Alternative rock had been nearly strangled into oblivion by jock rock and rap rock. Bands like Creed and Nickelback and Linkin Park were the staples of rock radio. It was a bad, bad scene.
Then the Strokes debuted a simple, gritty record called Is This It, was a light, easy antidote to all the garbage on the radio. The Strokes recalled the 1977 art rock scene -- from Blondie to Television, the Cars to Talking Heads. But it also sounded new. It sounded like Manhattan in 2001. It sounded like what was going on. It may have been derivative, but the simplicity of that sound was a welcome change from what was going on in rock at the time
It's been a long time since The Strokes and The White Stripes led a garage rock revival that brought early blues and post punk sounds to a wider, mainstream rock audience. The Strokes have been on hiatus since about 2005 and their third album First Impressions of Earth. They are back now with a new record, Angles. do they have another revival ready? Unfortunatley, no. Instead of a breath of fresh air, Angles sounds like a band that hasn't learned anything new at all.
