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Crate Digging Dialectic, Record Dialectic

THE STROKES – Is This It (Pts 1-2)

Posted by sarahlouisebee ⋅ October 25, 2011 ⋅ Leave a comment

Filed Under Is This It, Marites Velasquez, napster, The Strokes, the year 2001, Zach Evans

Here at AudioVole, we hope that one of the discs taking up residence in your old Case Logic CD book is The Strokes’ first studio album Is This It. Let’s go crate-digging and revisit the year 2001 with Zach Evans and Marites Velasquez as they dissect and celebrate the 10th anniversary of Is This It.

The Strokes – “Last Nite”

From: Zach Evans
To: Marites Velasquez

Marites,

If there is any album worthy of an Audiovole Crate Digging dialectic, it is The Strokes’ 2001 debut Is This It. I have long held that this album is the single most important album in rock music in the last decade. With 36 minutes of spare, catchy tunes, The Strokes sparked a radical shift in the direction of mainstream rock, away from rap-rock and nu-metal and toward what would eventually become indie rock.

In this golden age of music it can be difficult to remember just how bad music lovers had it a decade ago, so let’s jump in our time machine and turn the clock back to the year 2001. The only way for most people to discover new music was by listening to radio stations or sharing CDs with friends. Napster had given us a peek at the power of the still-young internet to introduce us to new bands, but that site was shut down in the summer. And the state of rock and roll was dire. Most of the alternative rock (such a funny term) giants of the ‘90s had broken up or faded into obscurity. What were we left with in their place? I checked the Billboard rock charts from 2001 as a reminder and it hurts me just to type these band names: Godsmack, Staind, Linkin Park, Fuel, Incubus. All of it horrible, angst-ridden, overproduced crap. It was utterly joyless to listen to and it was inescapable.

Autumn, 2001: my friend Tina meets me in a coffee shop on State Street in Ann Arbor. Marites, I don’t know if you have ever had one of those friends who just seems to know about all the best bands months or years before everyone else, but that’s who Tina was. She asks if I’ve ever heard of this band called The Strokes and, of course, I haven’t because their album isn’t even out yet. She pulls out a Sony Discman, pops in a CD single for “Hard to Explain,” hits play…

And my mind is BLOWN.

I’m a pretty calm guy, but I seriously freaked out as I listened to two tracks by The Strokes in that coffee shop. It was like the clouds parting and a ray of sunlight coming down from the heavens after years of living in nu-metal darkness. “Hard to Explain” was unlike anything else on the radio at the time with its low-fi production, melodic guitar lines intertwined with steady drumming, and Julian Casablancas’ distorted vocals. Most importantly, it was fun to listen to!

It wasn’t long until their single “Last Nite” became a huge hit, reaching 5 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart in the US. Millions of people around the country were turning on their radios and instead of hearing Linkin Park crying “everything you say to me takes me one step closer to the edge and I’m about to break,” they heard Casablancas singing “last night, she said: ‘Oh, baby, I feel so down. Oh it turns me off, when I feel left out.’”

Is This It was beloved by critics but ,perhaps more importantly, it was a commercial success. It showed Clear Channel and the handful of other companies that decided what went on the radio that we craved something new. The floodgates opened and bands like The Vines and The White Stripes became nationally known. They were all on major labels (because back then we wouldn’t have ever heard of them if they weren’t), but they laid the groundwork for what we now call indie rock.

So that’s my personal history with Is This It. Obviously it was important to me at the time, but how has the album held up over the years? Is it like when your parents talk about how groundbreaking a Dylan album was and you listen to it and just don’t get what they’re talking about? I’m dying to know not only your history with this album, but what you think about it as you listen to it today. And I hear you are a musician yourself, so I’m sure you bring an entirely different perspective.

“In spaceships, they won’t understand,”
Zach

The Strokes – “Someday”

From: Marites Velasquez
To: Zach Evans

Hi Zach,

You’re right. We’re talking about an album that’s been around for 10 years and I can’t help but put it in context: culturally, musically, and personally.

Yeah, yeah… I get that it was the “critics’ darling” upon its debut – this album was the turning point that made “indie rock” hip and mainstream. Suddenly everyone wanted to be The Strokes or with them or around them: Drew Barrymore dated the drummer. Julian Casablancas has a name that Brandon Flowers is probably kicking himself for not thinking of first. (I swear when I first saw the Killers’ logo, I thought I had seen a similar one for the Strokes before, but I could be wrong.) The new rock ‘n’ roll uniform was a blazer thrown together with a vintage t-shirt, skinny jeans, and dirty overgrown hair.

But what did I care? God, I was in high school when this album first came out. I was barely discovering music and how I identified with it. I’ve completely forgotten how inaccessible music was back then when we now have nifty gizmos like Spotify where we can listen to just about anything we desire upon command.

