Despite a gap of five years since their last album, 2006’s ‘First Impressions Of Earth’, it’s clear that NYC coolest sons, The Strokes still haven’t lost any of their appeal. After several solo projects, fraught recording sessions and rumours of unbearable inter-band tensions; it looked like The Strokes were heading straight to the musical archives. Thankfully, they’ve managed to reconvene to record their fourth album ‘Angles’, which is due for release 21st March.
To fade away seemed like an unsuitable destiny for The Strokes. After all, this is the band that made guitars, leather jackets and Converse cool again. While their peers Kings Of Leon and The Killers have morphed into stadium fillers, The Strokes have maintained their aura of outsider cool that made them so appealing in the first place. They even manage to save face after being introduced by Miley Cyrus (in a Strokes t-shirt no less) on Saturday Night Live. The five piece tore through their latest single ‘Under Cover Of Darkness’, which sticks to the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mantra.
Quick rhythms, distorted guitars and led by Julian Casablanca’s trademark drawl, the track sounds exactly how you’d hope they would almost ten years after the release of their debut ‘Is This It’. Let’s hope the rest of ‘Angles’ is as sharp as this.
Jon Davies News The Strokes
This week saw the announcement of the 2011 Coachella line up. The festival, which takes place in Indio California, has steadily risen to become one the biggest music events of the year; with well over 200,000 attendees expected over its three days. With festival goers braving desert temperatures of over 100 ºF, the Coachella team has a battle on their hands to ensure they keep the audience’s attention. Thankfully, they’ve once again assembled a stellar line up of musical delights, pulling in some of the world’s biggest artists. Taking the headline slots this year will be Kings Of Leon, Arcade Fire and Kanye West. 2010 was a huge year for all three – with West and Arcade Fire gaining huge plaudits from critics and fans alike for ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ and ‘The Suburbs’ respectively. While Kings Of Leon’s ‘Radioactive’ divided the opinions of critics, it did nothing to reduce their status as one of the world’s most successful bands.
Coachella will also boast an appearance from New York indie Gods, The Strokes, who will rival Animal Collective as the hipster’s choice at this year’s Coachella. Another highlight is a rather unexpected set from the reunited Death From Above 1979, who join a parade of Coachella acts on the comeback trail, Bright Eyes, Big Audio Dynamite, Suede, Lauryn Hill and Duran Duran to mention a few.
The presence of Sasha, Magnetic Man, Sven Väth and Axwell all high up on the bill, plus appearances from likes of A-Trak, Green Velvet, Andy C and Trentmøller, also ensures that there’ll be plenty for dance fans to investigate across the board.
This year’s festival takes place between 15th- 17th April, for the full line up and ticket info head to the official Coachella site.
Jon Davies Gigs/ Events Arcade Fire, Coachella, KanYe West, Kings Of Leon, The Strokes
As we approach the end of the 00’s, we’ll be running through some of our favourite albums of the past decade. This is by no means a chart, more of a chance for us to highlight some of the artists that have really shone through in the past ten years. There may be some albums you’re already aware of, but hopefully – in true Shazam fashion – we’ll help you discover some gems you may have missed. While we can’t make any guarantees about the quality of the next decade’s music, it’s safe to say the noughties has given us several stand out albums that will continue to be heralded as classics for years to come.
Firstly we’ll be looking at how five sharply dressed young men from New York managed to set the standard for guitar music at the start of the new decade and influence almost every indie band that was to come after them. Read more…
Jon Davies Shazam's Music Of The Decade The Strokes
While it appears we’re going to have to keep waiting for that elusive new album from The Strokes – the news that lead singer Julian Casablancas is realising a solo album will soften the blow for many fans. The band are no strangers to side projects, Albert Hammond Jr. has released two solo albums while drummer Fab and bassist Nikolai have been busy with their bands Little Joy and Nickel Eye respectively. However the announcement of an album from Casablancas, The Strokes lead songwriter, is sure to cause bouts of feverish excitement among the bands fan-base.
The singer has kept a relatively low profile since the bands last album, 2006′s ‘First Impressions Of Earth’, aside from collaborating with Pharrell Williams and Santigold on ‘My Drive Thru’ – released to celebrate Converse’s centennial anniversary. After announcing The Strokes have started putting together their new album, could the release of ’Phrases For The Young’ through Rough Trade later this year, mark a creative burst from the singer? We certainly hope so.
Jon Davies New Music, News Julian Casablancas, The Strokes
