www.thestrokes.com
Well-to-do, good-looking children of celebrities carry a particular
burden. They may be privileged and talented, but sometimes have to work twice
as hard to prove they’re not coattail-riding. Luckily, Strokes’ singer-songwriter
Julian Casablancas, son of Elite Model Agency founder John Casablancas, guitarist
Albert Hammond Jr., son of hit-spinning singer-songwriter/producer Albert Hammond,
and Casablancas’ prep-school pals Nick Valensi, Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio
Moretti, didn’t have to sweat it. They managed to generate massive buzz even
before they released their first EP, The Modern Age, in 2001. RCA
won the bidding war, and released Is This It later that year; Britain’s NME declared
it the album of the decade.
Featuring garage-rock-influenced pop that bears comfortable comparisons to Spoon
(and frequently, Television), the Strokes rode their popularity with serious
touring, including opening for the Rolling Stones. Their recorded output has
not been as frequent, however. Two years after their debut, they released Room
on Fire, full of synths, hand-claps and what All Music Guide reviewer
Heather Phares called “stealth pop.” Both Fire and its 2006 follow-up, First
Impressions of Earth, reached No. 4 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart,
but the Strokes frenzy had calmed significantly by the latter’s release. Members
announced a hiatus and began working on solo projects, but reconvened in 2009
to start working on an album for 2010 release. They began recording with producer
Joe Chiccarelli (Beck, U2) and expect it to drop in September.
