Monday, December 07, 2009
Stroke of Midnight
Eight years ago, Julian Casablancas and his band, the Strokes, dropped a brilliant album of garage rock for the dysfunctional, post-9/11-era... This frenetic, urgent, catchy music topped that year-end best lists, and looked poised to conquer the music world and define the sound of a new decade, rescuing us from boy bands, neanderthal gangstas, and pseudo-latin crooners... Well, that didn't quite happen.. while the Strokes' second and third albums were solid and memorable, they never broke out of indie-land into the mass consciousness
Flash forward to 2009, which finds Julian back with a stunning solo album, from which I've plucked '11th Dimension' as today's Song of the Week. Julian's urgent vocals and poetic lyrics help him make something quite new out of disparate influences: hypnotic verse chords reminiscent of Bowie's 'Rebel Rebel' and organ flourishes on the chorus that recall Stranglers' 'Duchess..'
For lack of an official video, here's someone's homemade one.....enjoy '11th Dimension...'
All the Strokes videos are blocking me from embedding them in my blog.. grrr. But here they are live with their signature song, 'Last Nite....'
Here's the Strokes'... 'Reptilia,' also live in the park....
Here's Julian interviewed....
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