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(MAN SPEAKING)
-(KAREN O LAUGHS) \h\h-(MAN LAUGHS)
(KAREN O SPEAKING)
MAN: (LAUGHS) Yeah.
(KAREN O SPEAKING)
MAN: Day upon day,
and year upon year, O city,
walking your streets.
Give me faces and streets!
\h\h\h\h\h\hGive me comrades and lovers by the thousands!
Let me see new ones every day!
\hLet me hold new ones by the hand every day!
Give me such shows!
Give me the streets \h\h\hof Manhattan!
People, endless, streaming, \h\h\h\hwith strong voices, \h\h\h\hpassions, pageants.
\h\h\h\h\hManhattan streets, with their powerful throbs,
with the beating drums, as now,
the endless and noisy chorus.
\h\h\h\h\h\hManhattan crowds with their turbulent musical chorus.
Manhattan faces and eyes \h\h\h\hforever for me.
(CROWD CHEERING)
(CARS HONKING)
MAN: Welcome to New York City.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
♪ Sleeping in a van \h\hBetween A and B
♪ Sucking dick for ecstasy
♪ Paid a 70 year old hooker \h\h\h\hTo make out with me
♪ Now the get-high shack \h\h\h\his just a memory
♪ Downloading porn with Davo
♪ Put a latch on the door \h\h\h\hSo Mama don’t know
♪ That I’m downloading porn \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hWith Davo ♪
-KIMYA DAWSON: Perfect! \h\h\h\h\h\h\h-Perfect!
(BOTH LAUGH)
You guys wanna be in a documentary?
We’re making a documentary.
-Documentary that’s-- All right. -ADAM GREEN: Cool.
It’s a documentary \h\hof the hallway.
-Yeah. -Great.
MAN 2: How you doing?
Hello. I’m your new neighbor.
ADAM: You guys be our audience. \h\h\h\h\hWe’re singing songs.
All right. Cool.
-MAN: We’re singing songs. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-Cool guys!
\h\h\hWho left you people \h\h\h\h\halone tonight? That’s what I wanna know.
(MELLOW GUITAR MUSIC)
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hADAM: \hMy parents thought of us as a delusional experiment
\h\h\h\hwhere we didn’t know how to play our instruments.
We came to New York \h\hto try to prove we were a real band,
The Moldy Peaches.
Tonight, we’re going \hto a birthday party
\h\h\hfor the Queen of fucking France.
KIMYA: We just wanted to find \h\h\h\ha place to play music.
Hi!
Hi.
-Hi. Hi. \h\h-Hi.
ADAM: The Lower East side \hwas more or less barren,
delis and boarded up places.
\h\h\hKIMYA: Most places \h\hwe found were sort of a more bougie club scene.
We’d walk into these rooms \hand be like, "Oh, oops."
\h\h\hIt felt like all of that wild,
\hweird eclecticness had drained out of the city.
\h\hADAM: I remember thinking maybe New York isn’t the kind \h\h\h\h\h\h\hof city anymore
that produces iconic bands.
\h\hEven MTV was filled with super dry pop-rock.
\hAnd the winner for best rock is \hThe Offspring!
(CROWD CHEERING)
\h\h\h-Blink 182. -(CROWD CHEERING)
Limp Bizkit, Rollin.
(CROWD CHEERING)
AUTOMATED VOICE: Friday, 2:12 p.m.
Hey, Adam, what’s up? \h\h\h\h\h\h\hIt’s...
\h\h\h\hADAM: Somebody told me, \h\h\h\h\h"You should check out the open mic at Sidewalk Cafe,
and that’s where we found \h\h\hthe anti-folk scene.
-(MELLOW GUITAR MUSIC) \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-Yeah.
ADAM: This community \h\h\h\h\hof musicians
that didn’t have a place to play.
MAN: Oh, yeah.
♪ There’s a car traveling down a lone Texas highway
♪ Rams into a giant back
♪ Spirit of the bat fills your fragile eggshell mind
♪ Yeah ♪
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hKIMYA: Maybe we could fit in here.
(INDISTINCTIVE SINGING)
♪ When the worlds \h\h\hgot you down
♪ Rainy Sundays, sunny town
♪ Tropicana, canned foods
♪ Botulism, damaged goods
♪ See the hipsters in the park
♪ Hair so styled, \hclothes so dark
♪ Prefab molded hamburgers
\h♪ I don’t want a bite of yours
♪ These burgers are crazy
♪ These burgers are crazy ♪
\h\h\h-(CROWD APPLAUDS) \h\h\h\h-Let’s hear it for The Moldy Peaches!
\h\h\hKIMYA: We were immediately embraced.
(CROWD CHEERING)
MAN: ...send the tip jar around.
KIMYA: It became our home.
ADAM: This shy girl \h\h\h\hcalled Karen
lived across the street from the Sidewalk Cafe.
\h\h\hShe’d come down \hto play these quiet acoustic guitar songs.
KAREN O: I was grateful \h\hplaying at any venue \h\h\hin New York City,
but it just wasn’t \h\h\hexciting me.
\h\h\h\h\h\hI was skulking around \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe music scene trying to sniff out some blood.
\h\h\hThe last big wave \h\h\hof New York bands was a long time passed.
\hI wanted something explosive to happen
without understanding \h\h\h\hwhat that was.
\h\h\hADAM: One day, \h\hme and Kimya were at our friend’s party.
This drunk guy called Julian \h\h\h\h\h\h\hcomes over...
and he’s in the bathroom doing drugs with this young lady,
he breaks the shower.
Somebody said he was \ha singer in a band called The Strokes.
\h\h\h\hThis guy’s crazy. I’ve gotta see this band.
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
(SINGING INDISTINCTLY)
(CROWD CHEERING)
(MAN HOWLING)
RADIO JOCKEY: We’re sitting \hhere with The Strokes live \h\h\h\hin WF Music Studios.
You guys were hot last night.
-JULIAN: Scorching! \h\h-(WOMAN LAUGHS)
(GROUP SHOUTING)
WOMAN: Yeah.
\hRADIO JOCKEY: Hey, Jules, when did you guys start up?
JULIAN: We started playing \h\h\h\hNew York a year ago.
\h\h\h\hThe last few months we’ve been tearing stuff up.
WOMAN: You’re looking \h\h\hpretty serious.
I am serious, man, I’m always serious.
\h\h\h-Am I ever not serious? -MAN: You’re more serious...
I don’t know what’s fuck--
(WOMAN LAUGHING)
That felt good.
\h\hNow it’s my turn to break the camera.
\h\h\h\hALBERT HAMMOND: The way I met this band,
\h\h\h\htoo many things happened exactly right,
\hthat it seems so hard for it to be just luck.
Four, three, two! Oh, shit.
-MAN: Hey, Julian. \h\h\h\h\h-Oh, man.
ALBERT: I ran into Julian \h\h\h\h\h\hon the street
\h\h\h\hseven years \hafter I’d met him in boarding school.
Then I met everyone.
I just felt it.
The closeness.
(INAUDIBLE)
We were like brothers.
ADAM: They were so tight \h\h\h\h\h\hand together, and are such good friends.
\hIt just feels like \h\hthe five of them make up one person.
Just one solid person on stage.
By now, most people have heard of Y2K,
the anagram shorthand \h\hfor the year 2000 \h\hcomputer problem.
Americans have proven \h\h\hthey can handle
even the most devastating \h\h\h\hnatural disaster.
But can we survive a man-made \h\h\htechnological meltdown?
FEMALE REPORTER: It’s now time \h\h\h\h\h\hto begin stockpiling \h\h\hessential survival items.
MALE REPORTER: Military meals, \h\h\h\h\h\hgas masks to knives.
When your kids are standing \h\h\hthere cold and hungry, \h\h\h\h\h\hand they come up
to you and say, "Mommy, Daddy, \h\hwhy didn’t you get ready?" \hWhat are you gonna tell them?
\h\h\h\hFEMALE REPORTER 2: \h\h\h\h\h\hWith every tick of the clock toward midnight
\h\h\h\h\hin Times Square, \hemergency officials are watching for Y2K problems.
(CROWD CHEERING)
The dawning of a new millennium now just minutes away.
We celebrate the future.
\h\hWhat will the story of the 21st century be?
(CROWD CHEERING)
CROWD: Ten, nine, eight, \h\h\h\hseven, six, five,
four, three, two, one...
\h\h-(CROWD CHEERING) -(FIREWORKS BLASTING)
\h\h\h\h\hFEMALE REPORTER: From the City Command Center \hat the World Trade Center,
the Deputy Mayor Joseph Lhota \h\h\h\hsaid computer systems \h\h\h\h\h\hhave been checked.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThe city is functioning normally.
