The Strokes – What Ever Happened

The Strokes reunited on February 11, 2009 to start working on their fourth album.  To celebrate the return of the best rock ‘n’ roll band in the world, IsThisItX is posting one rare Strokes video per (week)day.  On Monday, Wednesday and Friday these will songs you’ve never heard from my personal collection. On Tuesday, Thursday and (possibly) once over the weekend, this will be a lesser-seen YouTube video.  Any tips? E-mail IsThisItX@gmail.com.

Today’s video is the best version of “What Ever Happened” that I could find on YouTube, though this one in Brazil is pretty good too. It’s from a December 2005 performance in London, which was one of the band’s first in support of First Impressions of Earth.

I must confess that every time I grow a little sick of The Strokes’ track list, I listen to the guitar solo in “Whatever Happened” and I’m re-energized.  The way the entire band builds up to Nick Valensi’s solo is great, and then the rhythm guitar, bass and drums perfectly escort the solo up until frontman Julian Casablancas starts his third verse.

“What Ever Happened” is, in my opinion, The Strokes’ most underrated song.  Its tempo is much slower than “Reptilia” and even “12:51,” and is hurt, from a mainstream perspective, because it doesn’t have a chorus and the lyrics are hard to decipher.  “Whatever Happened” wasn’t ever going to be a single because of these three things, but the band was smart in putting it first on Room On Fire because it sends a message with its opening lyrics of “I want to be forgotten.”

These lyrics are smart because, after the success of Is This It and the quality of Room On Fire, The Strokes weren’t going to be forgotten.  Not with their second album, at least.

Enjoy…

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The Strokes Getting Back Together On Feb. 11 @ 2:00 p.m.

The Strokes are getting back together on February 11 at 2:00 p.m. to get started on their fourth album.

I must editorialize for a moment, and say: Thank God.  I can only listen to the 39 songs on the band’s three albums so many times.  But now, with all of the band in a good place from both a family and health perspective, the “saviors of pop” are officially coming back.

“We’re getting back together for the first time in two years, and it’s very exciting,” Albert Hammond Jr. told Rolling Stone. “We’re just going to start working on songs. I mean, sounds — we don’t even have the songs. We got to get back to playing first.”

One would have to think that the recording process this time around, compared to that of First Impressions of Earth, would be much faster.  The band has had three years to write new riffs, lyrics and melodies.  And the last time that Julian Casablancas, the band’s singer and main songwriter (he wrote all the tracks on Is This It and Room on Fire), got this type of time was before the industry-changing Is This It.

With that being said, Hammond says The Strokes are simply getting back together in mid-February.

“Right now, it’s just February 11th at 2 o’clock we’re going to the studio to hang out and play music,” Hammond said. “I just know the date and time.”

The most underrated thing that fans of The Strokes should keep an eye out for (and check back here daily to learn more about) is who the band picks to produce the record.  My guess is that the band, and this is purely speculation, goes forward from what First Impressions of Earth was, in terms of the sound, and doesn’t revert back to the primitive style of their first two records.

All that I hope is that The Strokes don’t turn into The Killers and use saxaphones in the attempt to copy U2 and Bruce Springsteen.

UPDATE: Starting on Feb. 11, Is This It X will post unknown/unheard tracks from the band each weekday until the songs run out.  Do you want to hear the Alone Together demo?  You Only Live Once with Julian Casablancas’ original lyrics?  How about a version of Hard to Explain that sounds like a Christmas song?  If so, check back on Feb. 11.

In the meantime, enjoy Triumph the Insult Comic Dog interacting with The Strokes…