The Strokes‘ debut album Is This It was first released on 7/30/01. To help us celebrate this 10th Anniversary, we asked some of our favorite indie bands to cover each track. The resulting collection, STROKED: A Tribute To Is This It, is in the spirit of our previous free tribute albums for Radiohead’s OK Computer, R.E.M.’s Automatic For The People, and Bjork’s Post.
Is This It was recorded in NYC at Transporterraum with Gordon Raphael. When it was finally released in the States in the Fall of 2001, a decade after Nevermind, it helped not only put contemporary New York City in the forefront of music lovers’ minds, it offered an easy reference for people to dig backwards into the Big Apple’s rock ‘n’ roll past. For certain younger fans, it was maybe the first time they carefully considered Television (the late ’70s), the Velvet Underground (mid ’60s to early ’70s), and other lesser known garage and rock and whatever bands that inhabited a dirtier, grubbier Manhattan. The title’s pure Richard Hell. The original sexy album cover a minimalist echo of New York Dolls (via Roxy Music). It’s no coincidence that 2001 NYC — eventually, especially Brooklyn — ended up being known for its post-punk revival. (See, for instance, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars, Black Dice, Vice Records’ No New York nodding collection Yes New York, etc.) Is This It was a history lesson, but one with enough new ideas to also offer a roadmap.
In a strange way, Is This It sounded like something entirely new and entirely familiar at the same time. That’s one secret to its appeal. That, and the simple head-nodding hooks on modern classics like “Last Nite,” “Someday,” and “Hard To Explain” are so immediate. It’s a clean, but scruffy collection. It’s honed and tight, but also just loose enough — loose mostly in the presentation. People watching MTV in ’01 won’t forget the first time they saw the way Julian Casablancas didn’t seem to give a shit in the “Last Nite” video. Or how the bands’ minds appeared elsewhere when they performed on Late Night Television. It’s a kind of charisma you can’t teach or practice, one that felt as natural as their messy hair.
The Strokes maybe never topped Is This It, but you can’t blame them for that. Part of the record’s appeal is also the youthfulness of it, something you can’t replicate even a year later. That said, they definitely found a way to bottle it on the album itself: If you listen to it now, 10 years later, it sounds as fresh (and vintage) as ever. Which is maybe why its sound continues to surface in 2011 among both shaggy rock groups, yeah, but also kids with keyboards in their bedrooms and folks wearing sunglasses behind their laptops.
Album Cover
Designed by Seldon Hunt
Downloads
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Liner Notes
Here’s what each act had to say about its contribution and the Strokes influence on them in general:
Peter Bjorn & John – “Is This It”
The only time I have agreed with some of the many, many stupid music journalists in Sweden was when “The Strokes” appeared on a Swedish website about 10 years ago. On of the most stupid journalist said that this new band for New York was the rebirth of rock or something and when I for the first time listened to three of their tracks on this swedish web-page I almost wanted to hit myself in the head with the computer. It was kind of a new thing for me to listen to music on a computer machine and this was the very first time I remember getting goosebumbs from hearing music on such a thing. It´s a strong memory believe it or not and It felt like magic that something this good had been created maybe just some month ago and that I could hear it on my computer at work. The idiot journalist was right, this was amazing and for me it was almost like when I heard “Jump” with “Van Halen” for the first time back in 1984. When we recorded our cover of “Is This It” we didn’t want to do anything crazy or weird like turning the song into a acid jazz P-funk power ballad. We just wanted to play it as good as we could.
- John Eriksson
Chelsea Wolfe – “The Modern Age”
I didn’t know this song well before I was given it to cover, so I listened to it a few times in a row and then started just focusing on the words. This song has great lyrics. I decided to pretend it was an old folk song. When I recorded my cover I was really sick and had taken lots of heavy cough syrup. I sat down with my classical guitar and just played it out, then my bandmate Ben (Chisholm) and I added layers of vocals, drums and juno until it felt slow and heavy like the medicine.
- Chelsea Wolfe
Frankie Rose – “Soma”
To be honest this was the first time had ever actually sat down and listened to the strokes! Maybe that sounds crazy like I have been living in a bush or something, but true! The trick was how best to make the song my own. I decided slowing it down and taking out some of the garage elements might be interesting. Adding a synth was helpful. The harmonies keep the chorus moving forward like the original, and yet totally different. Take note, there is a little homage in the guitar at the end. Can you guess for whom?
- Frankie Rose
Real Estate – “Barely Legal”
Matt, Alex and I – as well as all of our friends – were pretty much obsessed with this band when we were 15. We formed a Strokes cover band and played at Cassie (Ramone)’s sweet 16. When Alex got his first electric guitar, he opted for the white Stratocaster like Albert Hammond Jr. He even had the red lightning bolt strap. The approach to doing this cover was to not make it sound like the original, pretty simple. However, these songs are all arranged so well already that it’s pretty hard to come up with something new. We did a half-time drum beat thing, and then the rest of it just kind of fell into place.
