The Strokes - Classic or Duds?

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David-- Email me your mailing address and I'll send you a Ted Leo promo...Today!

― Andy, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I bought Rome(written upside down) after reading Kris's end of year list. Played it once and thought it was the worst record I'd ever heard. Put it on again two months later and it rocked like a crazed bastard. I understand it's normally classed as emo, but it sounds nothing like any of the other emo I've heard. The keyboards have something to do with it, but there's an intelligence and genuine aggression about it that is missing from most of yer obvious 'feel-my- pain' bog standard emo timechange frenzy. And it's got ace lyrics about Caeser and stuff.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Maybe theyy should be called teh "Dopes" HA HA HA HA!!!!! (sucks fingers happily)

― Mike Hanle y, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I prefer The Chickens.

― Sean Carruthers, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Name one -- ONE --- Rock'N Roll band this NOT retro in one way or another...please...we could discuss this forever. These kids weren't even inspired by the bands they've been compared to when they grew up -- they are teenagers for heaven's sake! I bet they went out to buy some Stooges, Chameleons, Television, Velvets only AFTER they read all hype that surrounded them. They loved Nirvana and Pearl Jam just as much as most of their fellow generation x'ers. And that's ok -- that's what makes them sound fresh. I've been going to Strokes shows for over a year and trust me, they have come a long way, musically speaking. I love their songs, what can I say....

― stuck+in+nyc, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

come a long way = no more sets with the amp turned off

I saw the end of Les Savy Fav when they opened for the Ex at the Knitting Factory. Eh.

― Dave M., Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't think anyone is advocating chucking away your record collection and just listening to The Strokes from now until the day you die.

But as a little bit of dressing on the salad of my musical intake, I find them very much acceptable.

― Nick Southall, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Certainly dud in that they'll fail to 'explode'. We'll have forgotten all about them in 6 months.
P.S. I'd love it if they literally did explode.

― DG, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Currently writing from temporary exile, to note that I covered the strokes issue about a week ago in In Review. *end self promotion*

― Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Best genuine fakes since the Psychedelic Furs? They do with Essential Logic and [insert tunefully abrasive post-punk band, circa '79, '80] what Essential Logic and [insert tunefully abrasive post-punk band, circa '79, '80] did with Captain Beefheart: Pop it up! Their drummer contains all the secrets of the universe...I can imagine people actually dancing to this stuff...and their EPs are terrific to do the dishes to... (I just hope they get a saxophonist soon.)

― s woods, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Rancid?

― Andy, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The fact that this band has engendered SO MUCH comment on the bulletin board has me perversely interested now. I think I may buy that EP just to see what all the fuss is about.

― Sean, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

where can i get this video of kurt cobain belching?

― Geoff, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

While listening to a live MP3 of "Alone Together":

Why does the most unassuming, faceless representative of a certain musical sect / region get the greatest amount of hoopla or press?

It's not bad, no, but, damn, Superchunk would go quadruple platinum with the amount of buzz these guys have garnered.

― David Raposa, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

After the picnic, I'm much more concerned about those other overhyped avatars of NYC Cool the Moldy Peaches. I thought they were ghastly - as predicted, admittedly.

― Tom, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ah, you mean the Moldy Peaches. A band with SO MUCH disproportionate UK hype that their debut CD is available in NYC only as an import via the UK. Brilliant.

Again - an interesting group, from what I've heard, outside of the all the damn hype. But it's the DAMN HYPE (copyright) that's sabotaging the whole enterprise. Never mind the atavistic anti-NYC / hipster gag reflex.

― David Raposa, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"singing, dancing, lump of signifiers" a better name

― Mike Hanle y, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Having heard "Is This It?" today, I'd say it is one of the better albums of this year. Overhyped to the nth degree, but still enjoyable. If they can move past the extremely obvious VU thang, they could be quite a good band.

― bnw, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Re: Moldy Peaches - their debut CD has actually been sitting in the racks in the Westgate Library in Oxford since March. Apart from myself, unborrowed. Actually it's OK in a not-too-fussed-provided- you've-never-heard-Bongwater kind of way.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Indeed...they have their moments. Not the best thing ever, but certainly not the worst. Moldy Peaches that is, not the Strokes, as if that needed saying.

