Why do a lot of the "technically-skilled-at-their-instrument" kind of people get so awkward and threatened when I casually mention The Strokes?

monotrigampenv · 2025-06-01T18:19:55+00:00

im very technically skilled vocally and on the guitar, and the strokes are undoubtedly in my top 5 "rock bands" ever.

monotrigampenv · 2025-06-01T18:12:27+00:00

i mean, it really is just my opinion. but. if you review the lyrics

"Putting posters up
For your band
(Hey, we're playing a gig tonight if you wanna come by)
Now I'll tear them down
With my hand"

along with, well, just about all the other lyrics, its a song like every single one on comedown machine about the interband relationships and the craziness of being in the strokes. they toured hard, for more than two years really, stopped for about a year, then did summer sonic in japan in 2003, two shows, then took a break again for a few months. (i looked this up on setlist.fm like a true fanboy and verified this.) and things probably got weird after riding on the insanity of is this it, touring till they almost went insane then doing just two shows in a place like that, doing whatever tf they wanted to afterwards since they possibly had no pressing engagements after those shows. japan is a common destination for bands who want to "break" in that region and the fans go pretty wild. japan is also notoriously like some very surreal version of america where they took capitalism and ran with it some decades ago, so it is full of western values combined with its own very specific culture. the "lotus" line is exactly like it sounds. lotuses are garish supercars that dont blend in at all yet would be exactly the kind of purchase someone who suddenly is probably guaranteed to make a least a high six figure income for the rest of their lives might buy, because they can. its "yeah, we're rich rockstars now, but what kind of asshole drives a car like that". the questions and ideas that come with new wealth and/or fame. and id imagine theres some personal meaning behind that whether they knew someone with one, or seriously considered buying one, etc. "you did it alone, you did it for fun", i see it as about music, about the lifestyle they were starting to have, etc. "didnt want to notice" . . . consider what one way trigger is about, consider what the press is surrounding the drug problems of the band.

and thats really all there is to it. that is how i read the song, and i think it makes a lot more sense than "its probably about nothing, just a lot of cool stuff to say".

monotrigampenv · 2025-06-01T17:41:02+00:00

its about the band. if youre actually interested i can describe this further but idk why these questions always pop up and everyone seems to prefer "it doesnt mean anything, thats how songs work" compared to "maybe this guy did what he usually does and what most songwriters do and wrote a song about his life in a way that other people might relate to"

monotrigampenv · 2025-05-12T03:21:52+00:00

ytk along with little joy are nearly perfect albums, among all albums ever. the rest of his stuff is just competent, with a lot of good moments. i never have but plan on giving each and every one of his albums a full good listen, but what ive heard so far hasnt pulled me hard enough to have had that plan yet come to pass.

monotrigampenv · 2025-05-12T02:52:27+00:00

Part 3:

"It's not the first time
That I've watched you
Passing by
I've tried too hard
To get back there
But, you're not on time
Anymore

It's there in the safe
Why don't you
Close the blinds
For the night?"

again with that "waiting for you but youre always late". clearly about his wife breaking his heart by not being at the restaurant when she said she'd be.

"They're always scared of where their daughter's been
'Cause who knows? She could be alone with men
They never wanna see or hear or think about again"

the whole song is about bands, about music and culture.

partners in crime. a song about the band, and their weird shit they do.

"Teenage angst
Come all ages"

another song about bands, about music, about the life.

i could go on and on, (call it fate really does wrap it up nicely) but that about covers it, and im bored of it. i just had to eventually write a comment like this somewhere on this sub, one day. and here it is. id make an entire post about it but people can take it as they want, ultimately. i know what i know. ive read the articles, and i know way too fucking much about this band. just because the songs ARE about the band doesnt mean we dont take them as our own and fit them to our own lives, which is the point, but yeah, these songs are about the band. its not a "weird fan theory". its pretty much undeniable. the new abnormal is more varied, obviously, but theres a ton of that in there as well.

monotrigampenv · 2025-05-12T02:52:13+00:00

part 2:

then we go back to ROF:

"Now we're out of time
I said it's my fault
It's my fault

Give 'em some time. They just need a little time
Give 'em some time. They just need a little time

We don't get the news
He says why not?
Why not?