(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)
KAREN O: A friend of mine \h\h\h\h\hhad a big crush \h\h\h\hon this guy Nick.
\h\hShe dragged me \hto the Mars Bar where he hung out.
I felt this very visceral \h\hreaction towards him.
I needed to be connected \h\h\h\hto this person.
NICK ZINNER: She talked \h\h\hlike a valley girl
\h\h\hbut said that she was from Jersey.
Every other word was "dude".
\h\hI’d never met anybody like that.
When you’re young \hand in New York
\h\h\h\hand you find like-minded people,
\h\h\hyou just end up doing things together every night.
Karen played me songs that she had written.
I was just completely \h\h\h\h\hblown away.
♪ I may be dead, honey
♪ But I was left with my eyes
♪ And underneath, sugar
♪ Well, I’ve been sunk \h\hby your lies... ♪
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hNICK: One night, Karen said,
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h"Trust me. We should start a rock band."
We’re the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand, um...
we’re from New York City, \h\hBrooklyn, and, um...
We, uh...
We’ve, um...
-Do you wanna continue? \h\h\h\h-(NICK LAUGHS)
NICK: In one night, we wrote six songs.
We were bragging about \hhow amazing we were \h\h\h\hto our friend
who was The White Stripes \h\h\h\h\h\hbooking agent.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHe called our bluff and offered us the opening slot
for The White Stripes show \h\hin the Mercury Lounge.
Karen was really insistent
that we get her friend \hBrian to play drums.
(CROWD CHEERING)
KAREN O: I was really nervous,
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand I had four margaritas lined up.
\h\h\h(LAUGHING) Knocking one back \hafter the other.
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
(CROWD CHEERING)
(KAREN O INDISTINCTLY SINGING)
KAREN O: Something was \hcompletely unleashed,
I was shocked.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)
I grew up in New Jersey, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hvery shy,
half Korean, half white.
\h\h\h\hAnd when you’re a halfie, you don’t feel like the whites,
\hyou don’t fit in with the Koreans. \h\h\h(LAUGHING)
\h\h\h\hI was just used to being on the outside.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hBut on stage, I was free of that feeling.
Once I’d had tasted that, \h\h\h\h\h\hI just wanted \hto lose myself in that.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hYou guys should get a manager, you know. \h\hDo you guys have a manager?
\h\h\h\h\h\hHe’s over there, you should point the camera-- \h\h\h\h\hIt’s Ryan Gentles.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hMALE REPORTER: \h\h\h\h\h\hThat’s not a manager, that’s, like, a cute little kid.
\h\hRYAN GENTLES: \h\hThe first time I saw The Strokes,
\h\hI was watching a band that just was born a band.
(CROWD CHEERING)
\h\h\hI was the booker at the Mercury Lounge,
the best club for local bands \h\h\h\h\h\hin New York City.
I booked them immediately.
WOMAN: We’re live here \h\h\hwith The Strokes.
I know you guys are really hot.
\hThey’ve been playing every Wednesday night
\h\h\h\h\hin December at the Mercury Lounge.
\h\h\h\hJULIAN: Hello, yeah, \h\h\h\h\h\hwe’re The Strokes and we’re from New York City.
(CROWD CHEERING)
MAN: You just felt it.
The audience was excited \h\h\h\hthat we existed.
\h\hADAM: Me and Kimya opened for The Strokes.
\h\hThe first week, we also played with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
So, it was The Moldy Peaches, \h\h\h\h\hthe Yeah Yeah Yeahs \h\h\h\h\h\h\hand The Strokes.
\hKIMYA: More people crammed in each week.
ADAM: There was a hysteria \h\h\h\h\h\hin the audience.
These guys were like sex gods.
\h-MAN: Suddenly, there were bands everywhere in New York. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h-(WOMAN LAUGHS)
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
\hADAM: The Strokes launched a fireball.
\h\h♪ New York City is like a graveyard
ADAM: It all happened so fast.
\h♪ All the corpses like the way I play my guitar
ADAM: Totally DIY.
\h\h♪ You gotta be cute if you wanna get far...
ADAM: Zero interest \hfrom record labels \h\h\hor magazines.
\h\h♪ New York City is like a graveyard
♪ All the tombstones \h\h\h\hsky scrapin’
♪ All the rock stars \h\h\hdouble dating
♪ We got it ♪
♪ Blue eyes last forever
♪ Real light it never fades
♪ Real life is a gamble
Pardon me?
♪ So don’t give your ace ♪
PAUL BANKS: I desperately \h\hwanted to participate \h\h\h\h\hin the scene...
\h\h\hBut I’m working at Yeshiva University
in the admissions office \hstuffing envelopes...
\hKnowing there’s five \h\h\hdudes out there that are cool as fuck,
writing insanely awesome music
\h\hand they are cooler and better than you are.
\h\hI was also the singer in a band called Interpol.
\h\h\h\h\hWe sent our demos to every single record label \h\h\h\h\hI could think of.
\h\h\h\h\h\hNo record label showed any interest at all.
PAUL: It was like all of those \h\hguidance counselor meetings
\h\hwhere they’re, like, "What do you wanna do?"
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAnd I said, "I wanna be a rock star,"
\h\h\h\hand they said, "Don’t be a jackass."
\h\hI was experiencing very deep depression.
\h\h\hI felt like \h\hI was slipping out of existence.
♪ Surprise sometime
♪ Will come around
♪ I will surprise you sometime
♪ I’ll come around
♪ I will surprise you sometime
♪ I’ll come around
♪ When you’re down ♪
(MAN SCATTING)
Get in the fucking van!
MAN: Hello, The Strokes!
(MEN LAUGHING)
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hRYAN: I sent The Strokes’ demo
to everyone I could think of \h\hin the industry saying,
"This is the best \h\hunsigned band in New York City."
\h\h\h\hGeoff Travis at Rough Trade called the day he received it.
He said, "I wanna sign this and fly the band to England \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hfor a tour."
It was insane!
MAN: It seems so weird. We’re going to England \h\h\h\hto play music.
Let’s go to England!
Oh...
MAN: You don’t wanna get too carried away.
\h\hI’m, like, I’m trying to like just hang with it.
(MEN LAUGHING)
(MAN SPEAKING)
Pretty exciting.
American tourist in England.
Fuck.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hADAM: Me and Kimya went on tour \hopening for The Strokes.
\h\h\hKIMYA: We would always \h\h\hjoke around and be like, "We’re The Strokes fluffers."
(PEOPLE LAUGHING)
(MAN INDISTINCTLY TALKING)
♪ Take your passion
♪ And make it happen
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h♪ You can come alive you can dance right through... ♪
\hKIMYA: I was quite a bit older and sober.
I would say to those guys, \h\h\h\h\h\h"Are you sure \h\hyou wanna get wasted?
"You don’t wanna remember \h\h\h\hhow cool this is?"
We’re ready, right team? \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hGo team.
-Go team. All right. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-Yay.
INTERVIEWER: Strokes, hello.
-Hello. \h-Hi.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-Hello. -INTERVIEWER: I think, \h\h\h\h\h\hfirst off,
\h\hbecause you’re unknown \h\h\h\h\h\h\hin the U.K., just introduce yourselves.
\h\h\h-Julian. -(GROUP LAUGHS)
\hKIMYA: Julian was dealing with a lot of nervousness.
\h\h\hI was, like, "How is he scared? \h\hHe’s so good."
\h\h\hBut he wrote all of the songs.
His nervousness came out \hof that perfectionism.
(CROWD CHEERING)
\h\h\h♪ Last night she said Oh, baby, don’t feel so down
♪ Oh, it turns me off \hwhen I feel left out
♪ So I
♪ I turn around
\h\h\h\h♪ Oh, baby gonna be all right
♪ It was a great big lie
♪ ’Cause I left that night, yeah
(CROWD CHEERING)
\h\h\h\h\h♪ Oh, people They don’t understand
\h\h\h♪ No, girlfriends They don’t understand ♪
(CROWD CHEERING)
(INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
Not before coming here. No.
Oh, it’s just so weird.
I don’t even know what’s going on right now, man.
I’m just, you know, \h\h\h\hit’s all...
\h\hIt’s all crazy and cool and bizarre and-- you know.
(SIREN WAILING)
(INDISTINCT TALKING)
-MAN: What’s going on? \h\h\h-MAN 2: You gotta \hget off here, please.
Keep going. Keep going.
(INDISTINCT TALKING)
(SIREN BLARING)
MAN: Holy shit.
Holy shit.
MAN 2: Please, please.
(CLAMORING)
(EXPLOSION)
MAN: Holy shit!
-(PEOPLE SCREAMING) \h-(SIREN BLARING)
\hMAN: Get up! Get up! Get up! Get up! Get up!
