FT Article Request: Strokes

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My tongue-in-cheek promise of a "Strokes special" is now metamorphosed into an honest-to-God Strokes special so if you've got anything interesting to say about the Strokes - particularly if you dont like them and have a fresh angle on why - and you fancy writing an article about them then do say so. Cheers.

― Tom, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

tom, i've emailed you already (again, that is: i know i emailed you a month or so about this.)

(let the canon destruction begin!)

― jess, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I've never heard anything by the Strokes. Am I qualified? I'm quite keen to write something about those two album sleeves, as I said elsewhere.

― Jeff W, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

People whove not heard anything by the Strokes are TOTALLY qualified!

― Tom, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Do you have to dislike them?

― fritz, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No not at all but we've got two articles which take a basically pro- Strokes line already, which is why I asked for some hatas so we dont just look like a fanzine.

― Tom, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Somebody (not necessarily me, I think) should write an article which has nothing to do with the music, simply about their fashion sense. Which is pretty damn poor, I have to say. I want robot gloss and they give me that.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Maybe hatas will be harder to find now that there's been a backlash against the initial backlash, but then again we're probably into round 3 already and people are back to hating them again.

― fritz, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

tom i can easily tailor my article the article in question as as to have the strokes come out the losers. (ah the joys of aesthetic relativism.)

― jess, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes. Bella Freud has it all wrong, they are ass in this respect. Speaking from a fash pov.

The music isn't really hateable. Not really loveable either though, I must say.

― Nicole, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

my article the article in question

i have no idea what this means, either.

― jess, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

And can someone tackle the MYTH that they are foxy?

― jamesmichaelward, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

can someone tackle the MYTH that they sound like The Velvet Underground, The Stooges or "Garage Rock"?

― fritz, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

already in the works, fritz. (although i'm slanting it in the strokes favor, so people may not like it.)

― jess, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh how the mighty are fallen.

― DG, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh how the Fall were mighty.

― fritz, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

although i'm slanting it in the strokes favor

Easiest way to do that would be to call it bar-band rock for the alt lifestyle. The pseudo-scruff of John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band for another aesthetic.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Re: The VU 'myth' - compare and contrast the singing on 'Head Held High' from 'Loaded' and the singing on 'The Modern Age' - it is v.v.v.v.v.v.v.v. similar. This is not a criticism, but it seems silly/tone deaf to deny the resemblance.

Actually the group they prob. sound most like is Richard Hell and The Voidoids; I have not heard a single Strokes track that sounds ANYTHING like the MC5. NB: This is prob. a good thing (Thee Hypnotics, heh.)

― Andrew L, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i think the bar band for alt. lifestyle is otm, though maybe not as cynically as you might be implying. what I like about the Strokes is they sound kinda anonymous and generic with the same influences as every opening act you've seen in the past 5 years, but something ineffable makes them better (to me anyway).

I can hear Television in the timing a little bit and Lou in the voice a little bit, but I don't think that they sound like either. I mean, it's there, but not in an overbearing way (to me anyway).

― fritz, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It sounds as if Jess and I have written the same article.

Tom: if the pro-Strokes takes get repetitive, feel more than free to slice up or just withdraw mine -- I'd hate to imagine anyone reading through anything that long and not getting anything that hasn't already been covered more efficiently by you or Jess.

As for the Strokes special, I don't think you should feel at all hesitant about going a little fan-zine-ish. The problem with the current critical consensus on the Strokes is that it reads them as a rock band -- whereas I think Freakytrigger is perfectly situated to start looking at them as a pop band, as I'm guessing these articles will. This could essentially serve as Freakytrigger's big theoretical contribution to the Strokes literature. :)

― Nitsuh, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

He also has a bit of an Brit-style crooner thing going on, a little Ian Curtis or maybe even some Damon Alburn?

― fritz, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

tom hasn't necessarily -accepted- mine yet, nitsuh. (esp. seeing as how i haven't finished it.) so if it's one too many, i should be the one to be axed. that said, i have about 3 other essays on the burner, so i shant weep openly if this is the case. (and if a possible family emergency i can see on the horizon actually occurs, i won't be writing anything for a while.)

