Fabrizio Moretti is the drummer of American alternative rock band The Strokes. According to the Strokes official website, Fabrizio’s solo project with Rodrigo Amarante of Los Hermanos and Binki Shapiro, entitled “Little Joy” will be debuting this fall on Rough Trade Records. A release date has not been set yet.

He played drums on "Dream Cars" on the 2008 album Stainless Style by Neon Neon

Personal life

He was born on June 2, 1980 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to an Italian father and a Brazilian mother.He was raised Christian, but has stated that he is an atheist. He and his family moved to New York City when he was 3 years old, and as a teenager there he attended the Dwight School with fellow band members Nick Valensi and Julian Casablancas.

Moretti dated Drew Barrymore from april 2002 until January 2007, after they met backstage during a Strokes concert. Rumors of engagement arose several times, but the wedding never happened. In an interview, Moretti once stated that he believes "…marriage is not anything that will secure the future of your relationship,”and therefore plans to never get married. He is currently dating fellow musician, Binki Shapiro.

Moretti is also an enthusiastic artist, he has multiple example of his art works at http://www.thestrokes.com including a portrait of fellow bandmate, Nick Valensi.

Quotes

"It's so easy for people to jump to the wrong conclusions when they've only heard one three song EP. While we are really appreciative of some of the comparisons we have been given, it is not the full picture. Hopefully when the album comes out people will realise it isn't just some New York thing and that it is a lot more universal than that.
"I love music, but it is songs and bands and albums that excite me rather than a specific drummer's style.

Nikolai Fraiture born November 13, 1978 in New York City) is the bassist for the New York City-based band The Strokes. He is French-Russian and speaks fluent French. His mother was a schoolteacher and his father a security guard. He and five other relatives all lived in a two-bedroom apartment. Fraiture also has a sister named Elizabeth, who is 13 years younger than he is and an elder brother named Pierre. He attended kindergarten and elementary school with best friend and future bandmate Julian Casablancas. He later went to Lycée Français De New York for high school.

Although Fraiture had been interested in music since childhood, he did not begin playing bass until he was 19. His grandfather had bought him a bass guitar as a graduation gift but Fraiture gave it to Casablancas. It was not until one year later, when he contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever at a New Orleans youth hostel, that he picked it up and began to play seriously. At the time, he was attending Hunter College with future bandmate Nick Valensi, who wrote an article about Fraiture's coping with the illness in the school newspaper. Shortly afterwards, he joined his friends Casablancas, Valensi, and Fabrizio Moretti in forming a band. He met Albert Hammond, Jr. at later rehearsals.

Fraiture is married to an Englishwoman named Ilona, with whom he has one daughter, Elysia, born in the summer of 2004. Of all the Strokes, he is often considered the most soft-spoken. He resides in New York and is often seen cycling around the area.

Fraiture plays a Fender Jazz Bass (the same model his grandfather bought him) and a Rickenbacker. Lately he has also been seen playing a Fender Precision Bass and a Music Man StingRay.

Fraiture is currently working on his side-project "Nickel Eye", with Regina Spector and Nick Zinner from Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Albert Hammond, Jr. (born April 9, 1980, Los Angeles, California) is a musician and member of the garage rock band, The Strokes for which he mostly plays rhythm guitar, but occasionally plays lead as well (eg. in "Last Nite"). He is also a solo musician in his own right, and released his debut album Yours To Keep in 2006 and followed up with ¿Cómo Te Llama? in 2008. The Beach Boys, Buddy Holly, John Lennon, Matthew Sweet, Television and The Velvet Underground are often cited as his major influences.

Born April 9, 1980 (1980-04-09) (age 28), Los Angeles, California
Genre(s) Indie pop
Instrument(s) Guitar, Vocal
Label(s) New Line Records, Rough Trade Records, Scratchie Records
Associated acts The Strokes

Career

The son of Gibraltarian musician Albert Hammond and Argentinian former model and beauty pageant winner Claudia Fernandez, his mother has Peruvian and Austrian roots. Albert Jr. was sent to the elite boarding school Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland at the age of 13. While there, he met Julian Casablancas, who would go on to be a fellow band member.

In 1998, Hammond met up with Julian Casablancas in New York City and together they formed The Strokes with Casablancas' former schoolmates Nikolai Fraiture, Nick Valensi, and Fabrizio Moretti.

