New York, NY · indie rock

The Strokes

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The band that rebooted New York rock — a deep catalog of deadpan cool, still untouchable live when the engine catches.

Julian Casablancas, Nick Valensi and Fabrizio Moretti started playing together as teenagers at Manhattan's Dwight School, later adding childhood friend Nikolai Fraiture on bass. Albert Hammond Jr., who had known Casablancas from a boarding school in Switzerland, joined last in 1998, and the five played their first show as the Strokes in 1999 at a venue called the Spiral.

An early EP, 'The Modern Age', set off a bidding war among labels in 2001, and the band signed to RCA. Their debut album 'Is This It' followed that summer, before 'Room on Fire' (2003) and 'First Impressions of Earth' (2005) kept up the pace, both selling well even as critics measured them against the first record.

A five-year hiatus preceded 'Angles' (2011) and 'Comedown Machine' (2013), met with steadier reviews but smaller sales; the band then went quiet for years, its members mostly visible through solo work. 'The New Abnormal', produced by Rick Rubin and released in 2020, reversed that drift and won Best Rock Album at the Grammys, and a seventh album, Reality Awaits, followed in 2026.

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