The Strokes
:
For other uses of this term, see Stroke (disambiguation).The Strokes are an
American rock band 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 hyped the group as the "saviors of rock" for their stripped down sound heavily influenced by bands such as
Velvet Underground and
Television. Since then, the band has maintained a fanbase as well as
Modern Rock hits and much success in the
United Kingdom.
Early Years and The Modern Age EP
The Strokes formed at a young age, with most of the members connected in some way with lead
singer/songwriter Julian Casablancas. Bassist
Nikolai Fraiture and Casablancas have been friends since childhood, both attending the
Lycée Français de New York.
Guitarist Nick Valensi and drummer
Fabrizio Moretti started playing together while attending
Manhattan's Dwight School. Later on, Casablancas was sent to
Le Rosey, a boarding school in
Switzerland. He was sent in order to straighten up his behavior, as it was said that he developed drinking problems at a young age and was consequently doing poorly in school. At Le Rosey, Casablancas became acquainted with
Albert Hammond, Jr., since they were both Americans and had similar interests. Years later, when Hammond went back to New York to attend
New York University's (NYU)
Tisch School of the Arts, they became reacquainted and began sharing an apartment together. Hammond joined the band that Casablancas had form along with Fraiture, Valensi and Moretti. In 1999, they officially christened themselves the Strokes (after passing up other names like De Niros—as in
de Niros—and the Motels). Their popularity increased quickly, especially on the
Lower East Side of New York. They began to perform at Manhattan's popular Mercury Lounge, where
Ryan Gentles was in charge of booking. Gentles was so impressed by the band that he quit his job in order to become their manager.
The Strokes began rehearsing, keeping their day jobs (Casablancas is said to have been a former bartender, while Hammond worked at Kim's Video) and forming a ten to twelve song catalogue which included "
Last Nite", "
The Modern Age", "This Life" (an early version of "Trying Your Luck"), "
New York City Cops", "Soma" and "
Someday" among others. Most of these songs now feature different lyrics. Songs titled "Sagganuts," "In Her Prime," "Rhythm Song," "A Minor 4-4," "Elephant Song" (written for Hammond's music studies), and three with unknown titles were dropped from their repertoire. "Rhythm Song," "In Her Prime," and "This Life" were available on an early EP available from Kim's Video and Other Music in 2000.
Gordon Raphael, a small time rock producer of New York's underground rock scene, attended one of the Strokes' early concerts. Years later he admitted that he actually went to watch the other band that played that night. Raphael gave Hammond his telephone number, saying he could record a demo for them.
The Modern Age EP was released in 2001 featuring the songs "Last Nite", "Barely Legal" and "The Modern Age", all slightly different from their album versions. This sparked a bidding war among
record labels, the largest for a rock and roll band in years [
1]. Subsequently, The Strokes became the subject of enormous hype, causing a great divide amongst rock fans, albeit mostly
hipsters and independent magazines.
Is This It
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. The cover of the latter features a
black-and-white photo of a gloved hand on a woman's naked backside, shown in semiprofile, 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 11th attacks. The album received very good reviews from both mainstream and independent publications, including four stars from
Rolling Stone, and a 9.1 from
Pitchfork Media; it made many critics' top ten lists, and was named the best album of the year by
Entertainment Weekly and
TIME.
NME, in an article previewing summer concerts, dubbed theirs the one to attend because The Strokes were touring on the strength of some of the "best pop songs ever". The influence of Seventies
CBGB stalwarts
Television was noted by many reviewers.
After the release of
Is This It, the band toured exhaustively all around the world, featuring dates in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and North America staging for the
Rolling Stones. The band headlined UK's
Reading Festival 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. In that gig,
Jack White joined the Strokes on stage to perform the guitar solo in the song "New York City Cops". Julian performed while sitting on a chair as a result of an injury suffered to his knee. The same was repeated at their
Reading Festival headline slot.
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 upcomings songs: "Reptilia", "Meet Me In The Bathroom", "The Way It Is", "Between Love & Hate" (formerly known as "Ze Newie") and "12:51" (also called "Supernova"). The band also played Paul Anka's "My Way" with Japanese lyrics.
Room on Fire
They released their sophomore album
Room on Fire in October
2003, to good reviews, but it was unloved by the public. The album's sound maintained the Strokes' familiar reference points, while also evoking groups such as
The Cars. 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 has come from the relationship between Moretti and actress
Drew Barrymore.
Their first single taken from
Room on Fire was the song "12:51", which features distinct keyboard-like sounds produced by Valensi's guitar. This sound was found by Valensi having accidentally left the tone off. The video was also directed by Roman Coppola and is inspired by the futuristic look of
Tron.
