the strokes

I've got nothing to say, I've got nothing to say I've got nothing to say, I've got nothing to say I've got nothing to say, I've got nothing to say I've got nothing to say, I'm in utter dismay, I've got nothing to say

I actually used to hate The Strokes. As a child of the 2000s, I felt like Last Nite was overplayed and constantly confused Julian Casablancas with Franz Ferdinand (who is a band, not a guy, but I didn't realize that at age 9). I knew next to nothing about the band but held firm for so many years that they sucked.

In college, my first big mixing project was for a student who LOVED The Strokes, and wanted me to produce a song in their style. I remember listening to a few songs and telling him that they all sound like they've been mixed inside a tiny box and that I could barely hear anything. Like it was one big musical blob. And to be fair, their first album may as well have been recorded in a box, because the reality wasn't too far off.

Flash forward to 2024, I'm starting to get into this guy J.W. Francis's music. Specifically the song Swooning. I'm playing it on repeat while I'm learning to sew, cleaning the apartment, etc... and when I finally get tired of it, I use it to start a Spotify radio station and find some stuff that kind of sounds like it. That's when I hear the song "Ask Me Anything" for the first time. And omg. I'm floored.

My first thought is, "Is this Muse? Or Devotchka?" and it turns out it's neither. It's The Strokes! It's Julian Casablancas.

I love that song immediately. The only instrument is what sounds like a string patch on a mellotron. And Julian's vocals overtop. And that's all I needed to dive headfirst into The Strokes discography.

Throughout the next few months I did a full listen-through of each album, collecting the ones I liked the most (and noting the ones I liked the least.) It was funny because I tended to prefer the more mellow tracks early on, like Life is Simple in the Moonlight, and Selfless. My girlfriend found it really funny, because she'd been a Strokes fan, or at least more amiable towards their music than me, for many years. And when I showed her the tracks I liked the most, they were basically opposite of her faves.

A pattern emerged though, where the songs I initially didn't like all seemed to have these 8-16 bar intros before they got good. Once I realized this I made an effort to revisit the tracks that I'd been avoiding and see them through again. As a result, songs like Juicebox, Razorblade, and Reptilia became some of my favorites.

After the 2024 Election of Donald Trump, I really immersed myself in Strokes lore. It was a salve to my anxieties, and Julian's solo work too from 2009 felt especially timely. The lyrics to 11th Dimension floated in my head like a screensaver. My knowledge of the band at this point turned towards para-social. Which is a risky yet fun place to be.

Anyway now it's 2026 (as I am initially putting together this page) and I'm going to SEE THEM LIVE! FOR THE FIRST TIME! THIS SUMMER!!!

Note: Do you have more links? Send them to me please!