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Guitarist, Nick Valensi seems a bit fed up describing
his music and explaining the concepts and reasoning
behind the sound of The Strokes. "What bothers me is
when people stick to one thing," he says, "They stick
to the 70's thing when there are a bunch of other influences
that are obviously there. I don't mind when they mention
70's bands but I do mind when that's all they mention."
The Strokes have been hailed by many as the second coming
of The Velvet Underground and critics have called them
a throw back to the 70's alt rock era with a modern
rock twist, but Valensi insists that the band is much
more than simply that. "I don't feel like we got a 70's
vibe. I like to think it's a little more timeless than
that. Our goal was to always be really, really good
and always get better. I don't know how the whole sound
and style happened, things just sort of fell into place,
I guess. It's not like we all sat down and talked about
the direction our sound was gonna go in." Valensi explains,
"I don't mind comparisons, in a way I think it's good,
ya know. Being compared to the Velvet Underground is
cool because we were influenced by them."
 Like
The Velvet Underground, The Strokes are a New York based
band who earned their bones within the gritty NY underground
rock scene and rose to the surface due to word of mouth,
reputation and buzz. Although it is a worthy and highly
complementary comparison, it just irks Valensi every
time he hears his band being compared to the 70's genre.
"If that's what people genuinely think then that's cool;
if that's what they hear then that's cool. But, it's
not for real, it's not true that's all I'm saying."
In 2000, The Strokes broke in England after their 3-song
EP "The Modern Age" became a huge hit in the U.K. "Yeah,
we're popular over their, we're big and lot's of people
come to our shows, but it's not like fuckin' Beatle-Mania."
Says the very modest Valensi with a cynical laugh in
his voice; "Our popularity in New York City is pretty
comparable to how popular we are all over England."
Popularity aside, The Strokes are a band of young men
who are more interested in being taken seriously than
in record sales or MTV acceptance. In fact, their first
video for "Last Night" is deliberately low budget and
low-tech and on promo pics they blatantly expose their
acne, messy hair and unshaven grills as a sort of testament
to the punk rock mentality that soaks deep in their
thick NY skin. Certainly mainstream TRLers will pass
on their glossless personas as they quest for pretty
faces and peachy attitudes and that is exactly what
the Strokes intended.
The Strokes are a cross between the street wise Lou
Reed with the slacker mentality of Beck, and their sound
and attitude reflects both. Their major label debut,
"Is This It" on RCA Records, is a energetic 11-track
collection that flirts with the romance and passion
of punk rock. Singer/songwriter, Julian Casablancas
is a swaggering street-poet who spits out towering pop
songs awash with love, hate, lust and the switchblade-agony
of the misunderstood artist and it doesn't get any more
to the point than that. "What I really like about this
album is that there's no track that you skip over, there's
no favorite song or anything." Valensi says, "We just
like to find sounds that just mesh with each other and
sound really cool with each other along with words that
somehow fit the music but really can mean many different
things."
Powered with overridden vocals, smart guitar riffs,
and captivating vocal phrasing along with tight bass
lines, guitar rock mentality and addictive rhythms "Is
This It" has been earning much praise from critics and
fans alike. Their first single "Last Night" is already
climbing the Billboard charts and getting plenty of
play on rock radio nation wide.
The Strokes (Who also includes guitarist Albert Hammond,
bassist Nikolai Fraiture and drummer Fab Moretti) all
came together at age 13 when they were attending Manhattan's
private prep school called Dwight School and would ultimately
build the kind of chemistry and camaraderie that most
bands could never even fathom. These are best bud's
who made it from the garage to the big leagues sticking
to the only formula they knew; stay real, have fun and
play what they like. "I couldn't imagine playing in
a band with strangers. Like meeting through a newspaper
add or something like that. To tell you the truth, I
couldn't image playing music with anyone but the four
people I'm playing with right now."
Relevant URLs:
thestrokes.org
Review-
Is This It? Don Sill for Crud Magazine© 2001 
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