Post by petrolino on Jul 10, 2020 22:26:49 GMT
😎 20 Years On From New York's Rock 'N' Roll Millennium 🙄
'Return To Oz' - Scissor Sisters
The book 'Meet Me In The Bathroom' (published April 25, 2017) by journalist Lizzy Goodman (author of 2010's 'Lady Gaga : Extreme Style') is a documented oral history detailing the commercial and national rebirth of the New York rock scene at the turn of this century. Rock 'n' roll was raging in Detroit, Michigan at the time, led by the colossal success of the White Stripes who dragged several local bands along for the ride. The scene in New York was different to Detroit. In fact, part of what makes it so hard to document is that it wasn't a music scene in the traditional sense, it was more like a giant wave of creativity in the arts. Some of the artists involved had little in common with their contemporaries on paper. Some arrived from out of town, some pre-dated the scene they became a part of, and some preferred to remain socially distanced. What's clear, however, is that something was happening, and some of those based in New York at the time continue to filter their experiences to this day.
“New York has closed itself off to the young and the struggling… New York City has been taken away from you. So my advice is: Find a new city.”
- Patti Smith speaking in 2010 (while recommending Detroit as an alternative to New York City)
"Seizing a cultural moment is equal parts hard work, dumb luck and a whole lot of partying – at least, that’s what Meet Me in the Bathroom, Lizzy Goodman’s new oral history of New York City’s early-2000s musical rebirth, suggests. The whopping, near 600-page account documents the unlikely takeover of bands like the Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at a time when rap-rock and post-grunge were at their peak. While the book features dozens of artists telling their stories, from Jonathan Fire*Eater to Conor Oberst, LCD Soundsystem and beyond, it’s not entirely about sex, drugs and rock & roll (though there is plenty of all that).
Through hundreds of firsthand testimonials, Goodman also gets at the heart of a world on the brink of change following 9/11. Meet Me in the Bathroom touches on policy shifts within the city that resulted in rezoning and contributed to gentrification, the transition from old-school magazine criticism to the tastemaking blogosphere, the democratization of music discovery thanks to Napster and the doom that trend signaled for the industry at large."
Through hundreds of firsthand testimonials, Goodman also gets at the heart of a world on the brink of change following 9/11. Meet Me in the Bathroom touches on policy shifts within the city that resulted in rezoning and contributed to gentrification, the transition from old-school magazine criticism to the tastemaking blogosphere, the democratization of music discovery thanks to Napster and the doom that trend signaled for the industry at large."
- Paula Mejia, Rolling Stone
"I gotta say, what religion is to a lot of people, music is for me. When Prince died, just being with each other and playing music together — it was one of the most healing, fortifying experiences. Like 9/11 happening to the city, the most traumatizing thing ever — that was just when we were coming up. We got to support each other through it by just taking it all and putting on the slab of the stage — like, “Here’s my f*cking heart. Let’s do this together.” Music’s been there for me throughout my life like that, like nothing else."
- Karen O, Rolling Stone
- Karen O, Rolling Stone
Lizzy Goodman & Seth Meyers
'One by one, ticking time bombs won,
It's not the secrets of the government,
That's keeping you dumb,
Oh, it's the other way around, wait,
What's that sound?
One by one, baby, here they come,
It's not the secrets of the government,
That's keeping you dumb,
Oh, it's the other way around, wait,
What's that sound?
One by one, baby, here they come,
He wants it ea-sy, he want it relaxed,
Said I can do a lot of things, but I can't do tha-a-at,
Two steps forward, then three steps back alright (on) ...'
Said I can do a lot of things, but I can't do tha-a-at,
Two steps forward, then three steps back alright (on) ...'
'The End Has No End' - The Strokes
The scene that was developing in the year 2000, and quickly gaining momentum, suddenly exploded due to increased press coverage. When Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and Debbie Harry began talking about the Strokes, it was clear the young quintet had made an impression where it mattered most to them, which was on their fans and the wider arts community at large.
