Artist background/information for Listening Guide

The Strokes is a garage/indie band from New York. They debut in 2001 with their highly successful album called Is This It. They are the one of the bands that started garage rock revival scene in early 2000s and bring it to mainstream as pop rock music especially in U.S. and U.K. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strokes) This is one of the reasons why I really like them because it has ability to reach everyone to listen to their music and enjoy the music. Members in the band are Julian as a vocal, Nick on guitar, Albert on another guitar, Fabrizio on drums, and finally Nicolai on bass. First off, I would like to talk about the concept of garage/indie. The garage/indie is heavily influenced by 60’s punk rock and college bands. It has very catchy guitar riffs and play fast paced tempo. It has such a great energy in their songs. Their hooks and .They have very distinct sounds in their music. Such as, the vocal is very unique in a way that sometimes the voice seems tired and sounds like someone over the phone talking to you and very raspy when he sings high tone. But somehow it manages to catch the listeners’ ears with his slurring singing style. Perhaps it’s the raw voice of Julian and catchy guitar riffs make their music more complete as a raw garage band sound. 2 guitars make their music more layered in a way it’s very fulfilling and creates upbeats especially when they go back and forth on their guitar riffs; Also often times they throw in short solo guitar part that doesn’t have to too dynamic or fancy unlike Rock & Roll or metal music that heavily focus on the guitar solo, so it’s very easy even for listeners who are not used to long instrumental part could enjoy it. Also the drummer is able to produce creative catchy upbeat sounds and manage to speed up time to time in some verses or intro to keep listeners pay attention. The melody of bass line could be easily overshadowed by both two predominant electric guitars, but it’s very important element that makes up the sound of The Strokes. It’s really new for me to listen to some of songs that just pause in the middle of song and manages to come back in full throttle as if nothing ever happened. Their image of hipsters and retro also contribute popularity. It reminds me of Rolling Stones in their early careers like with the charisma. Since I only get to cover one song “The End has No End” for the listening guide, I would like to add 2 other songs from their both 1st and 2nd album that really gives you sense of what is the garage band is like and I hope you’ll enjoy them. The song, “Reptilia” starts with fast paced bass line with drum beats then followed by guitar riffs. I think combination of two guitar riffs and fast tempo of the song make this band more attractive and it’s indeed very addicting because the band’s ability to hook their distinct music to the audience. Another song is “Last Nite,” it starts with guitar solo and joined by drums then slowly builds the song into funky tune. I really like how this band could able to keep the fast beats without slowing down and change of one instrument like a guitar or drums when rest of the instruments keep play the main tune is brilliant and sometimes they take turn after guitar plays the different chords then it’s followed by drummer to change up the beats little bit then finally join back with rest of band for the main tune of the song.

*Note: this is 2 page long with double spaced format
http://youtube.com/watch?v=LFSYf-sgBIw “Reptilia”- The Strokes- Music Video-from 2nd album Room on Fire
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3tuvX_X7Rlw “Last Nite”- The Strokes- Music Video- from 1st album Is this it