99 Fun Facts About The Strokes

Tom Petty laughed off the news that The Strokes had borrowed his American Girl riff for which single?

Last Nite. The band admitted the borrowing in an interview; Petty said it made him laugh out loud and did not bother him: 'OK, good for you.'

Which Daft Punk song features Julian Casablancas of The Strokes on vocoded lead vocals?

Instant Crush. Daft Punk, who called themselves the biggest fans of The Strokes, played him an unused instrumental over coffee in 2010, and he jumped on it.

Who plays drums for The Strokes?

Fabrizio Moretti. He broke his hand after a Glasgow show in June 2001, just as the band was taking off, and a friend, Matt Romano, flew in to drum on the remaining dates.

The Strokes closed The New Abnormal with an ode to which New York sports team?

The Mets. Julian Casablancas wrote it on a subway platform after watching them lose a playoff game, and kept the joke title once his drummer said the team is something you love that keeps disappointing you.

What is the name of Julian Casablancas's band outside The Strokes?

The Voidz. Casablancas called the band's debut, Tyranny, a 'protest record': he said corruption was king and corporations had become the new ruling body.

Which debut EP by The Strokes sparked a record-label bidding war in 2001?

The Modern Age. It began as a three-song demo knocked out in three days to win the band better club gigs, and ended with major labels fighting over them.

Which label won the bidding war to sign The Strokes in 2001?

RCA. When its people visited the basement sessions for the debut, the producer recalls, they called the sound unprofessional and said he was ruining the singer's voice.

At which Manhattan school did Julian Casablancas meet two future Strokes bandmates and start playing music?

Dwight. Casablancas says his one school trophy was for acting in a Brecht play, and he dropped out in his junior year without finishing high school.

At which Swiss boarding school did Julian Casablancas first meet Albert Hammond Jr.?

Institut Le Rosey. They bonded there as fellow Americans; years later Hammond bumped into him in New York and within two weeks was sharing a flat with him.

The father of Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. wrote and sang which soft-rock hit?

It Never Rains in Southern California. Albert Hammond Sr. also co-wrote The Air That I Breathe; his son once got off a transatlantic flight to find his driver singing the hit at him.

Ryan Gentles quit his job booking bands at which Manhattan club to manage The Strokes?

Mercury Lounge. Their demo CD won him over in 2000, and he went on to run the band's affairs from an office in a vintage clothing shop in the East Village.

Who produced both Is This It and Room on Fire for The Strokes?

Gordon Raphael. He pitched two bands after a club show in 2000, offering a cheap demo at his studio two blocks away; only The Strokes called him back.

Which British music magazine named Is This It the best album of the 2000s?

NME. The weekly had made the band's three-song demo its single of the week, and one profile said The Strokes were to NME what Posh and Becks were to Heat magazine.

What does the international cover of The Strokes' Is This It show?

A gloved hand on a naked backside. Colin Lane shot it on a Polaroid after his girlfriend stepped out of the shower, using a Chanel glove left over from a fashion shoot.

Which song did The Strokes pull from the American edition of their debut album?

New York City Cops. Days after September 11 the band said it stood by the song, but that after the police's valiant response the timing was wrong; When It Started took its place.

Which director made the music videos from The Strokes' Is This It?

Roman Coppola. For Someday he staged a mock Family Feud, with The Strokes facing one of their favourite bands, Guided by Voices, as the rival team.

Which veteran band did The Strokes open for on its North American tour in 2002?

The Rolling Stones. The warm-up slots that October came as the band neared the end of a marathon world tour that had barely paused since Is This It came out.

Who joined The Strokes on stage as a guest at Radio City Music Hall in 2002?

Jack White. The White Stripes were sharing the bill: the two bands had teamed up that August for a handful of shows in Detroit and New York.

Which magazine ranked Is This It the second-best album of the 2000s?

Rolling Stone. Only Radiohead's Kid A ranked higher, and The Strokes' first producer recalls the magazine writing about them while they were still unsigned in America.

Which star producer began recording Room on Fire before The Strokes went back to their debut's producer?

Nigel Godrich. Radiohead's producer says they barely got started: he and Julian Casablancas were both control freaks, each set on doing it his own way.

What was the first single from The Strokes' second album, Room on Fire?

