Ever since the trailer to Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere hit in June, which featured music by her partner Thomas Mars’ band Phoenix (“Love Like a Sunset”) and poignant use of a Strokes demo by Julian Casablancas (“I’ll Try Anything Once”), we’ve been anxious for the scoop on the rest of the Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning-starring film’s soundtrack. Thanks to a tracklist uncovered by the Playlist on the Italian distributors’ site, however, the wait is over…
Coppola has apparently bookended the soundtrack with the first and second part of Phoenix’s almost-instrumental Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix cut “Love Like a Sunset,” placing the aforementioned Strokes tune alongside T. Rex’s “20th Century Boy,” “So Lonely” by the Police, Amerie’s “1 Thing,” Bryan Ferry covering the Platters’ “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,” and nine more carefully selected songs in between. Check out the full tracklist and trailer below:
“She asked us to do some music, very in the spirit of ‘Love Like a Sunset,’ so we tried to put that track and elements of the track in the movie,” Phoenix frontman/Sofia Coppola boyfriend Thomas Mars told MTV in April. The “movie” he’s referring to is Coppola’s Somewhere, which hits theaters in December, and features “very small pieces of music, very minimal music” from his band.
Well, the trailer hit the Web earlier tonight and (surprise, surprise) the aforementioned Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix almost-instrumental scores part of the clip. As the Playlist notes, however, it’s Julian Casablancas’ demo of “I’ll Try Anything Once”—an early version of “You Only Live Once”—that pretty much steals the show. View the Stephen Dorff/Elle Fanning-starring trailer above.
Shaky footage from their pseudo-secret warm-up gig proved underwhelming, but Venison is long gone, ladies and gents: The Strokes are back. After almost four years out of the spotlight, Julian Casablancas, Albert Hammond, Jr., Fab Moretti, Nick Valensi, and Nikolai Fraiture headlined England’s Isle of Wight Festival tonight, burning through a 16-track set, which included breakout hit “Is This It,” “Someday,” “Reptilia,” “Soma,” and loads more. Thankfully, some top-shelf video coverage hit YouTube this time around…
Professionally filmed for TV (complete with closeups and whatnot), watch the Strokes tear up “New York City Cops” and “The Modern Age,” their set’s first two cuts below. **Update: “Reptilia” has been added to the collection:
Julian Casablancas interviews always prove fruitful as the Strokes singer truly is an open book when discussing the state of the band, his solo career, family life, and so on. It’s no wonder, then, that his recent Q&A with NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams brought some insight with regard to those issues. Here are two interesting bits I pulled from the 6-minute BriTunes web exclusive, which is available to watch in full below.
Julian Casablancas Covers Bruce Springsteen - “Dancing in the Dark”
St. Louis’ Riverfront Times attended a Julian Casablancas solo gig last night in which the Strokes frontman ambitiously took on Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 Born in the U.S.A. single “Dancing in the Dark.” Though there’s practically nothing to see above, the audio in this YouTube clip offers plenty of proof that Casablancas succeeded in driving the New Jersey-bred Boss’ 80s hit through the Holland Tunnel for a bit of NYC-cool.
It’s a solid rendition, for sure, but here’s hoping he adapts a few of Bruce’s dance moves next time.
The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney, Jesse Malin, Norah Jones, Sean Lennon, the Strokes’ Fab Moretti and Nikolai Fraiture, and many more will descend on NYC’s Bowery Ballroom next month for an epic one-night event dubbed simply, “Dylan Fest 2010: A Night To Get Drunk And Celebrate The songs of Bob Dylan!” Everybody must get stoned wasted.
According to the event description (via CoS and Time Out New York), Malin will lead the so-called Cabin Down Below Band for a celebration of Dylan’s 69th birthday with an evening of… well, I guess that title pretty much says it all.
Ready for more of the to-be-inebriated special guest performers? In addition to the names mentioned above, Little Joy’s Binki Shapiro, Nicole Atkins, Tracy Bonham, Mooney Suzuki’s Sammy James Jr., Jody Porter from Fountains Of Wayne, All American Rejects singer Tyson Ritter, Longwave’s Steve Schiltz and others are also piling on.
What’s more, tickets are only 13 bucks for the May 27 event, so grab a credit card, harmonica, and flask, and click here to join in the festivities.
After watching ABC News’ interview with Julian Casablancas late last night, I was delighted at how candidly the Strokes frontman described his personal shortcomings, the fact that he is recording his vocals separately from the band, and their, um, interesting motivations for booking headlining festival slots this summer. This thing is pull-quote city, for sure (NME beat me to the punch in that respect), but I think one exchange needs to be fleshed out a bit…
ABC Reporter Dan Harris: What was the impetus behind getting together to play these shows this summer?
Julian Casablancas: Just like… the thing that goes through my mind [is]: should I say the truth? Or should I say what…
A Bit Cagey’s Melissa Shampine just alerted us to an awesome new Haitian relief project organized by Little Joy’s Binki Shapiro. Dubbed “Crafts For A Cause,” Shapiro has recruited quite the impressive roster of artists to contribute various decorated items to be auctioned off in support of writer/director Paul Haggis’ charity organization, Artists for Peace and Justice, which is mobilizing a significant relief effort in the disaster-stricken country.
Details about when and where the auction will take place have yet to be posted, but Shapiro is publishing some exciting updates about who is involved in the meantime here. A few examples: Bright Eyes mastermind Conor Oberst is decorating a Fender Strat for the cause, Mars Volta’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala added a design to a skateboard, Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold designed a t-shirt, Vampire Weekend a gym bag, and The Strokes took a studio break to sign a tote bag.
But that’s not all! Shapiro says that many more artists are contributing items to this epic charity auction, including Devendra Banhart, Spike Jonze, Sia, Le Tigre, Mark Ronson, M. Ward and The Black Keys.
Follow “Crafts For a Cause” on Tumblr here or on Twitter here.
The sad news of the day is that the Strokes might possibly hatedislikenot feel like brothers to one another, but the good news? Frontman Julian Casablancas has stopped dancing and he’s now ready to stand still (sort of) while singing like the leather-clad, Manhattanite rocker he was born to be.
I’m not being facetious or snarky here, people: this is the J.C. that I and many of those “Best of the Decade” list-makers once dug and have since come to worship.
Watch him perform Phrazes For The Young’s opening track, “Out of the Blue,” here or below (via TAP).
Ever since the trailer to Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere hit in June, which featured music by her partner Thomas Mars’ band Phoenix (“Love Like a Sunset”) and poignant use of a Strokes demo by Julian Casablancas (“I’ll Try Anything Once”), we’ve been anxious for the scoop on the rest of the Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning-starring film’s soundtrack. Thanks to a tracklist uncovered by the Playlist on the Italian distributors’ site, however, the wait is over…
Shaky footage from their 
Julian Casablancas interviews 
After watching 