The Strokes brought intellectualism back in vogue, dropped literary references at will, embroidered their own silky style of Parisian chic while remaining seated outside Woody Allenesque New York cafes ... and people were entertained by this. Pretty soon, men were growing beards to don their homemade Fabulous Moretti t-shirts (Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti), they were cultivating cowlicks like lead singer Julian Casablancas, carving granite jawlines in the shape of bassist Nikolai Fraiture's sturdy chin, and building ever-more inventive retro fashions based upon whatever twin guitarists Albert Hammond Jr. & Nick Valensi were seen wearing.
"In the early 2000s, the band’s allure was palpable. They dressed the part in skinny jeans and leather jackets, they all were impossibly good-looking, they exuded a gang mentality and, most crucially, they were a blisteringly great rock ’n’ roll band operating in a city that had been bereft of them for the past decade.
During the ’90s, even as the hip-hop scene flourished, the city’s rock options were limited mostly to underground bands. But the Strokes inspired a new generation to pick up guitars. For a while, at least, they helped make New York the world’s sexy-rock capital in a way that echoed the glory days of punk and new-wave bands like the Ramones and Talking Heads, who emerged from CBGBs in the late ’70s."
During the ’90s, even as the hip-hop scene flourished, the city’s rock options were limited mostly to underground bands. But the Strokes inspired a new generation to pick up guitars. For a while, at least, they helped make New York the world’s sexy-rock capital in a way that echoed the glory days of punk and new-wave bands like the Ramones and Talking Heads, who emerged from CBGBs in the late ’70s."
- Hardeep Phull, The New York Post
“The idea of if a tree falls in the woods, is there a sound. There’s none because it’s only creating ripples in the air and the thing that interprets it as a sound is the brain."
- Fabrizio Moretti, Consequence Of Sound
Lou Reed & The Strokes
'Is This It' - The Strokes
As the scene grew rapidly, its scale became vast. The Walkmen (born from the ashes of Jonathan Fire*Eater) and French Kicks both materialised through the Washington D.C. music scene but made waves in New York City. The Black Keys originated in Ohio but made progress playing shows in New York, emulating guitarist Dan Auerbach's cousin from back home in Akron, Robert Quine of the Voidoids. The National also arrived on the scene from Ohio (they're from Cincinnati), swiftly establishing themselves as one of the house bands at the Luna Lounge, a music bar located on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
"... I have the same level of anxiety whether it's a big festival or a tiny club. A small venue can be just as stressful, but I've learned to be okay with being awkward and feeling uncomfortable on stage, I know that it's kind of part of the vibe, that I'm not super slick."
- Matt Berninger, The Independent
"I decided to write "Wake Me When It's Over" (published February 22, 2012) because that time is now over and is consigned to the pages of indie rock history in New York. There are no other books that have yet been written about the New York music scene that came after CBGBs, and Luna Lounge may possibly have been the most important NY club of its size in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Where else could you have come in off the street and see The Strokes, Elliott Smith, Interpol, Longwave, The National and stellastarr* for free — all possibly in the same week? And, on top of that, you could come by on Monday night and see Marc Maron, Louis C.K. and a dozen other young comedians working out their craft on the Luna Lounge stage? I guess I have a story to tell.
The creative people who lived there were allowed to be driven out by real-estate interests and that includes anyone and everyone who stood by and did nothing to stop that from happening. I'm talking about the Community Board, the City Council members who represent lower Manhattan, the developers, the real-estate agents, the landlords, the co-op and condo owners, the mayor, and especially the people who were willing to allow the commercial transformation of this once glorious neighborhood into the cultural travesty it has become so that their apartments would increase in value.
Well, you get what you deserve in this life, I believe. And, because few people were standing up for places like Collective:Unconscious, Tonic, CBGB and Luna Lounge, the Lower East Side must now live with obnoxious bistros that cater to people with little interest or understanding of the former importance of this neighborhood.