― jess, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

maybe not as cynically as you might be implying

You only though I might be implying it? I need to be more direct in future.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the beaver brown band reference was a bit of a tip off

― fritz, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The real unsaid thing about the Strokes is that they sound remarkably like U2.

― sarita z, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Must ... not ... ruin ... whole article ... by ... talking here ...

Losing power ... shields failing ... abandon thread ...

― Nitsuh, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Back you go, c'mon now, don't be shy. TELL US WHY WE SHOULD CARE. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

nitsuh i'm starting to think we DID write the same article...

― jess, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You don't understand my conundrum, Ned. The article isn't all the fascinating, which puts me in a pickle: (a) if I talk about it here, there won't be enough good stuff left to make the over-long article worth reading, but then (b) now that I've made the mistake of conspicuously not talking about it here, it looks like I'm trying to build the article up as saying something really interesting, which it isn't, necessarily. I shouldn't have hinted like that.

― Nitsuh, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hm. Cowrite it with Tanya.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sean thinks to himself "Hmmm, 'in a pickle' is such a dorky phrase, but, I mean, it's Nitsuh saying it, he's such a good writer and all, maybe it's cool after all. Maybe I should start using it. Yes, I shall! I shall start using it!"

― Sean, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

He also has a bit of an Brit-style crooner thing going on, a little Ian Curtis or maybe even some Damon Alburn?

Did you intentionally name two people that can't really sing well as "crooners" or was that merely happy irony? NOTE: I like Joy Division a lot, but I hold no illusions about the quality of Ian Curtis's voice. The man could barely hold pitch.

― Dan Perry, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

When your italics outnumber your regular font, you know you shouldn't have hit "Submit"...

― Dan Perry, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Actually, Sean, in retrospect, I think "puts me in a bit of a pickle" would have been better. I was going for a fusty ascot-and- smoking-jacket juxtaposition, like, "Well, this does indeed place me in a bit of a proverbial pickle, old chap."

― Nitsuh, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Now you tell me. I've already made a fool of myself at the office.

― Sean, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yup, it's going to be hard to find someone to write an anti-Strokes article, given that the whole anti-Strokes argument is that they're not even worth talking about.

Maybe Tom could start a "Why I Hate the Strokes: 100 Words or Less" thread -- no deviation allowed -- and then compile that as a cross- section of Strokes detraction.

― Nitsuh, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

my problem with "is this it" is that it was mixed poorly and there is just too much space inbetween the songs (to the point of irritation). otherwise, it's a good pop album. i still prefer the original ep though.

― Ali Gorji, Saturday, 12 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

who the hell wears a smoking jacket at ascot?

― mark s, Saturday, 12 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Google search: "smoking jacket" + "ascot"

First result:

G. Bruce Boyer, "Where there's Smoke ... The Venerable Old Smoking Jacket has a Place in the Gentleman's Wardrobe," Cigar Afficionado, January / February 1999:

"The other style of smoking attire, which remains with us, resembles a truncated gown, loosely cut and sashed, with shawl lapels (either self-faced or satin-covered), patch-style pockets and cuffs to match the lapels. Sashes are generally tasseled. This is the style that Robert Talbott specializes in. 'With black trousers, fine shirt, and ascot, we find the sash-style smoking jacket is comfortable, practical and beautiful,' says Susan Benson, a spokesperson for the firm. 'We just made two handsome silk ones for pianist Michael Feinstein. I'm assuming that he'll wear them to perform in, as well as for at-home entertaining.'" (italics mine)

― Nitsuh Abebe, Saturday, 12 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mark is too PUNK ROCK to be down with this fusty high-life combo!!!

― Nitsuh, Saturday, 12 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I do believe Mark said '*at* ascot' -- implying a place. Oh the joy of nitpicking!

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 12 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I thought that was just a typo. Further google search reveals I missed a British place-name joke which I'll just assume, knowing Mark, was terrific. Sorry, I'm really ruining this thread.

― Nitsuh, Saturday, 12 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ascot = fancy-dress equestrian show of some sort, innit? Hats like Princess Marina's and whatnot.

― scott p., Saturday, 12 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

like all british culture evah it was an analysis of class and comportment

― mark s, Saturday, 12 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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