Ladies and gentlemen, for the next 31 days I’ll be posting something from my Strokes archives to honor the band’s return to the New York City stage on April 1, 2011 at Madison Square Garden.

Join me on this walk down memory lane…

Here’s a keeper from the New York Post, June 29, 2003. In an article explaining why Friendster.com is so cool, it name-checks Albert Hammond Jr. as a member of the social network (sadly with only six friends).

If you’ve been wondering where Albert Hammond Jr. has been spending his time away from his NYC pad that’s currently on the market, the New York Post has your answers.

Check out their new story highlighting Albert’s new custom-built three bedroom farmhouse situated in Eldred, NY. “This is exactly what I need to slow things down; to feed my creativity and my soul,” Albert tells the Post.

If you ever tried imagining where Albert Hammond, Jr. rests his pretty little head at night, wonder no more. Today you have a chance to get a first-hand look at the private quarters of The Strokes guitarist. Albert’s two-bedroom East Village apartment has newly re-emerged on the real estate market, on sale for the low low asking price of $899,000.

The co-op pad at 141 East 3rd Street was originally listed for $1.199 million last August, but the buyer dropped out. The apartment was listed again at $999,000, but vanished from real estate sites by January. According to the NY Post, Albert bought the place in 2005 for $770,000.

With the lone exception of three strategically placed guitars in the foyer, living room, and bedroom as well as a stack of records in the living area, nothing in the photos of the apartment screams “rock musician living quarters.” In fact, the pictures reveal that the 1,200 square foot abode to be nearly obsessive compulsively clean. It’s partly due to some minor restaging by someone… looks as though Albert’s makeshift recording studio has appropriately been converted into a bedroom scene for the opening:

Before:

After:


The apartment appears to be in immaculate condition, with the whole of the apartment painted floor to ceiling white and not a bit of clutter to be found. The kitchen, dining, and living area are all open plan, and the guest bedroom features a charming half bath.

The broker on the apartment is hosting an open house today, May 20th, from 5:30-7pm. Get a look for yourself—and who knows, maybe one of you will be the proud new owners!

Thanks to J for the head’s up.

Ok, ladies. So we lost newly married Ryan Adams, but it looks like the dating world has gained back another New York-based musician.

According to New York Magazine‘s Jada Yuan, the romance between Albert Hammond Jr. and model Agyness Deyn has officially ended.

The couple in happier, more photoshoot-y times.

Yuan reports that it was soon after posing for a Valentine’s Day Vogue pictorial that they started drifting apart.

According to the article the two remain friends.

SOURCE: NY Mag

In honor of Valentine’s Day (tomorrow), I present you a story that has been out for a little bit, but will perhaps inspire some romanticism in your life… Recently Albert Hammond Jr. and his lady love, model Agyness Deyn, posed for a fashion spread in Vogue magazine (you know, like you do).

Check out some of the glamorous pictures below:

For those that are a little less inclined to appreciate the gooey nature of the spread, a bit of conflicting news. Although it is stated in the Vogue piece that Al and Aggy are engaged, a more recent NY Magazine interview with Agyness reveals something a bit different.

Catching up with Ag at the Vampire Weekend/Patti Smith/Tibet House show at Carnegie Hall, NY’s Jada Yuan writes, “Deyn hadn’t meant to walk out of her East Village apartment (where she lives alone, incidentally, not with musician boyfriend Albert Hammond Jr., whom she is very happily dating, but to whom she is not affianced) wearing lingerie and a jacket.”

Agyness, who has a fledgling career as a singer will reportedly perform a “secret” show with the Five O’Clock Heroes in London next week, a day before London Fashion Week begins.

Reports NY Magazine, Strokes guitarist/solo artist Albert Hammond Jr. will launch a menswear line with fashion stylist Ilaria Urbinati this fall. The focus? Men’s suits.

“They’re for the person who needs his one suit for a wedding,” Hammond told NY Magazine. “He’d rather get something like this than go to Men’s Wearhouse, pay the same amount, and look like an out-of-date parent.”

And seeing as how Urbinati has styled a slew of diminutive male stars like James McAvoy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Michael Angarano, I wonder if men of slimmer (and smaller) statures will easily be able to slip into the brand.

