Fernilandia

Not this time boys.

The Strokes began in 1998 when a bunch of New York posh kids who had met in a Manhattan's private prep school (except Hammond who met Julian in another private school but this one in Switzerland when they were kids).

Quick flash back to 2001, since 1998 bands like, Britney Spears, Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, Lauryn Hill, Will Smith, Korn, Limp Bizkit, The Offspring, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Kid Rock, Blink 182, N'SYNC, and Creed were dominating the airwaves. I remember in those days I stopped listening to contemporary music and just focused on the Past. Blur, the Verve, Oasis, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, etc... Rock n'Roll stopped being cool.

Finally in early 2001 the English press started raving about some new salvation, a group that was going to save Rock N'Roll, or at least the Rock N'Roll the English appreciate. That salvation was The Strokes, releasing an EP, followed by the album, concentrating exclusively on England.

The first album (who displays Kylie Minogue on the cover) was a mixture of Buddy Holly with the riffs of the velvet underground.



I understand that for Mexican rock fans, this album doesn't mean anything. But for me, it was a sort of branching out from Brit Pop and into this old style 70 rock music. The Strokes album might not be as "important" as Nevermind by Nirvana or even be as good. But what The Strokes did, was make Rock N'Roll cool again. Designers copied The Strokes look and now literally millions of teenage boys across the world have the same style haircut that the Strokes used in early 2001. But most importantly was that The Strokes slammed the door open to other "punk rock acts" and the whole "THE" movement began, with The Hives, White Stripes, The Vines, etc..." Who then opened opportunitites to a whole new lot of Indie bands like Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, etc...

The second album was also good, it was actually pretty good. Not as good as "Is This It" but it certainly had his moments like Reptilia. So for months now I've been anticipating there latest release "First Impressions of Earth" unfortunately this album didn't create any impression on me. Maybe I need to hear it more times, but I just didn't like it, there are no solid songs in it, it sounds as the same-o same-o but this time being shit.

I do admit that the song "Hawaii" (which is a single) is my #1 song of the moment.

posted by Elfego Elgazu @ 8:40 AM