Sure they haven’t released an album since 2005. Sure they all seem to be busy with various musical solo projects (Albert Hammond Jr.), side projects (Nicholas Fraiture’s Nickel Eye, and Fabrizio Moretti’s Megapuss and Little Joy), babies (Nick and Niko), Converse ads (Julian), and er…Hollywood restaurants (Julian’s Korean BBQ joint, Shin), but hell or high water NME is determined on bringing back rabid reporting on one of their favorite bands…

In honor of the 10th year anniversary (uh… is that POSSIBLE?) of The Greatest Band to Ever Exist–AKA “The Strokes“–NME has put out a very special issue commemorating the little New York band that could. It goes on sale TOMORROW, Wednesday November 19, 2008.

As much as I love being sarcastic and bitter about everything, I’m looking forward to reading this issue–after all, The Strokes, along with the White Stripes, are among my most favorite bands in the entire world. (And if you look closely, I may or may not be quoted somewhere in the piece.) Complain and deny all you want, but The Strokes really put New York back on the musical map in the early 2000s and helped revitalize interest in real rock music.

Right now NME.com is having a poll about your favorite Strokes track of all time. May I suggest you rate a little song called “The Modern Age” as one of your top picks?

And if you needed any more reasons to gush over The Strokes after all this time, just watch the video below… I’m guessing you’ve got a lot of fond memories around this track:

The Strokes – Last Nite from Geraldine Mora on Vimeo.

After all these years, and the long sabbatical, are you still as excited about The Strokes as you once were?

More pix and vid:

Nickel Eye (aka Nikolai Fraiture from the Strokes plus South):

The Muslims:

Video of “Parasites”:

Picy:

Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture performed tonight with his new pet project/band, Nickel Eye. They played a number of songs, including “Back from Exile”:

and “Brandy of the Damned”:

Unless I missed something, no other Strokes appeared at the Music Hall tonight.

The first song the band played was my favorite… airy, with beautiful harmonies sung by Joel Cadbury and Jamie McDonald of South. (They flew over from England in order to play the show!)

The crowd was far from packed, but there were a good number of people there—surprisingly the crowd looked pretty young (were all the older-timers out in Manhattan?) with a disproportionate amount of Asian girls up in the front.

One blonde girl, who I think likened herself to being the Brooklyn version of Miley Cyrus was hooting and hollering at Nikolai the whole time, shouting out things like “I LUUUUVVV YOUUUU NIIIKOOOOLAAAIIII!” and “YOU HAVE A GREAT A** NIKOLAIIIIII!” Charming, as you can imagine.

Nikolai’s established shy and understated demeanor hasn’t changed as a result of his new job as the leader. His Lurch-like hunch was still present as he strummed the guitar, his hair was coiffed in the same exact pageboy style for which he’s known. He was dressed in “typical” Nikolai attire—casual suit jacket and pants, button down shirt, big belt buckle and shoes. It was almost as if nothing had changed since the last time I probably saw him onstage in 2006(?) during the “First Impressions…” tour.

Yet there he was, singing his own songs with a new band… it was a little bit like the Twilight Zone to be honest.

However, Niko does has a bit of ways to go as a front man, the best illustration of this point was during the 4th song, which was a Bob Dylan-esque folky tune in which Nikolai played the harmonica. Instead of blowing hard into the ‘monica to get a full, rich sound, Nikolai seemed to tweak air into it with the type of force that one would usually reserve to blowing crumbs off the table.

But I’m sure you want to know, who’s solo effort is better? Albert Hammond Jr. or Nikolai Fraiture. That’s kind of like asking me to choose my favorite child, isn’t it? (OK, it’s Julian.) But seriously, I thought some of the tunes were quite good, and thought that Nickel Eye sounded much better live than the recorded stuff they currently have on MySpace.

Whereas some of the recorded tracks sound a bit too much like The Strokes, live they carry a different vibe and gravitas. When I listened to the songs live, I didn’t feel as though they were just discarded Strokes songs—the lyrics are a bit more introspective, linear, and…softer…instead of in your face, nonsensical, and jagged.

All in all a good night, and a job well done for Nickel Eye’s second live show.