Was anyone cooler than The Strokes in the beginning of the millennium? They were everywhere after the fall of 2001... the biggest story out of New York in a post-9/11 America. They brought back a stripped-down street style to music back then. Suddenly there were tons of leather-jacketed chain smokin' hoodlums in their wake, but no one put out anything quite as good as The Strokes' debut "Is this It?"It always makes me laugh that the guys in the band look like they worked in some Queens pizza parlor in their off time. They come off like the blue-collar sons of a bunch of Italian immigrants and even have surnames like Casablancas, Valensi, and Moretti. What's funny is the actual pedigree The Strokes brought to the table. Julian Casablancas was the son of mega-successful fashion icon John Casablancas, the founder of Elite Modeling Agency. Guitarist Albert Hammond Jr's father is an extremely successful musician and recording artist. The Strokes were no joke when it came to connections.
"Hard to Explain" is my favorite song of that first record. It showcases some of the signature elements of The Strokes' music: the simple frenetic rhythm guitar inter-played off the melody of the lead, Casablancas vocals which sound like they're sung through a paper cup, and drumming that seems just a little bit electronic. The best part of the song is without a doubt the chorus. I love the great beat of the melody of "I missed the last bus, I'll take the next train. I try but you see, it's hard to explain." I often tell my young poetry students that the best way to keep a beat is to use single-syllable words. Casablancas does that all over this song to wonderful effect. I also love when everything comes to a dead-stop in the middle of the tune, right after the line "You're right, it's true." As I've noted several times, that's always something I like in a song.
"Hard to Explain" is from the album "Is This It?" To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.
I think people tend to forget the Internation Noise Conspiracy when they think of the the bands that came out of England at this time period. The Jets, INC, the Strokes and the Killers all came out around the same time and all had this killer pace to their songs. Personally I think the Killers have had the best run. My favorite song of theirs hands down is All These Things That I've Done. If you wanna learn about INC check out The Reproduction of Death. Great stuff!
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