― DG, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Just occurred to me: THE STROKES ARE A "HAIRCUT BAND". ie, the dismissal made of every UK export to the US since Duran Duran. Now that the UK have given up making haircut bands (ie Coldplay's apparently successful export [Travis have a silly haircut, yes, but I don't get the feeling the haircut is 4*R*E*A*L]), the US exports their first since... i dunno, Blondie? Looked at in this way, I find the Strokes much more appealing. Hooray!

― stevie t, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hmmm ....so sad import prices aside, is the Moldy Peaches record worth the energy?

― JC, Saturday, 28 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Strokes = The return of hair-pop!? Not quite seeing it, but they are a bunch of NY pretty boys (which essentially earns them writeups in 'Paper', etc)...

― Jason, Saturday, 28 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I listened to the album over the weekend just gone, hence my late reply, late reply.

There are moments of rock splendour: a few of the lyrics, the bass line of the title track; but these moments are far too fleeting and far too few. My first thought on listening to this album was “Cake meets Iggy Pop”. They have taken a back-to-basics approach, sounding as though they have recorded the album on an 8-track, with 3 tracks to spare: perhaps intentional, but definitely unimpressive all the same.

They desperately want to be sleazy, and to a slight degree they achieve this – for a flash in ‘Trying Your Luck’ (the best song on the album, in my opinion) the chorus pitches and lingers in memory for a moment – it is simple and effective, but then it dissipates and the climax is lost. The guitar almost swirls but ends up being lost in the appalling mix. Elsewhere on the album the vocals drone on, but here they are a hybrid of Top Cat and Frank Sinatra on smack.

‘NYC Cops’ is deservedly a single. It’s catchy, and the intro snares you, but there is nothing overwhelming about it, nothing that could change ones life as the press have suggested it will. The ultimate in lo-fi, The Strokes churn out 11 songs that would be hardly distinguishable from each other if is wasn’t for the pause between them.

Two thumbs down for this. Sorry.

― Mascara, Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

NYC Cops is not a single. It's the b-side on Hard to explain.

― , Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The Strokes remind me of Menswear, the mid 90s group made up entirely of Camden rent boys. and Nancy Boy, the mid 90s glam rock band formed by Donovan Leitch, son of Donovan the 60s singer. I was quite fond of both.

"Hard To Explain" and a few other songs I've heard off their album are enjoyable enough. My only gripe is, with all that hype, surely they can finally afford to buy the singer a microphone that isn't broken? And the album's cover photo is a bit unnecessary.

― Dickon Edwards, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

...And the album's cover photo is a bit unnecessary...total arse just like the music!

― DJ Martian, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

three weeks pass...

I am sat here listening to 'Is this it' right now and a fly landed on my mouse mat. This may not be relavent, but, the strokes make it relavent. I cannot remember the last time a band has made everything seem so important, life, learning the guitar, a fly. I heard oasis and bought a guitar, I heard wonderwall and learned my first song. Here is THE STROKES and I want to form a band have a laugh and die young. Sweetness and beauty, as close to Oscar Wilde as you will get in the ' modern age ' and I love it.

― jorge regula, Friday, 31 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hmmm. It's the increasingly creeping feeling I'm getting that The Strokes are to be 'the American Oasis' - further held up by Noely G's support of them - that puts me off more than anything to be honest with you.

Though I like the line: "Rolling in the ocean / trying to catch your eye" Yay!