I didn’t have a friend like Tina to show me the light; before the Internet, I think most of the music I listened to came via random boys I had crushes on (I blame my stupid pop-punk phase on Brian Boehme). So I only first heard about The Strokes from a boy who was the lead guitarist of a local Vegas band I was a huge fan of. I promptly ran down to the only local record shop in town to buy Is This It so we had something to chat about, but luckily I ended up enjoying the album for what it is.

Where to begin? It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to this particular record (or anything by The Strokes, for that matter…I’ll admit, I haven’t cared enough yet to give Angles a whirl). As soon as “Last Nite” plays, I immediately flashback to those nights where the only place you could find a good indie-rock dance party was at a house full of 19-year-olds that would often get shut down by the cops around 1 A.M. Those were the days! The music plays perfectly to the emotions of that time: fun and breezy, fresh and easy to get lost in.

But that’s my only criticism. It’s a little too easy for my mind to drift while this album plays and then later on I think “didn’t I just hear this song?” As a whole piece, Is This It stands out on its own. No doubt about that. But when I think about the individual tracks, I was never able to tell one song from the next. It’s actually all the little riffs and melodies that stick out for me. When I listen to music, I listen for what inspires me to play. I’m a sucker for catchy pop hooks and I think those little gems throughout Is This It help make some of the moments on the album timeless.

For example…

“Is This It” – I love the bass line, how it dances up during the verses as Casablancas’ melody lazily swings back and forth over it.

“Soma” – The lead guitar riffs, they have this magic of taking something so simple and repetitive but making it stick in a way that’s pleasant; catchy but not annoying. And the pause in the vocal melody when Casablancas sings “stop… and go” while the rest of the instruments keep playing (no clichéd musical rest here).

“Barely Legal” – I love the bridge, how the melody does a breakdown of something similar to a sock hop. Very 50s. It’s brief and I want it go on, but it’s short enough to leave something to be desired.

“Alone, Together” – The guitar solo. This is one of the moments on the album where it cuts loose and has so much attitude and freedom.

“Last Nite” – The shuffle drum beat. Timeless.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. It’s funny because before doing this, I’d only casually listened to the album so I don’t know if I could personally call it the “single most important rock album in the last decade.” You talk a lot about context but what is it about Is This It that stands out to you musically enough to claim such a title–particularly next to all of the other indie rock albums released over the last ten years? What if we took away release dates and left you with this pile of the last ten years in indie rock records? Does Is This It maintain it’s “most important” label?

“And for the record, it’s between you and I,”
Marites

P.S. What do you mean “dire”? I loved Staind and Godsmack when I was 16…

Just kidding.

The Strokes – “Barely Legal”

From: Zach Evans
To: Marites Velasquez

Marites,

I think you definitely hit on something when you say that Is This It is an album of memorable moments rather than memorable songs (with the obvious exception of “Last Nite”). As I’ve been re-listening to the album this week, my notes are all about the little things that jump out from each track and tickle my eardrums for a fleeting moment.

In “The Modern Age,” Julian Casablancas’ bluesy snarl as he sings “don’t want you here right now, let me go” – followed by a high pitched “oooo!” worthy of James Brown – gives me shivers. The bouncy bass line in the first track, “Is This It,” makes me want to pull my Ibanez Roadstar II out from under my bed and start playing again. In “Take It Or Leave It” and a few other songs on the album, a clean guitar line mirrors the heavily distorted vocal line, reversing the usual levels of distortion that we might expect in rock music. These moments add up to an album that I still genuinely enjoy listening to. While a significant amount of music that I purchased in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s is difficult to listen to now because it sounds dated, that is not the case for Is This It which has a very classic sound.

But, as you asked, are a wealth of little musical hooks enough to elevate this album to the level of “most important rock album in the last decade” if we ignore the historical context? To be honest, if you asked me to make a list of the best rock albums of the last decade, I’m not certain this would make it into my top 50. It’s a good listen and it has held up well over the years, but a sound that seemed almost revolutionary back in 2001 seems pretty tame in the exploding, eclectic indie rock scene of today.

So perhaps this album was more important for what it did than what it was. It’s telling that The Strokes weren’t ever able capitalize on their success in later albums, even Room On Fire, which ripped off their own sound a year after every other band had. But even if the general public has long since forgotten about The Strokes, I suspect that crate-digging young musicians of the future will pull out Is This It and find the same sort of joy in listening to it that we once did.

“Tables, they turn sometimes.”
Zach

Real Estate – “Barely Legal (The Strokes Cover)”

From: Marites Velasquez
To: Zach Evans

Hi Zach,

Yeah, that just about sums it up. Genre defining? Yes. It set the stage for bands to come. Best of the decade? Depends. You hit the nail on the head for saying that perhaps it was “more important for what it did than what it was.” It’ll be interesting to see what album or band out now will define the next ten years.

“I say the right things, but act the wrong way,”
Marites

Get Is This It already!
Insound Vinyl | Amazon

Peter Bjorn & John – “Is This It (The Strokes Cover)”