Hammond was once engaged to Catherine Pierce, one-half of the folk singing group The Pierces. He is currently dating super model Agyness Deyn. His trademark is wearing formal three-piece suits, and has been said to be the most influential on the band's style. Albert is usually seen playing a 1970's Olympic White Fender Stratocaster or Gibson Les Paul Jr. that is sometimes used by bandmate Nick Valensi. On the majority of The Strokes' songs he plays rhythm guitar, and solos are played by Valensi. The songs in which Hammond does play solos are "Last Nite," "Trying Your Luck," "Take It or Leave It," "Under Control," "The End Has No End," "Ize of the World," and "Vision of Division." His solos tend to focus largely on more emotional, "bluesy"-type melodical work, and the guitar tends to have a cleaner, softer tone in comparison to Valensi's (with a notable exception found in "Vision of Division"). He often holds his guitar in a high horizontal position, similar to Buddy Holly, which he says is so that he can dance better.

Hammond's song "Hard To Live (In The City)" appeared in an episode of teen drama, Gossip Girl.

Songwriting and solo work

Although vocalist Julian Casablancas is the major contributor to the songwriting process for The Strokes' music, Hammond has been known to write a few pieces of his own. He co-wrote the track "Automatic Stop" with Casablancas for the group's second album, Room on Fire. He has also been credited with writing three mostly instrumental songs ("Swiss Beats", "Holland", and "By The Way") for the band's 2001 tour video entitled "In Transit". These songs were then slightly reworked to appear on his later solo album, under different titles ("Everyone Gets A Star", "Bright Young Thing", and "In Transit", respectively). He had also written a song called "Elephant Song," which Hammond used when he was required to record a song for his Sound 101 class in freshman year, using the school's recording equipment. The song was played at a few shows before the release of their first album. The Strokes later re-recorded the song as a special giveaway for fanclub members.

Hammond released a solo album entitled Yours To Keep in the U.K. through Rough Trade Records on October 9, 2006 and in North America through New Line Records/Scratchie Records on March 6, 2007. Produced by Thin Lizard Dawn vocalist Lattimer and recorded at the Electric Lady Studios in New York City, the album features several musical guests, such as Sean Lennon, Ben Kweller, The Strokes' manager Ryan Gentles, Jody Porter of Fountains of Wayne, Chris Feinstein, Mikki James, Sammy James Jr. (The Moony Suzuki) and The Strokes' lead singer, Casablancas. Bassist Josh Lattanzi and drummer Matt Romano serve as the backing band, with Hammond on guitar and vocals. The first single taken from the album, "101", was released exclusively through iTunes on 4 September 2006. The music video to "In Transit" was directed by Joaquin Phoenix.

He has said to have been "waiting to make a record like this for years".Early support from his fellow bandmates in the Strokes was only evident after Casablancas' role playing bass and back-up vocals on the track "Scared", though all of the members (with the exclusion of Nick Valensi who was busy taking care of his new-born children) attended his shows in and around New York.

"101" was the follow up single to "Everyone Gets A Star". The music video debuted online in March 2007. This will be available in general music stores, unlike "Everyone Gets A Star" which was only available through UK iTunes Music Store. This was released on 27 November 2006.

In November 2006, Hammond announced to be joining Incubus on tour during their North American tour for their new album Light Grenades.

On 16 March 2007 at the South by Southwest festival, Hammond performed a twelve song set including covers of Frank Black's "Old Black Dawning" and Guided By Voices' "Postal Blowfish". Hammond also regularly covered The Cars' "Don't Cha Stop" in live performances.

The Yours To Keep album was released in North America on 6 March 2007; he also supported Bloc Party on their world tour before making stops at Montreal's Metropolis and Toronto's Kool Haus. After this, Hammond headlined two North American tours along with a Europe tour. The North American tour featured his friends, The Mooney Suzuki. Hammond has one last tour to finish up in Europe and then he is officially done touring for Yours to Keep.

Hammond announced that "In Transit" will be his next solo single, featuring a cover of Frank Black's "Old Black Dawning" as the b-side. It was recorded live from the Bowery Ballroom.

On 29 August 2007, Hammond announced on MySpace that he is going back into the studio to record his second album in October 2007 for five weeks.

On 20 March 2008, Hammond posted a blog entry on MySpace in which he revealed the title of his second album, ¿Cómo Te Llama?. Furthermore, he wrote that it contained 13 songs with a total length of 46 minutes and 30 seconds. He also said he hoped to be touring with the new album until the end of 2008. The album will be released on July 7, 2008 .

Albert has also produced the new track "123 Stop" by New York band The Postelles.

On 27 May 2008, Hammond released "GfC," the first single off his new album "¿Cómo Te Llama?," on iTunes in the US. The song has already been played extensively live on his 2007 tour. A non-album song entitled "& So it Goes" was released as a B-side along with the single.