- Martin Courtney
Wise Blood – “Someday”
I was psyched and terrified to get “Someday.” I decided to try and stick with the way the song develops, which I think is 4 parts that progress, fall apart, then start over again. Everything else I sort of switched up, and I tailored the lyrics a tiny bit to better suit me.
- Chris Laufman
Austra – “Alone, Together”
This song was really hard for me to cover because in my opinion the greatest things about it are the performance and the production. It took a while, but ultimately I just made it sound like an Austra song, which is to be expected!
- Katie Stelmanis
the morning benders – “Last Night”
Back when Is This It was released everyone was going crazy over how much The Strokes sounded like VU and Television and Iggy Pop. But to me, there first single “Last Nite” always felt like a Beatles song. The way the rhythmic elements always stay out of the way of the vocal, that one note guitar line a la George Harrison, even Julian’s vocal has that combo of snotty grit and melody that reminds of Lennon. But beyond all that, the reason it really feels like a Beatles song is the structure. It’s classic early-Beatles Lennon, and an approach to pop structure that still hasn’t really been tapped into. There’s no clear verse or chorus, just one main hook and melody. The only other section is a short bridge, that really just acts as a kind of propeller for the main melody, giving it the momentum it needs to come back over and over and over again. That’s good pop! And of course the middle eight is replaced by a guitar solo because, well, they’re the Strokes. For our cover we turned that structure on its head. The sections still occur in the same order, but we have re-imagined them. The main “Last Nite” melody/lyric becomes a proper verse, and the section that used to be a short bridge becomes the proper chorus/hook. At the end everything intersects with each other and we have a melodic party. Pretty fun, right?
- Chris Chu
Owen Pallett – “Hard To Explain”
Is This It is one of my favourite records of all time. I like a band when they’re metronomic with zero dynamics, and they never play the chorus more than twice, and when the vocals are buried. It sounds like efficiency. I read a quote, once, from Regina Spektor, in reference to Is This It:
The thing that blew my mind first hearing the Strokes was that they were the closest I had heard rock come to classical. Their music is extraordinarily orderly and composed.
I post on several message boards — less these days, but still on occasion. Spektor’s statement, which made instant sense to me, was the source of lively online debate. Essentially, people disagreed with Spektor’s quote. What followed was a firestorm of criticism, and many things came into question, from Spektor’s familiarity with rock music to begin with, to the worth of “classical training” in the pop context.
A user named Nabisco posted this in Spektor’s defence:
So far there’s like one person on the thread who’s actually bothered to spend half a second thinking about what [Spektor] seems to mean. (…) As of the first couple albums, at least, there is something almost insanely orderly about the Strokes’ eighth notes, in a way that’s pretty much the opposite of the “raw sloppy rock” tag they once got. I seem to remember Tom Ewing saying it was no surprise to have a drum machine on “Hard To Explain,” since the band always played like they were machined and sequenced anyway. It makes sense that this would be what Spektor means when she says the band is “like Mozart”. (…) It would be nice if there were ever any pull on [this message board] to look at something with the expectation that maybe — just maybe — it will be useful for something better than eye-rolling.
When I was asked to cover “Hard To Explain,” I remembered Spektor’s comment and Nabisco’s response. I re-imagined the Strokes as a piano quintet, and had us all playing hard, fast and mechanical. I can’t sing it as well as Julian, but he’s a really good singer — I think he had might have had lessons — not that it matters.
- Owen Pallett
Heems – “New York City Cops”
Michael Stewart, Eleanor Bumpurs, Amadou Diallo, Patrick Dorismond, Alberta Spruill, Timothy Stansbury, Abner Louima, Sean Bell, Ousmane Zongo, Randolph Evans, Anthony Baez, Clifford Glover, and Fermin Arzou were senselessly beaten or killed by the NYPD while unarmed.
- Himanshu Suri
Deradoorian – “Trying Your Luck”
I was psyched to have a different type of challenge within my daily writing routine. It was nice to have a project that could be viewed more objectively and focus more on what kind of sound I wanted it to have. I love the production of dub/reggae and thought I’d give my own interpretation of that for “Trying Your Luck.” It took a couple of tries to get on the right wave, but I feel it came together in the end. I usually don’t add environmental sounds to songs, or use that kind of instrumentation, so it was fun to put that all in there.
- Angel Deradoorian
Computer Magic – “Take It Or Leave It”
I grew up listening to Is This It in middle school and high school. I think everyone my age did. “Someday” was my ringtone for my old Nokia light up phone for at least three years. I love the Strokes, but I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t. “Take It Or Leave It” has a pretty level headed obvious message to it, it’s one of my favorites.
- Danielle Johnson
Thank You
We wanted to thank Seldon Hunt for designing the cover, Le Chev (Michael Cheever) for mastering the collection, and all the bands who participated. Of course, a big thanks as well to the Strokes for creating Is This It.
Download Stereogum’s Past Tribute Comps
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If there’s any album that deserves this threatment, it was this one. Thanks, Stereogum.
treatment.*
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Good point! Please advise me on my relationship too…we went on our first date in October, but didn’t consummate the relationship until December. When should we celebrate? Also she’s a massive bitch. Please advise.
Ha!
