summer concerts, urged readers to attend their shows, claiming that the band was touring on the strength of some of the "best pop songs ever". The influence of 1970s CBGB stalwarts Television was noted by many reviewers, although The Strokes themselves have stated that they are not fans of the band.

After the release of Is This It, the band toured around the world, featuring dates in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and North America staging for the Rolling Stones. The band headlined UK's Carling Weekend festivals in 2002, largely chronicled by a relatively hard-to-find mini-documentary entitled "In Transit" which was released to members of the now-defunct "Alone, Together" fan club.

In August 2002, the band played at New York's Radio City Music Hall on a bill with The White Stripes. Jack White joined the Strokes on stage to perform the guitar solo in the song "New York City Cops". During that period, the band also appeared as musical guest on Saturday Night Live (performing "Last Nite" and "Hard to Explain"), The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Late Show with David Letterman. Is This It yielded several singles as well as video clips, all of which were directed by Roman Coppola.

The group began recording their follow-up in 2002 with producer Nigel Godrich (best known for his work with Radiohead), but later split with him in favor of Gordon Raphael, the producer of Is This It. Recordings with Godrich were never revealed. In August 2003, the band toured Japan, playing a couple of the upcoming songs: "Reptilia", "Meet Me In The Bathroom", "The Way It Is", "Between Love & Hate" (formerly known as "Ze Newie") and "12:51" (formerly known as "Supernova"). The band also played Paul Anka's "My Way" with Japanese lyrics.

They released their second album Room on Fire in October 2003, to good reviews, but to less success commercially, although it still went gold. The album's sound maintained the Strokes' familiar reference points, while also evoking groups such as The Cars, Bob Marley, and Blondie. In the process, they made the cover of Spin Magazine for the second time, with each member receiving his own cover. They also made the cover of Rolling Stone for the first time. Additional media coverage of the band came from the relationship between Moretti and actress Drew Barrymore, which ended in January 2007.

The first single taken from Room on Fire was the song "12:51", which used distinct keyboard-like sounds produced by Valensi's guitar. The video was also directed by Roman Coppola, and was inspired by the futuristic look of the 1980s film Tron. In November 2003, The Strokes played on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, performing "Reptilia", "What Ever Happened", "Under Control" and "I Can't Win". During the 2003/2004 "Room on Fire Tour", the band played with Kings of Leon as support act and Regina Spektor. While on tour, Spektor and the Strokes recorded the song "Modern Girls & Old Fashion Men", released as a B-side on the "Reptilia" single. Also during the tour, the band included The Clash's "Clampdown" as a cover, which was released as the B-side for The End Has No End.

Cover of NME October 1, 2005
Cover of NME October 1, 2005

In late 2004, The Strokes revealed plans to release a live album. The Live in London LP was planned for release in October 2004, but was abandoned, reportedly due to recording quality problems. The chosen gig was one held at the legendary Alexandra Palace in northern London. In February 2005, Julian Casablancas wed long-time friend and assistant band manager Juliet Joslin. The Strokes had a three-concert South American tour in October 2005, with dates in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina.

In late September 2005, the first single from the then unreleased album First Impressions of Earth, "Juicebox", was leaked online, forcing the single's release date to be pushed up. The single was then released as an exclusive on online download services. "Juicebox" became The Strokes' second UK Top 10 hit, as well as their second US Modern Rock Top 10 success. During November and December 2005 the Strokes did a promotional tour for the still unreleased album First Impressions of Earth. This involved doing one-off shows in major cities around the world.

Their third album, First Impressions of Earth, was released in January 2006 to mixed reviews and debuted at Number 4 in the US album charts and Number one in the UK, a first for the band. In Japan it went gold within the first week of release. The album was the most downloaded album for two weeks on iTunes. The band built a studio in New York's Hell's Kitchen called Red Carpet Studios to record the third album. Fraiture claimed that the album was "like a scientific breakthrough".[3] In January 2006, the band then made their second appearance on Saturday Night Live playing "Juicebox" and "You Only Live Once".

In 2006, the band played 18 sold-out shows during their UK tour. In February 2006, The Strokes won "Best International Band" at the NME Awards. That same month, the band performed the song "Heart in a Cage" on The Late Show with David Letterman. In March, the band returned to the United States with their longest tour yet. The second single off First Impressions of Earth was "Heart in a Cage". Released on March 13, 2006, the CD1 version of the single features their Ramones cover as a B-side, while the CD2 version features an early version of the song "You Only Live Once" (previously named "I'll Try Anything Once") and the video for the lead track.

In March, the band appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and in May they played on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. During the summer of 2006, The Strokes played several festival dates in Europe, including such well known venues as the Hultsfred Festival in Sweden, Roskilde Festival in Denmark, the Oxegen Festival in Ireland (during this concert they were to be followed by The Who but due to the overwhelming reaction of the crowd they ended up staying on longer than scheduled),the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and the FIB (Festival Internacional of Benicassim) in Benicàssim (Spain). They then toured Australia and Mexico in late August and early September, followed by the second leg of the United States tour. While in the US, The Strokes opened for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers for five shows during their Highway Companion tour.

The Strokes went on to complete another US tour. During this final tour Casablancas stated to fans that the band would be taking an extensive break after it finished. An e-mail was sent out soon afterwards by Strokes manager Ryan Gentles, confirming that a "much needed break" would be taken. A new and improved band website went online in May 2007 along with the release of an alternate video to their single directed by Warren Fu "You Only Live Once" ([1]) on imeem.com. In late 2007, the song "You Talk Way Too Much" was used in a commercial for the Ford Sync.

Albert Hammond, Jr. released his debut solo album Yours to Keep in 2006 and toured both the US and Europe to promote it, finishing at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in the UK. Its sound is slightly softer than the Strokes', with many more guitar riffs. The members of his band include drummer Matt Romano, Bassist Josh Lattanzi (former bassist for Ben Kweller), and Albert Hammond Jr. himself playing the guitar. Albert has stated that he is not leaving The Strokes because of this album, it is merely serving as a chance for him to release solo work.

In September of 2007, Albert confirmed on his Myspace page that another solo album is in the works. He will record his second album from October to November, and tour after that. However, a source close to the Strokes said their new album will be recorded and probably come out sometime in 2008.

Main article: The Strokes discography

Their song Reptilia was included in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock as a song that must be unlocked in Cooperative Mode. Reptilia is also featured in Rock Band.

In 2001, British music producer Roy Kerr, AKA The Freelance Hellraiser created one of the first examples of a mash up, called "A Stroke of Genius", by mixing the instrumental track from "Hard to Explain" with the vocal track from Christina Aguilera's pop song "Genie in a Bottle".

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  1. ^ BBC - Music Profiles - The Strokes
  2. ^ Joe D'Angelo (2001). The Strokes: "We Just Do Our Own Thing". Retrieved on 2007-01-23.
  3. ^ Lieberman, Jonny and Singer, Elliot (2006). Chatting With The Strokes. The Cornell Daily Sun. Retrieved on 2007-11-23.

v • d • e
The Strokes
Julian Casablancas · Nikolai Fraiture · Albert Hammond, Jr. · Fabrizio Moretti · Nick Valensi
Albums and extended plays The Modern Age · Is This It · Room on Fire · First Impressions of Earth
Singles "Hard to Explain" · "Last Nite" · "Someday" · "12:51" · "Reptilia" · "The End Has No End" · "Juicebox" · "Heart in a Cage" · "You Only Live Once"
Related articles Discography
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strokes"
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