The Strokes - Classic or Duds?

there were so many new york bands at the time that were better. and put on better shows! the yyys. the rapture. radio 4, remember them? le tigre. the liars. fischerspooner. savy fav. holy shit maybe it WAS a golden age?!

what did Fischerspooner do besides a Wire cover and hideous fashion?

LSF was so good

EMERGE alfred do you not remember?? that song built an entire (and almost entirely illusory) "scene"! their shows were outrageous/hideous/amazing. nobody did spectacle like that at a show that i can think of until like, fever ray? i'm sure i'm forgetting someone amazing. but still.

I will always rep for the YYYs and the Rapture

rapture were a really fun live band imo

The Rapture's follow-up to Echoes (the post-DFA one with "Woo Alright Yeah Uh-Huh" on it) is mad underrated.

we played a super tiny show w them (before they moved to NY) and they absolutely tore the place up, opened w a Gang of Four cover. Will always be sort of forgiving of their excesses/stumbles because of that show.

we played a super tiny show w them (before they moved to NY) and they absolutely tore the place up, opened w a Gang of Four cover. Will always be sort of forgiving of their excesses/stumbles because of that show.

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, May 16, 2017 2:59 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I saw them right before the Sub Pop ep came out and they completely blow me away, played to like 20 people or something, one of the best bands I saw in that era. 6 months later when they came back and I had been talking to them up to everyone who would listen they were a totally different band & the charms were lost on me.

Echoes is a fantastic album.

The Rapture's first and third albums are their best.

J Escobedo elsewhere:

http://jezebel.com/early-2000s-rock-dudefight-ends-in-a-surprisingly-sick-1795264939

The origin of this fight is an oral history about the end of the band The Strokes published in Vulture (excerpted from Lizzy Goodman’s forthcoming book Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011) which, if you can get past the notion that The Strokes were some kind of rock saviors and not just a kinda decent band in a scene surrounded by way cooler and more interesting other bands, has a couple fun nuggets to mine.

Embedded links going to the YYYs and Ex Models in particular.

I would happy erase their master tapes.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, May 15, 2017 7:19 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ OTM.

was Enon part of the "scene"? They were great. Though I guess a lot older.

lol who

The Ratpure

Franz Ferdinand's debut pisses all over anything The Strokes ever did.

The only hyped band of the time I can think of that I liked less than The Strokes was Interpol.

Yeah, I thought Interpol were garbage also.

Hear hear

was Enon part of the "scene"? They were great. Though I guess a lot older.

― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, May 16, 2017 3:37 PM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah Brainiac, rip :( they prefigure a lot of this in a way but sound a lot more 90s, when you go back to them. and Six Finger Satellite!

Interpol's albums have their moments, but I saw them live and wanted to tear my own head off out of boredom.

Interpol are the only classic band of this era. Antics is better than Bright Lights. I dig the first Strokes record and "12:51."

Interpol are aural Ambien and were one-upped by fucking Editors

LOL flappy bird.

honestly, what NYC rock scene stuff do ppl feel they sound a lot like? early Blondie maybe musically a bit? The Ramones I guess in a way but they are so influential it's almost like saying a rock band is influenced by Chuck Berry.... Like they def don't remind me of Television, Dead Boys, Patti Smith, Heartbreakers, Dictators, NY Dolls, Voidoids, Talking Heads

They just sound like a super-generic garage rock act to me - the Sonics if the Sonics had been bored rich wannabe-junkies.

they dressed up like NYC 70s rock scene but sonically were closer to the Cars and Tom Petty

individual singles from the first album still sound all right but the monotone that pervades everything (same rhythm, same vocal affect, etc.) is painful in album form

did someone quote the NYT detail that three (3) WH officials "conceding," by way of defending trump, that he's too stupid to know enough to disclose anything dangerous

lmao wrong thread

idk, it's a paul banks lyric, there's a joke there somewhere

it's weird to me that the strokes get this type of invective. they've always just been good band with an amazing debut to me...maybe cause I was too young to experience the hype train?

*just been a good-ish band

I like the debut okay, but I really haven't listened to it since it was new. At that time I liked most bands in that post-Velvet Undergroundy continuum: Modern Lovers, Feelies, Dream Syndicate, Yo La Tengo...

I like the strokes, interpol, AND the ratpure, what do I win

a shameful memory of something you did at don hill's

I love Duran Duran, I tolerate their doggerel, but Interpol was a bag of mayo on fire: ugly, self-serious, terrible fashion sense.

idk, it's a paul banks lyric, there's a joke there somewhere

― goole

he was ahead of his time

it's probably not their best front-to-back but Comedown Machine is the Strokes album I return to the most these days by far

haven't rly kept up with them but early YYYs were really really good imo -- i saw them at a small club in 2002 and they blew everyone else off the stage. i remember liking the first two strokes albums ok, pleasant enough, but not something i've ever gone back to.

I couldn't bring myself to listen to that last YYYs album but they had a very good run and were great live as well

the last Strokes and Interpol records were both among their best tbh

top challop

i didn't see any of these bands live but the YYYs were my favorite working band that decade, from audiogalaxying the "master" ep as an easily/pleasantly shocked hs freshman to buying fever to tell in A Record Store! not Borders! the first time i visited NYC to pazzing it's blitz in college. gr8 band, love them in all phases tbh. never seen david letterman crush on anyone that hard either.

it's probably not their best front-to-back but Comedown Machine is the Strokes album I return to the most these days by far

― ufo, Tuesday, May 16, 2017 3:23 PM (thirty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no it's totally their best front-to-back

sorry i heard the comedown machine siren

Yeah, Comedown Machine is a fantastic record. The only weak moments are where they try and sound like old Strokes. Overall, Room On Fire is easily my favourite.

Interpol's debut stands up and Antics is pretty enjoyable. Delete everything after that, especially the self titled album which was a disaster.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs were getting better with each album until Mosquito which was almost as bad as the artwork. It's Blitz is the one I go back the most.

the s/t Interpol record was at least properly produced - the third one (Our Love to Admire) has that really high-end, nasally cocaine sound. Also the first half is better than anything on OLTA or the dud dud dud El Pintor album. "Summer Well," "Barricade," "Memory Serves," and "Success" are all Antics/Bright Lights caliber, especially "Summer Well."

I will also defend the s/t - they got unfairly slated for how depressing and bleak it was...for some reason?

The closing two tracks are among their most evocative

that record is bleak and depressing?