THE STROKES

Formed: 1999, New York, New York

Members: Julian Casablancas, vocals (born New York City, 23 August 1978); Nikolai Fraiture, bass (born New York City, 13 November 1978); Albert Hammond Jr., guitar (born Los Angeles, 9 April 1979); Fabrizio Moretti, drums (born Rio de Janeiro, 2 June 1980); Nick Valensi, guitar (born New York City, 16 January 1981).

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Is This It? (2001)

Hit songs since 1990: "Hard to Explain," "Last Nite"

Along with talent, hype has long been an essential component of rock and roll stardom. Few bands from the 1990s, however, were the subject of as much feverish expectation as New York's the Strokes. Anointed as the saviors of rock and roll by the British music press after releasing just three songs, the quintet's debut, Is This It? (2001), was greeted with waves of adulation for its compression of 1970s New York punk and 1980s arty new wave. While the album could not possibly have lived up to the buildup, the group was lumped in with the Vines and the Hives as part of the equally media-hyped "garage rock revival" of the new millennium.

Just one year after coming together in New York City in 1999, the Strokes were already being called the first significant rock band of the 2000s. The band had its origins in 1998, when singer Julian Casablancas (son of Elite modeling agency founder John Casablancas), drummer Fabrizio Moretti, and guitarist Nick Valensi began playing music together while attending the Manhattan private prep academy the Dwight School. Another prep school kid, bassist Nikolai Fraiture, soon joined, followed by a childhood friend of Casablancas from the Swiss boarding school L'Institut Le Rosey, guitarist Albert Hammond. The latter is the son of singer/songwriter Albert Hammond, author of the pop songs "It Never Rains in Southern California" and "To All the Girls I've Loved Before."

The band spent most of 1999 writing songs and rehearsing before making their live debut in September at the New York club the Spiral. The high-energy performance earned the nascent band a string of new bookings and a deal with the Rough Trade label, which released their three-song The Modern Age demo album in January 2001.

As a bidding war to sign the band was erupting in the United States—ultimately won by RCA Records—the EP was drawing rave reviews in the United Kingdom and multiple feature stories from the U.K. rock weekly New Musical Express ; additionally, the single "Hard to Explain"
debuted at number sixteen on the U.K. music charts. Restless to document their new songs, the band began recording their debut album before signing their record deal.

Band Drops Song in Wake of Terrorist Attacks

By the time Is This It? was released in late summer 2001 in the United Kingdom, the hype had reached deafening proportions. Every move made by the group became fodder for articles, including their original choice of album art, a suggestive photo of a woman's nude behind with a leather glove-clad hand resting on it. When U.K. retailers objected, the U.S. version—released in October—was changed to feature an abstract, lattice-like image.

More controversy followed, however. In the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York, band members were pressured to remove the song "New York City Cops," which features the line "New York city cops, they ain't too smart"; it was replaced by the song "When It Started." When the album was finally released, it was hailed by critics as a work of genius, synthesizing the street attitude and jagged guitar sounds of such important New York bands as the Velvet Underground and Television with the buoyant, pop-inspired sensibility of rock legends the Beatles and Buddy Holly.

With Casablancas's vocals sounding as if he is singing through a megaphone, songs such as "Hard to Explain" burn with a dark energy, propelled by Hammond's distorted, jazzy guitar riffs and Fraiture's steady, elongated bass lines. The combination of high society boys dressed in thrift store clothes playing a previous generation's music clicked with audiences, who more often than not ate up the spectacle of the disheveled, mop-topped Casablancas stumbling around the stage clutching a beer while yanking on his jean jacket lapels.

Casablancas plays the part of world-weary club kid to the hilt, penning lyrics about life as a disaffected twentysomething, summed up by the opening couplet to the title track. "Can't you see I'm trying, I don't even like it / I just lie to get to your apartment / Now I'm staying there just for a while / I can't think 'cause I'm just way too tired," he sings in a monotone over Hammond's spiky guitars, Moretti's steady, marching beat, and Fraiture's bouncy bass line.

The group debuted a handful of new songs during a fall 2002 U.S. tour and were named Spin magazine's Group of the Year for 2002. A second album was expected in 2003.

Despite a sound that added little original spin on the underground New York punk of the 1970s, the Strokes were hailed as the first great rock band of their generation. Ignoring the buzz, the band delivered on the promise in their live shows and released a debut album that features a classic combination of twentysomething ennui coupled with brash, rock and roll energy.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Is This It? (RCA, 2001).

WEBSITE:

www.thestrokes.com.

gil kaufman