The Strokes: Is This It poll

not hearing the similarities "at all" sounds like some narcissism in respect of small differences ish to me.

Well I mean if you're counting the fact both bands share guitars, bass and drums, then yeah...I guess I do hear the similarities. I've never been a big Television fan either, but the comparison is apples to doo doo.

they're The Cars, dude.

not really, even after they openly courted that comparison on the 2nd album

listen to the EP version of "Modern Age" and tell me he's not doing a straight up LR impression

yeah, you got me there; at times it sounds ridiculously like Lou Reed. That was the first indication of any relation to VU I've ever heard. but yet, this VU shit still factored into nearly ever review I read of the album, which doesn't sound like this.

here it is for those of you who want to play along at home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRZyKYOX0Cc

Oh dang, I'd forgotten how much more BANG the ep versions had of those songs. If they'd have released just that and then nothing ever again, I'd be on the other side of this whole argument.

seems to me like the main difference is the production

Yeah, the sound of the albums is a big part of why I don't like them much. They have the worst drum sound I've ever heard, ever.

(but I also think they're repetitive as hay-ull)

the reason i like the album better than the pre-album stuff is because JC stopped pronouncing things in a corny rawk singer way like "hay-ull"

the tunes on this album are good though. i once towed the standard contrarian line about how this was soulless hype, but it convinced me otherwise-- unlike forgettable "critic's choice" bullshit like, oh, let's say Burial, Shearwater, MIA, Dizzee Rascal, Fleet Foxes... oh god-- I could go on all day.

It is hard to believe this was not written by a Mr. Snrub sockpuppet.

he's not Jesus Christ but his initials are the same.

It is hard to believe this was not written by a Mr. Snrub sockpuppet.

why? because someone else thought all that was overrated crap? i'm almost always disappointed by these albums that everyone raves to high heaven about (and then stops talking about 2 months after release).

(yeah, not all of the stuff I mentioned got forgotten, but most of it is quite mediocre, IMO)

OT: Even though I almost never listen to them, it chaps my ass when people slag Shearwater because one of my friends is in the band.

(and it probably shouldn't, because I know I would absolutely join in the slagging if he wasn't)

i'm almost always disappointed by these albums that everyone raves to high heaven about (and then stops talking about 2 months after release).

You have just described almost every album ever made (particularly in the age of advance leaks)! Congratulations!

(I know I'm as guilty as the next person of the hyperbolic dismissal but considering that threads about Dizzee Rascal and M.I.A. went on for more than a year and the Burial and Fleet Foxes threads had similar longevity, that post smacks of willfully ignoring what other people are actually talking about just because you don't like it.)

if he willfully ignored hype about records he probably had no reason to believe he'd like, he wouldn't have anything to whine about

if you can't hear television in 'soma', just fer example, then you're a kings of leon stan

haha, come on, they don't really sound like Television. There might be a touch of it (stuttery guitar), but to name them as a major sonic touchstone for the Strokes is misguided.

Someday. Because GBV are in the video.

(I know I'm as guilty as the next person of the hyperbolic dismissal but considering that threads about Dizzee Rascal and M.I.A. went on for more than a year and the Burial and Fleet Foxes threads had similar longevity, that post smacks of willfully ignoring what other people are actually talking about just because you don't like it.)

sorry, i wasn't being literal-- as my follow-up comment tried unsuccessfully to suggest. i'm trying to say that I typically find the hype usually completely out of sync with the goods. anyway, let's move on before someone's feelings get hurt.

(on another note, ever find it odd that normal conversations that you'd have with friends in person always seem to veer into strangely unpleasant directions online?)

I thought they were aping Television too, in fact it seemed totally obvious at the time (and nothing wrong with that, I can't think of a better band to try to be like). I also find it a bit hard to see why now, but then again I can't really think of anyone whom the Strokes sound more like.

I did have a couple of significant problems with this album, though, that stopped me from ever loving it. Some of it's just too boring e.g. 'Is This It?' I always found a really underwhelming beginning. And the sleeve is horrible, I just don't get why they'd go with such an unappealing image - better to have just stuck Bowersock on the front cover (who was he anyway?)

i guess the main thing that keeps me from saying, oh yeah they're totally like television is that the Strokes' guitar playing is kinda inept -- maybe not in a bad way, but it's not like Verlaine/Lloyd. And the same could be said for the rhythm section too.