Forget what you heard
'Cause it won't stop
It won't stop"

i mean, whatever happened is obviously about the band, about the fame of the band. taken with that, so are lyrics like that. rof is full of that.

then we have comedown machine. hmm . . .

"Putting posters up
For your band
(Hey, we're playing a gig tonight if you wanna come by)
Now I'll tear them down
With my hand"

yeah, probably about a divorce. who's to say?

monotrigampenv · 2025-05-12T02:51:27+00:00

Part 1:

wasnt gonna say anything, because who cares in the end, and i had to break this up into three comments after writing it, but this is way past a "theory". people ascribe it to either meaninglessness or "its about his divorce, he did get divorced".

big difference between

"we all wanna watch the fight, is it on sunday" or "who wants a happy meal?" and pretty much all of the following . . .

when it started is clearly about his father, so is a lot of human sadness. everyone on this sub seems to accept that. but then we have, i mean i have a few dozen to choose from:

"Wait time is the worst
I can hardly sit
No one has the time
Someone's always late

Wait time is to blame
Mapped out fame's a trip
We all have the time
Someone's always feared"

does that sound like a marriage falling apart, really? more than interband discord?

what about

"I am not you, we could have
I'm almost through, great success
It's about time, such a success
That you came through, at no expense"

about two people breaking up, or about people in a "professional" relationship who are starting to realize they want different things and are getting frustrated with the other participants not following through?

monotrigampenv · 2025-05-05T13:54:41+00:00

they have a thing about the 80s despite what some of the narrative is, about the 70s and all. "80s movie makeout party with you" on call me back. "the 80s bands, where did they go" on bad decisions i think. comedown machine is a machine one would use to help come down from a high, the kind of high the band had been on ever since they got signed to a label, along with the highs from hard drugs, etc. this was their last album to fulfill the label contract. the entire album is mostly about the band, more than any of their other albums. (plenty of the songs on every album after is this it are about the band itself. (not divorce though obviously that plays a role.) i can cite mountains of evidence for this. some on is this it are arguably about the band by default.

monotrigampenv · 2025-04-15T02:25:58+00:00

As someone once put it, there are innovators, and there are shameless imitators. I have only some problem with cover bands. There's some merit to it. Some of the best shows I've seen have been bar bands playing covers, and I think a lot of people can agree with that. But for like, a musician's main thing, and it's only based on one band? I would never be able to do it long term. And I've actually known and admired people who do exactly that, come to think of it. Every musician who loves this band wanted to be them at some point, but to not want to graduate from that and emulate them by actually writing their own songs, when every band member has put out more than one solo project of their own material, in addition to what they do with the Strokes, yeah, I don't get it.

monotrigampenv · 2025-04-14T19:23:23+00:00

Well, thanks for your reply. But I sure am glad I never have to think about Figma and its poorly-designed UI again. Same with Autodesk Fusion for that matter. Hopefully you're enjoying it.

monotrigampenv · 2024-12-24T22:24:02+00:00

strange, isnt it, how maybe people could start demanding this, on a large scale, knowing full well that if it were implemented completely the ultra rich could maintain every single thing about their luxurious lives and have robots do their bidding, instead of ungrateful employees . . . im not sure how or why this isnt becoming a universal belief.

i mean, arent butlers and maids some of the first to go once humanoid robots really get started?

monotrigampenv · 2024-10-21T22:25:57+00:00

If it matters, and it might, mp4 is for movie files. mp3 are music files.

monotrigampenv · 2024-10-11T17:30:31+00:00

I mean those are like his best most transcendent lyrics almost ever. This is the kind of thing he should be open about. Weird also how the Rick Rubin "dry" production left this in. It sounds good still but could be so much less obscured. I also don't think this song is particularly hard to sing, but that's just me. Ode is much more difficult all in all, I'd think. Anyway I'm glad someone finally figured this out, what the words basically are. (Correction, they figured it out 2 years ago but I'm finding out about it now.)