12:51. The synth-like hook is no keyboard at all: it is Nick Valensi's guitar, which one reviewer said had come dressed as a keyboard from The Cars.

Which actress dated Strokes member Fabrizio Moretti for several years in the 2000s?

Drew Barrymore. They met backstage at a concert and bought an East Village apartment together, and he told one interviewer he had just sculpted her face in clay.

Which singer recorded the duet on the B-side of The Strokes' Reptilia single?

Regina Spektor. She was the band's opening act at the time, and her own album Soviet Kitsch had been co-produced by the man who made their first two records.

The Strokes took the album title The New Abnormal from a remark by which politician?

Jerry Brown. California's governor used the phrase about the 2018 wildfires, which burned through Malibu all around the studio where the band was recording.

What was the first single from The Strokes' third album, First Impressions of Earth?

Juicebox. The comeback single leaked online in September 2005, months early, and had to be rushed out; it opens on a twang straight out of the Peter Gunn theme.

The Strokes' First Impressions of Earth was their first album to reach number one in which country?

The UK. Made at leisure in a studio the band built for themselves in Hell's Kitchen, it went straight in at the top in January 2006, displacing Eminem's hits collection.

Who produced The Strokes' third album, First Impressions of Earth?

David Kahne. The producer of their first two albums gave way to an industry veteran who had worked with Paul McCartney.

The chorus of The Strokes' Bad Decisions borrows so much from which hit that Billy Idol got a writing credit?

Dancing with Myself. The same album does it again: Eternal Summer lifts its tune from the Psychedelic Furs' The Ghost in You, and that song's writers got a credit as well.

Under what alias did The Strokes play a secret comeback show at London's Dingwalls in 2010?

Venison. It was their first gig since October 2006, an 18-song set with nothing new in it, and the crowd took to cheering the fake name back at the band.

What was the lead single from The Strokes' 2011 album Angles?

Under Cover of Darkness. It introduced the first Strokes album written by all five members, a change that caused friction and dragged out the recording.

Whose 1981 painting Bird on Money is the cover of The Strokes' album The New Abnormal?

Jean-Michel Basquiat. The first the public saw of the album was a silent teaser video built around the painting, days before the band announced the record on stage.

Where did The Strokes record most of Angles after parting with the album's first producer?

Hammond Jr.'s home studio. He and engineer Gus Oberg had built it in a barn-shaped building in the Catskills, ninety minutes from Manhattan, and Oberg ended up co-producing.

Which Strokes album was released under a self-imposed media blackout, with no interviews, shows or tour?

Comedown Machine. It completed the band's five-album contract, and the sleeve made a joke of it, with the label's vintage logo stamped across the top.

The Strokes released their 2016 EP Future Present Past through which label?

Cult. The label is Julian Casablancas's own, and it signed his band once their five-album major-label contract had run its course.

Who produced The Strokes' 2020 album The New Abnormal?

Rick Rubin. It was the band's first album in seven years, and Casablancas joked that Rubin waits until you hit rock bottom before deciding he can resuscitate you.

Which Grammy did The Strokes win for The New Abnormal?

Best Rock Album. It was the band's first Grammy, and Julian Casablancas told reporters it was fitting that they won, since he always makes fun of rock'n'roll.

At whose presidential campaign rally did The Strokes announce The New Abnormal in 2020?

Bernie Sanders. The band played his New Hampshire rally that February, debuted a new song, and Casablancas signed off with: 'Album's coming out April 10.'

Who hosted the 2020 Saturday Night Live episode with The Strokes as musical guest?

John Mulaney. He had spent years behind the scenes as one of the show's writers before coming back as a host; this was his fourth turn, and The Strokes' fourth as musical guest.

Which band did The Strokes open for on a 2022 global stadium tour?

Red Hot Chili Peppers. After a summer of American stadium dates together, the headliners booked The Strokes to open again on their 2023 tour.

What is the title of The Strokes' seventh album, released in July 2026?

Reality Awaits. The band announced it for late June, then pushed it back four weeks without giving a reason, six years after their previous album.

Which actor starred in The Strokes' Going Shopping video, a homage to Paul Simon's You Can Call Me Al?

