Anonymous asked: do you know why there aren't lyrics in the booklet of fioe for electricityscape, killing lies and fear of sleep?

But there are though…

Anonymous asked: can you please tell me what "Ize of the world" is about. I once read in an interview that Albert thought that that was the title because the words ends with ize, but Julian said that he was wrong and that you will understand the lyrics if you just read them. But I still don't understand them and obviously Albert didn't do it either. Keep up the good work! <3

Ize Of The World is in my top three Strokes songs of all time because of the music AND the lyrics.

Obviously in the chorus or whatever you want to call it, all of the words end with “-ize,” and to me it’s kind of a commentary on modern life from the beginning to the end: There’s always something to do and we’re all doing the same thing in a monotonous way to no great progressive goal. I think the very beginning of Warren Fu’s YOLO video is such a great visual representation of what I mean (during the part “Ize” is actually playing), with the people buzzing around and the gas pump going up and the TV begging you to BUY BUY BUY. I kind of think the same idea is exemplified in the line “How disappointed would D.(ead) I.(dealistic) D.(esperate) I.(nventor) P.(ioneer) P.(hilosophers) be/To see such our power in our hands all wasted on greed?”

I think most of the other verses don’t necessarily go along with the same idea, I think they might mean different things. I’m not going to tear it apart line by line because that would be boring and I like it when people come up with their own interpretations without it being tainted by what other people think, but I think there are parts about the monotony and overwork of modern life, the importance of music and doing your thing, and hiding your true feelings in light of pushing onwards. 

I’ll post an audio clip of Julian talking about the song in a minute, even though it’s not really that revealing. 

—Chelsea

melodicnoisepop asked: (In response to the person who asked why FIOE isn't as appreciated by some fans) I've spoken to my friend, who got into The Strokes before Is This It came out, why he doesn't like FIOE and his main claim is the production. He says it's too clean; he liked the grit of ITI and ROF. We've had many debates about it and I can see where he is coming from (though I totally disagree).

This is an interesting point, and I see where it comes from totally—to me, ITI and ROF have this feeling of a bunch of young guys recording stuff in a basement in 1976 or something that just so happens to be mindblowingly amazing, whereas FIOE is more calculated, and it sounds like it was recorded in a real studio and labored over. I still think they pulled it off brilliantly even with the change in sonic style, but if the grittiness is your favorite thing about The Strokes in the first place, I can see why FIOE would be a bit of a letdown. 

Sidenote: I didn’t notice until FIOE that Julian used a vocal filter on the first two albums at all. Now it kind of seems ridiculous, but I feel their use of the filter on the first two albums worked so well to fit their mood and style that the vocal distortion wasn’t staring you in the face and seemed to serve a specific, subtle purpose. When FIOE came out, I was like “why can’t I put my finger on what’s different about this?” until my mom said “I’m so glad Julian stopped using the vocal filter.”

—Chelsea

Anonymous asked: Why was FIOE so underappreciated by many of us fans? My theory is that many Strokes fans didn't want to admit that it's actually a hard rock/metal album. The Strokes are good at that genre though! They do a good job in contrasting the heavy sections with light bright spots ie. the helicpoter sounding guitar solo in Vision of Div. after heavy sounding bass and drums. I think those who appreciated FIOE found more to appreciate in Angles. The Strokes are an evolving group, right?

I wouldn’t go as far to say that FIOE is a hard rock/metal album, though it was “harder” for The Strokes in relation to their first two albums. I have to say that I don’t understand the beefs people have with FIOE, because after ITI, it’s my favorite album they’ve done. I do, however, think that it’s a bit long, and that if they actually went ahead and cut two songs from it and saved them for B-sides, it might have helped a tiny bit. I think it’s lyrically one of the most interesting albums, and they do some musical things on there that were very new for them, like you mentioned, and I think they pulled them off beautifully. At the time it came out, I think a lot of critics and even fans were just kind of surprised by the sound—and keep in mind that no Strokes album has really been uniformly lauded in the press since 2001. In terms of the fandom, I think maybe it took some warming-up to, but I can”t say I know any fans now that really don’t think it’s very good (though they do exist, I just don’t know them). ITI and ROF are kind of a duo, a nice sonic pairing in a way, and FIOE is a departure from that sound for the first time. I think that threw a lot of people off in 2006, is all. I personally find it to be an extremely solid album, if a bit long. 

—Chelsea

Anonymous asked: Do you have a video of them playing killing lies live?

Here’s one—it’s just audio, though. The description of the video says it was only played live twice, and I believe it because they rarely, rarely played it. It’s not far-fetched to say it was only ever brought out twice!

—Chelsea

Anonymous asked: can you post the picture that the cover for "first impressions of earth" was based off of? xx

This question is exactly why I made an #faq tag (more for myself than for others)…someone’s asked this at least twice and every single time I go crazy trying to find the original picture :P. Of course, the last time someone asked, this was before I made the #faq tag, so I had to go digging -.-

Check THIS post for the scientific photos that the album cover/title may or may not be based on/inspired by (the “earth” one). The actual artwork is from an artist named Lothar Quinte, who had a series of pantings that look like the cover artwork. The liner notes credit one from 1968 called “Ohne Titel,” but when you Google that, lots comes up:

This one (which is the most obviously similar, but the date on it is 1966)

This one (source here, it’s the same minus the coloring, of course, date 1967)

This one (which is totally rad but only just “similar,” and the source has expired)

In a nutshell, I’ve never found the EXACT piece of art that the cover is based on using the internet, and I don’t think it’s anywhere that’s accessible for free, but the artist is Lothar Quinte. Search something like “Ohne Titel Lothar Quinte” in Google Images for more examples of what I guess is a series that all bear similarities to the album art. 

Hope that’s somewhat helpful! For the record, the FIOE album art is one of my favorite album covers of all time, bar none. 

—Chelsea

sassysarahsays asked: In response to part of nucleartears' question, Julian's mother used to say "don't be a coconut" and it means something like "don't be a fool".

Ahh right, thanks for mentioning that, I forgot to put it in!

Once or twice live, Julian also changed that line to “don’t be a coconut, God is trying to talk to Fab.”

—Chelsea