Sunday, July 27, 2003

The Strokes

One of the big deals according to the critics last year was a rock band called the Strokes. I listened to the samples via the web and was not impressed. They seemed like pretty basic rock songs, nothing to write home about.

Then I encountered their CD at the library and checked it out. Once it hit the real stereo (and I have a very good one - Yamaha amp/receiver with Infinity speakers) it suddenly dawned on me why the critics were all gaga.

They sound like the Velvet Underground. Now VU has always been the critic's darling with Meco, and Lou Reed, and Andy Warhol, and heroin, and androgyny, and being a NY band, and the fact that they SUCKED OUT LOUD. Gad, I don't know anyone who likes to put on a VU record just for fun, just to listen to it. They sound like a bunch of no-talent heroin addicts recorded on one of those old, mono, home office, built-in mic cassette recorders sold in the 70s. (Though, to be fair, Lou Reed has since found his talent, in spite of his one-note range.)

So, as the sales didn't happen, critics kept writing their columns with dismay as to why the public hadn't caught on to this next great thing, The Strokes. Well hell. No one likes VU either.

Not a big mystery, folks.

Love the org album cover tho...


Changed in America to this...

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