The Strokes

Biography

When they emerged from the New York scene at the turn of the millennium, the scruffy, hip, Seventies-inflected Strokes seemed to embody the very nature of downtown cool — mixing Lou Reed vocals and as much sweaty, garage-rock mystique as you could pack into three-minute tunes — despite the fact that most of the band had grown up uptown. Thanks to a truckload of positive press and the terrific Modern Age EP, the Strokes were famous before they even put out a full-length album. When they released one, 2001’s Is This It, the band backed up the buzz with killer hooks, making New York’s Lower East Side sound cool again. – Rolling Stone Magazine