Morning Benders are just killing it! Now that is how you cover a song everyone has heard a gazillion times already.
Was just about to say this. Easily the highlight of the album. So, so good.
agreed. such a fresh take on a classic
really? I actually really dislike their version. hate the way they change up the melody.
I agree with you, matt0009. The autotune killed that one for me.
What the hell is New York City Cops supposed to be? It’s definitely not a cover. Did the artist even know they were supposed to do a cover? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SHIT?
I agree with you completely. Whatever that was, it was awful.
A pair of very ignorant comments.
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Sorry :(
they’re ignorant because they think the song sucks?
I was not attacking their opinion in any way, I really can’t listen to the song either. It was more that they didn’t even try to understand what Heems was doing.
This is really cool and fun to listen to, but for me, only PB&J, Real Estate, The Morning Benders, Owen Pallet really do any justice to the original songs. The Frankie Rose one is good, but kind of tainted by her saying she’s never listened to the band before…and Wise Blood bores up the best melody on the entire record!
Still a fun listen. Thanks for this!
This wasn’t supposed to go here….what??
i hate the cover of last nite. doesn’t even have the cool sticky tune i love so hard. and the one by pb&j hearts my ears. seriously. they got the wrong guitar tab.
I have no problem with the artist doing their own version of it and making New York City Cops a political statement is not a bad idea, but the whole thing just seems very flat. You can’t even hear the sample and it’s so distorted it could just be static and it wouldn’t change the song. Rhymefest did a much better job of sampling The Strokes a few years ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iugJcC-lvso
Sampling is really not the same as a Cover though – I agree that the Heems is the weakest ‘cover’. It’s not a bad song, but it strays way too far from the original source. I think you can eliminate lyrics, and alter the harmonic progression and do so many different things while still being a tribute to the original. But Hip Hop already accepts that the manipulation of music for sampling purposes counts as ‘original material.’ I mean, not exactly, but you know what I mean I think…it just doesn’t bear enough resemblance. Doesn’t make it bad though. Just not really a tribute I don’t think.
I don’t really think it’s meant to be a tribute as much as an extrapolation on the song’s theme. Heems is commenting on how the song was originally removed from the American version of the album due to nationalist, political sentiments after 9/11, and pointing out that though a band of rich white kids could more conveniently put their complaints with NYC police aside for the moment, those from minority communities couldn’t possibly ignore the abuses of the police.
So yeah, it resembles the original mostly just in theme I think. The sample, I agree, is eh. It’s a broad definition of cover, but, hey, I’d rather have interesting material and honest artistic reinterpretations anyway.
julian and fab are LATINOS FOOL haha
NYC Cops was never a protest song by the Strokes though. Julian has done several interviews where he states that line was just filler until he could come up with something better. Eventually it grew on them and they kept it. Listen to the rest of the lyrics, nothing about police brutality in there.
I thought it was cool.
What’s with people on this site and not liking hip-hop. That might have been the best “cover” on the whole tribute, though Final Fantasy can pretty much do no wrong.
It’s a protest song, not so much a cover but a new version. I appreciate the intent. Execution is just okay. I would guess that the strokes might appreciate that take-off from the chorus. I thought a couple of the covers were ok, the rest meh
that was horrible, couldn’t listen to a minute of that bullshit
that Owen Pallett cover……goosebumps, y’all.
YES! blowing my mind
Best one by far in my opinion but I’m a Owen Pallett fanatic
Will Turn on the Bright Lights get the same respect? Nostalgia sounds good.
I instantly thought the same thing. Make it so Number one.
Former Ghosts covering “NYC,” Memoryhouse covering “Untitled,” and…? I don’t know, I like this idea though.
I like this idea a lot.
Turn On The Bright Lights is one of my quintessential albums.
The title track sounds sublime
This is all really quite terrible. I did enjoy Owen Pallett’s comments though. Too bad his song didn’t materialize like he imagined. Every artist on here is devoid of the power to rock… something that Is This It continues to do long after its release.
You’re right, they should have covered the songs exactly like the originals, that would have been interesting!
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kill yourself
how many accounts do you have to get that many +’s?
I’m not the one that sounds bitter guy.
Wait…you actually looked up who I am, because you’re angry that I replied to your comment on a message board and disagreed with you? What a cool guy!
@ jdfreshie : did you really do a 15 minute free jazz interpretation of “jessie’s girl”? That sounds more interesting than 90% of what I listen to on any given day, so I leave a +1 for you.
Real Estate. Barely Legal.
I’m surprised how convincingly they made it a real estate song. perfect cover.
This is one disappointed me, actually. I love Real Estate very much, and Barely Legal was one of my favorite tracks from the original album, but this to me sounds more like Built to Spill circa Keep It Like a Secret. Not my taste.
Wise Blood changed up “Someday” in the best way possible.
no
yes
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I’m going to be honest, my vision went a little blurry after reading this comment.
This is a very beautiful and wonderful take on such a meaningful album in our loves. Each artist has brought its own character and personality to the classic tracks. It’s kind of like the story of the three little piggies where each pig had its own personality and when the wolf came to blow their house down their personalities stood still and the wolf lost.