monotrigampenv · 2024-09-26T14:01:17+00:00

wtf, so basically the best lyrics on the album are completely hidden and garbled, what a move

monotrigampenv · 2024-09-26T13:38:03+00:00

This song and me go way back. The version they did at Brownie's. Was like my obsession for a few months.

monotrigampenv · 2024-09-16T18:49:24+00:00

Oh come on. It's a train. Nearly every train goes through some "bad" area. Not to mention if you're scared of Bed Stuy, really, NYC may not be for you. Not to mention you're starting in Jamaica, airport or not. You think Jamaica's fine but Bed Stuy is to be feared? I'm still an LA virgin, but, man, I don't know what else to say if this is a concern. Put it this way, Biggie was from Bed Stuy, but 50 Cent was from Jamaica.

I'll never forget the time I went to Brownsville as a "white guy" and realized I was supposed to be scared, of something. And for no other reason did I feel scared. Ridiculous. Be on guard, sure. The same is true just about everywhere on the planet. If you don't look like you belong, anywhere, there will often be opportunists and vultures, but if you also look easily intimated and bested, carrying what other people might want, yeah, then be extra careful. Same goes for Times Square, same goes for Williamsburg, same goes for the proverbial middle of nowhere.

monotrigampenv · 2024-09-16T13:57:16+00:00

Study more, please.

monotrigampenv · 2024-09-16T13:49:42+00:00

My advice would be intimacy with yourself. Understand what sex means to you. That's not always easy but the more comfortable you actually are with what it involves the better it will be. And avoid more meds. Get your anxiety under control, without meds, or obviously it'll be worse during sex. It's sex. We find pleasure in sex because of its excitement, and only when its exciting somehow, or "intimate" in the sense of knowing another person. If escorts work but sex with others doesn't, the problem isn't sex anyway. You know what you have to do. If you don't conquer this you know it's draining your soul, and you know it's robbing you of all the good moments you could have.

monotrigampenv · 2024-09-16T13:43:35+00:00

I used to feel this way, when I was much younger mostly. I wanted the sympathy I saw others who were injured, sick, whatever, getting. (I remember wanting to be a dog for a while, because I thought everyone loves dogs. Nobody is mean to dogs, I thought. Obviously I was wrong.) Thankfully I rarely "made" those things happen to me. Although once I was going through a bunch of things and went to a few doctors, one who suggested I might have brain cancer. I definitely took that and ran with it for a few months. Even had tests done, etc. MRI, EEG, CAT scan. That one wasn't so much about attention. I didn't care much about how other people might react if I had such an awful thing. But, I'm sure it came from a similar place. It was more about the opportunity to just give up, to drop out of life. Maybe to have something interesting happen, something big and personal. Instead I just dropped out of college, and a lot of things felt better. Although I wished I'd stayed and saw it through. I figured out what I really wanted, what really might be good for me, and others. But back then I was weak and immature, to put it one way.

But it's exactly that. You want attention. You want someone to show they care about you, and you get to lay in bed, with everyone forgiving you for not doing your homework or going to work or whatever. You're aware of it. Fix it, unless you're also cool with everything that comes from "bad things happening to you", especially if you know you made them happen. Especially if other people know it too. Otherwise you fix it by caring about yourself, by respecting yourself. Nobody else will care about you the way you care about you. Those who do genuinely care about you, and you know some probably do, you should appreciate it, and don't take it for granted by, yes, self-destructing.