Perhaps, it's time for a TAKE BACK THE LOWER EAST SIDE movement. I would love to see that happen. Of course, I can hear the vested interests and the people who live here now who couldn't care less remind me of my recent words, "Don’t burden yourself with a tether to some idea or concept of a bygone age." Of course, the difference between CBGB and Luna Lounge is that Hilly Kristal is dead and I am still around, available, and would love to resurrect Luna Lounge under the right conditions if such conditions could be created."
Where else could you have come in off the street and see The Strokes, Elliott Smith, Interpol, Longwave, The National and stellastarr* for free — all possibly in the same week? And, on top of that, you could come by on Monday night and see Marc Maron, Louis C.K. and a dozen other young comedians working out their craft on the Luna Lounge stage? I guess I have a story to tell.
The creative people who lived there were allowed to be driven out by real-estate interests and that includes anyone and everyone who stood by and did nothing to stop that from happening. I'm talking about the Community Board, the City Council members who represent lower Manhattan, the developers, the real-estate agents, the landlords, the co-op and condo owners, the mayor, and especially the people who were willing to allow the commercial transformation of this once glorious neighborhood into the cultural travesty it has become so that their apartments would increase in value.
Well, you get what you deserve in this life, I believe. And, because few people were standing up for places like Collective:Unconscious, Tonic, CBGB and Luna Lounge, the Lower East Side must now live with obnoxious bistros that cater to people with little interest or understanding of the former importance of this neighborhood.
Perhaps, it's time for a TAKE BACK THE LOWER EAST SIDE movement. I would love to see that happen. Of course, I can hear the vested interests and the people who live here now who couldn't care less remind me of my recent words, "Don’t burden yourself with a tether to some idea or concept of a bygone age." Of course, the difference between CBGB and Luna Lounge is that Hilly Kristal is dead and I am still around, available, and would love to resurrect Luna Lounge under the right conditions if such conditions could be created."
- Rob Sacher, EV Grieve
Luna Lounge
Rebel Rebel Records
Lord Willy's
Cafe Gitane
Matt Umanov Guitars
'Pace Is The Trick' ~ Interpol
Homegrown talents like the Rapture, Radio 4, LCD Soundsytem and TV On The Radio brought familiar grooves and accessible dance beats to their recordings, revealing another growing movement rooted in Brooklyn, where the Hold Steady emerged as the scene's answer to the E Street Band. Stellastarr also hailed from Brooklyn, a doom-laden rock band whose self-titled 2003 debut album caused ripples throughout the independent music industry as the group toured extensively alongside the Killers of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Here in England, perhaps the greatest embrace from industry insiders was for the goings-on in New York City, where earnest rockers the Bravery and Longwave displayed a serious passion for British indie music of the 1980s. New York City had it's own dance unit in disco revellers Scissor Sisters, who took the U K by storm. Scissor Sisters were an underground band consisting mostly of out-of-towners - vocalist Jake Shears (born in Mesa, Arizona), vocalist Ana Matronic (born in Portland, Oregon), bass guitarist Scott Hoffman (born in Houston, Texas), drummer Paddy Boom (born in Singapore City, Singapore) - but with local boy Del Marquis (born in New York City) on bass and guitar.
Somehow, New York also had the good fortune to gain the services of Le Tigre in this period. Kathleen Hanna of Portland, Oregon had played in Bikini Kill. Hanna played with Johanna Fateman in the Troublemakers; Fateman was a freelance writer from Berkeley, California whom Hanna had met during her days in Bikini Kill. Sadie Benning was a visual artist from address unknown (she was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and JD Samson was a conceptual artist from Cleveland, Ohio."People will walk by and be like, “Where’s the feminist party?” Or wanna sit on my lap to take a selfie. I started to feel like the Easter bunny or something. It just feels ridiculous and like a waste of time. Why don’t we just talk about our projects or something? I typically try to engage people and stuff when I’m in the mood, but if I’m not in the mood I don’t. But I used to all the time because I came from a domestic-counseling sort of background, dealing with people who suffered sexual assault, and I felt like everywhere I went I had to take that work out on the road. So anywhere I was, if a girl walked up and was like, “I’ve never told anybody this, but …” I’d stand there and talk to them for however long it took."
