So the Room is officially on Fire. Julian Casablancas has stepped out on his own and dropped some terrific tunes on his past-anxious following, but NOT with The Strokes. His solo-album came out on November 3rd and is entitled Phrazes for the Young. Casablancas is gracing those who reside in the City of Angels with a release-celebrating performance every Friday night in the month of November. Following that, Julian will be starting a European tour this winter hitting all the major stops with The Sick Six.

Now that we got that out of the way, can we get down to the grit and presumably the reason for my intentional distorted title? Where have The Strokes gone? Is this the first step to the complete and utter disarray of the band now that the lead dudes, Casablancas and Hammond Jr. have their own pets to pet? I can speak on behalf of The Muffin in saying I sure hope not.

Room On Fire, with all its distortion and catchy riffs is one of my favorite albums of all time and although their sound was cleaned up a bit on First Impressions of Earth, it was still a stellar album. Not to fear, Julian (back in April of 2009) re-assured fans that The Strokes have recorded three songs for a new album that have a “Elvis Costello and Thin Lizzy” vibe to them. Hard to imagine with his solo upcoming tour and the big hyped roll-out of his first album there will be much time for The Strokes in the near future. No chance we will hear anything new this year and assuming that the collaborative-energy that has historically plagued the band continues, it may push back their anticipated fourth studio album release set for early 2010.

The guys are extremely talented, so we will continue to present their work to our readers, but in the back of our minds, we really just want another great Strokes album.

Julian Casablancas- 11th Dimension

Julian Casablancas- Left & Right in the Dark

Get Phrazes for the Young here on iTunes or wherever Strokes albums are sold.