Strokes to Put Out "Fire"

Two years ago, the Strokes' first album set off the New York Rock explosion -- their second arrives into the resulting inferno. Room on Fire, the follow-up to Is This It, will be released on October 21st.

After scrapping initial sessions with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, the five-piece worked again with It producer Gordon Raphael. But Room On Fire trades in some of its predecessor's roughshod sloppiness for calculated musicianship. "We spent a lot of time looking for specific sounds," drummer Fabrizio Moretti told Rolling Stone.

Fire's eleven songs include the rave-up "Meet Me in the Bathroom," a live standard, but also tinges of reggae and the soul ballad "Under Control" -- "our first more mellow song," according to guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.

The Strokes are planning a run of club dates in advance of the album's release, as well as a month-long Tuesday-night residency on Late Night With Conan O'Brien in November.

Room on Fire track listing:

What Ever Happened?
Reptilia
Automatic Stop
12:51
You Talk Way Too Much
Between Love and Hate
Meet Me in the Bathroom
Under Control
The End Has No End
The Way It Is
I Can't Win

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Song Stories

“Satisfied”

Tom Waits | 2011

Only the genius of Tom Waits could combine the subject of mortality, a reoccurring theme in his work, with wordplay that name checks both Mick and Keith, whom he calls "Mr. Jagger" and "Mr. Richards," and the title of their magnum opus, "Satisfaction." And to show just how cool Waits really is, he even got Mr. Richards to play along, one of nine guest appearances the guitarist has made on three Waits albums. "This growling roadhouse stomp is a late-breaking response to the Stones' greatest hit," Rolling Stone said of the track.

More Song Stories entries »

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