- Kathleen Hanna, The Cut
"I’ve been coming to terms with who I was in my 20s – there are plenty of things in my personality and my behaviour that weren’t particularly great. I think I’ve grown and learnt a lot over the years."
- Jake Shears, i News
- Jake Shears, i News
Stellastarr
'Jenny' - Stellastarr
Multi-instrumentalist Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs had a hand in numerous records, as a producer, engineer, instrumentalist and general contributor. Covering the length and breadth of Zinner's creative work would take a book in itself. The band's drummer Brian Chase was a jazz musician noted for his innovations in drone music.
"I’d always wanted to do something with guitar and strings, and I’d been interested for a while in trying to write something for multiple instruments that wasn’t just pure avant-noise, which you end up hearing a lot of when you spend years living as a musician in New York."
- Nick Zinner, The Line Of Best Fit
“In my experience, I’ve come to view music as a form of language. It is a language of sound and sonic expression. From this viewpoint, the differences and boundaries between genres begin to vanish. If one is familiar with and fluent in various musical languages, then switching between different ‘musics’ is not an issue. In fact, differences begin to disappear altogether and it’s just music.”
- Brian Chase, Band Camp
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
'Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP' ('Bang' - 'Mystery Girl' - 'Art Star' - 'Miles Away' - 'Our Time') ~ Yeah Yeah Yeahs
As with all vibrant musical scenes built upon feelings of camaraderie and a sense of collaboration, the details can be vague and the timelines can become distorted due to impaired memory. The story of Interpol reads like a Marxist novel based around Immanuel Kant's "principle of contradictions", because there's so many disputed questions, spoken contradictions and puzzling overlaps in public testimony.
'Turn on the Bright Lights' is not a perfect rock record; it’s perfectly imperfect, which feels like a great second-place finish. Yet like 'Rumors', the album needed to be saved from a certain abyss: an album can’t be produced on cocaine and vodka alone. I imagine that Fleetwood Mac was kept afloat by producers, engineers, and managers determined to get to the end of the process. In the case of Interpol, we benefitted greatly from the half-decade age vantage of our drummer and the managerial acumen of our guitarist: our band’s more sober portion dragged the weight of its alcoholic other half."
- Carlos Dengler, N + 1
“I don’t think we wind up talking about the bass in a lot of interviews. I enjoy the instrument immensely and I find that it’s been impactful on my note choice, vocally.”
- Paul Banks, The Irish Times
- Paul Banks, The Irish Times
Kings Of Leon, The Strokes & Regina Spektor
'Obstacle 2' - Interpol | lopretnI - '1 elcatsbO'
Interview Excerpt : Lizzy Goodman speaks with VICE about compiling interviews for 'Meet Me In The Bathroom' (article published March 25, 2017) :
VICE - You include bands that weren't based in New York. What was your reasoning behind weaving in artists like Kings of Leon, The Killers, and The White Stripes?
L G - The rule of thumb I used was: Did this artist use New York or the idea of New York—which is the central character of the book—as a launching pad in some way? The Kings of Leon's story dovetails a lot with The Strokes because they toured so much in the beginning, but the real genesis of why they belong is because they say they wouldn't have existed without The Strokes, and certainly their careers wouldn't have taken off in the same way. Same with The Killers. Brandon is like, "That [Strokes] record came out and it affected how I went forward the next day with what I played." The Kings of Leon are some of my favorite characters book because they were like, let's have fun with how this happened—they're professional fun-havers. I love their ambitions and The Killers', too. The Strokes gave people the permission to feel like it was possible to be rock stars and that was not true for bands with guitars in 2000.
VICE - Who was the hardest person to convince to do this?
