Wagner reflects on single strokes

No matter how much we love our favorite bands as collective entities, there will be times when… No matter how much we love our favorite bands as collective entities, there will be times when their members will go their separate ways and create music as individuals.

The perfect case study can be found with those darlings of garage-rock revivalism known as The Strokes. According to Rolling Stone Magazine earlier this year, the New York quintet’s debut album Is This It, released in 2001, was the second-most important album of the decade and, in this columnist’s opinion, that was about one place from where it should have been.

The band continued making music through 2003’s Room on Fire and 2006’s First Impressions of Earth, but after that album’s more lukewarm response and the usual musical fatigue, the group decided to take a break.

From that point up until this summer’s shows at Lollapalooza and other summer festivals, each member of the group had put forth at least one competent solo effort, each perhaps showcasing where some of the group’s direction comes from and where it will go with a new Strokes album slated for the spring of 2011.

Strokes member: Julian Casablancas (Lead Vocals)

Project: Solo album — Phrazes For The Young (2009)

Direction: Spacey synth-rock

The Strokes’ main songwriter and frontman waited almost four years to unleash his orchestrated sonic attack built upon keyboards, drum machines and his continually wonderful wordplay. Listening to “Out of the Blue” can be mesmerizing, with a vocoder enhancing Casablancas’ slur into technological bliss, while “11 Dimension” makes you want to dance, as guitars weave those intricate melodies from The Strokes into something that feels like a 21st-century take on The Human League and Gary Numan.

Strokes member: Nikolai Fraiture (Bass Guitar)

Project: Solo album (as Nickel Eye) — The Time of The Assassins (2009)

Direction: American Kinks meet Neil Young with funky basslines, to boot

Playing almost all the instruments himself, Nikolai Fraiture made an album that seems to encapsulate what’s great about his bass playing style: a sense of understated elegance. Flowing between smoky acoustic guitar and piano numbers, with the likes of songstress Regina Spektor, and full-on rock-assaults courtesy of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner, there’s a lot of interesting musical material here. But, more focus might have helped the somewhat-scattered record remain cohesive instead of feeling like several divergent — rather than unifying — paths.

Strokes member: Albert Hammond Jr. (Rhythm Guitar)

Project: Solo albums — Yours To Keep (2006) and ¿Cómo Te Llama? (2008)

Direction: Soulful indie pop-rock

Hammond’s rhythm guitar work is a remarkable feature of The Strokes’ sound that might lead some to think that the songwriter’s genius lies only in chords. But his dedication to both of his solo albums shows that the guy who plays a white stratocaster with big hair is a serious musician.

Throughout both albums, smooth melodies shift over power chords and intriguing guitar licks while a rocking rhythm section pummels its way behind him. His voice, his lead guitar parts and his general song craft shine in the same beautiful way Casablancas’ does, but with a sound more accessible to a teenager with a taste for electric guitar.

Strokes member: Nick Valensi (Lead Guitar)

Project: Sia — We Are Born (2010)

Direction: Electronic Soul Pop

Sia, an Australian chanteuse with a love of the electronic, might not seem like the type to take on a prominent electric guitarist to play on her new album. But then again how many rock guitarists are as used to playing parts created on keyboards, as Casablancas is known to do?

Valensi’s guitar often takes a leading role alongside Sia’s soul-felt pop vocals, and in tracks like the Madonna cover “You’ve Changed,” where his guitar moves between chiming triads, meaty leads and athletic rhythm work with the precision of a rifle bullet, matching synthesizers and drum machines with his six-string play.

I’m continually astounded that Sia herself doesn’t get more attention in the United States and, with We Are Born and Valensi’s superb guitar work, she proves herself to be pop music’s secret weapon.

Strokes member: Fabrizio Moretti (Drums and Percussion)

Project: Little Joy — Little Joy (2008)

Direction: Bossa-Nova meets indie rock, sometimes in Portuguese

There are wonderful moments in every music fan’s life when they find something that completely floors them with its musical genius; finding Little Joy was one of those moments for me.

Along with Los Hermanos co-founder Rodrigo Amarante and relatively unknown Binki Shapiro — all on a variety of instruments — Fabrizio made it clear that he is much, much more than just a technically powerful drummer.

There are poppy ballads, built upon tenor guitar and glockenspiel, like “Don’t Watch Me Dancing,” that seem hypnotic in their heartfelt appeal. Other songs like “Keep Me In Mind” find fire in the more traditional guitar, bass and drum set-up. All 11 tracks are earthy and sound as natural as the seawater washing a beach. To put it shortly, this is a musical experience not to be missed.