Walton Goggins. The original starred Chevy Chase; Julian Casablancas said no actor had held his attention like Goggins since James Dean and the young Brando.

Steve Schiltz, who stood in for Nick Valensi on The Strokes' 2026 tour, fronts which New York band?

Longwave. Announcing Valensi's temporary break from the tour, the band said many fans would remember Schiltz 'from our early NY days'.

Which Pearl Jam song does Julian Casablancas say first made him want to make music?

Yellow Ledbetter. He said hearing it was 'like the first time I drank', and that without music he would have been a bartender trying to be a writer.

Which Killers song alone survived when Brandon Flowers scrapped the band's material after hearing Is This It?

Mr. Brightside. Flowers said the Strokes record sounded so perfect it left him depressed; Nick Valensi later wondered aloud why that one song outgrew anything of theirs.

Lizzy Goodman's oral history of 2000s New York rock is named after which Strokes song?

Meet Me in the Bathroom. The book charts how the city's scene was reborn through The Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem and Interpol, and it was later filmed as a documentary.

Which Arctic Monkeys song references The Strokes in its lyrics?

Star Treatment. Alex Turner opens the 2018 album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino by confessing he only ever wanted to be one of The Strokes, whose songs his band has covered live.

In which country did The Strokes record their seventh album outdoors on a mountaintop above the ocean?

Costa Rica. Their producer rented a house on top of a mountain and set the band up outside; he said it was like watching them play a concert for the ocean every day.

Which Pixies producer began recording Is This It before The Strokes scrapped the sessions?

Gil Norton. The label wanted the man behind Doolittle, but it did not work out, and Casablancas went back to the unknown who had cut their demo.

Casablancas's father John founded which modelling agency?

Elite Model Management. The connection had cynics writing The Strokes off as rich kids playing at rock, and Julian made his father the one subject interviewers could not raise.

Which Radiohead hit credits the father of Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. as a co-writer after a legal claim?

Creep borrowed its chord progression and melody from The Air That I Breathe, which Albert Hammond co-wrote. After the publisher took legal action, he and Mike Hazlewood were added as writers.

Which future Black Swan star appears alongside Eva Mendes in the video for The Strokes' The End Has No End?

Mila Kunis and Eva Mendes both appear in the clip, which was directed by Sophie Muller and gives the lead role to the band's manager, Ryan Gentles.

The Strokes' song Soma, from Is This It, is named after a fictional drug in which dystopian novel?

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel, has its citizens take soma to stay content. Julian Casablancas used the name for a song about taking drugs to fit in with the cool crowd.

In the video for Someday, The Strokes face the band Guided by Voices on a mock episode of which game show?

Family Feud is recreated with Richard Karn appearing as himself, while Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum of Guns N' Roses also turn up in the clip.

Julian Casablancas of The Strokes guests on Boombox, a track from the 2009 debut album by which comedy group?

The Lonely Island put him on their debut album Incredibad, and he also appeared in the Saturday Night Live Digital Short made for the song.

Before joining The Strokes, guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. was a championship winner as a child in which sport?

Roller skating made him a champion as a boy growing up in Los Angeles. He began playing the guitar at nine.

The drummer of The Strokes moved to New York at three, having been born in which South American city?

Rio de Janeiro was where he lived until his Italian father, a nuclear engineer, took work in New York. They planned to stay three years and remained for seventeen.

Which Australian band played a Strokes cover at Primavera Sound 2022 after The Strokes had to cancel?

Tame Impala played the cover in tribute after a COVID-19 infection forced The Strokes to pull out of the Barcelona festival at short notice.

Strokes singer Julian Casablancas borrowed his solo album title Phrazes for the Young from which Irish writer?

Oscar Wilde wrote Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young, and Casablancas respelled the phrase for the 2009 debut he made during a Strokes hiatus.

Which Beatle's son plays piano and bass on Yours to Keep, the solo debut of Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.?

Sean Lennon adds piano, bass and backing vocals to the 2006 album; the two had been pupils at the same boarding school in Switzerland.

The Strokes took the album title Room on Fire from a lyric in which song, later its second single?

Reptilia supplied the phrase, and its single sleeve shows an alien from the arcade game Centipede.

Which band, then promoting its debut album, supported The Strokes on the 2003–04 Room on Fire tour?

