Music Folks
The Strokes: The New York Band That Made Rock Cool Again
October 13, 2026 · by Music Folks
In 2001 five young New Yorkers in skinny jeans and battered sneakers made rock music feel exciting again. The Strokes’ debut, Is This It, was short, scruffy and catchy, and it went on to be named the best album of the decade.
Quick Facts
- Formed: 1998, New York City
- Members: Julian Casablancas (vocals), Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr. (guitars), Nikolai Fraiture (bass), Fabrizio Moretti (drums)
- Debut album: Is This It (2001)
- Grammy: Best Rock Album for The New Abnormal
- Latest album: Reality Awaits (July 24, 2026)
School Friends Turned Band
Casablancas, Valensi and Moretti started playing together as teenagers at Dwight School in Manhattan. Bassist Nikolai Fraiture was a childhood friend of Casablancas, and guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. had known him from boarding school in Switzerland. Hammond joined at the end of 1998, completing the lineup, and the band played its first show as the Strokes on September 14, 1999.
The Hype Was Real
Their first release, The Modern Age EP, came out on Rough Trade in 2001 and set off a bidding war among labels. They signed with RCA. Is This It came out in the UK in August 2001 and in the US that October.
The American release was changed. After the September 11 attacks, the song “New York City Cops” was swapped for “When It Started,” and the album got a different cover. Critics loved it either way. In 2009 NME named it the greatest album of the 2000s.
Ups, Downs and a Grammy
Room on Fire (2003) and First Impressions of Earth (2006), which went to No. 1 in the UK, kept the band busy. Then came a five-year break while members worked on their own projects. Angles (2011) and Comedown Machine (2013) followed.
The comeback was The New Abnormal (2020), produced by Rick Rubin. Critics called it a return to form, and it won Best Rock Album at the Grammys.
Reality Awaits
Rubin produced again on the band’s seventh album, Reality Awaits. It was first announced for June 2026 with the single “Going Shopping,” then pushed back and released on July 24, 2026. The summer tour that went with it opened with a headline slot at Bonnaroo in June. Guitarist Nick Valensi sat out the dates, and Steve Schiltz of Longwave stood in for him.