The clothes will be sold at Urbinati’s LA store, Confederacy, which is scheduled to open on September 16th…and rumored to be hosted by, you guessed it, Albert and Agyness Deyn.

Thanks to D for the head’s.

This Friday, 8/15/08, After the Jump is presenting Longwave at Music Hall of Williamsburg at 10pm. It’s the official after-party for the Regina Spektor/Albert Hammond, Jr McCarren Pool concert. Come out and enjoy the great free music!

So long-time White Stripes fans who attended the 4-night stand at the Bowery Ballroom in 2002 may remember sketchy peeps in white lab coats running around the building, filming something. As it was revealed later, it was footage being shot for a documentary entitled “Nobody Knows How to Talk to Children” shot/directed/edited by one George Roca.

A still of Meg and Jack from “Nobody Knows How to Talk to Children”

The film only saw one public screening, at the 2004 Seattle Film Festival–despite the fact that the White Stripes did not give their approval to screen or distribute the film. A June 23, 2004 post on the White Stripes’ official site, the band made it known that they were extremely unhappy with the film, and that they had a signed contract from Roca that gave the band all rights to the footage.

According to an MTV News interview with Roca, after the band saw a rough cut of the footage, they extended positive words about the documentary–but only a short time later, the band released a live concert music video for “Black Math,” (below) which mirrored the style of the footage Roca had shown them, and the band cut off all communication.

“Black Math” (live) music video in black, white, and red.

I kinda forgot about the documentary, only hearing about it in passing–almost as it if never existed, gathering a myth of its own. I heard about a friend of a friend who had seen it, maybe, and said it was pretty cool, etc.

But it seems as though a few months ago someone had managed to get a copy of the documentary and upload some clips of it to the internet, and only recently did I become aware of it.

The footage is almost impossible to watch–it’s highly stylized…with blurry, high-contrast black, white, and red (natch) images filling up the screen, and the sound quality is abysmal. The interviews are hard to hear, captured in the middle of a myriad of backstage chatter–you can vaguely make out things like Jack talking about his –er– admiration for starlets like Kirsten Dunst and Cameron Diaz, and one moment where Meg accuses the director of trying to steal Jack’s soul. Strokes Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr. appear for a few brief moments in the clips, chatting and taking pictures with Meg and Jack.

Were you there? Identify yourself!

Probably the most joy I got out of trying to watch it was trying to spy myself in the concert footage. Even though it’s pretty cool to see footage of the White Stripes “back when.” the clips are pretty mundane, and I cannot stress enough how HORRIBLE the sound quality is–(seriously, a documentary about a musical group as great as the Stripes deserves better sound than this!) I can see why the Stripes put a kibosh to the film’s release.

For fans who are not deterred by the aforementioned technical hurdles of the clips, I’m sure you’ll be crafty enough to find the footage–it’s not that hard. I’m going to refrain from linking to them directly for obvious reasons, and I ask you to refrain from posting the links to the video in the comments as well.

Here are pictures I took at 3 of the 4 shows (couldn’t go to the Sunday show… had school work! Sold my PAIR OF TICKETS to some random person on the Ryan Adams message boards for FACE VALUE–ah, the pre-Craigslist days. Hilarious). Go ahead, try to figure out if I’m any of those blurry people in the footage, I sure couldn’t! April 5, April 6, April 8

Thanks for the heads–you know who you are.

Oh, I also have to state how the Strokes Message board has gone shit ass crazy ever since Albert started posting on Friday. Simma everyone. Simma.

Need I mention how cool it was that Albert wore a Yeah Yeah Yeahs pin on SNL? Rock on, my man!

Also, Left-side people and Euro-trash: The Vue go on tour with BRMC and team up w/ some regional acts (including the Detroit Cobras).

On the Golden Globes, is it just me, or does everyone look insanely skinny in the pictures? Flockhart and Parker looked like they came straight out of grade school. It’s like everyone stopped eating because Portia de Rossi ate their food. Kate looked normal.. but I don’t know what Cate was wearing. Kate Hudson showed off her minus A-cup and MacDowell showed of her new plastic knockers. Thora looks good from a distance, but upclose she looked sorta lumpy.

German tennis boy Tommy Haas. No comment.

Ronan gives Boyzone the cold shoulder… the lame-os carry on without their star blond boy.

The WS down under.