American band The Strokes formed in New York City in 1998. Singer Julian Casablancas and bassist Nikolai Fraiture had been close friends since they met at the age of six while attending the Lycée Français de New York, a bilingual French school in Manhattan.
Casablancas later transferred to the Dwight School, where he met guitarist Nick Valensi and drummer Fabrizio Moretti, and they bonded over a mutual obsession with 1970s punk and 1990s alternative rock.
The Strokes played their first official gig in 1999, and after playing to small crowds for two years, they released an independent EP, The Modern Age (2001), through the legendary British independent label. Rough Trade.
The EP – and the buzz in the UK about the band (aided by music magazine NME, which heavily hyped the band) – sparked a bidding war among minor labels, with the band eventually signing to RCA Records.
That summer, they released their debut album, Is This It, to widespread critical acclaim and strong sales.
With their skinny jeans, vintage leather jackets, effortless cool, and stripped-back Velvet Underground-style garage rock, The Strokes offered a complete antithesis to everything on the radio at the time.
Subsequent albums Room on Fire (2003) and First Impressions of Earth (2005) both sold well.
After focusing on individual side projects for a chunk of the 2010s, they made a massive comeback with their sixth studio album, The New Abnormal (2020).
Produced by the legendary Rick Rubin, the record was highly praised as a return to form and won the band their very first Grammy Award for Best Rock Album
Julian Casablancas
Vocals Nick Valensi
Guitar Albert Hammond Jr.
Guitar Nikolai Fraiture
Bass Fabrizio Moretti
Drums
Video
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