Well these are artists are the piggies, the songs are their homes, and the wolf is society.
Great cover album. Instantly deleted the poor New York City Cops “cover”.
Amazing!!!
Great job stereogum!
GREAT JOB! Everything right down to the Album Cover! WOOT!
In my opinion, Wise Blood’s cover is a great Wise Blood song, but a terrible Strokes song.
lol what’s that supposed to mean ? It’s a cover so it’s not meant to be a Strokes song…
It’s just ridiculous that this album came out 10 years ago. I can still vividly remember catching the video for “Hard to Explain” before school one day. I’d never heard anything like it before. I had my sister drive me to the mall after school to buy the CD. I don’t know where I got the money. It was probably the fourth or fifth real album I ever bought, but for some reason, the whole process was the most memorable. Defining album.
It’s really nice to hear such wonderful covers from modern musicians that still excite me in the same way the Strokes did in my pimpled youth. Thanks for this, really.
I remember watching their MTV $2 Tour special with my friends around when the album came out too. Nostalgia forever.
The Morning Benders and Owen Pallett are the clear winners here. My version of Is This It didn’t include New York City Cops because of 9/11 or something, so I feel just fine about lopping it off here, too. What a train wreck that was.
Can somebody post this up on mediafire or something. I can never download files from stereogum anymore for some reason. Their links just don’t work for me. Much appreciated if you do.
My bad didn’t know it was at a ZIP at the top. I’m stupid.
This is a great collection, omitting the “cover” of “New York City Cops”. Seriously… There’s hardly any resemblance, other than the chorus.
I like to keep hoping that playing things with feeling will eventually be as cool as playing guitar parts on synths.
PB&J, The Morning Benders, and Deradoorian seem to have managed the most admirable covers. The Wise Blood track is something else entirely and probably the best track here.
I was bummed out with the Deradoorian song. She’s so freaking talented, it felt like a huge let down to hear her do a reggae song.
I kind of agree with you. It’s iffy, but I think overall she handles it with restraint and a good feel.
///p.s., whoever felt the need to downvote me, let me give you something that might actually merit a downvote: (I am doing something you can’t see but is very vulgar.)
Has anybody else realized the ironic lack of guitars on this? I miss rock music :(
That said, Owen Pallett kicks ass.
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Rock music has always been half image. Joe Strummer wasn’t some poor kid rebelling against the world. He was a diplomat’s son and was brought up in a middle class family. The Ramones went out of their way to exploit the macho posturing of ’50s and ’60s teen biker movies to create the leather jacket tough guy image. Malcom McLaren literally created the Sex Pistols to market rebellion to pissed off kids. Springsteen has always played with his blue collar American boy image to sell shit. The notion that it’s inherently wrong to cultivate an image is stupid. It’s been done from the earliest days of rock music, it’s been twisted and exploited by various other genres, and it continues to be done.
I don’t see why people need to keep disowning the band because of the way they presented themselves. The album came out ten years ago, it should only take so long to settle down and actually listen to the music. And besides, a lot of the appeal of rock and roll is in the mystique. Sure, maybe our generation has been too focused on that at some times, but as frustrating as it is it’s still part of the genre.
does your father work in a coal mine or something?
yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwnnnnnnn.
Have to admit while I think the record is perfectly fine I was always a bit surprised that it touched so many people. I always chalked it up to the fact that I was 35 when it came out—maybe it was the moment I realized new rock and roll was for the next batch of kids…
For as good as Is This It was, the Strokes did top it. Their next album, Room on Fire, refined the ideas they had been playing with on the first album and it found a way to work in some new influences. It didn’t have the chart success Is This It had with “Last Nite” and “Hard to Explain,” but I still think it’s the best the thing they’ve ever done.
And please please please give Turn on the Bright Lights this treatment. It’s tied with Funeral as probably my favorite album of the ’00s.
Frankie Rose is so cool saying she’s never listened to them. I’m going to toilet..
its ok she probably doesnt remember past five minutes ago.
Yeah, I hate that whole “Oh, I’ve never listened to that” attitude. That’s fine if she hasn’t, but to emphasize it in a tiny little paragraph about a tribute album is tacky. This is supposed to celebrate the original album.
And yet, I feel like her cover of Soma is one of the highlights of the whole tribute. Ironic. I really feel like it restates the original song “in a new way,” so to speak. She does away with the trademark riff, and creates her own, and it’s awesome! JC was talking about how it would be cool if they covered some of these, and I personally really hope they cover Frankie’s “Soma.”
The Strokes just make it sound so effortless and easy, and most of these sound like artists trying really hard. I guess slacker garage rock isn’t that cool anymore, which is ironic considering that was pretty much The Strokes’ whole game. I also found it funny that Chelsea Wolfe specifically stated how good the lyrics to The Modern Age are, and then proceeded to completely bury them so deep that you can’t understand them. Maybe I am just bitter that there are zero live instruments on at least half of these songs :(
I’m going to go listen to Is This It now.
Nick, yeah, not to down with the Chelsea Wolfe version. Trying too hard. Just play the damn song. Doesn’t do the song much justice.
