Article Response: Is This It?

Stevie makes a very good point about the strokes missing out on "the central mystery" of 70's New York. The Strokes do seem mostly satisfied to be a supergroup and seemingly have no higher aspirations. This certainly does affect them negatively. However, I don't think this is all as straight on as the article claims. Any sort of higher aspirations in a band (literary, art, etc...) can often take on a horrible pretentiousness. Just look around at some of the other would-be Strokes in New York alone. The Strokes seem to have escaped that in several ways: they have consciously tried to by playing a very straight forward style of New York rock n' roll (minus the ironic, hokey, postmodern poses of actual "Garage" outfits like Mooney Suzuki); and, second, they have benefited by having never actually been a part of the proper New York underground. More than likely, they were ignorant to much of the pretentiousness that plays a part in much of New York's music from Richard Hell, Lou Reed, etc.. to this day. Unfortunately, the Strokes problem is that they don't seem to recognize the possibility of aspiring to the central mystery Stevie speaks about within the settings of a pop supergroup. Their album has a lot going for it (and they do have a good amount of talent and look), but any sort of genius is due to momentary luck, being in the right place at the right time and their ability, which I doubt they can repeat much less better, to take advantage of it.

Oh and also, all four articles were extremely fun to read. I noticed it says on the daily page that this is it for the Strokes special. Why not more? Get everybody around here to write about em', I think the articles up already prove that plenty more can be written. I say beat it til it's really dead.

manouevres The Strokes into position as a disco band, or as R’n’B stylists

Whoo-hoo! Boy band mania strikes again! ;-)

I'm disappointed that Stevie T didn't take the opportunity to compare The Strokes to The Sealed Knot Society. I liked the footnotes. It has often been said that context is everything. I saw about five seconds of The Strokes on BBC World Business Report and they looked like the best thing ever. The report was about the Sanctuary Group. I mean the management/record label people, not THE CULT. I would like an FT Stevie T special.

That slippered popinjay Troussé makes precisely the opposite mistake to the one he made on these boards a few weeks ago: when he refers, in his majestic ignorance, to Cindy Sherman, he really means Sherry Levine.

What a colossal ass!

Thankyou for writing that Stevie, wherever you are, as it meant I learned not only a new ^{HTML tag} but a new spécial charactér too!

Thankyou for writing that Stevie, wherever you are, as it meant I learned not only a new HTML tag but a new spécial charactér too!
Sorry Tom but I cannot refrain from some cynicism here: So in the end the Strokes¹ Special did serve a purpose.

1 (pl. of stroke) sudden diminution or loss of consciousness, sensation, and voluntary motion caused by rupture or obstruction (as by a clot) of an artery of the brain -- called also apoplexy

A good article, Stevie. Of course The Strokes don't want to be anything more - being cool is being a rock n roll band from NY, in their perception, after seeing all the bands you talk about. They believe in their own worth in these terms, and don't want to risk tarnishing the brand by daring to venture out.

It's long been a feature of my relationship with Stevie T that I prefer to leave him to do enough thinking for the both of us, then I nod or grumble in response. This time I am nodding. And I don't have to think about The Strokes anymore neither.

I like this article so much, I'm going to transform it into a 4-hour audio play, with Zoe Wanamaker playing the Footnotes. Or rather, I'm going to lazily float the idea of an audio play, with Zoe thing doing something in it. Or, more precisely, I'm not going to bother following through this thought about an audio play, I'm just going to shrug out the words 'audio play' and 'Zoe Wanamaker' and hope that's enough to make people giggle. John Hurt's 'going' to be 'in "it"' too.

I like this article so much I'm going to overlook the dearth of puns and references to 70s sit-coms.

I like this article so much.

After that post, so do I - and I'VE not even SEEN it.

PS: Mr E: I've known that Special Character for a while: BUT the trouble is, it doesn't appear on all keyboards. But - oh, my goodness! It does on this one! Look!!

Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé, Troussé...

I really must get back to work.

Oh - I've seen it now, and I STILL like it.

I haven't really READ it, mind.

I think Stevie's piece is the most convincing anti-Strokes writing I've read. But I'd say that the lack he's talking about is what stops the Strokes being a great band rather than what stops them being a good one.

Why must Stevie T give power pop a bad name?

I agree with legs. Section 4 of the article is brilliant. I had never thought of the CBGBs scene that way.

The criticisms that legs makes are also very good. It just occurred to me that in interviews, they probably try to come across as more clean cut than they actually are. This is fine with real power pop, but with the Strokes, it's like there's a mismatch between the aura of the band and their music. Or if everyone agrees that their music is a lot tamer than their purported influences would lead one to believe, then there's something in their image, as there is in their music, that doesn't quite fit. Which could work to their advantage, sort of like Britney's previous work with the Mickey Mouse club or whatever. I guess this is what Nitsuh's and Ned's articles try to address. But the question wouldn't come up unless they were trying to do something different, e.g., as Tom suggests, to make rock music that Ronan wouldn't be embarrassed to dance to.

I sometimes forget just really how good FT is.

"The footnote may enjoy a postmodern vogue, but let us remember that the experience of reading the footnote is like leaving the arms of one’s sublime and inventive lover to run downstairs and answer the door for the mailman."

!!!