Kings of Leon opened the shows, and bassist Jared Followill has said the title track of Is This It was one of the first basslines he ever learned.

Which singer's solo debut America's Sweetheart has a song addressed by name to The Strokes' Julian Casablancas?

Courtney Love titled the track But Julian, I'm a Little Bit Older Than You; she was born in 1964, he in 1978.

The Strokes recorded The New Abnormal at Shangri-La, a studio in which Californian city hit by 2018 wildfires?

Malibu is where Shangri-La stands, and the studio was left unharmed when the wildfires swept the area. Extra recording for the album took place as far away as Hawaii.

Which London independent label, run by Geoff Travis, released The Strokes' debut EP in January 2001?

Rough Trade had only just been relaunched when Geoff Travis was sent the three-track demo, and the excitement around its release set off a bidding war among major labels.

Which British punk band's song Clampdown did The Strokes cover live at Alexandra Palace for a 2004 B-side?

The Clash released Clampdown on London Calling in 1979. The Strokes' version was taped at a London show meant to become their first live album, which was scrapped over poor sound.

Which English singer-songwriter joined The Strokes at Madison Square Garden in 2011 to perform Taken for a Fool?

Elvis Costello sang it with them on April 1, 2011, and the live recording became the B-side when the song came out as a single that summer.

Strokes singer Julian Casablancas joined Pharrell and Santigold on My Drive Thru for which brand's centenary?

Converse commissioned the 2008 track for its Three Artists, One Song campaign and gave it away as a free download from its website.

Before fronting The Strokes, Julian Casablancas hoped as a boy to play which sport professionally?

Basketball was his first ambition. He never finished high school, later taking music classes at Five Towns College, which he called the first time he enjoyed a classroom.

Which British pop star joined The Strokes on stage at Outside Lands in 2026 to perform Take It or Leave It?

Charli XCX had already worked with Julian Casablancas, who features on the Mean Girls remix from her 2024 Brat remix album.

The Strokes covered Marvin Gaye's Mercy Mercy Me with Josh Homme on drums and which grunge singer on vocals?

Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam shares the vocals with Julian Casablancas on the cover, released in 2006 as the B-side of You Only Live Once.

The Strokes' Eternal Summer gives a writing credit to which British band for echoing their song The Ghost in You?

The Psychedelic Furs released The Ghost in You in 1984, and part of its chorus melody resurfaces in the Strokes song, earning the original writers a credit.

The Strokes' bassist released the 2009 solo album The Time of the Assassins under which stage name?

Nickel Eye was his outlet when the band's hiatus dragged on: he set old poems from a shoebox to music, with Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs guesting on guitar.

Which band did The Strokes' drummer form with Rodrigo Amarante in 2007 and name after a Los Angeles bar?

Little Joy took its name from a cocktail bar near the Echo Park house where the trio, completed by Binki Shapiro, wrote its only album, released in 2008.

Which Los Angeles band did Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi found in 2013, stepping up to sing lead vocals?

CRX released its debut New Skin in 2016, and Valensi has described the sound as a mix of power pop and heavy metal.

Strokes singer Julian Casablancas sang the title track of a 2011 tribute album to which rock and roll pioneer?

Buddy Holly was honoured on Rave On Buddy Holly, which also featured Paul McCartney, Patti Smith and the Black Keys; Casablancas took the song Rave On itself.

The Strokes were promoted to the main stage at T in the Park in 2001 after which American band pulled out?

Weezer withdrew from the Scottish festival, handing the bigger slot to a band whose debut album was not yet in the shops.

The video for the lead single from The Strokes' Room on Fire borrowed its glowing look from which 1980s film?

Tron inspired the mostly black set lit with glowing blue, and a clip of the video closes the later promo for The End Has No End.

Which musician cameos as a base coach while The Strokes play baseball against robots in The Adults Are Talking video?

Beck coaches from the sideline as the band, in custom uniforms, celebrate their only run of the game while losing 56–1.

The Strokes' alternate, anti-war video for You Only Live Once pays homage to which science-fiction film?

2001: A Space Odyssey is the model for the 2007 clip, the first Strokes video directed by Warren Fu, who shaped it as a protest against war, hunger and consumerism.