I like the “Is this It” cover the most, but that’s also my favorite Strokes song.
I saw Tokyo Police Club and Two Door Cinema club do a fantastic live cover of Last Nite together. Would have loved to hear a studio version of that.
havnt listened to the covers yet, should be interesting…all i’m thinking beforehand is ‘good luck’ cause trying to copy their two guitarist’s chops ain’t gonna be easy:)
I don’t know, this just isn’t good. Would much rather hear the original. Moren’s voice makes me want to put my head through a wall.
jeezus, you could’ve asked Lupefiasco to do NYCC! fuck, god damn it. the thing sucks. it even sucks than the Someday cover. TRIPLE. holy shit.
I miss the guitars. And also, it’s frustrating to read the liner notes and find out some of the bands don’t even know the songs they’re covering well, or that they had just discovered them. There are plenty of groups out who loved this band, and that would probably be more than happy to do something like this.
Agree with you!!! in fact i think its a bad album, i mean when you do a cover it´s because you love too much some band no just because, there was a lack of passion so the music it´s average…too bad in my opinion
You should write the dictionary definition of “Cover song”! You nailed it on the head, are you a musician?!!
Whoa, back off. I realize you’re a “musician” (which is completely irrelevant), but I totally agree that you should cover a song because you LIKE it. Any other reason mucks it up.
i hate the fact most of them didn’t even know the songs or even like them. that explain why most of them sucks.
Though I like the cross-genre experimentation thing in theory, I can’t help but wish that most of the songs that got the hybrid treatment were just done by bands with a good electric guitarist in them. Can you imagine what the Black Lips, King Khan & The Shrines, Times New Viking, etc., might have done with the songs that Heems, Deradoorian, and Chelsea Wolfe transformed with little added value?
Granted, I like the morning benders and Final Fantasy cuts, and Soma now sounds like a nice little Saturday afternoon track by Tennis, but other than that, I would have loved to have heard what a shit-kicking garage rock group might have done. Oh well. Maybe next year when you do Guitar Romantic.
Oh, nu-uh. You did not just suggest that Black Lips and Times New Vikings are better at guitar than Angel Deradoorian.
Do some homework.
I disagree. That would be trying to beat the Strokes at their own game. Take Arctic Monkeys trying to cover “Take it or Leave It” (you can find the vid on youtube)– they do a decent job, but they certainly don’t improve upon the song… bear in mind that Arctic Monkeys are right up there with the Strokes in terms of song-craft and musicianship, but they can’t out-Strokes the Strokes. YYY, on the other hand, might be interesting…
Have to agree about the Heems cover though–the sentiment of the song moved me, but it just wasn’t New York City Cops. Would somebody please cover that song so that I can go back about my business again?
Just realized there’s no “When It Started” cover! That was one of my favourites!
I made the mistake of reading the liner notes whilst downloading, and perhaps that’s why I just wasn’t feeling any of the songs once I listened to them. This knowledge that half of these artists had never really listened to The Strokes just ruined it for me. I don’t believe you can effectively cover a song if you’ve never heard it before or if there’s no emotional connection to it. I’m sure there are dozens of bands who owe their entire existence to The Strokes and to Is This It — were they all just too busy to contribute?
I admit I have no clue how the artists are chosen for these cover albums, and I imagine that a lot goes into the production of these things and for that I am grateful, but this one just missed the mark. It did make me dig out my old copy of Is This It, though, so I think it served it nostalgic purpose.
for real! if you are asked to cover such an influential album and you have never heard the material, pleeeease pass it on to someone else. there isn’t a shortage of awesome musicians who love that album
holy fucking satan! – it seems like half of you readers in here just want to hear the original album again!
The funny thing with a cover is that it’s often tipped around and put in a completely different context – just take it for a fresh take on a completely garage rocking band!
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Good advice! Here’s what you should totally do: Get a bunch of high profile bands to record, for free, covers of an album you like. Go ahead James! You’re our only hope!
I hate to break it to you but PB&J are waaaaay bigger (massive crossover hit,sampled by kanye) than deerhunter.Even Real Estate is where deerhunter was just a few years ago. If asking Bradford Cox to make one of the 10 demos he shits out daily a Strokes cover is too much to ask I’m sorry.
What in god’s name are you talking about? My point was that you can’t get what you want because you didn’t do it. Stereogum did it. Because they wanted to. And shared it with you. For free. Why do I care who is bigger than who, and what does that even mean? They sell more records? Because you think they’re bigger? Who are you?
I dont have to be involved emotionally in the tribute to critisize it. Whatever counter culture delusions you may have, if they can get a famous and critically acclaimed band like PB&J it stands to reason that they could get more relavent and enthusiatic musicians than Frankie Rose. That they failed in this only reflects poorly on Stereogum.
