Travis didn't just like The Strokes, he adored them. He immediately wanted to release 'The Modern Age' as an EP, but only without re-recording, over-dubbing or, indeed, any tampering with whatsoever. That EP, which many of you now own and love, is arguably the most famous demo tape of the 21st century to date. It also led to the band's new fabled club tour of the UK.
A few cover stories and a whirlwind of fevered hype later and every single date sold out faster than you could say, 'Kate Moss. Plus one please." Of course, at one leve, this was a well-worn story we'd all heard ad nauseam. "The next big thing". "The sound of the future." And of course, "the saviours of rock'n'roll". The reality was that, at that moment, The Strokes were just another band with three good songs. Big deal. However, coincidentally, they had a few more gems up their sleeves.
The first two were 'Hard To Explain' and 'New York City Cops'. arguably the two finest Strokes' moments to date. They toured Europe again in summer 2001 for their second release and dropped round our way for their debut Irish performance with fellow New Yorkers and Rough Trade label mates The Moldy Peaches. To be brutally frank, it was a rather dull show with some fine moments. No more, no less. But then came Is This It.
Part Two: New York City Debutantes
"He knows it's justified to kill to survive/He then in dollars makes more dead than alive/Let's suck more blood, let's run three hours a day/The world is over but I don't care..'Cos I am with you/Now I've got to explain/Things, they have changed, in such a permanent way..." - 'Alone, Together'
In June 2001, I asked The Strokes what their imminent and then untitled album sounded like and how it related to 'The Modern Age' release. Fab Moretti replied; "It's easy for people to jump to the wrong conclusions when they've only heard one three song EP. While we are appreciative of some of the comments we have been given, it is not the full picture. Hopefully, when the album comes out people will realise that it's not just some New York thing and that it is a lot more universal than that."
In fact, the album struck a massive emotiona pwoer chord worldwide. Immediately upon release in Ireland and the UK, Is This It went straight into the top tens at numbers four and two respectively. The packaging also caused some minor controversy due to its stark cover image of a bare behind and a black glove. Some rumoured this shapely rear belonged to one of the band. Others thought it was a homage to Spinal Tap's 'Smell The Glove'. In reality, it was just a classic raunchy visual with a far humbler origin.
"The cover picture was taken by the same guy who had taken the pictures for the inside cover (Colin Lane)," explains Moretti, eager to clear up the confusion. "It was just a photograph he took of his girlfriend, so it was really, really nice of him to let us use it."
Is This It was only 36 minutes long with absolutely no fillers or interludes. Hence, it functions as the perfect album to put on while getting ready to go out. Packed with buzzing riffs, it showcased a very welcome bias towards brevity, of a mind not mastered by an alternative breakthrough act since the Pixies. Every song also contained a clutch of killer lines. "See, alone we stand, together we fall apart/Yeah, I think I'll be alright" ('Someday'). "Flying overseas, no time to feel the breeze/I took too many varieties" ('The Modern Age') "I say the right things but act the wrong way," ('Hard To Explain') "Girls lie too much/Boys act too rough/Enough is enough!" ('Take It Or Leave It').
You could argue the toss about its derivative nods to the Velvet Underground and retro-riffing a go go, but this was pure, perfectly executed power pop at it's very finest. Is This It was produced by Gordon Raphael, a producer for over twenty years who once toured as a keyboardist with The Psychedelic Furs. His basement studio, called Transporter Raum, was situated off Avenue A in Manhattan.
"We had a chance of recording in a couple of places, but we always went back to Gordon just because those specific songs asked for that kind of production," explains Fab Moretti. "I really love the way Gordon and The Strokes do their thing. We're a good team. He doesn't have an ego. We are so incredibly lucky in that I think that all the people we have worked with, including Gordon, have let us happen.
"Rough Trade to us is a bunch of friends that can envisage the same sort of final product, which needs to be untainted and pure and true. They are just these amazing guys that understand that we have a very specific way of working and that we love to give ourselves to the music and not hold anything back or do anything that in any way compromises our integrity."
Albert Hammond Junior firmly believes that as accomplished as their debut is, it could be bettered.
"It was the first time we went into a studio for an abum, so we were just trying our best. A studio is such a weird place. You're playing music and you're trying to capture it onto a tape that is going to last forever which you can't change. I feel like we will experiment more when we're more experienced. When we're better players, we'll have more knowledge of the actual buttons. I also think we might be able to work faster."
Fab Moretti is even blunter. "I think what we've done isn't much yet," he stresses. "Hopefully, we'll have a future ahead of us. I know we are not the best band we can possibly be. We all have to work harder. The moment we start thinking we are the best band on the block is the very moment that we pigeonhole ourselves and fuck up.
"If anything, we've just opened a door," he continues. "And I'm trying to speak humbly and not claim to have done incredible things. But at least now the press and the entertainment industry is starting to notice us and bands like The White Stripes and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. There is integrity in music that has to be upheld. It's not just fun and games and entertainment. I think it had been realised a little bit more that if you are true to that and if you don't try to fuck it up, you can get into those charts without ever having to put yourself through the mud."
Part Three: Is That It?
"Even if half-mad he is absorbed into the public's total madness; even if fully rational, a bureaucrat in hell, a secret genius of survival, he is sure to be destroyed by the public's contempt for survivors." - from Great Jones Street by Don DeLillo
It's hardly surprising that The Strokes have been recently and suddenly been on the receiving end of a backlash. It's the traditional fate of bands who are lauded early on, invariably and ironically, by some of the same people who then rush to do them down. But also by those who see the hype and miss the substance.