Never mind the quality, feel the Strokes

It would make sense that Albert Hammond Jr is designing suits for Ryan Gosling, wouldn't it? I mean, there's no way that Albert Hammond Jr should be concentrating a bit more on the day job instead of drawing some suit designs, as, clearly, The Strokes can take care of themselves.

Downloadable: Is This It? (Not quite)

Ten years on from the release of Is This It, Stereogum have rounded up a bunch of bands to produce a tribute-y, cover-y thing.

It runs from Homebase's Peter Bjorn and John doing the title track, through to Computer Magic doing Take It Or Leave It. Go download, and remember to say "thank you, Stereogum".

The Strokes pull a crowd

After DFA1979's over-subscribed SXSW date, last night it was The Stroke's turn to try to cram more people than possible into a physical space - although the cops weren't called this time, luckily. They were playing a 25,000-strong venue, too, so having people outside trying to get in was quite a feat.

Clearly, none of the people scrambling up the fence had heard the new album.

The Strokes - more generous than the NME

The Strokes announce a free gig and... erm, the NME is selling tickets. What?

Was that really it?

Oracular Spectacular at 100 and Is This It at number one? someone's gonna be in trouble when they realise the NME has run its Top 100 albums of the decade back-to-front.

Casablancas alone

In a world not exactly desperately waiting for a new Strokes album, news reaches us that causes a wobble:

Good morning,

I wanted to let you know that Julian Casablancas is readying his solo debut, Phrazes for the Young, scheduled for release this fall on Cult Records/RCA. Casablancas plans to announce a special series of U.S. dates shortly, to be followed by a solo tour later in the year.

There's a photo too - or a picture, or... well:

Uh... yes. The image is by Williams + Hirakawa. Yes.

It's due for release in the autumn, so expect a late-summer leak followed by a scrabbled-forward release date.

Waiter! Waiter! This soup tastes like it's been standing about doing nothing for seven years

The NME reports that Julian Casablancas is about to open a restaurant:

Julian Casablancas turns restaurateur

The Strokes’ frontman Julian Casablancas is set to open a restaurant in Los Angeles, and will DJ at the official launch tomorrow (October 13).

Really? He's opening a restaurant with the money he made from Is This It and... well, from Is This Is?

Casablancas is among a string of well-known faces to invest in the venture, including Mark Ronson, actors Gerard Butler, Danny Masterson, Chris Masterson and Laura Prepon and DJ Steve Aoki.

Ah. So he's a shareholder that just happens to be playing the opening night.

It's called Shin and its menu is Korean BBQ. Trendy BBQ joint in Hollywood with Casablancas playing records. If SlimFast could bottle that idea, they'd have the perfect appetite suppressant.

Strokes side-projects expand again

We're hoping the Guardian will do one of its nifty wallcharts to help us keep track of all the Strokes side projects: now, Fabrizio is doing something:

with his girlfriend, Binki Shapiro, and their singer-guitarist pal Rodrigo Amarante, who used to play in Brazilian indie-rock group Los Hermanos.

Apparently the project, Little Joy, sounds like wall of sound girl groups - which is tantalising if true.

Plimsole company ups sell-out stakes

Advertising. It's tricky, isn't it? Do you accept cash from advertisers, or do you starve?

Still, at least it's possible to take the money and still retain some of your dignity. Sometimes. Though that's not what Santogold, Pharrell and Julian Casablancas have done, taking the cash and doing a wouldn't-have-happened-without-the-ad collaboration for Converse:

Geoff Cottrill, chief marketing officer for Converse, said "My Drive Thru" ties in comfortably with Converse's heritage of aligning with the independent minded. "We call them optimistic rebels," he said. "They're the core of what our brand stands for -- being an advocate and catalyst for creativity. ... We wanted these guys to come together, create a piece of music and share it with anyone who wanted it."

The independent minded who all wear the same shoes and the optimistic rebels who make a song because a multinational company pay them money. Yes, we've heard of them.

You can hear the song on stereogum but, really, we'd recommend you choose your own shoes and give it a miss.

