The Strokes Face Reality: New Album, Tour, and a Temporary Lineup Change
As The Strokes gear up for their new album 'Reality Awaits' and a massive tour, rhythm guitarist Nick Valensi is taking a temporary break, with Steve Schlitz of Longwave stepping in.
We're one Stroke down. As New York rockers The Strokes prepare to release their new album Reality Awaits and to head out on a huge tour, longtime rhythm guitarist Nick Valensi will take what the band calls a "temporary break." The Strokes mentioned Valensi's hiatus on their Instagram story, and they didn't cite a reason, but they do "look forward to his return." Instead of Valensi, Longwave frontman Steve Schlitz will serve as a temporary Stroke.
Valensi
A couple of days ago, the Strokes dropped their strange new single, the Auto-Tune ballad "Falling Out Of Love." It's growing on me. On Thursday night, they played that song live for the first time on one of the final editions of Stephen Colbert's Late Show. (The last episode ever is next Thursday.) On the show, the band played a slightly shortened version of their new song, and they brought along a really cool laser light show; I'm genuinely hoping that this is how their upcoming tour looks. With all the light stuff going on, you couldn't quite see the band members that well, but there's still a moment where Julian Casablancas does a possibly-drunken sideways lurch into Albert Hammond, Jr., just like back in the day. I liked seeing that. That was fun. Watch the performance below.
The other guest on last night's show was David Letterman, the guy who hosted the Late Show before Colbert. (Letterman made his first appearance on Colbert's version of the show in 2023, and it was a big deal. He brought the National with him.) On last night's episode, Colbert and Letterman went up on the Ed Sullivan Theater roof for a moment of "wanton destruction of CBS property," an entertaining way to stick it to the network that canceled the show. They filmed it on Wednesday and posted it last night. The Strokes weren't directly involved, but you should probably watch it anyway.
Reality Awaits is out 6/26 on Cult/RCA.
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