-(PEOPLE SCREAMING) \h-(SIREN BLARING)
-MAN: Oh, my God! Oh, my God! \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-WOMAN: What?
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hMALE REPORTER: \h\h\h\h\hMayor Giuliani, I wonder if you could give us an update?
\h\h\h\h\hMAYOR GIULIANI: Well, the first thing I’d like to do
\h\his take this opportunity \h\h\h\h\h\hto tell everyone to evacuate Lower Manhattan.
PAT KAREN: Mayor Giuliani, \h\h\hdo you have any sense
of the order of magnitude \hof injuries and deaths?
\h\h\h\hMAYOR GIULIANI: I do not, except to say \hthat it’s horrendous.
(BUILDING CRUMBLING)
(SIREN BLARING)
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hPAUL: When the buildings fell,
my impression was clearly \h\hthere won’t have been \hpeople in that building.
We walked in the ashy streets \h\h\h\h\h\hpicking up papers.
\h\h\hOnce they said on the radio, "You should go to the hospitals
"and try and give blood," it started to dawn on me.
Thousands have lost their life.
MAN: It’s 1-800-GIVE-LIFE.
For blood.
You can call up to give--
\h\hPAUL: I remember feeling how fragile life actually is.
♪ There’s anthrax \hin the envelope
♪ I opened in my dream
♪ Dream the sky is red
♪ And little kids are running \h\h\hscreaming in the street
♪ I try to run and save them
♪ But I have molasses feet
\h\h♪ I keep having nightmares and I’m scared to go to sleep
♪ In Montreal I got so mad
♪ Someone broke into the van
♪ Stole my guitar \hand Aaron’s bag
\h\h\h♪ Then we turned on CNN watched the towers fall again
♪ Realized that our lives \h\h\h\h\h\haren’t so bad
\h\h\h♪ The air is filled with computers and carpets
♪ Skin and bones and telephones and file cabinets
♪ Coke machines, firemen Landing here and cement
\h♪ They say that it’s okay but I say don’t breathe in ♪
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hKAREN O: I was grieving for my city.
I felt deep trauma.
\h\h\hBut when I perform, I could be somewhere else.
\h\h\h\hAlmost, you know, like a split personality.
♪ You’re pretty \hYou’re pretty
\h\h♪ You make we wanna ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
♪ Hey, hey
MALE REPORTER: Fear and anxiety \h\h\h\hhave become a very real \h\h\h\h\hpart of American life.
This, of course is Halloween, \h\h\h\h\h\ha day when fright \h\h\his manufactured for fun.
\h\h♪ You make we wanna ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
♪ You look like shit
♪ You take your time \hYou take your time
♪ You take it
♪ T-T-T-Time
(KAREN O SCATTING)
(KAREN O SCREAMING)
♪ You take your time \hYou take your time
♪ You take it ♪
(KAREN O TALKING INDISTINCTLY) \h\h\h\h\h\h\h-(CROWD CHEERING)
\hMALE REPORTER: At Fort Campbell, \hKentucky, today,
\h\hPresident Bush rallied the army’s 101st Airborne
\h\h\hheading off to support the war \hin Afghanistan,
and carved up a turkey, right \h\halong with Osama Bin Laden \h\h\hand his Al-Qaeda forces.
\h\h\h\hWe will never tire, and we will hunt them down!
(CROWD CHEERING)
A grim task of trying to find \h\h\hremains of those killed.
Anxiety and fear--
\h\h\h\h\hMALE REPORTER: Terrorist training camp--
FEMALE REPORTER 2: \hCruise missiles--
-MALE REPORTER 3: Holy war-- \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-Mass murder--
-MALE REPORTER 4: Casualties- \h-MALE REPORTER 5: Taliban--
\h-MALE REPORTER 6: Airstrike-- -MALE REPORTER 7: Terrorists--
MALE REPORTER 8: Destroyed.
\hMAN: New York felt really claustrophobic.
So much paranoia.
Everyone’s confused and scared.
MAN: The artists and musicians \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmoved in droves
\h\h\h\hout of Manhattan across to Williamsburg.
MAN 2: A lot of people \h\h\h\hquit their jobs,
\hand just were like, \h"Fuck it, I’m gonna play music full-time."
MAN: The rent was so cheap \h\h\hthat you could afford \h\h\h\h\h\h\hto take risks.
\h\h\h\hYou could fail and it didn’t matter.
\hBRIAN CHASE: There is a big difference between Brooklyn and Manhattan.
\h\hBrooklyn was about potential and freedom.
\h\hAbandoned buildings \h\h\h\h\hand warehouses became practice spaces.
Outside of public attention \h\h\h\h\h\hand expectation.
That’s what nurtured us.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h(LAUGHS) \hWe could all be weirdos in the best way possible.
\h\h\h\hThe main bands were the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Onida,
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand Sightings, Liars, and TV On The Radio.
\h\hThis is an excuse for us to hang out with our friends \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand...
Blah, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, this guy.
\hCome and bust our balls during an interview, man.
He said, "Can you play drums?" \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h"Yeah, maybe."
Whatever drummer--
\hTUNDE ADIBIMPE: Whatever, drummer.
DAVE SITEK: What brought \hTV On The Radio together
is the fact that we’re all nerds.
I’m not a very social person, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hI don’t go out.
\h\h\hWhen I became friends with Tunde, \h\h\h\hhe was like,
"You have no clothes \hand no furniture,
\h"but you have pain and drum machines."
\h\h\hI was, like, "Yeah, that’s kind of the vibe."
\h\h\hTUNDE: I always wanted to make music.
\hWhen you’re the offspring of immigrants, and you say,
"I wanna be an artist," \hyou might as well say,
"Thanks for all of this \h\hbut I’m gonna put on a pair of clown shoes."
But I’ve gotta get whatever \h\henergy that’s in me out.
(CROWD CHEERING)
\h\h\hWriting music felt like a prayer.
♪ Your ooh
♪ Slim frame
♪ Your eager eyes
♪ Your wild mane
♪ So they keep me
♪ Where I belong
♪ I’m strung out in song
♪ Oh, I will be your accident
♪ If you will be my ambulance
\h\h\h\h♪ So I will be your screech and crash
\h♪ If you will be my crutch and cast
\h♪ And I will be your one more time
\h♪ If you will be my one last chance
♪ Oh, sweet tree fall for me ♪
\h\h\h\h\h\hNARDWUAR: Julian of The Strokes,
\h\h\h\hthere is an element \h\h\h\h\hof make believe, isn’t there, in the band--
\h\h\hThere’s an element of make believe, isn’t there?
\h\h\h\hSwiss schools, elite modeling agency?
\h\h\h\h-Yes. -Lee? What--
NARDWUAR: There’s an element of make believe in the band. \h\h\h\h\hThat’s pretty cool.
Meeting at Swiss schools, \h\h\h\h\h\hthat’s cool.
That’s like realistic, it’s not make believe,
it’s not pretend, it’s not fiction.
It’s true to life.
I think that’s really cool \h\h\h\hthough, like Swiss.
I’ve never been to a place \h\h\h\h\hthey call Swiss,
but you guys have, and you met there,
and your dad is, like, \h\h\hJohn Casablancas.
\h\h\hThat’s pretty cool and I think he’s in some \h\h\hhot water now, eh?
I don’t know. I think...
I don’t know, it’s weird.
\h\hI live with my mom, you know, they divorced \hwhen I was young, so.
I think just-- I think life felt a little more normal.
That was the weirdest part. That was the weirdest stage \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof my life.
And it’s my great pleasure \h\h\h\hto introduce to you
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe President of the Elite Modeling Agency,
-Mr. John Casablancas. \h\h\h-(CROWD APPLAUDS)
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)
(JULIAN SPEAKING)
MAN: Julian wasn’t really \hcomfortable with fame.
He was always talking about \h\h\h\h\h\h\hhow he wanted \hto make underground music.
\h\h\hBut he also wanted the music to be popular.
(CROWD CHEERING)
He had this tension \h\h\hinside of him.
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
(INDISTINCT SINGING)
(CROWD CHEERING)
(INDISTINCT SINGING)
(CROWD CHEERING)
-(P.A. SYSTEM CHIMES) -(INDISTINCT TALKING)
(BRIAN SPEAKING)
(KAREN O SPEAKING)
KAREN O: So, we’re in the U.K.
I have to say...
It’s a party in the U.K., \h\h\h\h\h\hI have to say.
WOMAN: You rock.
What’s more important, Dave, a good sound or a good time?
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-A good time. -Yeah, I agree, do you agree?
\h\h\hSounding good having a good time.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hKAREN O: Every woman fronting a band
\h\hin, like, the 30 years \hbefore me were pioneers and I felt like a pioneer.
\h\h\h\h\h\hFor men in rock, \h\hthere’s a fucking code, there’s a way you do things.
