Not an ounce of fat: The Strokes’ “Is This It”
New York City, 2001
The Strokes
„Is This It“
(Rough Trade Records)
Julian Casablancas’ endlessly drawn-out laconicism, Albert Hammond Jr. and Nick Valensi’s trademark Strokes guitars, which have since been copied thousands of times, Fabrizio Moretti’s machine drums, and finally Nikolai Fraiture, who seemed to confirm every bassist cliché, always appearing to be on the sidelines in photos, videos, and concerts, but in reality laying a foundation on which the others could spread their ludicrously interlocking minimalisms in the most wonderful way: Today, long after the hype, after the many Strokes epigones of the so-called indie rock years in the noughties, and after the clear Strokes references in current bands such as Fontaines D.C. or Idles, when you put on that amazing record that is and was the Strokes’ debut “Is This It” again, everything immediately comes back. This music, which already sounded old to many at the time, often described as a copy of either Velvet Underground, Television, or Richard Hell and the Voidoids, but in reality reflected the zeitgeist on the eve of September 11 like no other, has proven to be completely timeless.
It was Julian Casablancas who came up with these songs, down to the last harmonies, beats, and structures, and then took the demo tape of his band The Strokes, which was created on this basis, to producer Gordon Raphael in his basement studio in the East Village. Julian had precise ideas, he often said later, and the songs that became “Is This It” were finished from start to finish, with Casablancas also specifying the desired sound aesthetic. Raphael himself only had to press the record button.
Rock ‘n’ roll was dead again at the time, buried with Cobain. The new decade didn’t seem to have a sound yet, with innovation mainly coming from electronic music. Pop, hip hop, and rock were dominated by late offshoots of the nineties. The Strokes simply crashed into this mélange. Songs like “The Modern Age,” “Hard to Explain,” and “Someday” echoed the hangover after the hedonism of the nineties, the disorientation of those born in the late seventies, who were always described as apolitical, who were too young for Generation X and too old for Generation Y, and thus always fell between two stools. In this respect, “Is This It” was not least an elegantly noisy “We are here now.”
Der Autor & Julian Casablanca
Of course, they still became “the rock band of the millennials.” “Last Nite” and “New York City Cops” became anthems for this generation and a blueprint for countless, similar-sounding, so-called indie rock bands. Because The Strokes were the perfect rock band in every respect—visually, musically, aesthetically—that one would have had to invent if they hadn’t been formed in the classic way from a group of friends, some of whom had known each other since early childhood. From today’s perspective, “Is This It” is so much more than just a reenactment of 1970s New York garage coolness; it is rather the most important rock album of the past 25 years. Thirty-five breathless minutes, the perfect album, not an ounce of fat.
It was a different New York, a different world. “Is This It” has weathered the storms of time and still shines like a mangy monolith.