Well, Gordon Raphael's production covers up a multitude of those instrumental deficiencies, but having seen them live in early 2002 I can vouch for the solidness of the rhythm section.

Someday. Because GBV are is in the video.

― SourPatchCorpse, Wednesday, July 8, 2009 4:05 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

woops, cause Slash is in the video

Some of it's just too boring e.g. 'Is This It?'

the bass in this song was what really hooked me (i was really unsure for the preceding 20 or so seconds)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-mlQlDuwWik/R5KNAxo0NrI/AAAAAAAABlI/jufuEYx5JoA/s400/The+Strokes+-+Room+on+fire+-+Back.jpg
A big part of their appeal was that they looked great, they should have made more of it and gone with a group shot for the sleeve. I really liked them in this one from the back of 'Room On Fire' (barcode notwithstanding).

does anyone know the story of why they changed the cover for the U.S. market, only could find this on Wiki:

The cover of the latter features a black-and-white photo of a gloved hand on a woman's naked backside, shown in semi-profile, and is said to reference Spinal Tap's fictitious Smell the Glove. The naked model on the cover was photographer Colin Lane's girlfriend at the time. The North American version replaces this with an image of particle collisions in the Big European Bubble Chamber and replaced the song "New York City Cops" with "When It Started".

some chainstore whinged about it iirc

A lot of classics, but "Someday" always stands out for some reason.

i got my copy while studying in ireland, and listening to it (and 'I see a darkness') is some proustian shit for me

room on fire is way better, tho

~~~remembers the time when posting on this thread would've landed you a noize ban pretty much instantly

w/r/t the drum sound: i remember when room on fire came out and reading something about how the drummer spent like hours trying to get his drums to sound like anything but real drums or something, it was weird

Easiest poll ever. Someday.

the drummer spent like hours trying to get his drums to sound like anything but real drums or something

I guess that doesn't surprise me, because it would have to have been done on purpose.

NYC COPS

Trying Your Luck, 4REALZ

I never, ever heard any Television in this band either, other than a really dry, staccato (recorded direct?) guitar sound maybe. But I'm gonna give the LP a listen tonight (for the first time since '02) just to double-check.

Voted "Last Night"

I swear that there was a Time Out New York column around the time of the e.p. release that compared them to Nation of Ulysses (!!!).

Not an album I consciously pull out to play very often, but still so good from start to finish. Voted "Hard to Explain" but could have been several others. It's nice to listen to it again without the swirling knee-jerk hate that was so prevalent around the time of the initial release.

could go with any of about 5 here, but HTE is the one

voted "the modern age" but "barely legal" or "late nite" or 3-4 others woulda worked

just listened to this album for the first time in years and years...i think my memory of it was distorted by the fact that the 3 big singles were all really good, but i don't really like any of the other songs remotely as much ("Take It Or Leave It" and "Barely Legal" come closest). gotta go with "Hard To Explain."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

finally had a chance to listen to this, it was alright. voting for "Someday."

meaning i haven't played it recently, have heard it numerous times but was only able to play it today to refine my pick.

What I always liked about The Strokes was this sense of disconnect that was in their music, it felt so jaded and bored. Just those narcotised muffled vocals, the guitar solos that nearly always repeated themselves, it felt like rock as this washed-out premeditated-act. This is all probably doing a pretty good job at making them sound as awful as a lot of yall think they are but its probably a big contributor to that NYC glamour that clung to them when this came out. Whoever posted that picture of them upthread is way otm imo, they looked good I think its pretty underrated how important it is to look good in photographs when you're in a band. These good looking, rich, grubby New Yorkers just had to to glance in your direction and it was like they were hitting on you, that's why those half-assed, tossed off Blondie riffs and VU chuggs sounded so great. Still, I think Room on Fire definitely stands up better all round. It has this glassy sheen over the fuzz.

I have no problem w/ this band and enjoy this record, but "they looked so good that it made their shitty music sound great" is not really the best argument in their favor.

haha, that post should have a neon sign saying "I had a crush on all of these guys" pointing at it tho