I just realized for me, \h\h\h\hthere’s no code. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h(LAUGHS)
\h\hI could do whatever I wanted to do up there.
I didn’t give a fuck.
♪ Oh, I’m rich
♪ Like a hot noise
♪ Rich, rich, rich
♪ I’ll take you out, boy
♪ So stuck up
♪ I wish you’d stick it to me
♪ Flesh ripped off
(CROWD CHEERING)
♪ Ha
♪ Ah
♪ Turn it beating no beat
♪ The walls are always speaking
\h\h\h\h\h♪ No want, no want No want no speaking at all ♪
(CROWD CHEERING)
\h\h\hBRIAN: On the very first night in the U.K...
it was pandemonium.
\h\h\h\hEvery club that we would play would be sold out.
\h\h\h\h\h\hPeople knew our songs word-for-word.
It was super crazy.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-$5... -KAREN O: Which shirt \h\h\h\hdo you want?
\h\hThis one is the last one. Let me, uh, sign it for you.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-Hope you had \h\h\ha good time tonight? -WOMAN: It was fandabidozi.
MAN: All the magazines \h\h\h\hare saying you are the best band ever.
(INDISTINCT)
Right. You are fantastic.
\h\h\hThose are, uh, those are big words.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hMAN: They’re fucking right though.
(CROWD CHEERING)
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hKAREN O: It was extremely exciting,
\h\hand we were all so drunk on that ravenous fanaticism.
\h\h\h-MAN: ...funny. -WOMAN: What’s that?
\h\h\h\h\h-Where’s Brian? We need Brian to sign it. \h\h\h\h-MAN: Oh, oh, oh.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hKAREN O: Brian, you wanna sign this? \h\h\hIs Brian back there?
Write an essay on my shirt. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI am girl.
I know this band’s the future.
(INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
My name’s Carlos, uh, \h\h\hCarlos D. Uh...
I play bass in Interpol.
(INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
(CHUCKLES)
\h\hDANIEL KESSLER: So, we pooled \h\h\h\hall of our money together and forced this tour of the U.K.
I’d never been to England.
\h\h\hThis is where The Smiths are from.
This is where New Order \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\his from.
I was on fire.
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
(INDISTINCT TALKING)
\h\h\h\h\hDANIEL: Somehow, we got booked to play this,
like, little festival \h\hcalled Crucifest.
(MAN SPEAKING)
\h\h\h\h\h\hDANIEL: Next, we’re booked in Manchester \h\h\h\hon fucking Easter.
You don’t play at Uni town \h\h\h\h\h\hon a holiday.
\hThere was, like, five people there.
Oh, you know what, \h\h\hit’s not on.
\h\h\h\hMAN: Every person \h\h\h\hthat we met said, "Do you know The Strokes?
\h"Are you friends with The Strokes?"
♪ She says it helps with the lights out
\h\h\h\h\h\h♪ Her rabid glow is like braille to the night
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h♪ She swears I’m a slave to the details
\h\h\h\h♪ But if your life is such a big fuckin’ joke
♪ Why should I care? ♪
\h\h\h\h\hCARLOS: No one knew \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwho we were. We shouldn’t have been there.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
Where do we go from here?
(AIRPLANE ENGINE ROARING)
(CROWD CHEERING)
MAN: The year after 9/11,
the Parking Lot Show was a manifestation \h\hof appreciation
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand love for the Brooklyn Community.
BRIAN: A real assembly \h\h\h\h\h\hof the best \hof the Brooklyn bands.
Liars played just before us.
-(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING) \h\h-(CROWD CHEERING)
♪ That child...
♪ Oh
♪ That child...
♪ That child throws...
♪ Just throw it out \hJust throw it out
♪ Just throw it out ♪
(SCREAMING)
MAN: There he is!
There he is!
\h\h\h-And next! -(CROWD CHEERING)
\h\h\hKAREN O: There have been times in my life
\h\h\hwhere I really wanted to fit in and I just didn’t.
\h\h\h\h\hBut you could feel the love from the community.
(INDISTINCT SINGING)
\h\hKAREN O: It was just like a current flowing through me.
\h♪ It’s our time Our time, our time
\h\h\h\h♪ It’s our time Our time, it’s our time
♪ To be hated, all right
♪ Well, it’s the year to be hated, all right
♪ You know it’s the year \hto be hated, all right
\h\h\h♪ It’s the year to be hated, all right
♪ It’s the year to be hated ♪
(CROWD CHEERING)
\hJAMES MURPHY: All the stuff \h\h\h\hwe were hearing about what was going on in Brooklyn
and we were in Manhattan.
I was never really part of any scene.
I’d been recording bands \h\h\h\h\h\h\hfor years.
\h\h\h\hI had engineered some perfectly engineered records,
\h\h\h\h\h\hbut people didn’t really hire me.
Loads of crap.
Suddenly this big named \h\h\h\hIrish techno DJ
\h\hshows up in New York \h\h\hto make a record. And that’s David Holmes.
(TECHNO MUSIC PLAYING)
DAVID HOLMES: When I was DJ, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hI was Iggy Pop.
Just living it.
JAMES: David didn’t seem \h\h\hto know how to play \hany musical instruments.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hDAVID: James didn’t understand \h\h\h\h\h\hdance music.
JAMES: And I’m super \huptight about this.
♪ Oh, yo, yo... ♪
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hTIM GOLDSWORTH: \h\h\hJames had been in a few second-tier Indie Rock bands.
He lived in the office.
He had a small stereo system and an inflatable mattress.
That decade had defeated him.
DAVID: The first thing \h\h\h\h\hI wanted to do
\h\hwas make a record that sounded like Can.
(WOMAN SPEAKING \h\hIN GERMAN)
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
JAMES: Wait a second.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hCan were people that worked at the Mozartian.
\h\hThe most prestigious classical music school.
\h\h\h\h\h\hHerman Smidt won the young conductors award,
\h\h\h\h\htraveled to New York, seized The Velvet Underground,
blew his mind,
went back and formed a band with the best free jazz drummer in Europe.
\h\h\h\h\h\hThey live in a weird old castle.
They played together \height hours a day.
(INDISTINCT SINGING)
\h\h\h\hYou’re gonna sit there and sample your way into Can?
\h\hAt this point, I’m going insane.
\hBut the truth is, without David Holmes
DFA, LCD, none of that \hhappens, none of it. \h\h\h\h\hNone of it.
\h\h\hREPORTER: New York, how’s the scene happening.
\h\hAre you conscious of being a part of something right now?
\h\h\hWell, everyone says that there’s the scenes, \hso that’s kind of cool,
you know, and I feel very proud to be put into the same sentence or whatever with those bands.
\h\hPAUL: Out of the blue, we got given a record deal.
I just couldn’t believe it.
This was actually happening.
Finally making a record.
MAN: The only studio \h\h\hwe could afford \h\h\hwas in the attic
of someone’s house \hin Connecticut.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hIt really was great \h\h\h\h\h\hto get out of the city and get away from distractions.
Be it alcohol or cocaine \hor girls, or whatever
and just focus on the music.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hBut social life was very important to Carlos.
He didn’t wanna miss out.
\h\h\h\h\hWhich is why I’m very, very obsessed
\hwith the movie Leaving Las Vegas.
\h\h\h\h\h\hBecause to me, Nicholas Cage in that movie
almost embodies me.
\h\h\h\hCARLOS: \hI wanted to be in New York City
where, like, everything \h\h\h\h\hwas happening.
Everybody’s name is on it?
\h\h\h\h\hWOMAN: Don’t you have...
\h\hPAUL: There was a lot of tension in the studio.
CARLOS: We couldn’t have \h\h\h\h\h\ha conversation \hfor more than 10 minutes
without telling each other \h\h\h\h\h\h\hto fuck off.
\h\h\hPAUL: The fact that this was a collaboration, \h\hI really didn’t care.
\h\hThe most important thing was the song writing dynamic \h\h\hbetween me and Daniel.
DANIEL: The best moment \h\h\h\hreally were when \h\hwe just didn’t talk.
\h\hPAUL: And when Carlos played, it just negated anything else.
\h\h\hCARLOS: I remember being in the studio the last morning
listening to what we had done.
Wow.
I just couldn’t believe \h\h\h\hhow good it was.
\hPAUL: Driving home from Connecticut to Manhattan,
\heverything felt totally different.
♪ When I was 17
♪ It was a very good year
♪ For small town girls
♪ And soft summer nights
♪ We’d hide from the lights
♪ On the village green
♪ When I was 17
\hMALE REPORTER: New York is bracing itself tonight for one massive blizzard.
♪ When I was 21
♪ It was a very good year...
