{ Lick That Riff! }

Hello All, hows it hanging? Mines short, shrivelled and slighty to the left.

Hope your all ok.

Now to another post in the series “Hero Worship,” Where I look at different guitarists using my handy Total Guitar mag for support. Hope you enjoyed last weeks post on Paul Weller.

This one is about Nick Valensi. The guitarist from probably the most important band of the 21st Century, The Strokes!

What Total Guitar Said:

You Know Him By: Ice-cool stage persona, underrated technical ability and point-blank refusal to give a fuck!

Greatest Moment: About 1:59 into “The Modern Age”, as Valensi’s guitar break morphs into a sleazy picking sequence that scuttles up the length of his guitar fretboard.

There’s a golden rule when it comes to rock ‘n’ roll. It states that all aspiring stars must come from a rain-lashed textile town outside Manchester, where they will have developed watertight working class credentials and a stockpile of yarns about hotwiring Ford Escorts on the estate. A broken home would be an advantage, but it’s not essential.

The Strokes don’t give a toss about any of that. The Strokes don’t appear to give a toss about anything. Sauntering onto the 2001 music scene in pipecleaner jeans and regulation Converse All-Stars, the band have all the self-assurance you’d expect from five New Yorkers whose private education and family wealth would guarantee them a place on Wall Street if the music fell through. The Strokes look like the kind of band who’d have a butler shift their amps, and would happily shag your girlfriend after the show. Their one redeeming feature is that they happen to be fantastic.

Nick Valensi is the coolest member of the worlds coolest band. With a fag hanging from his lips and a customised Epiphone Riveria slung low around his neck, The Strokes guitarist epitomises the gulf between the bona fide rock star and the man gurning through ‘Black Dog’ down the local pub. A thousand things could be going through Valensi’s mind as he tears out the ragged lead break of “The Modern Age” – not least what he’s going to do to his girlfriend Amanda De Cadenet when he clocks off – but you’d never know it from his face. Whether he’s lost in the moment or just supremely arrogant, Valensi’s stage persona is of a man who sees stardom, cheekbones and celebrity skirt as his birthright. We’d hate him, of course, but we’re too busy trying to be him.

How cool is Nick Valensi? Honestly, he’s the best. There’s a few things about this article which has changed. Nick Valensi’s four years older, and that “girlfriend” that TG were onna bout is now his Wife and mother to his two children. So I suppose he may have matured over the last few years, and The Strokes also released a third album since this article was written. But most of the same principles still hold true. They are still the coolest band around, and I just can’t wait for their fourth album which should be out around early 2010!

Other Posts in the series:

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