I wish this band calling themselves The Strokes would quit ruining the legacy of that other band The Strokes that i used to like.

it’s been a decade since the Strokes released their 2nd (and best) album Room On Fire. at that point in time the Strokes backlash was so fierce that almost no one wanted to admit that Room On Fire was a great record. mostly everyone just tore it apart for sounding exactly like the Is This It and for rehashing the same late 70s New York City sound…like that is supposed to a bad thing. in the 10 years since Room On Fire, The Strokes have been doing everything they could to expand their sound which has resulted in some truly boring music. if you were holding out any hope that The Strokes still had the ability to write perfect little slices of sunshine-y New Wave inspired guitar pop….well you are shit out of luck. with Comedown Machine we don’t get a return to form, it’s just more of the same all over the place clash of styles and lack of energy. so this now makes 2 great albums and 3 shitty ones. when your bad outweighs your good then it’s time to call it quits. 

random 2001 nostalgia. "New York City Cops"

best song the Strokes ever wrote.

THIS IS IT = MOST IMPORTANT ROCK ALBUM OF THE DECADE?

released in the US in early October of 2001 when everyone was still shell shocked over 9/11. it is easily the most loved/hated on debut album of the these last 10 years...and much like Nevermind was a decade before it, This Is It helped reignite and energise the rock scene that had become pretty stale by the end of the 90s. whether you ever liked the Strokes or hated them or liked them at first and then hated them when it became cooler to be a hater you still gotta admit that these 5 rich kids made New York cool again, brought attention back to the underground music scenes, helped bring skinny jeans back into fashion (as a guy who liked wearing his jeans tight but couldn't ever find any in my size this was a big deal), and probably helped get one of your friend's bands signed to a record label. and it's also a pretty fucking killer pop record to boot.

Six facts about this record
1. It's the reason your old roommate moved to Brooklyn
2. It's the reason you can find skinny jeans everywhere
3. It's the reason people started caring about your friend's band for a brief moment in 2002
4. It's the reason that you saw that kid in a Modern Lovers tshirt at the mall that time
5. It's the reason half the bands you listened to this decade are popular
6. It's pretty awesome

I Miss 2002

while reading Pitchfork’s review of the Julian Casablancas solo album (which took about 500 words too many to just say “hey, this shit is kinda boring”. man you know it broke their heart to admit it. all our heroes die.) i was happy to see they posted a link to this performance of the Strokes on Letterman back in 02 when the world was still young and those of us with hope saw these scruffy rich kids from new york not as opportunist poseurs stealing all their good ideas from Blondie and Television but as champions of quality rock n’ roll returning to the airwaves. bask in the glory of what coulda been and try to forget about the fact this decade closed out about the same as the 90s did, with a lot of bad pop music dominating.

Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension

so the Strokes frontman is set to drop his 1st solo album next month. this is the first single. it's okay...sort of new wave/dancey. it sounds kinda like if Julian was singing over a mid-80s New Order (think "True Faith") track. it'll be tough for him to top Albert Hammond Jr.'s surprisingly enjoyable solo records.