Stereogum knows the significance demographic of failed musicians that get thier rocks off making snarky comments to satiate their deficient egos. I assume they are willing to brave my critique if it means they get to have your gems : )
Cool critique. I’ll say it again though, since you keep responding to things that nobody said:
Since you didn’t like the thing that was free of cost and that nobody forced you to listen to, I suggest you put time and effort into making your own thing that you want, and getting high profile bands to do it. It’s really easy apparently.
to say its “free” and noone is being forced to watchn detracts from the massive commercial and critical influence that websites like stereogum and pitchfork have over the music scene. Thats why so many musicians resent them.
Well. It is free, and you didn’t have to “Watchn” it.
And no offense to Stereogum or Pitchfork, but they don’t have the critical influence you think they have, nor do I know of any musicians that resent them for putting time and effort into writing in-depth about them. They aren’t Freemasons, guy. They have earned whatever critical influence they have because they are good critics.
then why aren’t you famous ?
Haha! Dude, I just finished my self-released, debut album 2 months ago. I get national radio in Canada. I’m just starting out, that’s why I’m not famous. You’re lots of fun!
I’m sure your steve winwood cover will make you the next big canadian thing. However, you better learn to be pretty unoffensive fast. For a variety of arbitrary reasons they wont hesitate to question your authenticity to undermine your actual music.
I find it hilarious that people have forgotten all the shit pitchfork gave the strokes( for being handsome, for being rich,for having an image, having influences) only to a few years later suggest that the blatant musical appropriation and calculated classist image of vampire week were totally “punk rock” and iconoclast.
I wouldnt worry though. You obviously know how to kiss the right asses.
Thanks for checking out my music and thanks for the advice. You’re super wise, why aren’t you working in the music industry?
I just find it strange that a supposed fan of The Strokes would endorse a web site that refered to Julian Casablancas as a 3rd rate Lou Reed.
Real Estate is awesome… I can’t wait for a band like The Strokes to come out, I mean, I was 7 when the album came out and I now realize how is it revolutionary, but I think that should have been a incredibly exciting moment to live if you love music…
What? No whistling in the Peter Bjorn and John track?
Damn! Real Estate blow my mind in barely legal! fucking amazing!
Signed Sealed Delivered! really no one else heard it?
theres so many comments hear I don’t even wanna know what people are bitching about. solid cover album, good mix of sticking with the original (is this it) and doing something totally different (new york city cops)
if either of those are too extreme to one side for you then please for the sake of this world stick to bulletin boards and never pick up an instrument
Didn’t like the Morning benders track, I guess I was expecting too much from them
It seems some people seem to think Stereogum owes us something? Like, they need to be able to read our minds and give us not just a FREE FUCKING ALBUM OF WELL KNOWN MUSICIANS COVERING A REALLY GOOD ALBUM, but THE free fucking album that we all want to hear.
I don’t know, I’d say “thank you” Stereogum because not only did I like this, but I hope you do more of these.
see those 3 braun cruser adds? you know they get paid for that right?
YES WE DO. Dude…if you don’t like this site, why are you here?
Yo, here is how the internet works: Websites provide content. They pay to provide it. Money, or money in the form of employable time comes out of their pockets/schedule to create it.
If they get a lot of visitors, they can sell ads on the site. The cost of the viewer (you) to enjoy the content is you have to put up with ads. They are not really that bad. But if you don’t like the ads, you don’t have to pay the (essentially free) cost.
Nothing is free. You don’t just get access to things because you are entitled to them (you aren’t.)
Everything that is ‘free’ provides content works this way. Radio works this way. Television works this way even though you have to pay for the cable.
So if you don’t like the content AND you don’t like the ads, go somewhere where the content is 100% free (they are called libraries) and then you don’t have to deal with ads or listen to songs you don’t like.
nah i think i’ll just take a nother dump in your mouth. nice wall of text btw.
When did you take a dump in my mouth? That’s gross dude. Please don’t do that.
+because thats the only way i can explain all the shit that comes out your mouth whenever someone has a different opinion than you : p
WILL YOU TWO JUST FUCKING STOP IT??
JESUS.
Chelsea Wolfe, Frankie Rose and Heems are assholes. And Wise Blood…WTF?
Reading each comment from each band makes me understand why some “covers” sucked so bad.
Morning Benders, Owen Pallette and Reals State did the best job for me.
Chelsea Wolfe….really?
Heems – “New York City Cops” that… “cover” ? wtf
Peter Bjorn & John – “Is This It” – I like it, great cover .
anyway it should sound less personal way and more The Strokes way.
New York City Cops sucks :(
understatement!
um, EXCUSE ME but where is “When It Started”? This is bullshit.
That song replaced NYCC on the ‘merican version… So it wasn’t part of the original release (the UK version). Sorry. Too bad we didn’t really get a cover of either song.
Owen Pallett’s cover is so good, sounds more like ‘He Poos Clouds’ than ‘Heartland’, which I was disappointed with after waiting so long for it… love how he buries his vocals in the mix, almost like water colour vocals… after ‘peach, plum, pear’, this dude really knows how to do a good cover!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q02ompQhtY8&feature=related
Two things:
1) He Poos Clouds is an amazing album, but Heartland is an unmitigated masterpiece. I can’t fathom how it could have been disappointing!
