Formed in New York City in 1999, by the end of the following year the Strokes were being hyped as the most important rock band of the new millennium and hailed as the second coming of the Velvet Underground. Julian Casablancas (b. 1978, USA: vocals), Nick Valensi (b. New York, USA: guitar) and Fabrizio Moretti (b. 1980; drums) first began playing together at prep-school in Manhattan. Film school student Albert Hammond Jnr. (guitar), the son of singer-songwriter Albert Hammond, and Nikolai Fraiture (bass) completed the line-up. All five members enrolled in college, but were soon lured away by the promise of rock 'n' roll fame. They made their debut at The Spiral in New York on 14 September 1999, and had soon built up a reputation on the city's East Side club scene. The band's demo was picked up by Rough Trade Records and released in January 2001 as a three-song EP called The Modern Age. A major label bidding war ensued for the US rights, with the quintet electing to sign with RCA Records. Despite being forced to remove a track called "New York City Cops' from the US version of the album, in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the band's debut Is This It was enthusiastically received by the music press on both sides of the Atlantic. Although barely rising above the sum of their influences, the Strokes" youthful passion and exuberance seems to have ensured their current iconic status....more...info at: http://www.thewonderwall.com/the_strokes/biography.php
