Fades in Slowly

The John Peel appreciation blog

Archive for the ‘strokes’ Category

- The Strokes session: June, 2001

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tweets

This was the band that made me start to feel like I was getting old. Long gone were the years when I opened the NME and knew every band that they were writing about. To be fair, I’d just moved abroad and my first little ‘un had just been born in 2001, but nevertheless it came as a bit of a shock when the album of the year was announced and it was by a band I hadn’t even heard of. Wake up calls are good once in a while, especially when they are as good as the Strokes.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="375" caption="Don't get your hair cut, that's an order"]Dont get your hair cut, thats an order[/caption]

For me, the biggest crime any act can make is to consist of style over substance. A lot, well a few at least, aim this accusation at the band, and I can understand why.

They clearly have a style which they adhere to, knew exactly which bands they were mimicking and are probably under as strict a set of instructions about what clothes to wear and which poses to adopt in photo shoots as Marilyn Manson or anyone on these reality TV program contestants. That being said, they overcome this by really delivering on the substance side of the equation, as their first and indeed only Peel session shows.

Their 2001 opus ‘This is it’ has just been chosen as the NME album of the decade (my apologies on behalf of the publication to anyone who makes a great album in the next month or so) and I couldn’t be less surprised. The list of 50 albums makes for fairly uninspired reading, reflecting on the scope of the NME far more than on the quality of the music of the decade. None of that is the fault of the Strokes, so sit back and enjoy this belter of a session.

The Strokes session: June, 2001

Track list

The Modern Age
Hard To Explain
Barely Legal
Someday

Lineup

Nick Valensi (Guitar)
Nikolai Fraiture (Bass)
Julian Casablancas (Vocals)
Albert Hammond Jr (Guitar)
Fabrizio Moretti (Drums)

Listen now…

If you have any more info about this session, please add it here.

Written by Adam

November 19th, 2009 at 10:48 am

- Sgt Pepper must die!

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tweets

There’s a theory that the only reason ‘Citizen Kane’ is considered the greatest films of all time is because people who compile lists need a film to stick in at number one. I’ve only seen it once myself, don’t feel the need to sit through it again and really don’t care what rosebud is. ‘Star Wars’, on the other hand, is a different matter (shame about the most recent three).







Music is very much the same if you ask me. How many of the so-called classic albums can you sit through on a fairly regular basis? I can’t honestly say that I’ve listened to Sgt Pepper even once in the last 20 years, and don’t even get me started on Pet Sounds. Consequently, I was really happy to stumble on this article in The Guardian the other day, that goes some way to debunking the myths of these apparently untouchable albums. In fact, going through the list of albums discussed, the only ones I wanted to defend were the ones I’d grown up listening to, and so the connection is more to do with the time and place I was in when they came out, rather than because they in some way transcend musical genres or define styles in any way.

Please take a look and see if you agree with me, here are the classics that are discussed:

Tupac Shakur, All Eyez On Me: Nominated by Mark Ronson, producer

Nirvana, Nevermind: Nominated by Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips

The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds: Nominated by Luke Pritchard of the Kooks

The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses: Nominated by Eddie Argos of Art Brut

The Strokes, Is This It: Nominated by Ian Williams of Battles

Television, Marquee Moon: Nominated by Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand

The Beatles, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: Nominated by Billy Childish, prime mover of British garage rock

Abba, Arrival: Nominated by Siobhan Donaghy, former Sugababe turned solo artist

Arcade Fire, The Neon Bible: Nominated by Green Gartside of Scritti Politti

The Doors, LA Woman: Nominated by Craig Finn of the Hold Steady

The Smiths, Meat Is Murder: Nominated by Jackie McKeown of 1990s

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, Trout Mask Replica: Nominated by Peter Hook, ex- New Order and Joy Division


Read the full article here.

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Written by Adam

June 19th, 2007 at 8:25 am

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