Featured Release : The Strokes "Room On Fire"

"The motto of everything is: I suck, I gotta do better, I gotta work harder" - Julian Casablancas, anytime, anyday

Many groups believe less is more when it comes to making music, but no band can ever have pursued the policy as rigorously or as effectively as The Strokes.
On October 28 2003, the band will release 'Room On Fire', their second album and the follow-up to 'Is This It' which sold over 2 million worldwide. It contains 11 songs and, like its predecessor, is so tautly and perfectly constructed that there is not one excessive note or lyric anywhere in its 33 minute and 15 second duration. Tense, fierce and emotionally complex, it's a masterpiece that refines and advances everything that made the band so unique in the first place.

Recorded at TMF Studios on East 12th Street in New York between the months of May and September 2003, it was produced, once again, by Gordon Raphael. A product of both The Strokes’ obsessive work ethic and what Raphael refers to the band’s "weird science", it's a record of precision spontaneity and primal sophistication that effortlessly hurdles the band's greatest fear – that of ever releasing a song that sucks. For the record, the band to date have recorded and released 23 songs. So far none of them have sucked.

The first time The Strokes ever sent out demo to a record label was in 2000. Ryan Gentles - a booker at New York's Mercury Lounge and subsequently the band's manager (He'd first caught them play on August 31 of that year at what was their 27th gig) sent a demo to Geoff Travis at Rough Trade in London. Travis was so taken with the CD he released it as it came to him, not changing the songs nor the artwork the CD came in. Featuring three propulsive and brilliant songs ('The Modern Age', 'Last Nite' and 'Barely Legal'), it was dubbed 'The Modern Age' EP and came out in the UK on January 22nd 2001. At this point, the band - already playing their first set of dates in Britain - were visually introduced to the world via an iconic black and white photograph of them drinking a beer in a New York bar. In many ways, this was all it took.

The EP went on to sell 30,000 copies in the UK alone, and was later released by Beggars Banquet in the US. In April of that year the band signed a worldwide deal with RCA - apart from in the UK where they continued on with Rough Trade.

While the rest of the world scoured their thesauruses for superlatives for The Strokes, the band themselves were concentrating. Prior to a second UK visit, they were hunkered down in the basement of the Transporter Raum studio at the intersection of Second and Avenue A in New York, intensely constructing their full-length debut. Flanked by producer Gordon Raphael and their guru (and in some cases guitar teacher) JP Bowersock, they were putting in 22 hour days, 7 days a week.

The result was 'Is This It', an 11 song album that lasts for 36 minutes and 30 seconds. 'Is This It’ was released in October of 2001 was praised enormously including a rave 4 star album review in Rolling Stone.

The band continued to tour in the US and the rest of the world, with a defining moment coming in January of 2002 when the band were the musical guests on Saturday Night Live. This was the band’s second TV performance, following their American TV debut on Late Night With Conan O’Brien a show they would appear on two more times during the life of ‘Is This It’

Touring continued throughout the world for all of 2002. The high point coming when the band played co-headlining shows with the White Stripes in Detroit and New York. After headlining UK’s Reading Festival the band returned to the US and toured into November 2002 for their 'Wyckyd Sceptre' tour. Then – finally - they stopped, but not before Spin magazine put the band on the cover, proclaiming The Strokes as “Band of The Year” for 2002.

On Oct 28 2003, The Strokes will release their second album 'Room On Fire'. Recently the band noted: "As soon as you think, 'I'm the fuckin' man, I'm the shit', you're setting yourself up for trouble." The Strokes never do that. The Strokes are driven by a ceaseless desire for perfection. And unlike any other contemporary group, The Strokes don't release a song until it actually IS perfect. That's why 'Room On Fire' - their second album - is a masterpiece and it's why this group never, ever suck.