The Strokes look to move beyond hype

To write about The Strokes is to write about New York City. Yup, The Big Apple, Gotham itself, a city simultaneously loved and loathed. It can almost be said that New York gave birth to such brutally famous and influential bands as The Velvet Underground, The Ramones, and Blondie – almost. But like it or not, there was another force at work in the creation of those rock legends: hype.

To write about The Strokes is also to write about hype. Whether from the keystrokes of critics or the mouths of the fiercely devoted, a grand amount of hype has followed The Strokes, a five-piece band of messy-haired kids from New York who really just want to rock you for the night. And they just might do that when they play the State Theatre in Portland at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1. Just to be sure the evening rocks, fellow New Yorkers The Realistics and longtime indie rockers Sloan will open.

What The Strokes play is simple: rough and ragged rock

‘n’ roll. Their short, sharp, guitar-driven sound with thumping percussion and hoarse, half-hidden vocals makes for perfect rock, undeniable roll.

All the ballyhoo about The Strokes began a couple years back when the British music press went gaga over the band’s “The Modern Age” EP, a rough sketch of songs which later would become their full-length release, “Is This It?” All the talk and high praises feverishly followed them to this side of the Atlantic and led some to wonder if anybody actually had heard the band.

“There was a time when the first people to notice really excited us,” explained Fabrizio “Fab” Moretti, The Strokes’ soft-spoken drummer. “You’re nobodies and all of a sudden people are like ‘Wow! Look at those guys!’ and you’re like ‘Oh s***, look, I’m getting attention!’ But when the hype sort of perpetuated and got a little out of hand, we tried to steer clear from that and ignore it. But now if there’s any sort of hype it’s still lingering from that explosion, or whatever it was. It’s just another reason to make us want to play better and tighter and make music so people will see us as a good rock ‘n’ roll band and nothing more.”

And has New York really had an impact on The Strokes’ sound?

“Absolutely,” said Moretti. “Every environment will influence what you do in any form of art, I mean music, writing. It’s just a very busy place with a lot of influences, a lot of cultures – a melting pot, if you will. And it’s just a great source for varied ideas.”

Recently, the band has been put reluctantly at the forefront of a perceived rock revival, which includes names such as The White Stripes, The Hives and The Vines (Perhaps all the power comes from the “The”?). The big secret, though, is that none of these bands really sound alike. The Hives are tongue-in-cheek punk from Sweden; The Vines are raspy-tinged Aussie pop rock.

The Strokes do share at least a kindred spirit with The White Stripes, whose blues-rock by way of the garage complements but doesn’t mirror The Strokes’ simply raw rawk. The two bands recently played two sets of sold-out shows in each other’s respective hometowns, Detroit and New York.

“I don’t know that we can be categorized together, necessarily,” commented Moretti. “But I think we’re both focused on playing honest rock ‘n’ roll, or some form of it. So people like to put us into the same sort of genre, I guess, and say that we’re like ‘The New Coming of Rock ‘n’ Roll.’ But I don’t know about that, we’re just playing our music.”

New York, rock revolutions and idle talk aside, there’s only one question left for those already convinced by The Strokes’ music: Why do they rock so hard?

“Because we’ve got nice shoes, dude,” Moretti joked. “No, I think it’s just that we really love what we do. We work very hard on trying to project it properly. And we’re five really good pals that have one single aim. And I think those all fit together to make a pretty cool sound. And also the songs might be good.”

For tickets, call Ticketmaster at 775-3331, or online at www.cc.com.