On 29 May 2008, Hammond was Myspace's featured artist and exclusively premiered his new album "¿Cómo Te Llama?" uploading all the tracks of the album on his Official Myspace page.

On 8 July 2008, Hammond played a small show at the Virgin Megastore, Union Square, in New York City to celebrate the release of his new album. A noted absence from Hammond's band was recording bassist Josh Latzanni. Steve Schiltz of the band Longwave, who toured with Hammond on his first album was also missing. Although Hammond was supposed to play only 2 or 3 songs, he ended up playing almost 10, with a selection that included both new and old tracks.

On 11 July 2008, Hammond began his worldwide tour in support of his sophomore release "¿Cómo Te Llama?" at the landmark and sold-out venue Spaceland in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA with a capacity of only 260 people. This was his only west coast appearance. Opening bands were The Shys and The Parlor Mob.

Nick Valensi (born Nicholas Valensi, January 16, 1981, in New York) is a guitarist for the American alternative rock band The Strokes.


Born January 16, 1981 (1981-01-16) (age 27), New York City, New York
Genre(s) Rock
Occupation(s) Guitarist of The Strokes
Instrument(s) Guitar
Label(s) New Line Records, Rough Trade Records, Scratchie Records

The early years

Valensi's father, Jewish, was born in Tunisia, and his mother Danielle is French . "I always thought I wanted to be able to play any song you could name," he says. "But once I started playing with Julian, that's when I really started to understand music".

Instruments and influences

Valensi's main guitar, which he uses for nearly every live show and recorded song, is a 1990s Epiphone Riviera with Gibson P-94 pick-ups. In a 2004 interview with Epiphone, he called it "the greatest guitar never made because Gibson had never produced a semi-hollow with P-90 style pickups. He has several models in different colours (all with P-94s), including multiple naturals, one in vintage sunburst, one in red, and a 12-string in red. In 2005, Epiphone released a signature model of his guitar, the Elitist Nick Valensi Riviera P-94, and followed it up with a standard model Nick Valensi Riviera P-94 in 2007. Back-up/warm-up guitars include an Epiphone Dot fitted with 2 P-94s, an Epiphone Casino, and a Gibson Faded Special Double Cutaway with 2 P-90s. Valensi often borrows fellow Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr.'s backup guitars, which include a Gibson Les Paul Jr. and Les Paul Special. New guitars used for the First Impressions of Earth tour include a Gibson Les Paul Custom in black, a Fender Telecaster Custom, and a Duesenberg semi-hollow. Valensi's main amplifier is a 2x12" Fender Hot Rod DeVille, used with Fender 4x12" extension cabinets during live shows. He also recently purchased a Carr amplifier to use on the last few stops of the First Impressions tour. His pedalboard consists of a Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde Ultimate Overdrive pedal, Demeter TRM-1 Tremulator, Vox Cooltron Bulldog Distortion, MXR Micro-Amp (2) and a Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner.

He cites his influences as The Velvet Underground, The Cars, George Harrison.

Personal life

In Summer 2006, Nick married his girlfriend of five years, Amanda de Cadenet. De Cadenet published a book of photographs entitled Rare Birds in 2005, which includes several pictures of Valensi, whom she refers to as her "muse" on her website.

Valensi has described his wife as "The coolest person I know.

Amanda de Cadenet gave birth naturally to their fraternal twins, Silvan and Ella, on October 19, 2006.

Collaborations

Nick Valensi did backing vocals and also played guitar for Devendra Banhart's song 'Shabop Shalom' on his new album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, which was released September 25, 2007.

He also played guitar for Regina Spektor's song 'Better' which was released on her latest album 'Begin to hope' and also published as a single in a slightly different version on which the guitar parts are rearranged.

Julian Fernando Casablancas (born August 23, 1978) is the vocalist and songwriter of the alternative rock band The Strokes.

Birth name Julian Fernando Casablancas
Also known as Jules
Born August 23, 1978 (1978-08-23) (age 29)
Origin New York City
Genre(s) Garage rock, alternative rock
Occupation(s) Singer
Instrument(s) Lead vocals, keyboards, guitar, bass, drums
Years active 2001-current
Label(s) Rough Trade, RCA, Sony BMG
Associated acts The Strokes

Early life and education

Julian Casablancas is the son of John Casablancas, a Spanish-American, the son of Catalonian immigrants from Sabadell in Spain and the founder of Elite Model Management, and Jeanette Christiansen, a Danish model who was Miss Denmark in 1965, and brother of Cecile Casablancas. His paternal grandfather Ferran Casablancas was a textile businessman. His parents were divorced when Casablancas was very young and he lived with his mother and Sam Adoquei who taught him about art and work ethic. He had almost no contact with his father.

