Memory Crusades: Is This It? The Strokes

Sometimes our memories pick odd items to hold onto. A seemingly innocuous moment from our life is given over to the past, and is somehow framed with far greater importance than we believe it deserves. Nevertheless, it takes hold in our mind, shapes itself into a memory worth cherishing and brings forth either a warm nostalgia or a wistful melancholy. There is certain music that takes me back to a definable moment when I could remember the vivid details surrounding the music. Often times the event seemed mundane or trivial at the moment, however, as time has pressed forth and hindsight gives the event a different vantage point, that seemingly insignificant moment listening to the music has expanded to hold so much more meaning. Memory Crusades is a periodic post where I go back and explore the music that has become attached to a specific time and place, a bright moment of clarity in an otherwise muddled pastiche of memory.

I want to start off with Is This It? by The Strokes. This album involves a couch, laundry, and a Walkman. Now I know that sounds pretty boring, but that’s precisely the point. The reason why it holds so much weight in my mind is probably because, paradoxically, it’s the most vivid memory I have that I know should mean very little to me. However, we all have a few memories that we hold onto because we like the charm of it’s simplicity and uneventfulness.

I was thoroughly exhausted, having just finished my first studio project during my first year at the School of Architecture at Kansas State University. I hadn’t been home much, and the place was a mess. Clothes were strewn across the bedroom, dishes piled up, the feng shui of my apartment was in desperate need of some rebalancing. I just remember picking my clothes off the floor and realizing I didn’t technically have anything clean. I probably should’ve just gone to bed, considering I was on less than an hour of sleep and firing on my last cylinder, but for some strange reason a feeling came over me, a feeling I still remember to this day, wherein I decided to embrace the sleep deprivation and enjoy this moment of blissful grogginess. You see, this was the first time in my life I hadn’t gotten the eight hours of “beauty sleep” I was accustomed to, and to be completely honest, I was kind of intrigued. Throughout my plush suburban life in Houston and Fort Collins, sleep was taken for granted. It was a strange feeling being so devoid of sleep, and I liked the feeling of being in a trance-like state of absolute exhaustion because it was an exhaustion accompanied by euphoric victory. I had finished my first project, pulled that “all-nighter” making a museum-board model and drawings on vellum with graphite and now I had absolutely nothing to do except enjoy the peacefulness of my dirty apartment and the saccharine notion of having no more obligations for the rest of the week. I was determined to make this evening as boring as possible.

I had just bought the album Is This It? (2001) by The Strokes and decided to do some laundry and listen to the album. Admittedly, I was a little late coming to The Strokes party, since the year was 2006 and the album had been out for upwards of five years, yet The Strokes had been on my radar for some time. I had seen the music video for “Hard to Explain” (see video at top of post) in high school and was instantly mesmerized- another moment laser-etched into the folds of my mind. The layered guitars, the deadpan vocals, and the unique lyrics were all so clearly different than anything I had heard before. It was a totally original sound to me, though now I can see the early alt-punk pioneers like Television and Roxy Music in the sound, at the time it was such a striking departure from the classic rock and pop music I was listening to at the time, that it really stuck out. It was a long time coming, and the build-up to putting this disc in my Walkman clearly at its apex. So when I put that album in, laid down on that ugly tan sofa I had throughout college, and waited for that load of laundry to finish, it was a fantastic feeling (some of you may know that couch and can admit that despite being hideous as hell, it was really comfortable, and known as “The Pit” for good reason). I listened to that album prostrate on my couch, eyes closed, hands tucked behind my head, in complete heaven. Never have I enjoyed just laying down with nothing to do, just listening to an album in its entirety, knowing that I should go to bed, but fighting the sleep. If the album hadn’t been Is This It? I would have undoubtedly fallen asleep, yet the music was so uncanny and full of new sounds I had never known, that I stayed awake, at least long enough to put my clothes in the dryer.

Behold! The blessed Walkman that was my faithful companion throughout junior high, high school, and often times college (before my first Ipod Nano grabbed the baton). As you can see from the wear and tear, my Walkman has been through A LOT. But I still have it and use it to listen to the mixes I make. The plastic “bubble” insert popped out in high school, so now you can see the CD turning inside. The area where the gold finish has been stripped off is the result of the time I idiotically taped the Walkman to my chest when I went for a jog. What was I thinking??

Now with the privilege of hindsight, I can see the full context surrounding that moment and understand why I cherish it. I vividly remember lying on that couch listening to that album and having an existential moment. I was living in my first apartment, doing my OWN LAUNDRY, living a new life as a person dependant only on myself. I had left the bosom of the family home, an independent college-going man-boy earning my rest and relaxation after many long days and late nights in studio. It was in uncharted territory in my life, off on my foray into college life, completely alone yet feeling remarkably fine about that. The bliss of doing my own laundry in my own apartment wasn’t the only thing precious about that memory, it was also discovering this new sound of The Strokes. The funny thing is some of the opening lyrics to the song “Is This It”, opening track, title-track are, “now I’m staying, Here just for a while, I can’t think ’cause I’m just way too tired.” And it was true, I was just way too tired, yet too in awe to fall asleep!

I listened to that album nonstop after that day and also quickly bought their second album Room On Fire (2003), which I think is unfairly tagged as a “sophomore slump” yet I believe is just as good, if not better than, Is This It?. Listening to this album led to the discoveries of many other bands such as The Killers, Kings of Leon, and Arcade Fire- bands that would become the soundtrack to my college experience. The way The Strokes composed their songs was innovative, the way they interwove the guitars a thing of beauty, and now we see tons of bands that clearly were inspired by them, like Phoenix, Interpol, and TV on the Radio. It all started with The Strokes. The realization while lying on that couch that I was officially an independent man plunged into the a new world of college life was accompanied by this album, and for all the triviality that may have first accompanied that moment in my dingy college apartment, I now know that it was an important memory, and a perfectly simple one to hold onto.