Am I stupid for still liking the Strokes?

The Strokes' music = fun and inoffensive

The Strokes' influence on the music scene in general = pure fucking evil.

Listen to what you like obv (dull I know)

De gustibus non est, y'all.

The Strokes are to the Velvet Underground what Oasis are to the Beatles. Except, erm, Julian is better looking than Liam. (Not saying much, eh?)

However ... now that the hype has died down and the NME is shagging the Vines and the Libertines behind the Strokes' backs, it is far less embarrassing to admit it. So ...

(Hey, I was a year ahead of time on the backlash, hating them in January 2001, so I can be a year ahead on the "aw, they weren't so bad... wait, yes they were")

I can look at them with perspective now, which I was unable to do a year ago. OK, I *WILL* dig out those demos tonight befoer I go to Mother. They are a passably shit garage/velvets tribute band with a chromosomally gifted lead singer. This does not = THE SAVIOURS OF ROCK N ROLL but then again, we'll see if the vitriol was unjustified or not. Yes, a great deal of the vitriol was jealousy, but now that every other band I ever knew/was in/fucked on the Lower East Side now has a major label contract of their own, maybe they served their purpose, which might have been to attract attention to something which was otherwise ignored underservedly.

But we shall see. Give us another white russian or two.

I mean, what have they done for me, lately?

They pre-digested music for me, but babyfed me the things I would later grow to love in life (tonight, I am mainly listening to the Crystals and the VU, thanks, Mary Chain) ... am I stupid for holding on to my love?

Though Bobby G's ass is still skinnier than Julian's...

Kate: No, you'd only be stupid for loving the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

I don't like em much, but jeez, you're not exactly on your own in thinking they're good. I don't see how anyone could be stupid for liking something (although I do realise the question was made more or less in jest), but it's not even like you're on your own.

Callum is now my new hero. Let's find them and kill them, friend.

Crap like this is why I left the lower east side, too much progwank masqueradign as punk. If you had any real balls, you would taken the one riff and just strangled it. play your good riff for two minutes, call taht a single, and dispense with the rest of the album.

Next song:

"I spent the money that I saved up..." BWAH HAH HAH HAH HAH. I am writing a song tomorrow called trustifarian blues, yes I am. I can't take this shit seriously.

There is nothing to discern this song frmo a thousand crap demos of crap bands looking for bassists between 1994 and 2000andwhenever. Why did you pick this band? Why? Why? Sure, he's cute, but he's not THAT cute. Was he some big league record label dude's fag in finishing school in Switzerland? This is totally unineresting.

OK, sorry. It's been fun, but I think my crush is over. Back to passionless and bored and depressed. Where are my white russians?

So though they might be crap, the fact that they bought the New Dynasty Six or the Phabulous Pallbearers or the Creatures Of The Goldern Dawn supper for a night or two makes me happy on a level that their music never can.

(I'd still fuck Julian C in a heartbeat, though. So long as I got to cellotape his mouth shut and put on Nuggets instead...)

It's groovy now. YeeaaaaHHH!!! Let's take a trip... it's underground... whooaaa! YEAH!! let's take a trip... it's really hip! No one will know... what goes on... just you and me... and the dreams we see... oh COME ON!!!

i'm guessing that's arlene's grocery, a mini-mart-turned-club in nyc.

I do think the Strokes new video is funny though, because it's basically just them saying, "Hey, hey, look at this, we're smoking, and drinking... and here's Guided By Voices... give us cred, c'mon! Pretty please? We're hip and from New York. Man I want cred"

And, however generic and contrived they may be, just remember to tell yourself... at least you don't like the Vines. At least you dont like the Vines.

It's just a regular rock club. It used to be a bodega. The signage still looks bodega-ish.

It's "Arlene Grocery" -- no possessive.

acually, maybe it's just straightforward snobbery that makes people hate them. Whatever.

The Strokes are a Really Good Band, with great songs etc. However, I was just listening to them and thought of The Smoking Popes - "I Need You Around" and the similarities dawned on me: angular propulsive rock, with excellent melodies sung by a crooner through a megaphone (that's more specifically Strokes, but).

Kate, a love of The Jesus and Mary Chain is essential and hardly sad at all. Clearly, The Strokes owe quite a bit to the more uptempo tracks on Darklands ("Happy When It Rains", "April Skies", "Cherry Came Too"). - Also, what should I listen to by The Crystals???

Anthony, this "Beautiful caffeinated pop that plays like New Order meets Pavement or something" is one of the truest statements ever to appear discussing this band.

And yes, let's hunt down BRMC and shove some tunes down their sorry throats.

Consensus is building!

the rest of this is just fucking abysmal.

Also it's sort of in response to kate's "OMG JULIAN FUCKED ME IN A DREAM! TIME TO GET DRUNK!" thread of hateful excess.

give jess a cookie.

you know, i don't even know if i even like the strokes anymore! i probably haven't listened to the record in almost a year! strokes = pop, qed!

haha, i noe rite!

The existence of this completely justifies the existence of this thread. Funniest. Diss. Ever.

I read back my drunken review and you know what? I still stand by it. In Vino Veritas.

(BTW does "Boys Of Summer" (Henley not Sammy) have the same drumbeat as 'Hard To Explain' LP-version. Hats off to the Strokes if it does.)