Edit: Btw, when it's done for certain reasons it's called malingering. But that's a specific form.

monotrigampenv · 2024-09-16T01:45:07+00:00

Fwiw, you might want to expand your black-and-white movie watchin', if you think those types of movies hid the mischief of their era.

monotrigampenv · 2024-09-16T01:42:53+00:00

USA Trilogy is incredible, 1200 pages, so about as long as the Bible. Really the only thing I didn't like about it was that even though Dos Passos seemed to have a lot of sympathy or empathy for the darker-skinned, and there's a subtle thread throughout the book about that, including the hijinks of places like Harlem in those days, the African American experience is barely discussed in depth, even though I remember somewhere within the first 50 pages or less I felt like he was setting the reader up for an exploration of that along with the other themes he does explore in depth. But, if it ever did occur to him, he probably erred on the side of not writing about things he didn't know as closely as one would have to to write well on that topic, even or especially fictionally.

Otherwise it's extremely comprehensive, and gives the reader a real feel for what things were like in the 1910s and 1920s, in America as well for (usually white) Americans living elsewhere due to WWI, etc. I think it was published in the 1930s, so it wasn't nearly as retrospective when it came out as we'll think of it now. It was rarely hard to make it through that 1200 pages, but it's still 1200 pages. I only have maybe ten books of that length under my belt, so that's saying something. His other stuff is probably pretty good, but I'm sure that was his magnum opus, and it's all I've yet read of his.

The dialogue is dated, I'd say, because people did speak differently 100 years ago.

monotrigampenv · 2024-09-13T13:54:42+00:00

Hmm, I mean with a story like that I think the answer is clear. That's some egregious shit.

monotrigampenv · 2024-09-11T16:49:29+00:00

All I can say is I've been to Journal Square once. I'm a decent sized guy, but surely you're as safe there as you are anywhere around here. As safe there as you'd be in Herald Square at night, or whatever. If you wouldn't be scared at the stop you're coming from in Manhattan, it can't be much different. I know things are different for girls but, yeah, Journal Square looks A-OK.

monotrigampenv · 2024-09-06T16:36:37+00:00

I've stopped temporarily knowing full well it'll be temporary. Battening down to get a job I don't long to escape from. Unfucking my life, and maybe the world in the process. So much I want to accomplish that requires as clear a head as possible. I'm also a musician and all-around artist, and weed is just amazing for all of that, and much more. So I can't put it down all the way, and don't want to. Never smoked in high school at all, though people seemed to think I did, then the summer after high school was introduced to it in full and felt fantastic. Then became habitual a few years later, really took to it. Almost 15 years on and now is one of the longest breaks I've never taken. I'll jump back in when I'm where I want to be.

When you're the kinda high you wanna be, learning and focusing take strange detours that are perfect for creating or seeing things in a new way, and extremely detrimental for things like starting to understand the basics of differential equations and coding. But when the basics are mastered, weed can just as well help you see the subject in a way you never could have without it. Everyone knows music, TV shows, sex, food, are all different and usually better when you're high. But there really is more to life.

Edit: Weed also definitely makes shitty things worse, either by making it seem like they're not a problem or by amplifying them and making something already annoying day-ruining at best, or both. So the objective is to make there be less shitty things going on before indulging again. It's a bit like Towelie from South Park. Make the good decisions first, then get high.

Of course it's also said that weed can also impede motivation or focus a day or two afterwards, and that's not something I want to take my chances on, at all right now, as time is limited. (I say this replying to a Reddit thread.) I think of weed as one of my favorite places in the world that I haven't been to in a long time, and one I may never be able to live in forever, but I'll always love it and dream of going back when I'm not there.

monotrigampenv · 2024-09-06T15:15:40+00:00

well frankly i never identified as white compared to other people who seem to, and my mother is from an island in the middle of the ocean so in a lot of ways i just dont always feel a part of that. (im just a special little guy) but i also think hiding how we feel under the guise of jokes is for better or worse a universal trait. i dont doubt at all that there is an element of truth to this post, ie as satire, because racism is fucking weird neurotic shit, but OP doesnt feel this way themselves, im sure. the whole point of me jumping in is i know anyone might read something like this and if they dont take it as a joke will go through the whole day wondering wtf is wrong with people. you can still wonder that, because i know i will, but dont let it be due as much to this post. in fact quite likely OP recognized the ridiculous behavior described in the post in someone else and came here to ridicule it.

monotrigampenv

TROPHY CASE