The Strokes
The Strokes are an American rock band from New York City. Formed in 1998, the band is composed of singer Julian Casablancas, lead guitarist Nick Valensi, rhythm guitarist Albert Hammond Jr., bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and drummer Fabrizio Moretti. Following the conclusion of five-album deals with RCA and Rough Trade, the band has continued to release new music through Casablancas’ Cult Records.
The Strokes played their first show of 2016 at Samsung’s Galaxy Life Fest in Austin, Texas. On May 24, 2016, the Strokes announced another New York show on 31 May at the Capitol Theatre.
On May 26, 2016, Julian Casablancas premiered “OBLIVIUS” on the debut of his monthly radio show, “Culture Void”, on Sirius XMU. Cult Records announced the release of Future Present Past, a four-song EP by the Strokes, in addition to the exclusive signing of the band to its roster. The EP includes three original songs (“Drag Queen”, “OBLIVIUS”, and “Threat of Joy”), along with an additional remix of “OBLIVIUS” by drummer, Fab Moretti. The EP was released on June 3, in both digital and physical formats to coincide with the band’s headlining performance at Governors Ball Music Festival in New York City. “Future Present Past” was recorded over the past year in Austin and New York with the help of producer, Gus Oberg.
The band played at the Splendour in the Grass festival in Byron Bay, Australia on July 22, 2016. They followed this performance with the inaugural City of Angels Benefit concert in Los Angeles to support charities such as Waste Not Want Not Now, the Center in Hollywood, and the Downtown’s Women’s Center on July 25, 2016.
The band performed a series of festival dates taking place throughout early 2017. Festival dates include performances in Estéreo Picnic Festival as well as Lollapalooza Brasil, Lollapalooza Chile, and Lollapalooza Argentina. The band’s first live performance of the year took place headlining the Estéreo Picnic Festival festival. The crowd in attendance of their Argentina show was reportedly a volume of 90,000 people. After the Lollapalooza Argentina show it was revealed that their headlining slot at the festival was, to this day, their “biggest show ever” by Fraiture on social media.
In October 2016, guitarist Valensi indicated that the band were “slowly but surely working on an album, we’re kind of just in writing sessions”. In July 2017 Albert Hammond said the Strokes are working with Rick Rubin. Albert Hammond Jr. took to Twitter to clarify that “we met and played a few music ideas for Rick to feel out a vibe but even a theoretical album plan would be years away, if at all.” He also tweeted, “Sorry everyone we are not in the studio recording” and that there were “a lot of unknowns and nothing worth speaking about at this time.”
In December 2018, it was announced that the band would perform for the first time in over two years at Bilbao BBK Live in July 2019. The show will kick off the band’s “global comeback” tour. However, prior to the 2019 tour, the band played a benefit show in May 2019, debuting a new song, “The Adults Are Talking”.
[adrotate banner=”28″]
