Retro-punkers mimic '70s rock heroes, receive kudos

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

From top, left to right: Julian Casablancas, vocals; Albert Hammond Jr., guitar; Nikolai Fraiture, bass; Nick Valensi, guitar; and Fab Moretti, drums. The Strokes in concert 7 p.m., Feb. 7, World Cafe Tickets: $20, on sale at Tower Records and Video, Cheapo Music (Pucks Alley, Pearl Kai), Hungry Ear Kailua, Pearl Harbor Bloch Arena, ITT Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Schofield ITR, UH Campus Center, World Cafe, Foodland. Charge by phone at 526-4400 or go to goldenvoice.com.

Now that The Strokes are coming to Honolulu for a World Cafe concert on Feb. 7, the question is: Should you be there?

Well, if the army of mostly drooling rock critics who placed The Strokes' CD "Is This It" firmly in their 2001 Top Ten lists had any say in the matter, the answer would likely be, "Duh, yeah."

"A dynamite hybrid of the bedlam, tension and flash that define the best, seismic New York rock," said Rolling Stone of "Is This It," No. 8 on its list of 2001's best albums.

"A start-to-finish cannonball of jabbing songs, ragged guitars, muffled singing, and punching-bag rhythms that manages to be both revivalist and completely unfusty," raved Entertainment Weekly, placing the album at the top of its list.

"Revivalist" is probably an apt description of The Strokes' brand of '70s-era New York power punk, because "Is This It" seems to have won its top-tier kudos primarily by reminding music writers of how bad music in general seems to be these days, and just about every band in history but The Strokes.

"It's impossible to listen to this album without noting all the '70s punk/pop acts being ripped off left and right," said Time, which nonetheless ranked The Strokes' CD the best of last year. "The Strokes may be derivative — of the Velvet Underground, Television, David Bowie and many others — but to borrow a phrase from Courtney Love, they fake it so real, they are beyond fake."

Critics have also compared the group's sound to Blondie, the MC5, The Ramones, The Smiths, Pavement and even early Tom Petty, to name just a few. What The Strokes have rarely been called is "original."

"Deliriously rooted in the Stooges and Velvet Underground, 'Is This It' is more a welcome throwback than a catalyst for rock's revolution," said USA Today. The album wound up at No. 8 on its Best of 2001 list.

The Toronto Star praised the album as a "fine" debut, but said, "it's worth noting that if the album had been released in 1978, no one would have batted an eye."

Some music writers seemed clueless as to why they admired the group at all.

"A clutch of fantastic songs cover the fact that if you really, truly listen to this album you realize that their musical ability is nothing short of a shambolic mess," said The Derby Evening Telegraph, explaining the placing of "Is This It" on its list of 2001's best recordings. The Akron Beacon Journal raved, "The Strokes embody everything that's desirable about rock music. ("Is This It") would be a great album to own even if it was terrible, which it isn't." Huh?

Still, not everyone was ready to hop onto The Strokes retro-bandwagon.

"A horrible, poorly played, all-hat-no-cattle nod to great '70s New Wave, metal and glam groups from The Stooges to Television," said Dave Ferman of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "If I need a Lou Reed imitation, I'll get a Lou Reed CD." Further commenting on Strokes' lead singer Julian Casablancas' Reed-like staccato vocals, the Sydney Sunday Telegraph huffed, "Wouldn't you rather listen to Lou Reed than a bunch of 12-year-olds doing some sort of Lou Reed tribute at their school assembly?" The quintet is made up of twentysomething New York-area prep-school grads.

Despite little in the way of album sales — after its debut on Billboard's album chart at No. 74 in October, "Is This It" reached its peak No. 63 position last week — The Strokes' tour of Mainland clubs has drawn packed houses. One concert at Los Angeles' famed Troubadour even had those without tickets ponying up to $100 for $10 tickets. The group's post-Hawai'i concerts in Japan and Britain — two countries where The Strokes are heartthrobs and magazine cover boys — are sold out.

Here in Honolulu?

After a week on sale, Karin Last of concert promoter Goldenvoice said 200 tickets had been snapped up for The Strokes' World Cafe concert. Though the club holds 2,000, Last expected final attendance would likely peak somewhere around 1,000.

So, should you get in on this action? In other words: Is this it?

Well, yeah. It's rare that Honolulu's concert scene gets a music act at the peak of its collective zeitgeist. (Alicia Keys' post-midnight show at World's last month was another exception to the rule.)

The Strokes may be derivative, but they're powerfully derivative. A half hour of cruising around in my car to "Is This It" for the first time almost produced the same kind of woozy musical rush I got when a couple of Indiana guys in my college dorm introduced me to a well-worn cassette of "The Velvet Underground and Nico" back in 1986. Or was that "Sandinista!" from The Clash?

The music is raw, cocksure, unquestionably alive and — truth be told — sometimes downright sloppy. It's rock 'n' roll that reminds listeners of a more primal era.

While The Strokes may have borrowed their sound (and look) from rock 'n' roll heroes, at least they cared enough to rip off from rock's very best.