2) Owen did an amazing cover of Game of Pricks for AV Club Undercovers, if you haven’t you should check it out! http://www.avclub.com/articles/owen-pallett-covers-guided-by-voices,38886/
That’s a nice cover! although I’ve never heard the original, so I’m not weighed down by any association with it.
Don’t get me wrong man… I think heartland was pretty good.. I love certain songs on the albu,. but others leave me a little cold… sometimes it feels to me that the electronics overwhelm the songs too much.
I like it when he uses his violin to drive the songs, since this gives him a unique sense of time… almost classical in the way it moves.. and I felt like heartland, at times, lost what was unique about his songs, and made them a little too bland
‘Red Sun no.5′ for example, sounds more like Owen Pallett trying to write a Grizzly Bear/Department of Eagles song, while sacrificing what’s unique about him.
‘But on the other hand, Oh Heartland Up Yours!’ and ‘Lewis Takes Action’ are two of his best songs.
I do understand that he can’t make the same album over an over again (or at least, shouldn’t), and don’t blame him for stretching his sound, and adding new elements… I just felt like he didn’t quite pull it off at times on Heartland, while maintaining what is already unique in his sound
In other words, noone else writes songs like the ones he wrote on ‘He Poos Clouds’ and ‘Has a good home’.. and now, not even he does… and i wish someone would.
This was not good.I went into listening to this with an open mind.Because I know that everyone is their own artists.But this defeats the purpose of Is This It completely.Its incredibly autotuned.Is This It is such a beautiful album because it brought back that amazing sound that everyone needed,Minus any autotuned sound.Its really disappointing.Theres only two songs that I could say were good but all the rest are absolutely ridiculous.This has nothing to do with the artists or me having a closed mind.Its about the fact that this cover album is just overall insulting & did not support any of the points with music that the Strokes made with modern music at the time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-Tune
Check it out. It will explain what auto-tune is!
Also – I’m still confused (by most of the comments on this page, actually) at how an album of covers can be insulting to anyone.
Okay, so an artist writes a song. And they record and release the song in an arrangement they like, with an instrumentation they like at a tempo they like, in the key they prefer. But really, a song is an organization of melodies and chords and lyrics. The recording is static. There’s no way to alter it once it’s on the record and released. But the song itself is not static.
You can’t duplicate a composition. Even classical musicians, following dynamics and accents to a tee, add their own nuance and personality to a thousand year old symphony. Anytime a song is repeated, even by the band themselves playing a live version of their recording – that is a cover. They aren’t duplicating the recording. There are many variables at play during a live performance. If the Strokes themselves wanted to re-record the album, it would not be the same as the Is this It you all have a copy of. It would be different.
Traditionally, in western music, covering songs is not “doing a tribute to the original artist.” In fact, the term “Cover song” originally referred to a rival artist trying to record a hit song before an artist on another label released it. And throughout the years, it’s been a way for artists to present their personal take on songs, performing a familiar or favourite composition in a different unique style.
It seems that a lot of commenters here are looking for cover bands whose M.O. is to sound just like the Strokes. None of the artists who contributed to this recording are cover bands. Their goal is not to sound like someone else. So to feel like this is an insult, or that they owe you a replicate, or that they’ve failed in any way is missing the point entirely.
Traditionally in western music, you’re an asshole.
I really like “New York Cops” but it’s probably because I Heems rules and I’ve never actually heard anything off the original album. Why haven’t I listened to this album before? No idea.
dude.
go. now. listen.
report back after recovering from the sonic punch in the face that is this album.
Wait! He might die from culture shock! Like a caveman suddenly brought into our time, or a cat that slips through the door after 5 years to finally discover that there is a place with no ceiling!
Contender for the top albums of the year compilation. Austra particularly nailed it.
Chelsea Wolfe – fantastic. Love the sludgy bass. And the chorus is magical.
Am I the only one who thought pretty much everyone killed it? I’m not getting what seems to be offending everyone. Thank you stereogum for delivering again and again
lol julian tweeted this
Everybody’s been singing the same song for -exactly- 10 years.
it’s like a car crash……and it’s really going in slow motion.
So good “Last Night” cover by the Morning Benders !!! Good job from Owen Pallett, Wise Blood and Computer Magic too.
And the award of the biggest waste goes (without a doubt) to the reagge-like “Trying Your Luck”… so sad, it’s one of the greatest track of the real album, and such a waste, why did it have to be reagge ?
Anyway, great stuff overall ! Thanks to all artists !
more free shit,,, you guy’s are the dogs bollocks ! kudos, :)
ps Austra , Alone, Together is ,great !!
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see
Yes, the songs will sound different. Yes, they won’t be as excellent as the original songs (which is a given, it’s The Strokes). But that doesn’t mean that a different approach to a piece of music means they can’t play it. I’m sure The Strokes played covers when they were fifteen, and they’ve admitted they were pretty bad. Does that mean they should’ve stopped playing?
I’m not saying I liked every song on this cover album. It’s just.. these artists have a different style to The Strokes, and they’re incorporating that in. We don’t have to think it’s fantastic, but we shouldn’t demean the music just because of our taste (comparing a group like Computer Magic to an app is a bit below the belt if you ask me, and I’m not even that fond of their music).
