OMEN
06-18-2006, 10:10 AM
Lock up your wives, mothers, girlfriends, sisters and daughters - The Strokes are returning to New Zealand, writes Grant Smithies.
The last time New York band The Strokes played here, at the 2005 Big Day Out, there was endless over-excited blather about their peerless sense of style, their ice cool looks, their white hot riffs. It was as if these five skinny hipsters had dropped from the skies with the express purpose of demonstrating how terminally uncool the local male population was. The Strokes had perfect cheekbones, perma-pouting lips, unruly hair, skinny-arse jeans, vintage pinstripe jackets, Cuban heels, and not an ounce of fat. The local blokes had oversized skater-boy shorts, bad sunglasses, fast-food pukus and no appreciation of the loose-limbed swagger as a form of perambulation. No wonder we were comprehensively upstaged by these gangly Yanks.
And they're coming back to do it again in August, this time at Auckland's St James Theatre. Bassist Nikolai Fraiture is looking forward to it. "Sure. I like Auckland, man," he says. "Last time we were there, we stayed next to a park. We went for a walk around Auckland at night and people tried to get us drunk. It was cool."
Really? Are you talking about the same Auckland I know? The one with five good bars and three decent rock`n'roll venues? "Well, you know, it wasn't Manhattan, but I liked it."
Manhattan is where Fraiture is sitting as we talk, in his apartment, at night. His wife and baby are asleep, and he's peering over the suitably bohemian streets of the West Village. "There's a mix of gays and artists living here, and a few other pretty eccentric people. It's never boring around here. I really like it."
Aside from the fact they're unusually pretty young men, why should we care about The Strokes? Because their 2001 debut album Is This It? is a rock record of God-like genius, that's why. To listen to it is to fall in love. Drummer Fabrizio Morreti and bassist Fraiture lay down a cracking backbeat, singer Julian Casablancas sounds even more jaded than Lou Reed, his lines collapsing into a tangled slur as if the words are mating in his mouth, and guitarists Albert Hammond Jr and Nick Valensi chop out electrifying little riffs that recall Television, The Fall, Buddy Holly and The Who. It's easy to see why British mag NME declared this band the future of rock`n'roll, though this music is really the past of rock`n'roll, revitalised with flair.
Within months of the album's release, The Strokes were packing out huge venues in Europe and playing gigs with the White Stripes and the Rolling Stones. "Sudden fame is great, but the drawback is that unless you're disciplined, you can easily lose your mind," says Fraiture, cryptically.
When I suggest that he's talking about the usual rock`n'roll cocktail of drink, drugs, fatigue and fast women, he doesn't disagree. "Let's just say that fame throws up crazy temptations, especially when you're all, like, 20. I'm amazed we've been able to get through all the changes and still be together and still be friends. And even still be alive!"
Such a rapid rise often generates a huge backlash, and so it was with The Strokes. The band's next two albums, 2003's Room on Fire and this year's First Impressions of Earth were widely seen as mediocre, though each has a handful of killer songs. Detractors claimed the band was a triumph of style over substance, more about haircuts and cheekbones than original songs.
"We started getting really negative emails saying, like, who are you paying to get in all these cool magazines? Are you guys fashion models or a real band? To me that's hilarious. Albert thinks a lot about his personal style, and Nick too, but the rest of us just roll out of bed, put on the first T-shirt we find and head out the door."
There were also mutterings they were fakes situating their songs in the seedier areas of the Lower East Side, when they were filthy rich prep school kids. In many ways, it was true. Casablancas is the son of Elite modelling agency boss John Casablancas. He met Valensi and Moretti at Manhattan's Dwight preparatory school, while Fraiture was attending the Upper East Side's posh Lycee Francaise. Albert Hammond Jr is from Los Angeles, the son of 70s' singer/songwriter Albert Hammond, and had met Casablancas at summer school in Switzerland when they were kids.
"Julian and Albert grew up rich, for sure, but the rest of us didn't. I grew up in a two-room apartment, with six of us living there, and my dad had to work his arse off to send me to a good school. And besides, who says you have to grow up poor to make great rock`n'roll?"
Good call. Casablancas was certainly born to be a rock star. Handsome, gifted, troubled, he shuns many of the modern trappings (he has no computer, cellphone or watch), dresses in thrift store cool-boy chic, and wanders the New York streets, his eyes mopping up colour, his heart twinging with the pain that floats so close to its surface. He gets drunk as hell and does stupid things, punching label reps, pashing male reporters, then he goes home and writes lyrics that are mostly heavily sardonic or full of shrugging ennui. Sometimes they make little sense ("Don't be a coconut, God is trying to talk to you") and other times they're pop song perfect ("You're the prettiest smartest captain of the team, I love you more than being 17").
Fraiture has known Casablancas since they were six-year-olds. "I love Julian. People portray him as a moody drunk, and he often is, but he also spends a lot of time being happy and sober. Actually, we all have very different personalities. Fabrizio is the crazy joker who's always happy, and very much in love (with actress Drew Barrymore). Albert is the serious fashionista with the afro. I'm the shy bass-player guy. Nick is the other designer-threads guy, and Julian is the guy I used to sit around with, listening to Velvet Underground and Blondie records, when we were kids. We're all good friends, even after all the madness.
"People can say what they like about The Strokes, but the truth is, we're pretty special."