In November 2003, The Strokes had a Tuesday residency on
Late Night with Conan O'Brien. They performed "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 |
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 early February 2005,
Julian Casablancas wed longtime friend and assistant band manager
Juliet Joslin to the surprise of many fans. Around this time,
Nikolai Fraiture fathered a daughter.
The Strokes had a three concert
South American tour in October 2005, featuring dates in
Brazil,
Chile and
Argentina. Their set in Argentina included a cover version of "A Salty Salute", a song written by the band "
Guided by Voices".
First Impressions of Earth
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 Ten hit, as well as their second US Modern Rock Top Ten success.
During November and December 2005 the Strokes did a promotion tour for the still unreleased album
First Impressions of Earth. This involved doing one-off shows in major cities around the world including
Chicago,
Tokyo,
Sydney,
London,
Paris,
Amsterdam,
Stockholm,
Berlin,
Milan and
Madrid. Approximately 300 tickets were made available to each show. Ticketholders either battled the weather, camping outside ticket box offices in the middle of the European winter, or were the winners of radio competitions. These concerts attracted celebrity guests including
Oasis,
Franz Ferdinand (band), and
Jarvis Cocker.
Their third album,
First Impressions of Earth, was released in January 2006 to mixed reviews and debuted at Number Four in the US album charts and Number One in UK, a first for the band. The Strokes revealed that they had built their own studio in New York's
Hell's Kitchen, officially called Red Carpet Studios, in order to record the third album. When asked to comment on the third album, Julian said: "It's like a seedless
watermelon. I like it" [
2]. The band performed for the second time on
Saturday Night Live on January 21, 2006, playing "
Juicebox" and "
You Only Live Once".
January 24th, 2006 marked the first of eighteen sold out shows during their UK tour, which included two dates at the famous
Hammersmith Apollo where The Strokes played a surprise cover of "Life's A Gas" by
The Ramones. Two days after the tour ended, on February 23rd, 2006, The Strokes won "Best International Band" at the
NME Awards. Casablancas thanked
NME on getting the award, saying "it's still the best music mag around" [
3]. On February 27th, 2006, The Strokes performed the song "Heart In A Cage" on Letterman in support of the upcoming US Tour.
Bruce Willis, who was also a guest that night, could be seen nodding his head during the song and stated backstage that he digs The Strokes [
4]. On March 1st, 2006, The Strokes returned to the
United States with their longest tour yet, beginning with three sold out shows at the
Hammerstein Ballroom in New York.
The second single off
First Impressions of Earth was "
Heart In A Cage", a song which reminded some critics of "Passenger" by
Iggy Pop [
5]. 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", available temporarly on their official website) and the video for the lead track.
On March 29th, 2006, The Strokes appeared on
The Tonight Show and played "You Only Live Once". They also appeared on
Late Night with Conan O'Brien May 3, again playing "You Only Live Once."
The third single off
First Impressions of Earth was "
You Only Live Once." Released on July 27th, 2006, the single also featured a cover of
Marvin Gaye's "
Mercy Mercy Me" as a b-side.
Pearl Jam frontman
Eddie Vedder and
Josh Homme of
Queens Of The Stone Age contribute to the track, with Vedder and
Julian Casablancas sharing vocals and Homme joining
Fabrizio Moretti on drums [
6]. Vedder had previously joined The Strokes onstage during their set at the
Rolling Stone 1000th cover celebration at the
Hammerstein Ballroom in early May of 2006.
Lou Reed also made an appearance during the set for his song, "
Walk on the Wild Side".
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 and the
Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. They then toured Australia and Mexico in 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 the third leg of their Highway Companion tour.
David Cross
Comedian/actor
David Cross has long been friends with The Strokes, and makes an appearance in their video for "Juicebox" as an obnoxious radio DJ not unlike the type he mocks in his comedy routine. It should be noted that The Strokes' 2002 tour was titled "The Wicked Sceptre Tour", as Wicked Sceptre was the name of a fictional hair metal band featured in a
Mr. Show with Bob and David sketch starring David Cross.
Albums
Image:IsThisIt_US.jpg|Is This It
Release Date:Chart Position:
Image:Strokesalbum.jpg|Room on Fire
Release Date:Chart Position:
Image:Strokescoverartlg1ud.jpg|First Impressions of Earth
Release Date:Chart Position:Singles
Covers, B-sides
*
The Strokes Official Website*
The Strokes Online Community*
andrewkendall.com - Photographs of The Strokes*
Guardian Unlimited bio from December 16, 2001*
Strokes Lyrics*
Shes Fixing Her Hair Fansite*
TheStrokesFan.com*
PopMatters interview (1/2006)
