49 Fun Facts About The Strokes

Tom Petty laughed off the news that The Strokes had borrowed his American Girl riff for which single?

Last Nite. The band admitted the borrowing in an interview; Petty said it made him laugh out loud and did not bother him: 'OK, good for you.'

Which Daft Punk song features Julian Casablancas of The Strokes on vocoded lead vocals?

Instant Crush. Daft Punk, who called themselves the biggest fans of The Strokes, played him an unused instrumental over coffee in 2010, and he jumped on it.

Who plays drums for The Strokes?

Fabrizio Moretti. He broke his hand after a Glasgow show in June 2001, just as the band was taking off, and a friend, Matt Romano, flew in to drum on the remaining dates.

The Strokes closed The New Abnormal with an ode to which New York sports team?

The Mets. Julian Casablancas wrote it on a subway platform after watching them lose a playoff game, and kept the joke title once his drummer said the team is something you love that keeps disappointing you.

What is the name of Julian Casablancas's band outside The Strokes?

The Voidz. Casablancas called the band's debut, Tyranny, a 'protest record': he said corruption was king and corporations had become the new ruling body.

Which debut EP by The Strokes sparked a record-label bidding war in 2001?

The Modern Age. It began as a three-song demo knocked out in three days to win the band better club gigs, and ended with major labels fighting over them.

Which label won the bidding war to sign The Strokes in 2001?

RCA. When its people visited the basement sessions for the debut, the producer recalls, they called the sound unprofessional and said he was ruining the singer's voice.

At which Manhattan school did Julian Casablancas meet two future Strokes bandmates and start playing music?

Dwight. Casablancas says his one school trophy was for acting in a Brecht play, and he dropped out in his junior year without finishing high school.

At which Swiss boarding school did Julian Casablancas first meet Albert Hammond Jr.?

Institut Le Rosey. They bonded there as fellow Americans; years later Hammond bumped into him in New York and within two weeks was sharing a flat with him.

The father of Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. wrote and sang which soft-rock hit?

It Never Rains in Southern California. Albert Hammond Sr. also co-wrote The Air That I Breathe; his son once got off a transatlantic flight to find his driver singing the hit at him.

Ryan Gentles quit his job booking bands at which Manhattan club to manage The Strokes?

Mercury Lounge. Their demo CD won him over in 2000, and he went on to run the band's affairs from an office in a vintage clothing shop in the East Village.

Who produced both Is This It and Room on Fire for The Strokes?

Gordon Raphael. He pitched two bands after a club show in 2000, offering a cheap demo at his studio two blocks away; only The Strokes called him back.

Which British music magazine named Is This It the best album of the 2000s?

NME. The weekly had made the band's three-song demo its single of the week, and one profile said The Strokes were to NME what Posh and Becks were to Heat magazine.

What does the international cover of The Strokes' Is This It show?

A gloved hand on a naked backside. Colin Lane shot it on a Polaroid after his girlfriend stepped out of the shower, using a Chanel glove left over from a fashion shoot.

Which song did The Strokes pull from the American edition of their debut album?

New York City Cops. Days after September 11 the band said it stood by the song, but that after the police's valiant response the timing was wrong; When It Started took its place.

Which director made the music videos from The Strokes' Is This It?

Roman Coppola. For Someday he staged a mock Family Feud, with The Strokes facing one of their favourite bands, Guided by Voices, as the rival team.

Which veteran band did The Strokes open for on its North American tour in 2002?

The Rolling Stones. The warm-up slots that October came as the band neared the end of a marathon world tour that had barely paused since Is This It came out.

Who joined The Strokes on stage as a guest at Radio City Music Hall in 2002?

Jack White. The White Stripes were sharing the bill: the two bands had teamed up that August for a handful of shows in Detroit and New York.

Which magazine ranked Is This It the second-best album of the 2000s?

Rolling Stone. Only Radiohead's Kid A ranked higher, and The Strokes' first producer recalls the magazine writing about them while they were still unsigned in America.

Which star producer began recording Room on Fire before The Strokes went back to their debut's producer?

Nigel Godrich. Radiohead's producer says they barely got started: he and Julian Casablancas were both control freaks, each set on doing it his own way.

What was the first single from The Strokes' second album, Room on Fire?

12:51. The synth-like hook is no keyboard at all: it is Nick Valensi's guitar, which one reviewer said had come dressed as a keyboard from The Cars.

Which actress dated Strokes member Fabrizio Moretti for several years in the 2000s?

Drew Barrymore. They met backstage at a concert and bought an East Village apartment together, and he told one interviewer he had just sculpted her face in clay.

Which singer recorded the duet on the B-side of The Strokes' Reptilia single?

Regina Spektor. She was the band's opening act at the time, and her own album Soviet Kitsch had been co-produced by the man who made their first two records.

The Strokes took the album title The New Abnormal from a remark by which politician?

Jerry Brown. California's governor used the phrase about the 2018 wildfires, which burned through Malibu all around the studio where the band was recording.

What was the first single from The Strokes' third album, First Impressions of Earth?