― DavidM, Friday, 31 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Haven't read all the answers provided so the point might have been made a few times, but it seems to me that the music isn't really the issue here, it's the utter desperation of the NME. I read the review of their debut, flicking through the newsagent, and it seemed just utterly grotesque. WTF? Has the desperation over the AOL-Time-Warner takeover clouded the staff's already very dodgy judgement? They so want to shift papers and regain their long-lost status as the voice of the youth, like some 60 year old whore caked up with make-up trying to drum up trade, trying to convince passers-by that she is still attractive. The strokes will probably end up victims to this stage of the NME's demise. Just to gain some perspective on this, listen to the strokes, d/l them off the net as I did if necessary, then listen to a hundred other bands over the past 2 decades that have the same talent, ability , and personally I find it difficult to see what really sets them apart, at least to the extent that they have been set apart by the music press. On the other hand, take something like Dub Housing by Pere Ubu made in late 70s and compare it to strokes, I mean, if strokes are the *best* we have then music is in a very shitty state. Doesn't it just prove how removed from reality the organs of the music industry are? I think the music press and its role is fast becoming obselete, hence the last great push, the great white hope and other cliches. OK, this much I know, but what is still perplexing me is whether: a) there are bands out there that are innovative and still rock, are special, stand out, aren't a pale fascimilie of former glories, but the music press are so set in their particular ways that they are blind to them, b) there is no chance of such a band existing, there is no chance of such excitement being generated, everything is jaded, so these bands don't exist, since I don't really follow the current music scene closely, I don't have enough evidence to disprove one or the other, don't even know if what I wrote is too simplistic, ignorant, non-sensical, still....

― Anas FK, Friday, 31 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

strokes are a quality band but perhaps they upcoming has come too soon and they will dissapoint next time round. perhaps we have the music media for spoiling this for us people who appreciate this music lets hope this doesnt happen.

― gh, Saturday, 1 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I really really like the Strokes. I can understand the hype surrounding them. They're cute, they make great pop music. But: what about Interpol ? They're the best band I've heard in a very long time, and definitely not playing in the same category as the Strokes... and nobody talks about them. Their four tracks ep on chemikal underground is the cd I've been listening to the most in the past few months (along with a bootleg recording of a show they played in France in August).

They are my favourite NYC band. By far. The Strokes just can't compete.

― Sébastien, Sunday, 9 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i think the strokes are boring and derivative- total duds. bands like interpol are so much more deserving of the media attention and critical accolades. but what about the walkmen (former members of jonathan fire eater and the recoys)? i've been to a bunch of their shows and bought their vinyl, and i can't say enough good things about them. their music is interesting and complicated, but also pleasant and enjoyable. has anyone else heard them?

― judith, Sunday, 9 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't know what everyone's getting so het up about.
So what if the NME are writing about them a lot? What's wrong with enthusiasm?
So what if they sound like early Velvets played on a 70s tape recorder, sound like a castrated Stooges, sound like Elastica after a sex change?
Haven't heard the album but the songs' I've heard are alright, not my cuppa tea but I'd much rather have them over any more Nu- Metal/Rap Rock or trad-Indie strummers like Starsailor. And they look like a band. A good image! Better the shirt & tie look over the long shorts/baseball cap/tats or the slobby 'hey, I'm just like one of YOU' wear sported by Travis, Coldplay etcetera...

― DavidM, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two weeks pass...

Just saw the Strokes live, here's what i think: don't believe the hype. not the worst band i've ever seen, but really not anything to write home about either! boring drumming and bass... boring, lazy vox... above average, but nothing special guitars... and decent to mediocre songs that all sound the same. absolutely NO stage presence at all. i was expecting MUCH more... eh. if you dumbed down television with some vague/transparent stooges imitations, it's what you'd get, pretty much... i must saw, however, that the opening band, the moldy peaches, were quite possibly the worst fucking dreck i have ever had to endure. if you actually enjoy this band, you are probably a masochist, whether you know it or not. what a pathetic bunch of no- playing motherfuckers! do all these kids have daddies with connections, or what? yuck.

― ronald mccartney, Friday, 28 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

three weeks pass...

word up, ronald! let's send a message to the peeps by boycotting this shit: NO MORE MUSIC MADE BY NO-PLAYING FAGGOTS!

― anti, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sound like the Style Council, look like New York avant-garde stylists version of New York avant-garders. Could be funny but are adequate.

― Luke, Monday, 22 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Actually, now that I've heard the album, I have to say that they're not bad. Not a band I could love, but not hateable either. In a way they remind me of Sonic Youth in the 3 or 4 years after Nirvana hit it big when they were trying to make their sound a little more commercial and pop. Though not quite as interesting.

― Nicole, Monday, 22 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Wow, it looks as if the U.S. MTV is getting behind them.

