Julian Casablancas & Middle Age Eccentricity
The reception for the new Voidz album poses larger questions for the Strokes' mastermind
In a 2022 Guardian article, Mike Patton disclosed recent battles with agoraphobia and alcoholism. The Faith No More and Mr Bungle singer is a legendary iconoclast, a tireless wanderer on weird career paths. His first solo album in 1996 was forty minutes of erratic bleeping noises. That penchant presented a dilemma for his fanbase, who liked the idea of challenging noise-as-art but the reality of digestible alt rock music. Is it better to keep your profitable day job or risk it all to follow your heart and get weird?
I realized from that Guardian article that Mike Patton never pretended to have an answer. He made “wrong” moves seem right by virtue of his fearless creative spirit. He built his career as an Eccentric, with evolving projects of his musician pals or underground artists. The perks of following an Eccentric artist’s career - cf. Kathleen Hanna, Henry Rollins - manifest in the unique culture around them. But it’s not so easy for aging Eccentrics. We're still seeing the ongoing anti-industry decline of Lauryn Hill. It was sad and disheartening and a little shocking to hear how Mike Patton had lost his way. We assume, like they probably do, that the creative spirit is everlasting, and indomitable. But is it?
Julian Casablancas is one of them. From his interviews you’ll catch notes of that same discomfiture. He seems uneasy with the idea of his career in relation to his creative vision. The Strokes are remembered as harbingers of a new era, which soon fizzled out because that’s what new eras do. So how do you keep going, balancing your weird creative spirit with the demands of your audience? Even now this question hangs like a shadow around Casablancas’ work.
In 2001, the Strokes’ Is This It brought NYC postpunk to the suburbs. And why the hell not? Forget the gatekeeping of hipster artistes. Does your music sound awesome blasting in a sports bar? While retaining some semblance of cool among the likes of Metallica and Kid Rock? The Strokes did it like no one else.
“How can a band be cool and still sell?” goes a refrain from the chatty and rather vapid Meet Me In The Bathroom document about the NYC indie rock scene. I didn’t care for that book at all, with its slight insights and scenester nostalgia, which do little for the actual music. Is This It requires no context, just press play and turn it up loud. The songs are tight, each with a propulsive momentum and some great melody. That it feels cool is the secret ingredient, subtly achieved with the distorted vocals and disaffected lyrics. It’s the sound of talented kids going for it all while not caring if they screw it up.
As a good student of rock music and an aspiring Eccentric, Casablancas seemed wary of leaning too much into the critical praise, for fear of a debt, and a backlash. “Ask Me Anything” from 2005’s First Impressions Of Earth is basically a troll on critics, biting the sound of late ‘70s Lou Reed (another legendary Eccentric warrior) with the chorus: “I’ve got nothing to say.” Of course that’s just bait, a readymade quote for negative reviews. The backlash was so anticipated that “15 Minutes” from the same album sounds like an epitaph: “‘Cause today they’ll talk about us/ And tomorrow they won’t care.”
It’s a trap. A band can either keep writing the same songs to diminishing returns, or link up with some new pop stars and the current hot producers, or stop creating entirely to tour the old hits. The Strokes just took a break. We won’t speculate on rumors about the state of the band in the late 2000s, with infighting and drug problems. But we can safely say that the pressures and priorities of rock stardom results in disconnection, from trusted friends, from the old life that inspired your best material, and from the audience itself. Casablancas soldiered on with an excellent solo album in 2009, followed with some memorable guest spots. The first Voidz album arrived in 2014 to a mixed reception. Dare I say it reminds me of the Smashing Pumpkins - in 2014. Not an ideal direction to lead a declining or at least disparate audience. An Eccentric artist has to navigate carefully. Every left turn sacrifices some capital, too many left turns and you’re just going in circles.
A recent interview characterized Casablancas’ politics: “He hates mainstream politicians, referring to the two party system as ‘Exxon versus Citibank,’ and says he likes politicians only if ‘they’re not bribed.’” Fine, fair enough, but wait - it’s another trap. The title of the article calls attention to his “Real Life Contemporary Conspiracy Theories.” It’s an uncertain time for natural dissidents, especially the Gen X stalwarts so used to complaining about the System. Loyalties are too politically divided for general cynicism. One has to pick a side to fight with, or one is suspect.
Still in 2020 the Strokes were reborn. Their political values found a home campaigning for Bernie Sanders. Their album The New Abnormal was their best since the debut. They sounded as comfortable in their modern sound as they did singing “The Modern Age” in 2001. The New Abnormal unlocked a puzzle, of how to write Strokes music without repeating themselves, and how to speak with some relevance to new and old audiences.
But that was 2020. The world has changed again, hasn’t it? Casablancas is now promoting his third album with the Voidz, the main outlet for his creative vision. Like All Before You juggles apocalyptic imagery with enlightenment lingo, as the songs bounce around stylistically in a Ween-like fashion, via pastiche. Of course I hear the DIY “Master Of Puppets” riff in “Prophecy Of The Dragon,” and the prog rock British accent of “Spectral Analysis,” but what about the chorus of “7 Horses” sounding like Chinese Democracy-era Guns ‘n Roses? The album is mysterious but not muddled, with a Rorschach-y effect that leaves messages up to the listener.
Like All Before You has received middling reviews from critics. Perhaps it’s too scattered, too indulgent. In interviews Casablancas has too much to say, about politics and the billionaire warlord class and so on. But here’s the problem with that - it’s abstract, and not directly actionable. We’re in an activist era of soapboxing from a cemented political position. Which is understandable, given how US politics is currently configured with the punchy dynamics of online opinions. But Casablancas is speaking on systems that can’t be solved by a pull in the voting booth. Now he’s released an album not easily accessible with a few cursory listens, but very easy to pigeonhole in with his cranky politics that just get in the way of election year goals.
Middle aged rock stars used to fall back on VH-1 balladry. They’d put out half-ass albums as they toured the nostalgia circuit. But middle age can also be a time of resistance and change. Julian Casablancas was weary of the Strokes in his 20s, so there’s no way he’s content now to just coast on the old hits. We might compare him to another aging Eccentric, the former Mos Def, now Yasiin Bey. After two decades of sporadic output amid other troubles, he reunited in 2022 with Talib Kweli for a new Black Star album produced by Madlib. No Fear Of Time is weird and edgy and a little meta, and as good I’d argue as anything he’s ever released. Or maybe I’m biased. I’m rooting for these Eccentrics, who aren’t going quietly into middle age conformity.