VICE - Who was the hardest person to convince to do this?
L G - Jack White was up there.
VICE - Who did you want to get but couldn't get?
VICE - Who did you want to get but couldn't get?
L G - Carlos motherf*cking D.
VICE - Of course! So Carlos D from Interpol, who was arguably one of the biggest personalities of the scene, who peacocked all around the world, being ridiculous and behaving like the most outlandish rock star out of all of them, would not talk to you.
VICE - Of course! So Carlos D from Interpol, who was arguably one of the biggest personalities of the scene, who peacocked all around the world, being ridiculous and behaving like the most outlandish rock star out of all of them, would not talk to you.
L G - Yes! There's a new subtlety to Carlos's life. I missed my moment. This is what's true about Carlos: he's an extreme personality. So when he was doing this, he was full on, and if I had wanted to talk to him in 2005, I'm sure that could've been arranged and then some.
VICE - He probably would have lined up the drugs and tried to coerce you into a threesome…
VICE - He probably would have lined up the drugs and tried to coerce you into a threesome…
L G - Sure. And I would have been honored to have been hit on by Carlos D. [ _Laughs_] But now he's doing something else with his life. There's plenty of people who could have added something, but I think he's actually missing.
VICE - He has to live on through other people's stories. And everyone has a Carlos story.
VICE - He has to live on through other people's stories. And everyone has a Carlos story.
L G - Right. And that's also kind of fun because now he's the phantom of it.
'Hey, my best friend's a butcher, he has sixteen knives,
He carries them all over the town,
At least he tries (oh look it stopped snowing),
My best friend's from Poland and oh, he has a beard,
But they caught him with his case in a public place,
That is what we had feared ...
He severed segments and secretly liked that,
He always took the time to speak with me I liked him for that,
He severed segments and secretly liked that,
He always took the time ...
He always took the time ...'
He carries them all over the town,
At least he tries (oh look it stopped snowing),
My best friend's from Poland and oh, he has a beard,
But they caught him with his case in a public place,
That is what we had feared ...
He severed segments and secretly liked that,
He always took the time to speak with me I liked him for that,
He severed segments and secretly liked that,
He always took the time ...
He always took the time ...'
'Roland' - Interpol
Another group of New York-based musical artists released their first albums between 2007 - 2011, and they too had roots in the same New York scene, reflecting its creative spread. This is similar to the original New York punk scene which saw prominent bands sill forming over a decade after its formal inception.
I think Manhattan cookie crew Lady Starlight & Lady Gaga were already performing sets fairly early in the decade, when go-go girl Gaga moved from honouring radio burlesque appointments and striptease bookings to performing her slinky underwear routines at random venues (she was still in the process of designing new outfits and was left with only bra & panties), sculpting some of the first songs she'd go on to record at Interscope Records in the process.
Vampire Weekend formed in the middle of the decade and supported local favourites Dirty Projectors on tour, a band whose debut album 'The Glad Fact' (2003) had drawn ire over its controversial cover art. Alexis Krauss was born and raised in Manasquan, New Jersey, but she formed Sleigh Bells in New York with guitarist Derek Miller who'd been a member of Floridian metal outfit Poison The Well - by this time, Krauss had been performing in New York for several years already.
"Some of my favorite music is challenging at first and makes me want to listen a second and a third and a fourth time. I think immediacy can be a great thing, but I also think complexity can be a really interesting and valuable thing."
- Alexis Krauss, Westword
"A lot of the time I find myself in this interesting position where in music, a lot of the time people want it to be all autobiographical, because it feels real to them. They think, “Oh, you broke up with this person and you wrote a record about it, and that’s really genuine, and that’s your whole heart in there.” If you go into stories or characters, people sometimes mistakenly think that that’s less you."