― scott p., Monday, 22 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two weeks pass...

i just saw their video for some piece of shit song called last nite... WHAT THE FUCK??!!!! These derivative SOB's are the saviours of ROCK????!!! NOT FOR ME, THEY AIN'T! I am going to assume that the vocals in said video were done live for the shoot: BIG MISTAKE, that! This guy couldn't hold a tune, had NO POWER in his chords, and the whole band INCLUDING the singer were so bloody lifeless and lame, they have to resort to knocking over a mic-stand onto the drummer to seem edgy! LAME!!!! This may be the new rock and roll to the teenyboppers, but not to any adults I know! WEAK!!!!!!!!!

Has anyone out there ever heard Iggy and the Stooges before?

I'm just curious.

― captain oi!, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

four months pass...

I finally borrowed this record two days ago -- first I'd heard of them! To be honest, I think it sounds great. About half these tracks are perfect, in their own way. Not a ton of "meaning," maybe (I've no idea what the songs are about), but some excellent tunes. Classic.

― Mark, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The recording really isn't very "bright" is it? I imagine it must have been quite cheap to record. At least they've probably recouped. What was the question again?

― electric sound of jim, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Time makes me think that more and more they are a promise that blew it. There's a Kraftwerk obsession in there that they did not cultivate properly and the result is dully competent and utterly uninvolving.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm still keen to hear what their next recordings are like. Maybe they will surprise us all. Or not.

― electric sound of jim, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Depends how many drugs they refuse.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

if you're interested in any new recordings, they've been playing a new song live called 'meet you in the bathroom', which is available on audiogalaxy. if it's anything to go by, they are indeed the american oasis... good debut, but they don't really have anywhere else to go from there.

i only just read this thread for the first time, and it surprises me how much the ilm massive was offended by the album. i think it's a very solid pop record. how did you fail to hear the hooks? you all sounded like you wanted to hate it.

― minna, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

this leads me to ask the question: is it rockist to hate the strokes?

i mean, they violated rock! their pastiche sucked the 'realness', 'grit' and 'meaning' out of rock, leaving an empty husk based on hairstyles and anodyne tunes... they are not the genuine article!

now, who would be offended by that?

― minna, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Now I can go back through the FT Strokes special and give it a proper read, anyway.

― Mark, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I wouldn't call the Strokes pastiche, particularly. Derivative, definitely.

― electric sound of jim, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

they are not the genuine article!

Did that matter? I just ask for entertainment. Hell, right now I'm listening to the Misfits, now *that's* entertainment! Let's see Julian C. sing about skulls, astro zombies and teenagers from Mars.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Skipping 537 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgaLAliC3-8

new song is vaguely reminiscent of the voidz, but much breezier and watered down from their zaniness. it's alright, i still love casablancas' melodic sensibility, but if they're going to do something like this i'd rather just have another voidz album where casablancas throws all sorts of batshit ideas at the wall

i still don't quite get how the new abnormal, which was like, alright but very patchy, became so beloved by rym etc.?

― ufo, Wednesday, 8 April 2026 00:44 (two months ago)

I just wonder if it's because there were more guitars and less synths. People on there really seemed to hate Comedown Machine, so I think there was some relief they'd mostly gone back to their roots. There's a couple of songs on there I really like (Adults Are Talking, Bad Decisions, Ode To The Metz), but give me their more experimental fun side any day. Comedown Machine is underrated and will one day get reappraisal it deserves.

― kitchen person, Wednesday, 8 April 2026 01:07 (two months ago)

the new abnormal has "at the door" which is maybe the most synth-oriented thing they've ever done

comedown machine remains super underrated

― ufo, Wednesday, 8 April 2026 01:21 (two months ago)

This is okay. Auto-Tune is turned way up and is probably a minute too long.

― There's a Bee in my posts! (Bee OK), Wednesday, 8 April 2026 04:19 (two months ago)

i still love casablancas' melodic sensibility

agreed! idk, i love this. wasn't expecting to and haven't given the last several albums nearly any consideration but i find this comforting

― Cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria de Episcopio, Wednesday, 8 April 2026 05:55 (two months ago)

comedown machine was great, tyranny was great, the other two voidz albums were at least interesting

― ufo, Wednesday, 8 April 2026 06:12 (two months ago)

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