The Strokes: Last Nite

[V] rewind with Kyle Linahan

To celebrate the highly anticipated new album from The Strokes Angles, I thought we’d have a look back at just one of the reasons why they are the most hyped band on the planet! The Stroke’s Last Nite was the second single released from their debut album Is This It back in 2001. The song is ridiculously catchy and whenever I hear Nick Valensi’s opening guitar riff played with effortless simplicity, I run for the nearest dance floor. But the video for Last Nite is perhaps nothing exceptional when viewed on its own; the four band members perform their jangly guitar-pop single on a fittingly vintage inspired late night talk show set. Within context however, (J-Lo’s Love Don’t Cost A Thing was a huge hit at the time), the continued relevance of Last Nite is nothing short of exceptional. Perhaps it’s within its simplicity that lies its brilliance and the video showcases the unabashed energy and ‘don’t give a fuck’ attitude that they became famous for. With one stroke (pun intended) they managed to reinvent a whole genre, making rock ’n’ roll cool again, while garnering both critical and commercial success at the same time. I should mention it was at this time back in ‘01 that a far younger and much more impressionable Kyle Linahan was watching Channel [V] on his parents’ cable and (thankfully) begun to be exposed to a brand new sound. Though I did later learn that what they were doing was nothing new, it ceased to be any less exciting. Ten years on, the excitement continues, in spite of the hype.