Crowbarred's Mellow Mix Volume 2: MM Vol 2 - 097

MM Vol 2 #097

The Strokes

"Hard To Explain"

(2001)

................Genre: Garage Rock...............

but this art @ KetyLilyRose

Garage Rock at the turn of the century was fastly gripping it's hooks into mainstream charts, however it is not the first time Garage Rock raised it's interesting head. Back in 1966, The Troggs released "Wild Thing" and even further back, 1963, The Kingsmen released "Louie Louie". 2 classic examples of Garage Rock in it's infancy, it just took another 40 years before it became popular again!

My country [NZ] has been helping this genre take off again with the likes of Betchadupa, D4, The Datsuns & Goodshirt, these artists you will have already seen here or are to come. Of the course the rest of the world has been busy producing some of their own with the likes of The Strokes, The Vines & Supergrass. A very strong powerhouse of bands indeed and as of 2009 the genre is still very much around.

But will it last much longer? I suspect not. And if it does i believe it will be an offshoot of it's own sound and called something completely else, maybe "Fused Carport Rock".

man, we can't even afford furniture!

Equally inspired by classic tunesmiths like Buddy Holly and John Lennon as well as the attitude and angular riffs of fellow New Yorkers Television and the Velvet Underground, the Strokes were also equally blessed and cursed with an enormous amount of hype -- particularly from the U.K. music press, whose adulation for the group rivaled their fervor for Oasis in the early '90s. Barely in their twenties by the time their debut album, Is This It, arrived in 2001, singer/songwriter Julian Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond, Jr., bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and drummer Fabrizio Moretti's success wasn't quite of the overnight variety, but it still arrived pretty swiftly. Casablancas officially christened the quintet the Strokes in 1999, and the group spent most of that year writing and rehearsing material in New York City's Music Building. They made their live debut that fall at the Spiral, and word of mouth about the Strokes' incendiary live show propelled them to gigs at venues like Under the Acme, Lower East Side clubs such as Arlene Grocery, Baby Jupiter, and Luna. The Strokes' December 2000 dates at the Mercury Lounge and the Bowery Ballroom not only gained them a manager (Ryan Gentles, who booked them at those clubs), but also helped Strokes mania reach critical mass in New York. Rough Trade released the group's three-song demo as The Modern Age EP in January 2001, which sparked a bidding war from which RCA emerged as the victors.

sorry, we tied your shoelaces!

Meanwhile, the Strokes' acclaim reached the U.K. and grew to massive proportions over the course of the year. NME quickly became their champions, profiling them several times that spring and summer as the Strokes' live act and singles like Hard to Explain (which debuted at number 16 in the U.K. charts) won them a rabid British following. That spring, the band also completed its first U.S. tour as the opening act for the Doves and proceeded to play dates with Guided by Voices and ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead in the U.S. and the U.K. The group's popularity continued to snowball in the U.K., with a side-stage slot at the NME Carling Weekender changed to a main-stage performance for fear of people trampling each other to see the band.

Eat this Dr Hook!

In late summer of that year, Rough Trade released Is This It with an album cover featuring a sexy, Helmut Newton-esque photo of a woman's nude behind and hip with a leather-gloved hand resting on it; the U.K. chains Woolworth's and HMV objected to its controversial nature. The U.S. version of Is This It was released in October and featured a few changes from the U.K. edition. The Strokes opted for an abstract pattern on the cover and removed the song "New York City Cops," feeling the song was inappropriate in the wake of the terrorist attacks that struck New York prior to the album's release; the planned B-side, "When It Started," took its place. The group closed out the fall with an extended tour of the U.S., culminating with a Halloween gig at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom. The remainder of 2001 and 2002 saw the group's profile continue to rise. Is This It and the Strokes were lauded in many ways, ranging from This Isn't It, an EP of instrumental versions of some of the album's songs performed by a mystery band called the Diff'rent Strokes (Pulp's Jarvis Cocker was rumored to be a member) to 2001 NME Carling Awards for Best New Act, Band of the Year, and Album of the Year. The band toured extensively throughout 2002, including a series of dates that summer in New York and Detroit with the White Stripes, summer festivals at Reading and Leeds, and a string of gigs supporting Weezer, some of which were canceled due to a leg injury Casablancas suffered. During these shows, their fall tour, and their dates opening for the Rolling Stones, the Strokes debuted some new songs, including "Meet Me in the Bathroom," "You Talk Way Too Much," and "The Way It Is." ~ [Heather Phares, All Music Guide]

For the Troggs see Def 1000 #602

For the Kingsmen see Def 1000 #584

For Betchadupa see MM Vol 2 #099

For the Datsuns see MM Vol 2 #098

For Supergrass see Def 1000 #898

For John Lennon see Def 1000 #492, #639

For Velvet Underground see Def 1000 #953

For Oasis see Def 1000 #574

For White Stripes see Def 1000 #675

For Weezer see Def 1000 #656

For Rolling Stones see Def 1000 #396, #689, #767

This song has a crowbarred rating of 59.7 out of 108 pts