Which Arrested Development actor plays a radio DJ in the video for the lead single from The Strokes' third album?

David Cross mans a New York radio station in the clip, which was heavily re-edited after its explicit content caused controversy.

Which Oscar-winning actor directed the video for In Transit, a solo song by Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.?

Joaquin Phoenix made the clip for a track from Yours to Keep, the 2006 solo debut recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York.

Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi played on We Are Born and later co-wrote the song Hostage with which pop singer?

Sia used him as a guitarist and hook writer on her 2010 album, and the pair later wrote Best Day Ever for Blondie.

The Strokes' drummer sat in for a week in 2016 with the 8G Band, the house band for which late-night host?

Seth Meyers's house band, led by Fred Armisen, had him behind the kit for a week in April 2016, and he returned in January 2023.

In which country did The Strokes play a 2017 festival set their bassist called their biggest show ever?

Argentina's Lollapalooza pulled in a reported 90,000 people, on a South American festival run that also took the band to Brazil and Chile.

Jeanette Christiansen, mother of Strokes singer Julian Casablancas, won which national beauty title in 1965?

Miss Denmark of 1965 later became an artist, and after her divorce she married the Ghanaian painter Sam Adoquei.

Julian Casablancas of The Strokes says his painter stepfather introduced him to which Los Angeles band?

The Doors were a world away from the Phil Collins-style pop he had grown up with, and he has named them as one of his earliest influences.

The Strokes' When It Started, written to fill a gap on their US debut, is on which 2002 film's soundtrack?

Spider-Man's soundtrack album put the song alongside the Hives, Aerosmith and Chad Kroeger's hit Hero.

The Strokes previewed a new song in a 2021 video backing which candidate for mayor of New York City?

Maya Wiley got the band's endorsement along with a clip of Starting Again, a song co-written with Gregg Alexander that resurfaced under a new title on their seventh album.

The US edition of The Strokes' Is This It replaced the original cover photo with an image of what?

Subatomic particle tracks, photographed in a bubble chamber, took over the sleeve, and part of the same image had already appeared on Prince's album Graffiti Bridge.

The Strokes' Is This It came second in The Village Voice's 2001 critics' poll behind which songwriter's album?

Bob Dylan took first place with Love and Theft in the Pazz & Jop poll, which pooled the votes of 621 reviewers.

Strokes singer Julian Casablancas has described which New York songwriter's work as poetry and journalism?

Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground wrote about drugs, sex and the people around him so matter-of-factly that Casablancas names him as a major influence on his own lyrics and singing.

The Strokes covered Life's a Gas, a song by which New York punk band, as a B-side to Heart in a Cage?

Ramones wrote the original, and the Strokes' version folds in parts of two more of the band's songs, including Don't Go.

Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. is known for wearing which trademark outfit on tour?

A three-piece suit is his signature on stage, and in 2009 he launched his own line of men's suits, co-designed with stylist Ilaria Urbinati.

Which opening track of The Strokes' Angles appeared on the soundtrack of EA Sports' FIFA 12?

Machu Picchu opens Angles, which came out in March 2011, six months before the football game it soundtracked.

Which photographer shot the original cover of The Strokes' Is This It and the band portraits in its booklet?

Colin Lane shot the cover on the spur of the moment, taking only about ten frames, and it later featured in the book The Greatest Album Covers of All Time.

Which producer began recording The Strokes' Angles at Avatar Studios before the band reworked most of it?

Joe Chiccarelli's reserved style frustrated the band, and only one song from his sessions, Life Is Simple in the Moonlight, survived in its original form.

Which semi-hollow guitar, a gift from Albert Hammond Jr., became the main instrument of The Strokes' Nick Valensi?

Epiphone Riviera models fitted with P-94 pickups are his mainstay; he called his the greatest guitar never made, and Epiphone issued a signature version in 2005.

In which city did The Strokes headline the first Indian edition of the Lollapalooza festival in 2023?

Mumbai hosted the festival's first edition in India, one of several the band headlined across the United States, Europe and Asia in 2023.

Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. opened for which British band on its 2008 European tour as a solo act?

Coldplay took him along from the opening night in Strasbourg that September, while he was promoting his second solo album, ¿Cómo Te Llama?.