Helsinki, oh lord: It's not exactly a supergroup

Drew McConnell, Albert Hammond Jr and - oh, my - Fionn Regan have been working together on a side-project badged as Helsinki. Drew explains:

"I did four tracks a couple of months back with Albert Hammond, Jr. from The Strokes and Fionn Regan.

"I've had a few labels talking to me about the possibility of releasing it.

"We all needed it, Albert had been on tour with his solo thing and he was a little tired.

"It was good for everyone to get in the studio for a few days and have some beers and make some good music.

"When I play with Helsinki, it's more for fun. Not that Babyshambles isn't fun, but I take it more seriously."

"Not worrying if a label was going to be happy with it or whether an A&R man was gonna check if the chorus came in, in the first 40 seconds."

We wonder if Drew would like to add some sort of disclaimer lest we all get the impression that Doherty's muse actually plays second fiddle in shaping the Babyshambles sound to what the A&R think about the chorus. He doesn't, mind.

Is that it?

If you've ever wondered about the cover of the Strokes Is This It - and apparently it's "controversial" - Goldenfiddle's posted a Vimeo feature with a woman who was the then girlfriend of photographer Colin Lane, talking about how the shot came about:



Yes, it does stop after a minute and give way to a Strokes song playing over a black screen. And, yes, far from revealing who the woman was, she still remains an unknown person. I suppose having a face is a step on from just being a bit of a body, but it's still all a bit reductive.

The Strokes have "no idea"- official

Albert Hammond Jr is clueless about what's going to happen next with the Strokes, he tells Pitchfork:

Pitchfork: So of course, I've gotta ask: What's the status of the next Strokes album?

AHJ: No idea, man.

Hammond vaguely denies that the band have split, claiming they're all "still friends", but seems more interested in his next solo album - oh, and his new "good friend" Sean Lennon.

Employing our handy rule of thumb, we reach for the formula:
(formerly modish band)+(relative of a Beatle)=band past prime

Strokes Pulp

Albert Hammond Junior is using the Strokes hiatus to add another string to his bow (or, perhaps, to just restring entirely): He's got an almost go-ahead from Linda Bukowski to adapt her husband Charles' Pulp into a movie - providing, of course, he can interest a studio.

Won't do a stroke til 2008

They're hardly the most industrious of bands, so I guess we should just be grateful they found someone to tell us they've decided that's it for the year:

TheStrokes.com is offline while it goes under construction and will return with a brand new design. The message boards are still available to access. The website will return on May 29th.

The band are still enjoying some much needed 'off time'. I wouldn't expect anything to come out this year.

In the meantime, they are staying busy pursuing some other personal interests and are busy working/writing/rehearsing and all those things bands do in between albums. But, there are no immediate plans to release an album or tour for the time being.

Of course, it was a similar period of inactivity that led to Liberty X giving up the ghost, although, admittedly, the Strokes won't have to face the trouble of fitting into a PVC skintight jumpsuit after eighteen months of daytime TV and cup-a-soup.

Another one bites the ring

Drew Barrymore and Fabrizio Moretti out the Strokes are to get married. Based on the incrementally extending length of her marriages, No Rock is predicting a happy forty months of wedded bliss for the couple.

Spin magazine's band of the year

They've plumped for the Strokes, which we think is kind of interesting; we wonder if that's a compromise between The White Stripes and The Vines.

The Hives, apparently, are being given live act of the year, which seems to be the consolation prize they're picking up in all the end-of-years. In a way, I feel a bit sorry for them - if they'd gotten their asses into gear 18 months earlier, they'd have been able to look like the godfathers of the new craft rock scene; as it is, they seem to have been filed in most people's minds as slightly better dressed scenesters.

Spin thinks the best single since last Christmas is Eminem's Cleaning Out My Closet, which is arguable - surely it's merely the rap Candle In The Wind?

Sum41 in funny video shock

Yes, it's true. The song is still lacking, but the video, whereby Sum 41 are pressured by their label to become The Sums (in effect, the Strokes in cheaper shirts) is a stroke of genius.