The Strokes Play Sidekick 4G Party, Start Work On Next Album

With Angles just released a month ago, band is already working on new material.
By Matt Elias

Julian Casablancas
Photo: MTV News

BEVERLY HILLS, California — The Strokes aren't the first band that comes to mind when you think of glitzy Hollywood events. Maybe that's why they seemed to be sporting WTF grins when they hit the carpet for T-Mobile's Sidekick 4G launch party in Beverly Hills on Wednesday night.

Perhaps it was seeing the latest "Dancing With the Stars" cast members on the same carpet or attempting to talk over the thumping base from the DJ inside, but you got the impression that the indie band was a little bit outside of its element.

But hey, T-Mobile has some rock cred on its side — after all, Blink-182 chose the last Sidekick launch event to play their first reunion show. And the Strokes had the same duties on Wednesday night — playing to Hollywood's young and beautiful.

So when it comes to scaling down their set at a party like this, the band has conflicting views on playing new material versus the familiar hits.

"I guess me personally, I prefer playing new songs, but the crowd prefers old songs, reaction-wise," singer Julian Casablancas told MTV News. "So it's always weird 'cause you could play a song that's mind-blowing and they'd just be like 'wow,' shedding a tear, but they'll be silent. So you'll think, 'That sucks and we'll never do that again.' And then you play like an old hit that you played a thousand times, it's kind of boring, but they're loving it. So you're like, 'Let's do that!' "

Speaking of even newer songs, the Strokes, who recently played the South by Southwest festival and last weekend's Coachella, confirmed that they're starting work next week on the follow up to Angles, which they released just a month ago. But Casablancas admits that they've gotten "zero far" on the new project.

Whether it will share anything sonically with Angles, Casablancas said, "I don't know, we haven't even started. We're gonna play each other's songs and then who knows what they might be? I'm curious myself."

Related Artists

• The Strokes

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1662426/the-strokes-sidekick-4g-party.jhtml

Sarah Silverman