If you haven’t noticed, I love The Strokes’ music. They have cool and catchy bass lines and really wicked melodies without sounding like complete pussies. They have that rare “raw” sound that I love coz they know you don’t need 80 freaking microphones on a drum kit to produce something of quality. And that’s what they’ve got. Quality. They haven’t tried to bring back the past, or rip off Television or the Velvet Underground, like any other decent band, they’ve taken influences, listened to good music, taken whats good from it, listened to bad music and learned from it and moved on to make they’re own sound. I sound which I, and a lot of other people most certainly approve.
But still, people tend to be a little scuffed that a band so young and fresh could cause such buzz in the media and attract so much attention. They’re claiming that The Strokes might not be deserving of this hype coz they haven’t been in our faces for at least 2 years and they're not yet jaded old men who constantly complain about how over worked they are. And true, they pretty much came out of nowhere, fell from a rock and roll heaven some might say, but these scruffy haired, underground rockers have been “working hard, man” according to Mr. Casablancas and it damn well shows in their music. Not only have they been hardcore music fans since very early on (Valensi picked up his first guitar at age 5…I was watching Fraggle Rock five times a day when I was 5), spending they’re teenage years “being dorks, hanging out in our rooms listening to Nirvana and Pearl Jam” (wow me too this time) according Valensi, and before they were even making audiences of 40 loins quiver they’d been banging out tunes since ’98 just trying to make good music and be a good band. So not deserving? My arse not deserving, I’ll give them not deserving, not deserving!? Nuts to that I say! But enough ranting, you get the idea: they’re very deserving.
Yet, some people still can’t get no satisfaction. Anyone who says that every song The Strokes have released sounds the same, I would have no hesitation in thrusting Is This It into their stereo. These dudes have probably heard the hype buzzing around the Strokes and thought “that’s what they said about At the Drive In” and moved on. I’d tell them to play the fast-paced, aggressive NYC Cops after listening to Is this it? I say play Alone, Together after listening to Soma, Someday after lending an ear to Take it or Leave it, The Modern Age after indulging in Last Nite. I say listen to Hard to Explain and then tell me those guitar riffs weren't pounding away, bringing you to rock and roll orgasm, only to be cut short of climax finishing with the breathy and abrupt words; "It's hard to explain...". I say listen to New York City Cops and try to deny that you weren’t head banging during the chorus and that you didn't feel the urge to scrunch up your shoulders and use pointed fingers as drumsticks after "Nina's in the bedroom..." sang out of your stereo. I say press play to songs Barely legal and Take it or Leave it and try to tell me you weren’t wailing on your air guitar like a muso posessed and doing your best Joey Ramone impersonation. Do that and then tell me you're not itching for more. And anyone who says they’re spoilt snotty rich kids who are all gay, I say fuck it they make damn good music. |
