The Strokes.

 

At the start of the week we though about make our first "real" post about the classic, the greats, The Beatles, but we though again and we decided to start with a band that we both like: THE STROKES.

Who are the strokes?

The Strokes are an American rock band formed in 1998 in New York City. Its members are Julian Casablancas (lead vocals), Nick Valensi (guitar), Albert Hammond, Jr. (guitar), Nikolai Fraiture (bass guitar) and Fabrizio Moretti (drums and percussion).

Julian, Nick and Fabrizio started playing together when they attended at the school in Manhattan. Later Julian met Nikolai at the Lycée Français de New York, and when he was 13 he was sent to Le Rosey, a boarding school in Switzerland to resolve his drinking problems and improve his academic performance. There he met Albert, and when they both came back to NY, they shared an apartment. They started a band and they performed at Manhattan's popular Mercury Lounge. Ryan Gentles, the Mercury Lounge's booker, was so impressed with the band that he left her job to become their manager. They began rehearsing hard when Gordon Raphael, a small producer of rock music scene in New York, attended one of their first concerts and gave his phone number to the band, saying the band could record a demo for them. They met days later and "The Modern Age" was released in 2001, starting a war among record labels, because according to them, the band was the greatest rock and roll that had emerged in years. 

The Strokes released their first album "Is This It" in America in October 2001, the album received rave reviews from independent publications and from the music industry, including 4 stars from Rolling Stone magazine. The influence of 70's was noted by many critics. After the release, the band toured around the world.

"Room of Fire" is the second album, although it does not reach the quality of Is This It, in it we can find songs worthy of acclaim. Several media have accused this second job as a repeat of their first album. Launched in October 2003, the album kept the familiar style of the band. Already in 2004, The Strokes revealed plans to release a live album. The LP "Live in London" was planned for October 2004 but was abandoned due to problems of recording quality.

In September 2005 "Juicebox" was released, the first single from "First Impressions of Earth" on iTunes, that came to the top of the British and American charts. The album was released officially in January 2006 and quickly rose to number one. This album shows great maturity in each of the instruments and high quality in the lyrics of the songs. Another change that can be seen in this record is that Casablancas shows much more concentration on what he does, demonstrating that his alcohol problems are a thing of the past. This, when maturity is gained by the other members of the band, resulting in one of the best rock records these days.

In early 2007, the band broke up temporarily so that each member undertake personal projects that had been pending for some time.  During a concert in the U.S. in 2007 Julian Casablancas announced that he needed a break and to be absent temporarily, plus they wanted to try to work as soloists. Later an e-mail sent by the Strokes manager Ryan Gentles, confirmed that they needed to "break up" and rest.

Since they met again, they began writing new material. In an interview for Rolling Stone, Julian Casablancas said the group is caught between the future and seventies, and that communication and honesty between them has improved. In November 2010, Casablancas announced that the content and recording the new album, "Angles" were completed and were awaiting only the editing and Nikolai Fraiture announced that the album would be out "by March", with a world tour following the album's release. He later confirmed that the release date would be March 22, 2011.

DISCOGRAPHY

2001- 'The Modern Age EP' & 'Is This It'

2003- 'Room of Fire'

2006- 'First Impression of the Earth'

2011- 'Angles' {On March 21}

NEWS&UPCOMING SHOWS.

In November of 2010 The Strokes along with Arctic Monkeys and Portishead were the first to confirm his appearance in the 2011 edition of the FIB (Festival Internacional de Benicassim) in Spain. [Click here to get some info about the Festival]

 

OUR FAVOURITE SINGLES (linked to youtube)

#Last Nite 

#You only live once

#Reptilia

#12:51

#The end has no end

 

 

OUR OPINION

This time, we have to say "our" because we are agree about what we think of The Strokes. It's a really good band with lots of 70's influence and a characteristic kind of rock music. 

 

Maria: As you can see in the right side of the page, Julian Casablancas is one of my favourite singers, I do actually prefer him singing alone than with the rest of the band, but I love The Strokes as well. Albert Hammond, Jr. and the rest of the band are really good musician sand the indie rock genre is one of my favs.

 

Laura: The Strokes is one of my favorite bands. Although not very known here in Spain but the group has great songs. And I hope you feel encouraged to listen to The Strokes all those who didn′t know this group.

 

QUESTIONS

To make you easier to comment on this blog, we propose some questions to you:

 

# Have you ever listened to the music of 'The Strokes'? What do you think about the band?

# Do you like this music genre? What other bands do you know?

# Would you like to attend to the FIB?

# Do you want us to make a post about any band in particular? 

 

 

We hope you've enjoyed our "first official post" and if you hadn't met 'The Strokes' you begin to like them as much as we like them.

PEACE & LOVE

Laura and Maria