(FIREWORKS BLASTING)
♪ It was a very good year \h\h\h\h\h\hfor city girls
♪ Who lived up the stair
♪ With all that perfumed hair
♪ And it came undone
♪ When I was 21 ♪
(CROWD CHEERING)
-Whoo! -Yeah!
-Hallelujah! \h-All right!
Halle-fucking-lujah, man!
(KAREN O SPEAKING)
(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)
(CLAMORING)
(KAREN O SPEAKING)
\h\h\hJULIAN: The way we’ve been portrayed.
\h\hNew York City good looking dude.
-MAN: A bunch of rich kids... \h\h\h\h\h-JULIAN: Who think \h\h\h\h\hthey’re really cool.
If I heard of a band like that, I’d think they were assholes.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTERING) \h-Excuse me. Excuse me.
\h\hDAVID: In New York, I was like a wild animal \h\h\h\hout of its cage.
\h\h\h\hMy gang was just getting up to no good five nights a week.
(TIM SPEAKING)
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
(TIM SPEAKING)
JAMES: I don’t dance, \h\h\hI barely drink.
\h\hI don’t wanna embarrass myself.
(TIM SPEAKING)
\hDAVID: I remember talking him into it.
\h"You gotta try it. This is gonna change \h\h\h\heverything."
(TIM SPEAKING)
(TECHNO MUSIC PLAYING)
JAMES: People were touching me, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hchanting my name.
I’m experiencing this music \h\hin this totally new way.
I really enjoyed dancing.
It is not the drug.
This is actually me...
\h\h\h...and my life is forever changed.
JAMES: Tim was the producer \h\h\h\h\h\hand programmer. \h\h\h\h\hfor David Holmes.
He and I would be the ones \h\h\h\hstuck in the room
having to sort through the shit after everyone’s left.
\h\hHe taught me how to use the computer to experiment.
(TIM SPEAKING)
JAMES: Working with him \h\h\h\h\h\hwas perfect.
(TIM SPEAKING)
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hJAMES: After watching what Holmes \h\h\hcould wind up doing,
it just seemed obvious to us.
What if we did something \h\h\h\h\h\hof our own?
Something that \hmakes people
who didn’t normally \h\h\hdance, dance?
(TIM SPEAKING)
\h\h\hJAMES: But if we were going \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto be a label, we really needed to find a band.
A band that we believed in.
\h\h\h\h\hWOMAN: So, the name of our band \h\h\his The Rapture.
The name of our band \h\h\his The Rapture.
-WOMAN: What’s your name? \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-Matt.
-WOMAN: And your name? \h\h\h\h\h\h\h-Gabriel.
\hVITO ROCCOFORTE: The band started on the west coast.
We lived in this suburb \h\h\h\h\hof San Diego,
where there’s nothing \h\hgoing on. (LAUGHS)
\h\hWe just decided to pack up the band,
\h\h\h\h\h\hbook a tour to get out to New York.
(MELLOW MUSIC PLAYING)
\h\hMATTIE SAFER: I mean, I was legitimately, like, \h\h\h\h\h\h19 years old.
Very green.
\h\h\h\h\hWe were broke. We had no money at all.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hLUKE JENNER: \h\h\h\h\hI came to New York as a complete leap of faith.
New York, it’s almost like this white chalk outline,
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hit’s like, "Do whatever you want in here,
\h\h"be as, like, as free and as angry as you want."
(CAR HONKS)
I would go on Avenue A to this magazine store
and buy copies of "NME" \h\h\h\hand I’d be like,
"Dude, like, this is all \h\hhappening around me
\h\h\h\h"and eventually they’re gonna find me."
♪ One, two, three, four
♪ Five, six, seven
(INDISTINCT SINGING)
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
♪ Come dance with me...
\h\hJAMES: The first time \h\h\h\hI saw The Rapture, I was completely smitten.
\h\hLuke looked insane and had this amazing, \h\h\h\h\hweird voice.
He was super charismatic.
(CROWD CHEERING)
(TIM SPEAKING)
MAN: James Murphy and Tim \hwere just fuckin’ nuts.
And I loved that.
\h\h\h\h\h\hMAN 2: We were a punk band that was trying \h\h\h\hto make dance music.
We had similar goals,
\h\hjust coming at it from different angles.
\hMAN 3: James and Tim felt like the only other people
\h\h\h\h\hon the planet who had the same ideas.
And DFA was like \h\ha clubhouse.
Euphoric party nights.
\h\hWe’d listen to records, wrote songs, drank too much.
LUKE: We felt like we were \hgonna take over the world.
MAN: MTV wanted The Strokes \h\h\h\h\hto play a concert.
\hA 30-minute live broadcast special.
It was a big deal.
It was exposure.
But a lot of those things \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hcome with,
"Well, if you don’t do this, \h\h\hyou’re never gonna get \h\h\hplayed on here again."
(MAN SPEAKING)
It’s not working.
Just...
I would just remember there will be people \h\h\h\h\hbehind you,
\h\hso just don’t forget to address the back, too.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hWOMAN: Ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four, rolling.
Ladies and gentlemen, \h\h\hhere they are.
The Strokes.
\h\h-(CROWD CHEERING) -(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
♪ No choice now \hIt’s too late
♪ Lisa said take time for me
\h\h♪ Dropping him down to his knees
♪ He knows it’s justified \h\h\h\hto kill to survive
\h\h\h♪ He then in dollars makes more dead than alive
♪ Let’s suck more blood
♪ Let’s run three hours a day
\h\h♪ The world is over but I don’t care ’cause
Take two.
MAN: Rally forward!
Guys, take three. \hRally forward.
Rally forward.
-Take five. -Four. Two.
\h\h♪ The first time it happened too fast
\h\h\h♪ The second time I thought it would last
\h\h♪ We all like it a little different ♪
(CROWD CHEERING)
\h\hKAREN O: The first "NME" cover that we did,
\h\hthe caption was "Cool! Sexy! Drunk!"
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThree words that don’t just make much \hsense together. (LAUGHS)
\hAnd one of the things that started to surface
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwith the press was a sort of predatory gaze.
Photographers were boys \hbeing in the front row \h\h\h\h\hat our shows.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hArm outstretched, weird expression on their face,
trying to get like \h\h\hcrotch shots \hunder my skirt.
BRIAN: I just remember feeling \h\hvery protective about Karen.
(CAMERAS CLICKING)
KAREN O: Being a woman \hfronting a rock band,
I was sensationalized.
But I was also struggling \h\hto be taken seriously \h\h\h\h\h\has an artist.
INTERVIEWER: That costume \hthat you were wearing,
\h\h\hthe yellow, \hit’s almost like an Elvis jumpsuit.
-KAREN O: That was sort of-- -INTERVIEWER 2: Have you ever had the same sex experience--
\h-INTERVIEWER 3: Do you have \h\hany thoughts on chastity? -KAREN O: (LAUGHS) Chastity?
\hINTERVIEWER 4: Karen, have you ever experienced Madonna syndrome?
\h\hINTERVIEWER 5: Do you remember your first kiss?
INTERVIEWER 6: Is it a tough \hkind of thing to be so cool?
\h\hINTERVIEWER 7: Have you received any death threats?
\h\h\h\h\h\h-INTERVIEWER 8: \hWhat’s your favorite meal? -KAREN O: My favorite meal?
So, let me, uh, let me hear all \hthe ladies out there tonight.
(LADIES CHEERING)
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAll right. Let me hear all the boys \h\h\hout there tonight.
(BOYS CHEERING)
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hOkay, let me hear all the men out there tonight.
\h-(CROWD LAUGHS) -(CROWD CHEERING)
\h\h\h\h\h\hKAREN O: I’m here to represent \h\h\hfor the ladies.
It’s all or nothing.
(CROWD CHEERING)
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
♪ I wanna date with the night ♪
(INDISTINCTIVE SINGING)
(MICROPHONE FEEDBACK)
(ROCK MUSIC CONTINUES)
\h\hLUKE: When we made House Of Jealous Lovers
\hit wasn’t necessarily like fun in the studio.
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
♪ House of jealous lovers ♪
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hJAMES: First, we recorded everything live.
\h\h\h\hAnd then Tim and I started ripping it apart.
-(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING) -(KEYBOARD CLICKING)
\hI can get really anxious \h\h\h\h\h\hif I feel like I’m compromising my music.
I feel compulsion to make the music
\h\h\hexactly the way I think it should be.
\h\h\h\h\h\hLUKE: James was \h\h\hthe first person I met who was more alpha than me.
\hI had all these ideas \h\h\h\h\hin the studio, he had all these ideas.
I couldn’t bulldoze him.
\h\h\h\hJAMES: I was never good at friends.
\h\h\hI was so lonely and so self-conscious.
I wanted connection \h\h\h\hand friends,
\h\hbut I’d always end up in fights.
