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03-20 The Strokes Album Stream
01-30 The Strokes announce New Album
01-26 The Strokes New Song
07-09 The Strokes Post New Video
03-14 The Strokes stream new album
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Alt Rock, Post Punk, Indie |
Equally inspired by classic tunesmiths like Buddy Holly and John Lennon and the street-smart attitude and angular riffs of
fellow NewYorkers Television and the Velvet Underground, the Strokes were also equally blessed and cursed with an
enormous amount of hype --particularly from the U.K. music press, whose adulation for the group rivaled their fervor for Oasis
in the early '90s. Barely in their twentiesby the time their debut album, Is This It, arrived in 2001, singer/songwriter Julian
Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and AlbertHammond, Jr., bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and drummer Fabri ...read more
Equally inspired by classic tunesmiths like Buddy Holly and John Lennon and the street-smart attitude and angular riffs of
fellow NewYorkers Television and the Velvet Underground, the Strokes were also equally blessed and cursed with an
enormous amount of hype --particularly from the U.K. music press, whose adulation for the group rivaled their fervor for Oasis
in the early '90s. Barely in their twentiesby the time their debut album, Is This It, arrived in 2001, singer/songwriter Julian
Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and AlbertHammond, Jr., bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and drummer Fabrizio Moretti's success
wasn't quite of the overnight variety, but it still arrivedpretty swiftly.
Casablancas (the son of Elite Model Agency Group kingpin John Casablancas), Moretti (who began playing drums at age five),
and Valensistarted playing together in 1998 while they attended the Dwight School, a private prep school in Manhattan. Soon
thereafter they metFraiture, who attended the Upper East Side's Lycee Français, and added him to their ranks. Hammond
(the son of singer/songwriter AlbertHammond, whose songs include "It Never Rains in Southern California," "When I Need You,"
and "To All the Girls I've Loved Before") camefrom Los Angeles to attend film school at NYU and was invited into the band by
Casablancas; the two met at L'Institut le Rosey inSwitzerland when they were kids.
Casablancas officially christened the quintet the Strokes in 1999, and the group spent most of that year writing and
rehearsing material inNew York City's Music Building. They made their live debut that fall at the Spiral, and word of mouth
about the Strokes' incendiary live showpropelled them to gigs at venues like Under the Acme and Lower East Side clubs such
as Arlene Grocery, Baby Jupiter, and Luna. TheStrokes' December 2000 dates at the Mercury Lounge and the Bowery Ballroom
not only gained them a manager (Ryan Gentles, who bookedthem at those clubs), but also helped Strokes mania reach critical
mass in New York. Rough Trade released the group's three-song demo asThe Modern Age EP in January 2001, which sparked
a bidding war from which RCA emerged as the victors.
Meanwhile, the Strokes' acclaim reached the U.K. and grew to massive proportions over the course of the year. NME quickly
became theirchampions, profiling them several times that spring and summer as the Strokes' live act and singles like Hard to
Explain (which debuted atnumber 16 in the U.K. charts) won them a rabid British following. That spring, the band also
completed its first U.S. tour as the opening actfor the Doves and proceeded to play dates with Guided by Voices and ...And
You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead in the U.S. and the U.K.The group's popularity continued to snowball in the U.K., with a
side-stage slot at the NME Carling Weekender changed to a main-stageperformance for fear of people trampling each other to
see the band.
In late summer of that year, Rough Trade released Is This It with an album cover featuring a sexy, Helmut Newton-esque
photo of awoman's nude behind and hip with a leather-gloved hand resting on it; the U.K. chains Woolworth's and HMV
objected to its controversialnature. The U.S. version of Is This It was released in October and featured a few changes from
the U.K. edition. The Strokes opted for anabstract pattern on the cover and removed the song "New York City Cops," feeling
the song was inappropriate in the wake of the terroristattacks that struck New York prior to the album's release; the planned
B-side, "When It Started," took its place. The group closed out thefall with an extended tour of the U.S., culminating with a
Halloween gig at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom.
The remainder of 2001 and 2002 saw the group's profile continue to rise. Is This It and the Strokes were lauded in many
ways, ranging fromThis Isn't It, an EP of instrumental versions of some of the album's songs performed by a mystery band
called the Diff'rent Strokes (Pulp'sJarvis Cocker was rumored to be a member) to 2001 NME Carling Awards for Best New Act,
Band of the Year, and Album of the Year. Theband toured extensively throughout 2002, including a series of dates that
summer in New York and Detroit with the White Stripes, summerfestivals at Reading and Leeds, and a string of gigs supporting
Weezer, some of which were canceled due to a leg injury Casablancassuffered. During these shows, their fall tour, and their
dates opening for the Rolling Stones, the Strokes debuted some new songs, including"Meet Me in the Bathroom," "You Talk
Way Too Much," and "The Way It Is..
By March 2003, the band was ready to start recording its new album, but instead of working with Is This It producer Gordon
Raphael aspreviously reported, the Strokes began recording with Nigel Godrich of Radiohead and Beck fame. That May,
however, the Strokes' sessionswith Godrich came to an end, and they returned to Raphael to finish the album. The single
12:51 introduced the more meticulous, new wave-inspired sound of Room on Fire, which arrived in fall 2003. Just before the
album's release, the Strokes hit the road once again, taking Kingsof Leon with them. Early in 2006, they returned with the
even poppier and more polished First Impressions of Earth.
The band took a hiatus after the tour for that album, with each member working on other projects. Albert Hammond, Jr. was
the first toventure into the solo fray with Yours to Keep, which was released in late 2006 in the U.K. and in early 2007 in the
U.S.; he followed it with2008's Como Te Llama? Fabrizio Moretti played with the indie pop band Little Joy, whose self-titled
album arrived in late 2008. NikolaiFraiture embarked on the folky solo project Nickel Eye, and released the debut Time of the
Assassins in early 2009. Although the Strokesheaded back into the studio that same year, progress was slow as Julian
Casablancas briefly shifted his attention to a solo album, Phrazesfor the Young, which arrived that fall. After playing a
headlining slot at Lollapalooza in 2010, the Strokes returned to the studio with renewedfocus, eventually emerging with
2011's Angles. « hide |
Similar Bands: Arctic Monkeys, The Vines, The White Stripes, Julian Casablancas
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