WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MY ROCK 'N' ROLL? THIS.....

Towards the end of 2001, a grassroots rock revival was under way. Bands influenced by classic guitar music -  blues, sixties garage rock, punk, post-punk, indie, psychedelia and art rock - with style, attitude, and character, started to attract the attention of the mainstream and - most importantly - the hearts and minds of the nations youth. Some of them had been around for a few years, slowly building up a following: some were newly formed and in place to catch the zeitgeist. There had already been a few disparate bands and acts from the fringes who'd done quite well for themselves already in the previous few months - Muse, Feeder, Starsailor, and the ball-less drippy likes of Travis and fucking Coldplay,  plus the Skate Punk and emerging Nu-Metal genres from the US - but these new bands were much more, well, cool. The majority of them took a back to basics approach, with simple, raw production and less showy musicianship. Some of them didn't even bother with a bass player. The first of this new breed of bands who attracted my attention were New Yorks' Yeah Yeah Yeahs. An art rock and US punk influenced trio, their iconic singer Karen O grabbing quite a few column inches, they made a startling racket. Guitarist and keyboard player Nick Zinner, stick thin with a gravity-defying haircut, created a wall of sound with a host of effects and frantic guitar playing whilst Jazz-trained drummer Brian Chase - looking like an older version of Will from tv series The Inbetweeners - created a bedrock of rhythms and cross rhythms, like Keith Moon if he'd been in Talking Heads. On top of this, Karen O screeched, swooped, wailed, and whispered like a sleazier cross between Debbie Harry and Siouxsie Sioux. I bought their eponymous self-released debut EP on the strength of a track, "Miles Away", that i'd heard on a free CD, and it was a raw and refreshing blast of art-punk. 5 tracks long and clocking in at 13:38, it combined angular post-punk with the dark pop nous of Siouxsie & The Banshees' early songs, with the occasional nod to Shangri-Las styled pop, with Karen O's lyrics of lust, love and (bad)sex, taking the piss out of arty types whilst acknowledging their own "hip" status ("It's our time to be hated") delivered in a voice both sexy and scary, passionate yet detached. They really did sound like nothing else at the time, and have continued to do their own thing ever since.

Another New York band that were making waves were The Strokes. Five effortlessly cool and attractively nonchalant young lads playing stripped down lo-fi punk and garage rock, they'd released a debut EP, The Modern Age - on Rough Trade earlier in the year, sending the music press into a frenzy. I first heard them through the follow up single, "Hard To Explain/New York City Cops", which reached No.16. Its basic production and stripped back simplicity only helped it to stand out. 

Their debut album, Is This It, followed and was a huge success. Singer Julian Casablancas' lyrics about life in NYC, sex and relationships were delivered in a (mostly) laconic drawl, sounding suitably detached but with just a hint of desperation, and combined with the basic guitar groove of the music, would influence and usher in a new era of bands influenced by garage rock and post-punk, a development that was badly needed in my humble opinion.

The third band who would help change the record for the next few years were a rhythm and blues-influenced garage rock duo from Detroit. Formerly husband and wife, but adopting a "brother and sister" backstory and mythology, The White Stripes were Jack White (Jack Gillis) and Meg White, on vocals/guitar and drums respectively. They'd already released a couple of albums and a few singles to cult acclaim, but it would be their third album, 2001's White Blood Cells, that would propel their bluesy garage rock into the charts. Cheaply recorded and produced, their were three Top 40 hits pulled from it - the singalong ramshackle "Hotel Yorba", the short sharp garage rock blast of "Fell In Love With A Girl", and the doomy, dark "Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground". 

These three bands opened the door for a garage rock/post-punk/indie revival that would last the better part of a decade, and whilst it didn't get rid of all the manufactured pop, dreary identikit dance, wet indie bands, and dreary nu-metal, it proved that the rock'n'roll spirit was still very much alive and kicking.