\h\h\h\h\hThere was just something wrong with me
that wasn’t wrong with other people.
So, I made music \hfucking alone.
(KAREN O SCREAMING)
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hLUKE: He was really pushing me. \hI was in a lot of pain.
JAMES: Get rid of the drum, \h\h\h\h\h\hface the bass...
\h\h\h\h\h\hGet rid of the guitar completely.
\h\hLUKE: Me and Tim just kept telling him
and everyone around him \h\h\h\h\hwas just like,
\h\h\h"You’re domineering, \h\h\hand you need to make your own fucking record!"
MAN: There was a part of James \hthat wanted to be in the band.
Wanted it to be his band.
He didn’t have his own outlet.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hJAMES: They really freaked out \habout the production.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThey thought \heveryone was gonna hate that it was a house song.
LUKE: He was really just like, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h"No. It’s perfect, \h\h\h\h\hwe’re not fixing it."
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
♪ House of jealous lovers
\hJAMES: People went fucking crazy for it.
LUKE: People just called us \h\h\h\h\hthe disco Strokes.
♪ House of jealous lovers shakedown ♪
MALE REPORTER: Goldsworthy \hand engineer James Murphy
are the production team whose \hfusion of minimal electronic
and post-punk rock continue to thrill
critics and listeners \h\h\h\h\h\hworldwide.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hYou know, \h\h\hhalf the people, you know, someone told them it was cool.
You know what I mean? "Cause theoretically, \h\h\hwe’re... cool.
(MAN SPEAKING)
\h\hJAMES: Nobody else was playing the records \h\h\h\h\hI was playing.
That was like my thing.
♪ One hand ties the other
♪ House of jealous lovers... ♪
MAN: Pure idolism, \h\hridiculous mess.
MAN 2: I had my first E, \h\hand lost my virginity \h\hat the same DFA party.
MAN 3: We weren’t downtown \h\h\h\hNew York cool kids,
and we weren’t Brooklyn Art School kids either,
\h\hbut somehow, we had a scene.
INTERVIEWER: How do you guy \hsit down and write a song?
because I know you write \hthe lyrics, but do you-
No, Julian does the lyrics.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-Yeah. -He writes the song.
-Oh, and the songs? \h\h\h\h-Oh, yeah.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-Okay-- -And the guitar solos, \h\h\heverything, dude.
\h\h-Really? -Sure. Yeah.
That’s-- Yeah.
\h\hALBERT: I always wanted to write songs.
The most frustrated \h\h\h\hI ever got,
\h\h\h\h\h\hI had a song \h\hand thought it could really work in the band.
I was super-excited about it.
\h\h\h\hBut Julian had a very precise vision.
(INDISTINCT TALKING)
JULIAN: The only thing \h\h\hI have control on \his having good songs.
Even if everyone loves it, I always go home thinking, \h\h\h"Is it good enough?"
It’s a struggle.
ALBERT: It was a lot of pressure on Julian
\h\h\h\h\h\hto get another album out there as soon as possible.
We had been praised as "Rock’s Saviors",
but all we had ever recorded \h\hwas a half hour record.
Ready?
\h\h\hALBERT: We got back from touring and spent a month in our rehearsal space...
and just worked.
Why were we rushing?
(DRUM STICK TAPPING)
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
(INDISTINCT SINGING)
(INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
\h\h\h\h\hINTERVIEWER: What is the ideal place
for somebody to listen \h\hto your new record \hfor the first time?
I hadn’t thought of that.
Read their last rights.
No, I don’t know.
Nikolai, man, help me out.
\h\h\h\hI don’t know, man, we just finished it today, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know.
INTERVIEWER: How do you guys \h\h\h\h\h\h\hfeel about it?
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-I-- -Tense but confident.
\h\h\hINTERVIEWER: You sound incredibly down on yourself.
\h\h\h\h\hIt’s odd to hear you guys feel intimidated.
\h\hFeel like you guys aren’t gonna end up sizing up and...
think that you guys \h\hare ultimately gonna be forgotten.
\h\hI don’t wanna let people down.
\h-Karen rules-- -She’s very good.
-She’s the coolest person \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hon earth- \h\h\h\h\h\h\h-And Nick.
-And she’s a God. \h-Nicks amazing.
\hShe just does what she wants,
-and she doesn’t care \habout anyone else. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h-Yeah.
She’s sexy!
-Her hair, her face, everything. -Her voice.
I’d do her. \h(LAUGHS)
I’d do her.
She seems shy, like, offstage, \h\h\h\h\hbut she puts on this \h\h\h\h\h\h\hcrazy character.
\h\hMAN: The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are going on in five minutes. \h\h\hCan you please return?
\h\h\h\h\hKAREN O: I had set myself up \has being a pretty
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hspectacular self-destructive persona.
\h\h\hI was needing to live up to that,
and I was beating myself up out there night after night.
\h\h\h\hNICK: I was seeing the fanaticism around Karen.
The press, freaky fans.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAnd just seeing how fragile she was off-stage...
I was worried.
Ah, this fuckin’ hurts.
Do you know what I’m saying?
It’s like fucking shit!
\h\h\h\h\hWho the fuck cares? Do you know what I’m saying.
Do not fucking tread on me!
KAREN O: I really did want \h\h\h\hto speak to someone
\h\h\hwho could relate to how I was feeling.
\h\h\hBut my experience \h\h\h\hwas so different from the men around me.
It was incredibly lonely.
(CROWD CHEERING)
It’s just wearing me down, \h\h\h\h\h\hthe lifestyle,
the physical aspect of it, \h\h\hthe repetition of it.
\h\hThe business of it and the bullshit of it
\h\h\hand the press and the attention.
MAN: Can we have sound, speed? \h\h\h\h\hRoll cameras, please.
MAN 2: Roll joints. \h\h\h\h\hDo speed.
Ready.
MAN 3: We’re still waiting \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hfor the...
\h\h\h\h\hIt’s a rehearsal so let’s just do it, right?
Do you need to play?
It’s just a rehearsal. \h\hCan we just start?
DIRECTOR: Okay, we are rolling.
\hNICK: Julian had dreams that he just maybe assumed \h\hwe’d all just follow.
\h\hFABRIZIO: Room on Fire sold, like, 650,000 records
\h\h\hand everybody wants \h\h\h\h\h\hto write about what a big failure it was.
By what it was built up to be, \hit was supposed to sell millions.
\h\hNICK: That’s when friends, girlfriends,
strangers started coming in.
"Julian’s slowing \h\heveryone down.
\h"You should be a bigger band."
ALBERT: I felt that distance \h\h\h\hbetween me and Julian.
-Well, its Ryan Adams. \h\h\h\h\hLook at you. \h\h\h\h\h\h-Hey, man.
-The most difficult man \h\h\hin rock and roll. \h\h\h\h\h\h-Oh, geez.
MAN: Ryan Adams was really, \hreally into The Strokes.
Enamored by them.
We’re gonna play a song \h\h\h\hby The Strokes \h\hcalled Last Night.
(CROWD CHEERING)
Yeah, it’s our best song.
(CROWD LAUGHS)
(RYAN ADAMS SPEAKING)
\h\hALBERT: He’d always come \h\hand like wake me up at two in the morning to have drugs.
\h\h\h\h\h\hSo, I would just kind of, like, do the drugs \h\h\hand kind of numb out.
\h\h\h\hI remember Julian threatening to beat him up \hif he hung out with me.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hRYAN: I knew I would shoot up drugs \h\h\h\hfrom a very young age.
When it came, it wasn’t, like, "What am I doing here?
It was kind of like, \h\h\h\h"I made it."
I was home.
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
MAN: Number one.
\h\h\h\h\h\hThe win immunity, we’re number one, watch this.
(INDISTINCT TALKING)
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hLUKE: After House Of Jealous Lovers \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hblew up,
we had all this attention.
\hBut we were touring the world on a single.
(CROWD CHEERING)
JAMES: It was so fun.
\h\h\h\h\h\hThe Rapture, me and Tim were a gang.
We felt invincible.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hLUKE: \h\h\hWe had just finished Echoes, this album that we really loved.
\h\h\hAnd then compound that \h\hwith the music industry feeding frenzy in New York,
\h\hand it was just this perfect timing.
\h\hBut in the beginning, DFA was more about concept
\h\hthan an actual functioning label.
\h\h\hMAN: DFA spent a year trying to find a distributor
and failed to do so.
LUKE: The clock was ticking.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hJAMES: I wish we had just put \hfucking Echoes out.
That was a fucking mistake.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThe songs that are on the record,
we’ve been playing them \h\hout for like a year \h\hand a half, like...
So, it’s just like...
\h\h\h\h\h\hIt’s just time for it to come out, like...
