"NEW YORK CITY COPS" THE STROKES (2001)

For the month of November, I’ll be selecting songs in conjunction with the music Twitter challenge: #WelcomeToTheOccupation.

Timing is everything, isn’t it? When 9/11 happened, everyone remembers everything changing. But if you’re a New Yorker, you can amplify that sense ten-fold. For months on end, New Yorkers were different. Kinder. More human. We were in it together. Anyone who lived in NYC at the time can attest to this. It’s why an up-and-coming band scouring Lower Eastside bars and venues decided to remove “New York City Cops” from their groundbreaking debut album U.S. release. It was just the right thing to do.

“New York City Cops” doesn’t put officers in the best light to say the least. In the chorus, Casablancas espouses, “New York City cops, but they ain’t too smart”. It’s a great song, but it was just bad timing because the cops, firefighters and first-responders were mega heroes in our eyes at the time. The song has taken on a life of its own as part of the double a-side single “Hard To Explain / New York City Cops”. Decades later, it’s hands down one of the great, early Strokes anthems that seems almost better for not being on the debut album.

“I got to come clean but the authorities they've seen Darling, I'm somewhere in between.”

"IS THIS IT" THE STROKES (2001)

A great title track is par for the course when it comes to great albums. If the title track doesn’t cut it, what does that say about the album itself? This month, the Mental Jukebox will be playing some of my favorite title tracks – inspired by @NicolaB_73’s music Twitter challenge, #TopTitleTracks.

The first time I heard the debut album from The Strokes, I was riding up from S.F. to Lake Tahoe with an old high school buddy. We had nonstop tracks blasting in the car and fresh tracks waiting for us on the mountain. The music was cranked up to the point where you almost felt a little nauseous. And this was the album I’ll always associate with that trip. I’ve heard The Strokes described as the band that saved rock & roll. I don’t think it’s too much of an exaggeration either. When I heard that album, I had a feeling inside that all was good with rock music. That there was direction, an identity. And, of course, it all started with the title track.

“Is This It” is the thesis statement to the whole masterpiece that is one of the strongest debut albums of the decade. It wasn’t the biggest hit by any stretch. But it was the introduction to the raw, minimally produced garage sound that is The Strokes. This sound helped steer the New York concert scene in the early 2000s, and now there’s even a movie about it that documents the era when The Strokes, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and others took command of the music scene. “Is This It” sounded vaguely familiar and entirely fresh at the same time.

“Oh dear, can't you see? It's them it's not me. We're not enemies. We just disagree.”

"TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT" THE STROKES (2001)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

I’ve written before about my initial discovery of Is This It, The Stroke’s tour de force of a debut album. It was inside a friend’s car on a ride up to Lake Tahoe from S.F. It was the best album we heard on the way to our ski trip. The album was loaded with assurance that rock music was thriving. The unique way in which The Strokes took old school elements of garage rock and combined them with a post-punk outlook was brilliant. It was derivative, yet fresh, powering all the way through to the closer, “Take It Or Leave It”.

It’s one last track to kick you in the ass and onto the floor. Written almost like a finale on a concert set list, the song just flat out rocks. The guitars are manic and relentless – and Casablancas sings and screams in repetition like he’s drilling into our heads that we’re not paying attention. Look, no one ever said the lyrics were brilliant. But the juvenile approach captures the emotions just right. And that’s the genius of the album and what makes The Strokes, The Strokes. Sometimes it’s just exactly what you need.

“Leave me alone. I'm in control. I'm in control. And girls lie too much. And boys act too tough. Enough is enough.”

"IS THIS IT" THE STROKES (2001)

Great album openers get the listeners to keep on listening. They can do this in any number of ways. Some openers set the tone by easing us in. Others jump right in and blow our minds from the very beginning. A great album opener isn’t an easy thing to create. More than a great song, it’s all about the sequence. Track 1 has to be the perfect starter. This month, I’m highlighting my favorites. #AlbumOpeningSongs

The first time I heard the debut album from The Strokes, I was riding up from S.F. to Lake Tahoe with an old high school buddy. We had nonstop tracks blasting in the car and fresh tracks waiting for us on the mountain. The music was cranked up to the point where you almost felt a little nauseous. And this was the album I’ll always associate with that trip. I’ve heard The Strokes described as the band that saved rock & roll. I don’t think it’s too much of an exaggeration either. When I heard that album, I had a feeling inside that all was good with rock music. That there was direction, an identity. And, of course, it all started with the title track.

“Is This It” is the thesis statement to the whole masterpiece that is one of the strongest debut albums of the decade. It wasn’t the biggest hit by any stretch. But it was the introduction to the raw, minimally produced garage sound that is The Strokes. This sound helped steer the New York concert scene in the early 2000s, and now there’s even a movie about it that documents the era when The Strokes, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and others took command of the music scene. “Is This It” sounded vaguely familiar and entirely fresh at the same time.

“Oh dear, can't you see? It's them it's not me. We're not enemies. We just disagree.”

"TRYING YOUR LUCK" THE STROKES (2001)

Each day in December, I’ll be reflecting back on a song from the 2000’s. The decade saw the return of post-punk and the popularization of folk music, all while some of music’s biggest acts gained their indie footing. Thankfully, it’s a period that I can look back at fondly without cringing. #31DaysOf2000sSongs

I discovered Is This It and the garage rock-drenched world of The Strokes on I-80 East, the freeway that connects S.F. to Lake Tahoe. I was in my high school buddy’s beat-up car with our ski gear on top and the tunes blasting from all sides of the rickety car. We talked about life, listened to old favorite bands of ours, and also relished some of favorite new ones, including The Strokes. Is This It was a tight, consistent album with many renowned post-punk revival anthems vying for our attention, including the title track, “Someday”, “Hard to Explain” and, of course, “Last Nite”. But one of the more underrated tracks on the album is the second to last song: “Trying Your Luck”.

I’ll take “Trying Your Luck” over any of the aforementioned classics any day. It was perfect mid-tempo malaise, perhaps the saddest, slowest song on the album. But it was genius in that The Strokes didn’t compromise their trademark sound in recording a song that some would say is extremely counterintuitive for the band. It still peaked and rocked. Casablancas’s distortion-soaked vocals go from somber to tortured as he launches headlong into the chorus, which is a perfect handoff for the song’s signature rhythm guitar riff and the iconic bass line. After all these years, “Trying Your Luck” is the one Is This It track that I look back at most fondly.

“I know this is surreal, but I'll try my luck with you. This life is on my side.”

"IS THIS IT" THE STROKES (2001)

The first time I heard this album I was riding up from S.F. to Lake Tahoe with an old high school buddy. We had nonstop tracks blasting in the car and fresh tracks waiting for us on the mountain. The music was cranked up to the point where you almost felt a little nauseous. This is the album I’ll always associate with that trip. And the title track is the thesis statement to the whole masterpiece. It wasn’t the biggest hit by any stretch. But it was the introduction to the raw, minimally produced garage sound that is The Strokes.

“Oh dear, can't you see? It's them it's not me. We're not enemies. We just disagree.”