Dubbed “the coolest motherf**kers around” by the NME, the Strokes have been handed the crushing responsibility of being the band that will “save rock and roll.” These five splendiferous, chic, New York rockers dressed razor sharp in their black leather jackets and skintight faded blue jeans have the look, the sound and the F-you attitude that just might get the job done.
The Strokes formed back in 1993 when singer Julian Casablancas, guitarist Nick Valensi, and drummer Fabrizio “Fab” Moretti met at the posh Dwight prep school on New York’s Upper West Side. Soon they hooked up with Julian’s childhood friends, bassist Nikolai Fraiture and Albert Hammond, Jr.
The five guys soon began slumming around the LES jamming together and writing music until they found “official” rehearsal space in a grimy midtown office building where for three years they tenaciously crafted and honed their sound.
“Julian will write the lyrics and most of the melodies for the songs, and the rest of us will come together and work around his lyrics,” said Fab Moretti from a pay phone outside the Webster Theater in Hartford, Conn. “That"s how we get it done.”
The Strokes quickly became a crowd favorite amongst the underground rock scene in New York City. In early 2001 they released the Modern Age EP. In support of their EP, the Strokes headed off to England to play two sold-out tours. The British rock media swooned all over the young American rockers like they were the best thing to happen to rock ‘n’ roll since the Rolling Stones cut Exile On Main Street.
The buzz about the badass rockers from New York soon trickled back to the American mainstream media. When the Strokes returned, they toured mostly small venues and bars. Slowly the band built a fan base entirely on word of mouth. But bigwig record-company execs were reluctant to spend any time checking out the cocky and charismatic Strokes, because they were too busy grooming Mousketeers for a new boy band.
Finally after touring most of the year, the Strokes released to the American masses their Euro-jocked debut album Is This It in October. The vintage-looking video for “Last Nite” instantly broke hearts and mesmerized jaded rock fans across America.
“Definitely, a lot more people have been coming to our shows since the video… and we defiantly have plans for another album. We want to keep on touring and just playing music. That’s what we love to do–we love to rock your ass off,” said Moretti
With a smash-hit debut album and an MTV video under their studded leather belts, the Strokes seem to be doing all right for a bunch of bratty, ?ber-rich hacks (or that’s at least how many people in the music media perceive the band). Jealousy runs deep among some critics in the New York rock scene, and sniveling accusations have been sneered that the “Spoiled rich kids” (Julian’s father Jon Casablanca’s is the former CEO of Elite Modeling Agency) have used their privileged upbringings to launch their quick rise to fame and stardom.
“It doesn’t bother us that the media compares us to other bands like the Velvet Underground or Stooges. We don’t give a fuck what the media says about us. We just want to make music. We aren’t in this to be rock stars or get rich or something. We love what we do, and we love to make music.”
The Strokes’ sound does posses a rugged, crusty m?lange of avant garde art rock and CBGB’s era Bowery noise. “We are defiantly influenced by the scene here in New York. The place you live in, the people you’re around, just the things you see everyday: all that influences the music or the art you make. It’s just the environment you are in.”
The Strokes may have the high cheekbones, the tight-ass jeans and the cocky, rebellious charisma girls melt over, but making music is what The Strokes do best. It’s easy to say their sound is rooted in classic New York punk and Britpop, but if you dig a little deeper you can hear the tight, simplistic, almost trashy nuances of classic ’50s-era rock ‘n’ roll. The kind of philosophy that made the Rolling Stones so damn good, simple is better. The Strokes embody a hurricane of nostalgia. Valensi’s and Hammond’s fuzzy guitars wailing in precise harmony with Nikolai Fraiture’s rich towering bass and Fab Moretti’s shallow popping drums all swirl around Julian Casablancas’ raw, nasally vocals.
In order to achieve their vision of raw ruckus rock, the Strokes recorded Is This It over a few days and countless bottles of beer in a smoke-filled basement studio on the Lower East Side.
“We wanted to capture our live sound; we’re a live band and that’s how we should be heard. That’s the way we wanted our album to sound. No fancy gimmicks.”
The songs–“Last Nite,” “Hard to Explain,” “Take It or Leave It” and “Someday” are arguably their finest efforts. For a more contemporary and accurate comparison, the Strokes’ sound like a dirtier, more sexual Weezer with an attitude. The tracks on Is This It are permeated with old-school rock themes like chasing girls and falling in love. The album shrieks with that youthful bad-boy energy that makes you want to smoke a cigarette, drink a beer and shake your ass with a girl in your arms.
The Strokes have come along at the right time and in the right place. They’ve created something new and unique from the rich musical melting pot that New York is famous for. It will take a lot more than just one new band to save rock n’ roll in an industry dominated by prefabricated Fred Dursts and candy-coated Britneys. But at least the Strokes are a good start.