MAN: I was more scared \h\h\hthan I’d ever been \h\h\hin my entire life.
It’s gonna fucking disappear, \h\h\h\h\hit’s gonna be over.
JAMES: I know they had to, \h\h\h\hbut when they left, \h\h\h\h\h\hthe crushed me.
I cried.
I just cried.
We were Rapture Records.
That’s what DFA was.
But they left.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hLUKE: We didn’t want to leave DFA.
\hThose were, like, our closest friends.
\h\h\h\hBut we needed to get our record out.
(CROWD CHEERING)
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hPAUL: We hit 40,000 records sold.
Our record company was, like, "Whoa!"
DANIEL: We had this incredible \h\h\h\h\h\h\henergy between us, \h\h\h\h\h\hthis kinetic energy.
\hPAUL: We nailed the second record \h\hstraightaway.
DANIEL: This is the record that we’ve been waiting for.
(PHONE DIALING)
\h\hThree months before \h\h\h\h\hrelease date, we were out at some bar.
\h\h\hA complete stranger comes along singing lyrics \hfrom the second record.
What the hell’s going on?
(PHONE STATIC)
PAUL: The record had leaked.
\h\hI couldn’t believe that this was actually happening.
\h\h\h\h\hJAMES: I went to this club, Brownies,
which I used to play at \h\h\h\h\hall the time.
There was a kid DJ-ing, \h\h\h\h\h\hplaying ESG,
\h\h\h\h\hand he plays a Liquid Liquid song.
What the fuck?
\h\h\h\hThese records took me years to find,
\h\h\hand now some kid can just download it?
Wait a second.
MAN: You didn’t write them, \h\h\h\hyou just play them, \h\h\h\h\hyou just own them,
\h\h\hyou can’t be proud of yourself \h\hfor owning it.
MAN 2: But I know that kid \hwas at one of my parties.
\hMAN: Even if this person went to one of our parties, \h\h\hI have no rights here.
MAN 3: It’s the fucking \hclosest I’ve ever been \h\h\hto cool in my life
and this fucking kid \h\h\h\hcan take it?
MAN 4: I was playing \hthat six months ago.
MAN 5: First of all, it’s not your record, \hyou didn’t make it.
MAN 6: What’s worse \h\h\hthan that guy?
MAN 7: I’m disappointed \h\h\h\h\h\hwith myself.
\h\h\h\h-MAN 8: Its stupid \h\h\h\h\hand embarrassing. -MAN 9: I’m a total hipster
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hjackass, I have been my entire life.
JAMES: I’d really wasted \h\h\h30 years of my life.
\h\h\hAnd I would lock the studio...
\h\h\h\h\hsing a song about losing my edge.
♪ I’m losing my edge...
How humiliating it is to be me.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h♪ To the kids From France and from London
♪ I’m losing my edge
It was the first time \h\h\h\h\hI made music
where I wasn’t trying \hto be another thing
\h\h\hthat I thought I’m supposed to be.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
♪ Yeah, I’m losing my edge
♪ I’m losing my edge
♪ To kids
♪ I’m coming up from behind
♪ But I was there
♪ I was there in 1968
♪ I was there at the first \h\h\hCan show in Cologne
♪ But I was there
♪ I was the first guy playing \h\hDaft Punk to the rock kids
♪ I played it at CBGB’s
♪ Everybody thought \h\h\h\hit was crazy
♪ We all know
♪ I hear everybody \h\hthat you know
\h\h\h\h\h♪ Is more relevant than everybody that I know ♪
\h\h\hI came upstairs and played it for Tim.
(TIM SPEAKING)
\h\hJAMES: He said, "You don’t wanna put \h\h\hthis out, man.
"You really don’t want people \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto hear this."
But I’ve lived in fear \h\h\hmy whole life...
and I had nothing to lose.
(MELLOW MUSIC PLAYING)
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hALBERT: \h\hJulian always wanted the whole band together.
I’d show up late \hin the studio.
And smoke too much crack \h\h\h\hbefore coming in
\hand had to take \ha bunch of pills just to calm down.
I wasn’t playing that well.
I’ve tried everything \h\h\h\hto get fired.
\h\h\hCOURTNEY LOVE: \hRemember that girl that was downstairs,
\h\h\h\hthat said she didn’t care about The Hives and The Strokes,
\hand she just wanted like a big rock riff?
(LAUGHS)
I think that ought to do it. \h\h\hWe are, um, we’re back.
\h\h\h\hWe had a little nap, and we are really staying up \h\h\h\h\hfor 24 hours and...
\h\h\h\hnot many people in this room do drugs.
We’re in a corporate \h\h\h\henvironment.
Come here, come here.
ALBERT: Courtney Love was doing a take over \hof MTV for 24 hours.
-COURTNEY: Show us your (BLEEP). -Come on!
\h\h\h\h\hCOURTNEY: Yes! I’ll do it if you do it!
RYAN: She texted me, "Do any of The Strokes \h\h\h\hwanna pop up?"
I called Albert.
ALBERT: You’re fucked up \h\hand the idea’s funny.
\h\hOh, yeah, I’ll go up there and, like, see Courtney Love.
(MAN SPEAKING)
Wait, what are we doing? \h\h\h\h\h\hWhy are we?
ALBERT: I was so fucked.
\h\hFABRIZIO: Her and Ryan were just doing their thing \h\h\hwhat Ryan always does.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)
(MAN SPEAKING)
\h\hFABRIZIO: When things go bad, you just want it to get worse.
When the band catch you \h\h\h\h\h\h\hout of it.
I can be sitting here \h\hwith my eyes open \h\hand just... gone.
\h\h\hALBERT: There’s so many times where I was just so close to...
to dying.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)
(KAREN O SPEAKING)
(CROWD CHEERING)
(KAREN O SPEAKING)
\h\h-(CROWD GASPS) -(CROWD SCREAMING)
KAREN O: It could be over.
We could be over, you know.
(ALARM CLOCK BEEPING)
JAMES: Out of nowhere \h\h\h\hI got an offer \h\hfrom Arthur Baker.
\hHe’d heard our record and he wanted us to come \hplay a show in London.
There’s no way I can do this.
I can’t do it.
I don’t have a band. \h\h\h\hIt’s just me and a toy boom box.
\h\h\h\hI did the only thing \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI could do, call the people that I knew.
Tyler, the base player \h\h\h\h\hin Out Hud,
\hPat, the drummer in Les Savvy Fav,
Phil Mossman, guitar player, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwho had done \hthe David Holmes’ record,
\h\h\h\h\hand Nancy, \hmy drinking buddy, took piano as a kid.
\h\h\h\h\hNANCY WHANG: Deciding to start a band
\hin your 30’s seemed absurd.
\h\h\h\hWe only had 10 days to rehearse.
\h\hThis was his first time \h\h\h\h\h\h\has a front man singing in front of people.
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
(INDISTINCT TALKING)
\h\h\hNothing terrified me like watching footage of John Lydon.
\hIt made me feel so uncomfortable.
\hI realized this would be \hmy problem.
The people that are dancing...
\h\h\h\h\h\hand he just doesn’t exude himself.
(INDISTINCT TALKING)
Oh, my God.
\h\h\h\h\hI don’t know what to do with myself.
\h\h\hNANCY: James wanted to set up very, very close \h\h\h\htogether on stage.
\h\h\h\h\hSo, he was totally surrounded.
Protected.
(CROWD CHEERING)
Go ahead--
(ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYING)
♪ Well, Daft Punk is playing \h\h\hat my house, my house
♪ I’ll show you the ropes kid, show you the ropes
♪ I got a bus and a trailer \h\h\hat my house, my house
♪ I’ll show you the ropes kid, show you the ropes
♪ ’Cause Daft Punk is playing \h\h\h\hat my house, my house
♪ You’ve got to set them up, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hset them up
♪ My house
♪ You’ve got to set them up, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hset them up
(SCREAMING)
(CROWD CHEERING)
\h\h\h\hINTERVIEWER: The song "This is it,"
\h\h\h\h\h\h\his that a sarcastic reference \h\h\hto The Strokes?
RYAN: No, no, no, no, no!
\hI’ve heard that from many people \hand it’s like,
"Damn, if I were gonna write \h\ha song about The Strokes,
"I would probably go \ha little further."
That’s just the name \h\h\h\hof the song.
\h\h\h\h\hBut I can see why people think that.
\hIt goes to show you \h\h\hhow influential The Strokes guys are.
That these guys are just great.
Hello.
(MAN SPEAKING)
\h\h\h\hI wanted to ask you about this before we left.
I think it’s awesome.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-What? -Yes... The holster.
Well, thanks, thanks a lot.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hINTERVIEWER: And I don’t know if anyone’s \h\h\hever done that before.