- Regina Spektor, Andy Warhol's Interview
Regina Spektor
'Pavlov's Daughter' - Regina Spektor
'Deceptacon' - Le Tigre (DFA Mix)
'Disco Heaven' - Lady Gaga
I came to this particular music scene by obtaining a free New York cd sampler through a music magazine published in England. This disc was issued before the scene erupted. It was exciting and led me to pick up another cheap cd sampler from a second-hand record shop. I liked some of the songs on these compilations, others less so, but it was the sound of something happening at ground level that I found exciting, especially in a creative city like New York.
"I started the band, and I sort of approached everyone separately, and I had it in my brain that I'd always wanted a band. I'd already done my demos where I played every instrument minus the drums, and I didn't want that. I wanted to try to mix things up where even if the songs were originating from me, by the end of the whole thing everyone had their say. They end up somewhere where you can't predict it, and that's what I wanted where there's a collaborative, artistic sort of alchemy going on. It was exciting, and since no one knew each other in the room, you didn't know what each other had in common. You're a young band and things are expensive and rehearsal rooms are a pain in the ass and sh*tty, everything's broken, and you have like two hours to rehearse. You spend an hour and a half just doing the amp so you can try and do ten minutes of music. There's a lot of reasons to be like "F*ck this sh*t" and not really stick to it, but we did it and it was pretty clear early on. In the early stages when Paul sang for the very first time I remember [former bassist] Carlos [D] and I just knew, because it was several months after we'd already been playing music. Basically we'd already asked Paul to join the band without ever hearing him sing. I just kind of had a feeling about him. It's the same kind of feeling I've had with everyone I approach like that. I noticed how good they are as musicians and their aesthetics, but I studied more of their sensibility and the way they looked at things. But when he sang for the first time I was like "Whoa!" It was a very special moment because you're still getting to know each other, and it's just a different beast."
- Daniel Kessler, Brooklyn Vegan
"The past couple of records were written with a computer in the room. With Carlos running all these sort of textural sequencing keyboard parts, which kept everything locked onto a grid, which could be interesting to work against. But that really kind of anchored the music and I had to adhere to these pieces rhythmically. But everyone in this band knows how to play their instruments. Back in the beginning, we didn’t have that element and it wasn’t going to hinder any type of experimentation. Things don’t have to start out in electronic world. And I always thought that a band like Interpol, should start that way. I have no problem with it, the electronic stuff, but it should just be textural. Interpol’s a guitar band. It’s about the dynamic between Daniel and Paul’s guitar playing.”
- Sam Fogarino, The Brightest Young Things
Interpol
'The New' - Interpol
As more bands emerged, some rock 'n' roll fans felt like they'd hit upon the kind of creative rock 'n' roll movement they'd been craving, one that was lean, experimental and committed to the idea of artistic concept. There were bands putting one foot firmly forward while keeping another foot planted in the past, housing musicians who were building upon the artstic and cultural influences that made rock 'n' roll what it is today. Importantly, the more ambitious among them utilised the latest studio techniques and technology to make music that still feels fresh today. There was real innovation taking place in New York and the best of these records have had a lasting impact.
"We were all - every kid in the crowd and every person on stage - chasing the same thing; a feeling of rebellion, of possibility, of promise, of chaos. We had to find it so we could figure out how to be ourselves, and we couldn't locate it without each other. We were chasing something that called to Charlie Parker and Bob Dylan and Lou Reed and Madonna before us, something I'd been falling asleep to for years back in New Mexico, something that was synthesized for our generation by Nick's guitar when he let it scream for a while before the Strokes crash-landed into the opening of 'New York City Cops' and by Karen O's primal yowl on 'Our Time' and James Murphy's intimate, comic despair on 'Losing My Edge'. We were all chasing New York City."
- Lizzy Goodman, 'Meet Me In The Bathroom'
“Sometimes you do an interview, and some people are just like, 'Yeah. You were a big deal once.’ I get it, but also that’s not everything. I think that people overstate that, and assume, ‘why would I keep trying?’”
- Julian Casablancas, Vanity Fair
Lizzy Goodman
'New York City Cops' - The Strokes