While to date most Strokes bootlegs have yielded diminishing returns in terms of offering any really compelling listens, this one, at least, has some archival significance. You get a solid selection of early demos: tracks 1-7 are working versions of material that wound up on the group’s 2001 debut album Is This It, while 8-13 hail from something called the “911 Sessions” (I haven’t been able to find out any info on that, including an actual date or time frame – readers?). Sound quality is uniformly excellent on the studio material.
Then you get a solid Peel Session comprising Is This It tunes (tracks 15-18) followed by a brace of live cuts (tracks 19-24, both audience and soundboard sources, in reasonably good sound quality) that have never seen official release by the band. While the latter have no doubt been demoed by the band at some point I haven’t seen studio versions of them crop up on bootleg yet so it will be interesting to see if they do surface officially. Note that the sleeve credits indicate “Run Run Run” is a Velvet Underground cover: understandable, as the Strokes frequently namecheck the Velvets as an influence, but it definitely ain’t a cover of Uncle Lou & Company! (It’s not a Who cover, either.)
As a completely useless aside, here’s some search engine fun you can have: Google the terms “Strokes 911 Sessions” as well as “Strokes Run Run Run” and see how long it takes you to actually find a hit of the band The Strokes.
Packaging wise the digipak has color artwork, a clear disc holder with art beneath it and songcredits plus a brief Strokes essay. All in all, a good value for Strokes collectors. -- OSWALD