Um, to my knowledge, \h\h\h\hthey haven’t.
\h\hBut it wasn’t, you know, me trying to be an innovator.
(ALL LAUGHING)
\h\hIt wasn’t me trying to be an innovator to-- \hto wear the holster.
If I get followers, so be it.
\h\h\hYeah, so be it, exactly. I’m not gonna, like, stop them.
(INDISTINCT)
\h\h\h\h\hWe’re Interpol, and you’re watching MTV2.
\hYou’ve had stuff’s thrown at you, like,
\hthere’s been panties thrown at you, Carlos?
Uh, there was an occasion \h\h\h\h\h\hwhere panties \hwere thrown at me, yes.
\h\h\hINTERVIEWER: It seems like you’ve been touring constantly.
it seems like you’ve hardly \h\h\h\hreally had a break.
\h\h\h\h\hINTERVIEWER 2: What’s fans reactions been \h\h\h\hto this new album?
CARLOS: Wherever we’ve gone, it’s been just kind of, like,
\h\h\h\ha similar sort of excitement and enthusiasm.
PAUL: Before Napster, \h\hwe would have made a shit load of money.
But actually...
I didn’t really care.
(CROWD CHEERING)
\h\h\h\h\h\hBecause people from all around the world found out about our music.
\h\h\h\h\h\hI remember thinking \h\h\h\h\h\hback to all of those guidance counselor meetings...
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwhen I said, "I wanna be a rock star."
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
♪ Yeah, but nobody searches
♪ And nobody cares somehow
♪ When the loving that you’ve wasted
♪ Comes raining from \h\ha hapless cloud
\h\h\h♪ And I might stop and look upon your face
\h\h\h\h\h\h♪ Disappear in the sweet, sweet gaze
\h♪ See the living that surrounds me
♪ Dissipate in a violet place
\h\h♪ Can’t you see \h\hwhat you’ve done to my heart and soul
♪ This is a wasteland now
♪ We spies, we slow hands
♪ Put the weights \haround yourself
♪ We spies, oh, yeah \h\h\hWe slow hands
♪ We retire like nobody else
\h\h\h\h\h♪ We spies intimate slow hands
\h\h\h♪ Killer for hire you know not yourself ♪
(CROWD CHEERING)
\h\h\h\h\h\hAfter falling from the stage in a show in Australia last month,
Karen O, the tough front woman \h\h\h\hof the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
\h\h\hstill managed to compose herself enough \h\h\hto perform Maps.
(INDISTINCT TALKING)
(INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
(KAREN O SPEAKING)
(INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
(KAREN O SPEAKING)
(INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
(KAREN O SPEAKING)
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
♪ Pack up
♪ I’m straight
♪ Enough
♪ Oh, say, say, say
♪ Wait, they don’t love you \h\h\h\h\h\hlike I love you
♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
♪ Just wait
♪ They don’t love you \h\h\hlike I love you
♪ Wait, they don’t love you \h\h\h\h\h\hlike I love you
♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
♪ Just wait
♪ For they don’t love you \h\h\h\h\hlike I love you
♪ Wait, they don’t love you \h\h\h\h\h\hlike I love you
♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
♪ Just wait
♪ They don’t love you \h\hlike I love you ♪
\h\h-I’m so annoyed \h\hwith this dude. -NANCY: What dude?
So, here it’s just things like,
\h\h\h\h\h\h"I’m sad because I had a show booked with LCD.
"The date, like, all U.S. dates \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hgot canceled."
There was no fucking U.S. tour.
We never had a U.S. tour.
Are you responding to it?
\h\h\h\h\h\h-JAMES: Yeah. -What are you gonna say?
\h\h\hJAMES: I have to say this shit sounds a lot like \h\h\ha fucking guilt trip.
What are you, my mother?
Eat it.
Fucking baby.
\h\h\hWhy are you getting so angry? \h\h\h\h(LAUGHS)
JAMES: I-- Just the concept \h\h\hof emailing somebody \h\h\h\his so alien to me.
(KEYBOARD CLICKING)
(SERENE MUSIC PLAYING)
\h\h\hINTERVIEWER: So, you’re tied up?
Oh, I don’t wanna do this. \h\h\hI hate this so much.
INTERVIEWER: James, I’m serious, lip sync to a different song. \h\h\hSing a different song.
\hI’m doing that now. It’s called talking.
I can talk all day.
(MOUTHING)
\h\h\h\h\hJAMES: Those years were the big bang of my life.
I finally found my friends.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hJAMES: Can we do claps again?
(JAMES LAUGHING)
(CROWD CHEERING)
Yes!
(JAMES LAUGHING)
(CROWD CHEERING)
JAMES: I felt safe.
The Brooklyn Waterfront will likely be getting \h\h\h\h\h\ha makeover.
\h\h\h\hMayor Bloomberg wants to rezone part of the area...
The neighborhood has had a rebirth
and now it’s a choice location \hfor commerce and for living.
\h\hMALE REPORTER: \h\hIt is no longer a well-kept secret.
What began with a trickle \h\h\h\h\hhas turned into \ha flood of Manhattanites
\hcrossing the East River \h\h\h\h\hinto Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood.
\h-Many of them drawn... \h\h-DAVE: Our rent had tripled in three years.
The landlords cleared out \hwhole fucking buildings.
Pushing families out.
\h\h\hKAREN O: I was grieving the dissipation of the scene.
I don’t want to stick around \hand just watch it go away.
I left New York City.
I felt too nostalgic for it \hwhen everything happened.
(CROWD CHEERING)
NICK: See now, everybody \hwas just playing music, you know what I’m saying.
\h\h\h\h-KAREN O: It’s nuts, yeah, good music. Everywhere. \h\h\h\h\h-NICK: Yeah, yeah.
\h-NICK: Yeah. -KAREN O: Yeah.
KAREN O: It was like a flash.
(SERENE MUSIC PLAYING)
(INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
(MAN SPEAKING)
(INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
(MAN SPEAKING)
ALBERT: When we first met, that’s what we bonded over, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hIt was...
\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe belief that we could accomplish \hanything we wanted to.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hJAMES: Everything was so innocent,
\h\h\h\h\h\hand somehow you lose it through time
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand then \h\hyou spend a lot of time chasing that same innocence,
\hthat feeling of just being young.
(CROWD CHEERING)
NARRATOR: Day upon day,
and year upon year, O city,
walking your streets,
Keep your splendid silent sun.
Keep your woods, O Nature,
and your corn-fields \h\h\hand orchards.
Give me faces and streets!
\h\h\h\h\h\hGive me comrades and lovers by the thousand!
\h\h\h\h\hLet me see new ones every day!
\hLet me hold new ones by the hand every day!
Give me such shows! Give me the streets \h\h\hof Manhattan!
People, endless, streaming, \h\h\h\hwith strong voices, \h\h\h\hpassions, pageants.
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hManhattan streets, \h\h\hwith their powerful throbs, with the beating drums, as now.
The endless and noisy chorus.
(CROWD CHEERING)
\h\h\h\h\h\hManhattan crowds with their turbulent musical chorus.
\h\h\h\h\h\hManhattan faces and the eyes forever for me.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
♪ Many years since I was here
\h\h\h\h\h♪ On the street I was passing my time away
\h♪ To the left and to the right
♪ Towers tumble to the sky
♪ It’s out of sight
♪ In the dead of night
♪ Here I am again in the city
♪ With a fistful of dollars
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h♪ And, baby, you better believe I’m back
♪ Back in the New York groove
♪ I’m back
♪ Back in the New York groove
♪ I’m back
♪ Back in the New York groove
♪ I’m back
♪ In the New York groove
♪ In the back of my Cadillac
\h♪ A wicked lady sittin’ by my side
♪ Sayin’, "Where are we?"
♪ Stopped at Third \hand Forty-three
♪ Exit to the night
♪ It’s gonna be ecstasy
♪ This place was meant for me
♪ I feel so good tonight
♪ Who cares about tomorrow
♪ I’m back
♪ Back in the New York groove
♪ I’m back
♪ Back in the New York groove
♪ New York groove
♪ I’m back
♪ Back in the New York groove
♪ New York groove
♪ I’m back
♪ In the New York groove
♪ New York groove
♪ I’m back
♪ Back in the New York groove
♪ New York groove
♪ I’m back
♪ Back in the New York groove
♪ New York groove
♪ I’m back
♪ Back in the New York groove
♪ New York groove
♪ I’m back
♪ New York groove
\h\h\h-♪ I’m back -♪ New York groove
♪ New York groove
\h\h\h-♪ I’m back -♪ New York groove
♪ New York groove
\h\h\h-♪ I’m back -♪ New York groove
♪ New York groove
\h\h\h-♪ I’m back ♪ -♪ New York groove ♪