Strokes Drummer's Side Project Due This Fall

While in Los Angeles for VH1's Rock Honors, Rolling Stone's Jenny Eliscu bumped into the Strokes' drummer Fabrizio Moretti, who reports he's working on a side project with his girlfriend, Binki Shapiro, and their singer-guitarist pal Rodrigo Amarante, who used to play in Brazilian indie-rock group Los Hermanos. An as-yet-untitled debut album is due this fall on Rough Trade, and a first listen sounded like Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vince Guaraldi and Sixties wall-of-sound girl groups. The group's prospective name: Little Joy.

For complete coverage of VH1 Rock Honors, check out rocknrolldiary.com. Also look for Rolling Stone correspondent Jenny Eliscu on VH1's broadcast 9 PM ET tonight.

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »

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