# The Strokes play Auckland's St James on Tuesday, August 1. Tickets on sale from Friday, June 23 from Ticket Direct or Real Groovy Records.
http://stuff.co.nz/inl/images/masthead/sst.gif
The last time New York band The Strokes played here, at the 2005 Big Day Out, there was endless over-excited blather about their peerless sense of style, their ice cool looks, their white hot riffs. It was as if these five skinny hipsters had dropped from the skies with the express purpose of demonstrating how terminally uncool the local male population was. The Strokes had perfect cheekbones, perma-pouting lips, unruly hair, skinny-arse jeans, vintage pinstripe jackets, Cuban heels, and not an ounce of fat. The local blokes had oversized skater-boy shorts, bad sunglasses, fast-food pukus and no appreciation of the loose-limbed swagger as a form of perambulation. No wonder we were comprehensively upstaged by these gangly Yanks.
And they're coming back to do it again in August, this time at Auckland's St James Theatre. Bassist Nikolai Fraiture is looking forward to it. "Sure. I like Auckland, man," he says. "Last time we were there, we stayed next to a park. We went for a walk around Auckland at night and people tried to get us drunk. It was cool."
Really? Are you talking about the same Auckland I know? The one with five good bars and three decent rock`n'roll venues? "Well, you know, it wasn't Manhattan, but I liked it."
Manhattan is where Fraiture is sitting as we talk, in his apartment, at night. His wife and baby are asleep, and he's peering over the suitably bohemian streets of the West Village. "There's a mix of gays and artists living here, and a few other pretty eccentric people. It's never boring around here. I really like it."
Aside from the fact they're unusually pretty young men, why should we care about The Strokes? Because their 2001 debut album Is This It? is a rock record of God-like genius, that's why. To listen to it is to fall in love. Drummer Fabrizio Morreti and bassist Fraiture lay down a cracking backbeat, singer Julian Casablancas sounds even more jaded than Lou Reed, his lines collapsing into a tangled slur as if the words are mating in his mouth, and guitarists Albert Hammond Jr and Nick Valensi chop out electrifying little riffs that recall Television, The Fall, Buddy Holly and The Who. It's easy to see why British mag NME declared this band the future of rock`n'roll, though this music is really the past of rock`n'roll, revitalised with flair.
Within months of the album's release, The Strokes were packing out huge venues in Europe and playing gigs with the White Stripes and the Rolling Stones. "Sudden fame is great, but the drawback is that unless you're disciplined, you can easily lose your mind," says Fraiture, cryptically.
When I suggest that he's talking about the usual rock`n'roll cocktail of drink, drugs, fatigue and fast women, he doesn't disagree. "Let's just say that fame throws up crazy temptations, especially when you're all, like, 20. I'm amazed we've been able to get through all the changes and still be together and still be friends. And even still be alive!"
Such a rapid rise often generates a huge backlash, and so it was with The Strokes. The band's next two albums, 2003's Room on Fire and this year's First Impressions of Earth were widely seen as mediocre, though each has a handful of killer songs. Detractors claimed the band was a triumph of style over substance, more about haircuts and cheekbones than original songs.
"We started getting really negative emails saying, like, who are you paying to get in all these cool magazines? Are you guys fashion models or a real band? To me that's hilarious. Albert thinks a lot about his personal style, and Nick too, but the rest of us just roll out of bed, put on the first T-shirt we find and head out the door."
There were also mutterings they were fakes situating their songs in the seedier areas of the Lower East Side, when they were filthy rich prep school kids. In many ways, it was true. Casablancas is the son of Elite modelling agency boss John Casablancas. He met Valensi and Moretti at Manhattan's Dwight preparatory school, while Fraiture was attending the Upper East Side's posh Lycee Francaise. Albert Hammond Jr is from Los Angeles, the son of 70s' singer/songwriter Albert Hammond, and had met Casablancas at summer school in Switzerland when they were kids.
"Julian and Albert grew up rich, for sure, but the rest of us didn't. I grew up in a two-room apartment, with six of us living there, and my dad had to work his arse off to send me to a good school. And besides, who says you have to grow up poor to make great rock`n'roll?"
Good call. Casablancas was certainly born to be a rock star. Handsome, gifted, troubled, he shuns many of the modern trappings (he has no computer, cellphone or watch), dresses in thrift store cool-boy chic, and wanders the New York streets, his eyes mopping up colour, his heart twinging with the pain that floats so close to its surface. He gets drunk as hell and does stupid things, punching label reps, pashing male reporters, then he goes home and writes lyrics that are mostly heavily sardonic or full of shrugging ennui. Sometimes they make little sense ("Don't be a coconut, God is trying to talk to you") and other times they're pop song perfect ("You're the prettiest smartest captain of the team, I love you more than being 17").
Fraiture has known Casablancas since they were six-year-olds. "I love Julian. People portray him as a moody drunk, and he often is, but he also spends a lot of time being happy and sober. Actually, we all have very different personalities. Fabrizio is the crazy joker who's always happy, and very much in love (with actress Drew Barrymore). Albert is the serious fashionista with the afro. I'm the shy bass-player guy. Nick is the other designer-threads guy, and Julian is the guy I used to sit around with, listening to Velvet Underground and Blondie records, when we were kids. We're all good friends, even after all the madness.
"People can say what they like about The Strokes, but the truth is, we're pretty special."
# The Strokes play Auckland's St James on Tuesday, August 1. Tickets on sale from Friday, June 23 from Ticket Direct or Real Groovy Records.
http://stuff.co.nz/inl/images/masthead/sst.gif