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For other uses of this term, see Stroke (disambiguation).
| The Strokes | |
|---|---|
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| Country | New York City, USA |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Genre(s) | Garage rock, Indie rock, Post-punk revival, Alternative rock |
| Label(s) |
Sony BMG Music Entertainment RCA Records, Rough Trade Records |
| Members |
Julian Casablancas- vocals, songwriter Nick Valensi- guitar (rhythm and lead) Albert Hammond, Jr.- guitar (rhythm and lead) Nikolai Fraiture- bass guitar Fabrizio Moretti- drums |
The Strokes are an American rock band that rose to fame in the early 2000s.
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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. 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, although they were not particularly good friends because Hammond, Jr. was two years younger. Years later, when Hammond came 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. 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.
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. This tour was 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.
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.
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 off Room on Fire was the song "12:51", which features keyboard-like sounds produced by Valensi's guitar. 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 "The Way It Is".
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 Fashioned Men", released as a b-side on the Reptilia single. Also during the tour, the band included The Clash's "Clampdown" as a cover, having Casablancas presenting it to the crowds as "a Clash song, called 'Clampdown'". "Clampdown" was released as a b-side in the single The End Has No End.
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 north London.
In early February 2005, Julian Casablancas wed longtime friend and assistant band manager Juliet Joslin. 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.
In late September 2005, the first single from the not-yet released 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 iTunes Music Store exclusive. "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 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, 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 in order to record their third album, they built their own studio in New York's Hell's Kitchen, officially called Red Carpet Studios. 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. They have also scheduled seven festival dates in Europe in the Summer of 2006, including the Oxegen Festival in Ireland and the Wireless Festival in England.
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") 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, playing "You Only Live Once", once again. It was then announced the next day on the official website that a video for the song had been shot, once again by director Samuel Bayer (who had helmed the "Heart in a Cage" clip), and that the video would be released soon. A screenshot shows the lead singer Julian up to his neck in mud and water, singing into a microphone. Another screenshot displays the band playing the song in an enclosed room, with mud puring out from outlets in the wall. This would make "You Only Live Once" the third single to be pulled from the album, though no release date is yet known.
In early May of 2006, The Strokes performed a set at the Rolling Stone 1000th cover celebration at Hammerstein Ballroom. They were joined by special guest Eddie Vedder, lead singer of the rock band Pearl Jam, who traded vocals with Julian on the chorus of the song "Juicebox". They were also joined on the stage by their idol Lou Reed for his song "Walk on the Wild Side".
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| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Hot 100 | US Pop 100 | US Modern Rock | UK Singles Chart | |||
| 2001 | The Modern Age EP | - | - | - | #68 | Is This It |
| 2001 | Hard to Explain | - | - | #27 | #16 | Is This It |
| 2001 | Last Nite | - | - | #5 | #14 | Is This It |
| 2001 | Someday | - | - | #17 | #27 | Is This It |
| 2003 | 12:51 | - | - | #15 | #7 | Room On Fire |
| 2004 | Reptilia | - | - | #19 | #17 | Room On Fire |
| 2004 | The End Has No End | - | - | #35 | #27 | Room On Fire |
| 2005 | Juicebox | #98 | #65 | #9 | #5 | First Impressions Of Earth |
| 2006 | Heart In A Cage | - | - | #21 | #25 | First Impressions Of Earth |
| 2006 | You Only Live Once | - | - | First Impressions Of Earth | ||
| The Strokes |
|---|
| Julian Casablancas | Nikolai Fraiture | Albert Hammond Jr | Fabrizio Moretti | Nick Valensi |
| Discography |
| 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" |
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