We just need to open our minds a bit and see a piece of music as more of a plastic thing, depending on whose hands are moulding it.
boorrrinng
The Modern Age cover is horrendous, but most of them are pretty good, and the Peter Bjorn and John cover is fantastic
It seems like Stereogum simply screwed up when picking artists to do some of these. PB&J, Real Estate, The Morning Benders, Owen Pallet, Deradoorian, and Computer Magic all did admirable covers. Even Frankie Rose’s take on “Soma” is ok.
But the other artists lost sight completely of what a cover is meant to be/do. Yes, you’re supposed to make the song your own, but you are NOT supposed to make the song unrecognizable to the people who like it. That is what Chelsea Wolfe, Wise Blood, and Heems did especially. I can barely tell if “Modern Age” and “Someday” are buried under whatever those two were doing, and Heems didn’t even try to make a cover (but he is half of Das Racist, so what did we really expect?). These tracks really weigh down what could have been a fun record by taking three of the best songs on it (Someday in particular) and ruining them by taking any semblance of The Strokes out of the equation. Chelsea Wolfe said she didn’t even really know the damn song before covering it, SO WHY WAS SHE ASKED TO COVER IT.
Ugh. The Strokes cover band at my school would have done a better job.
Basically all of the fun was taken out of the record because some of the artists looked at it as a showcase for their individual meanderings, rather than what it actually is: a TRIBUTE to The Strokes.
I think this is all actually pretty well said and fairly argued.
Can we have mediocre bands do tribute albums for great bands EVERY week? Or is just like a once-in-a-while kind of thing?
Way to fuck up a brilliant record Stereogum. My 4 year old niece could have done this better. “NYC Cops” is especially shitty.
This is probably one my favorite albums of all times and I’m offended at how horrible these tracks are. Good way to ruin a great thing. I hate when people do crap like this.
I credit these bands for trying to put a new spin on a great album. But I’m disappointed in how far a departure it is from the original. I doubt many fans of The Strokes’ Is This It will enjoy this, unless their tastes have changed greatly.
I don’t get why people like that shitty Owen Pallet version of Hard to Explain. The keyboard fake violin sounds are too loud and the singing is mediocre.
some of the covers are decent, but ultimately its rather flat and dull overall. it really highlights, if anything, how exciting and brilliant the strokes were and still are.
I didn’t like this at all. And yeah, you can criticize me on being small minded, but in my mind there is no other album that has been more significant to my youth and growing years as this album. Same is said for most of the people I surround myself with. I sometimes dig covers if they are well done and stay true to the artist, but none of these covers rocked at all, and, for me, the Strokes were pure rock n roll when this album was made. It’s like a favorite hang out spot you have in your hometown that the city just rolls through and decides to turn into a radioshack and you don’t know what the hell, but you’re sad and you just don’t want that radioshack there at all.
It’s as if someone knew thet exact things I loved about this album, and made a list so that NONE of these musicians would include them in these covers.
I love a lot of these bands/artists. But I do not love this tribute. Quite the opposite actually.
…just listening now..didn’t like all covers…
the first one, Peter Bjorn & John – “Is This It” – I like it!
Ecstatic as a Strokes fan that a tribute album was made of one of my favorite albums of all time!
Peter Bjorn and Johns rocked “Is This It”, and they’re on tour for their new LP Gimme Some. NYC area get to the Music Hall of Williamsburg show on 9/15! Besides for an awesome show, your inner hipster will be in heaven!
I do not like The Strokes, but I’m glad to see Wise Blood did the “Someday” cover.
This just goes to show how much everyone wishes they were in The Strokes
To be honest is the first time i sat and listen to The Strokes… Strokes who? Awww right a rock band from NY, they remember me to folk music, mmmmmm so i am going to play my acoustic guitar. I hope this won’t mean i am mainsteram or something.. fuck… Is so quiet here, in my room, hope i don’t have to go out ever, stereogum i hate you!
Oh please, I just discovered this way too late. Can anyone send me the files? ctsinclair at gmi7 c0m
I loved the album!
http://www.bestwesterncluj.ro
Your covers album is called ‘Stroked’, maybe ‘A Bunch of Strokers’ would have been a more appropriate title. For has there ever been a band more over-rated than The Strokes? As well as sounding like a load of Television B-sides they had some staggeringly banal lyrics, plus as a result of these tools we are still having to live through a Converse All-Stars revival.
I remember listening to ‘Is This It’ when it came out and thinking that their album title is actually an anagram of ‘it is $hit’. If there hadn’t been any Strokes we wouldn’t have had to cut off our ears to halt The Libertines or Kings of Leon or all sorts of skinny-jean no-marks who followed as rock was apparently rehabilitated (it was news to some of us that it had ever gone away….) That would presumably been a hoary beer-belch version of rock rather than anything new or exciting.
I’m astonished that Stereogum, which is normally a fairly lively blog, has been involved in this travesty. I am finding it difficult to imagine a band / album less deserving of such homage.
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I really, really want a copy of this. Anybody know where it’s still available?