Juicebox. The comeback single leaked online in September 2005, months early, and had to be rushed out; it opens on a twang straight out of the Peter Gunn theme.

The Strokes' First Impressions of Earth was their first album to reach number one in which country?

The UK. Made at leisure in a studio the band built for themselves in Hell's Kitchen, it went straight in at the top in January 2006, displacing Eminem's hits collection.

Who produced The Strokes' third album, First Impressions of Earth?

David Kahne. The producer of their first two albums gave way to an industry veteran who had worked with Paul McCartney.

The chorus of The Strokes' Bad Decisions borrows so much from which hit that Billy Idol got a writing credit?

Dancing with Myself. The same album does it again: Eternal Summer lifts its tune from the Psychedelic Furs' The Ghost in You, and that song's writers got a credit as well.

Under what alias did The Strokes play a secret comeback show at London's Dingwalls in 2010?

Venison. It was their first gig since October 2006, an 18-song set with nothing new in it, and the crowd took to cheering the fake name back at the band.

What was the lead single from The Strokes' 2011 album Angles?

Under Cover of Darkness. It introduced the first Strokes album written by all five members, a change that caused friction and dragged out the recording.

Whose 1981 painting Bird on Money is the cover of The Strokes' album The New Abnormal?

Jean-Michel Basquiat. The first the public saw of the album was a silent teaser video built around the painting, days before the band announced the record on stage.

Where did The Strokes record most of Angles after parting with the album's first producer?

Hammond Jr.'s home studio. He and engineer Gus Oberg had built it in a barn-shaped building in the Catskills, ninety minutes from Manhattan, and Oberg ended up co-producing.

Which Strokes album was released under a self-imposed media blackout, with no interviews, shows or tour?

Comedown Machine. It completed the band's five-album contract, and the sleeve made a joke of it, with the label's vintage logo stamped across the top.

The Strokes released their 2016 EP Future Present Past through which label?

Cult. The label is Julian Casablancas's own, and it signed his band once their five-album major-label contract had run its course.

Who produced The Strokes' 2020 album The New Abnormal?

Rick Rubin. It was the band's first album in seven years, and Casablancas joked that Rubin waits until you hit rock bottom before deciding he can resuscitate you.

Which Grammy did The Strokes win for The New Abnormal?

Best Rock Album. It was the band's first Grammy, and Julian Casablancas told reporters it was fitting that they won, since he always makes fun of rock'n'roll.

At whose presidential campaign rally did The Strokes announce The New Abnormal in 2020?

Bernie Sanders. The band played his New Hampshire rally that February, debuted a new song, and Casablancas signed off with: 'Album's coming out April 10.'

Who hosted the 2020 Saturday Night Live episode with The Strokes as musical guest?

John Mulaney. He had spent years behind the scenes as one of the show's writers before coming back as a host; this was his fourth turn, and The Strokes' fourth as musical guest.

Which band did The Strokes open for on a 2022 global stadium tour?

Red Hot Chili Peppers. After a summer of American stadium dates together, the headliners booked The Strokes to open again on their 2023 tour.

What is the title of The Strokes' seventh album, released in July 2026?

Reality Awaits. The band announced it for late June, then pushed it back four weeks without giving a reason, six years after their previous album.

Which actor starred in The Strokes' Going Shopping video, a homage to Paul Simon's You Can Call Me Al?

Walton Goggins. The original starred Chevy Chase; Julian Casablancas said no actor had held his attention like Goggins since James Dean and the young Brando.

Steve Schiltz, who stood in for Nick Valensi on The Strokes' 2026 tour, fronts which New York band?

Longwave. Announcing Valensi's temporary break from the tour, the band said many fans would remember Schiltz 'from our early NY days'.

Which Pearl Jam song does Julian Casablancas say first made him want to make music?

Yellow Ledbetter. He said hearing it was 'like the first time I drank', and that without music he would have been a bartender trying to be a writer.

Which Killers song alone survived when Brandon Flowers scrapped the band's material after hearing Is This It?

Mr. Brightside. Flowers said the Strokes record sounded so perfect it left him depressed; Nick Valensi later wondered aloud why that one song outgrew anything of theirs.

Lizzy Goodman's oral history of 2000s New York rock is named after which Strokes song?

Meet Me in the Bathroom. The book charts how the city's scene was reborn through The Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem and Interpol, and it was later filmed as a documentary.

Which Arctic Monkeys song references The Strokes in its lyrics?

Star Treatment. Alex Turner opens the 2018 album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino by confessing he only ever wanted to be one of The Strokes, whose songs his band has covered live.

In which country did The Strokes record their seventh album outdoors on a mountaintop above the ocean?

Costa Rica. Their producer rented a house on top of a mountain and set the band up outside; he said it was like watching them play a concert for the ocean every day.

Which Pixies producer began recording Is This It before The Strokes scrapped the sessions?

Gil Norton. The label wanted the man behind Doolittle, but it did not work out, and Casablancas went back to the unknown who had cut their demo.

Casablancas's father John founded which modelling agency?

Elite Model Management. The connection had cynics writing The Strokes off as rich kids playing at rock, and Julian made his father the one subject interviewers could not raise.