The first band member who Casablancas knew was Nikolai Fraiture while the two attended the same kindergarten. When he was 14, Casablancas was caught drinking before school and consequently forced into a rehabilitation program called Phoenix House twice a week. Soon afterwards, his father sent him to Institut Le Rosey, a boarding school in Switzerland. It was here that he encountered Albert Hammond, Jr.. Although the two were not friends at the time, they would later become band-mates and room-mates.

When Casablancas returned to New York after six months at Le Rosey, he continued his education at Dwight School in Manhattan, where he met Fabrizio Moretti and Nick Valensi, who later also became fellow band members. He dropped out in 11th grade and attended Five Towns College on Long Island for one year, receiving a scholarship after writing a classical composition. He worked as a bartender before going into music professionally.

Music

Casablancas' musical influences are varied and wide ranging, including but not limited to The Velvet Underground, The Pogues, Bob Marley, Guided by Voices, The Magnetic Fields,The Stooges, The Ramones, Nirvana and The Doors. More recently he has stated that possibly two of his favorite songs of all time are Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and Bill Withers's "Lean on Me."

As The Strokes' principal songwriter, he has the greatest impact on their sound and has been known to be extremely meticulous with it. While Casablancas composes on a variety of instruments, perhaps his greatest and most underappreciated innovation is his use of the keyboard to write complex arrangements that he later transposes to fit the Strokes' guitar-driven lineup. For an example of this technique, refer to the similar "I'll Try Anything Once," an unreleased demo, and "You Only Live Once," which appears on First Impressions of Earth. The former is typical of Casablancas' nascent compositions; the latter is the finished, full-band product.

Another recent change has come in the recording of his vocals, which is significantly clearer and louder than their first two albums. However Casablancas says this was adjusted only because it fit the songs more, and not because he was any less self-critical about his voice.

Known to not play much in Strokes' recordings, Julian has proved himself an able multi-instrumentalist through guest appearances. He's played guitar on "Sick, Sick, Sick" by Queens of the Stone Age, bass guitar on Albert Hammond, Jr.'s "Scared," and the second set of drums on the Strokes' "Evening Sun."

He has also served as inspiration for several other musicians. For instance, Courtney Love's song "But Julian, I'm a Little Bit Older Than You", from her debut solo album America's Sweetheart (2004), was written about Julian Casablancas.

In 2008, Julian recorded a song with Santogold and Pharrell Williams of N*E*R*D called "My Drive Thru" for Converse. He also appears in the ad campaign.

Personal life

Julian (or 'Jules' as he is known by his friends and family) is an avid baseball fan, particularly of the New York Mets, and has said that "if I could go back in time I'd be a minor league pitcher". He also likes the New York Jets football team.

On February 5, 2005, Julian Casablancas married Juliet Joslin, The Strokes' assistant manager, in a private ceremony in New York. He announced the engagement at several shows including Central Park, where prior to playing their song "Hard to Explain," he said, "I'm getting married and it's hard to explain!".

Origin New York City
Genre(s) Alternative rock
Garage rock revival, Lo-fi, Indie rock
Post-punk revival
Years active 1998–Present
Label(s) Sony BMG, RCA,Rough Trade

Members
Julian Casablancas
Nick Valensi
Albert Hammond Jr
Nikolai Fraiture
Fabrizio Moretti

The Strokes are an American rock band formed in 1998 in New York City that rose to fame in the early 2000s as a leading group in the garage rock revival. The band consists of Julian Casablancas (lead vocals, songwriting), Nick Valensi (lead guitar), Albert Hammond Jr. (rhythm guitar), Nikolai Fraiture (bass guitar) and Fabrizio Moretti (drums and percussion). Upon the release of their debut album Is This It in 2001, the group was met with much critical acclaim, being hailed by some as the "saviors of rock and roll." [1] NME made Is This It their Album of the Year. Since then, the band has maintained a large fan base, notably in the UK, US and Australia. Exhausted from almost nonstop recording, they have been on an unofficial hiatus since 2006's First Impressions of Earth, during which several of its members, most notably Albert Hammond Jr., have embarked on a variety of side projects, from music to film.

History

Beginnings and The Modern Age EP: 1998-2001

Lead singer-songwriter Julian Casablancas, guitarist Nick Valensi, and drummer Fab Moretti started playing together while attending Dwight School in Manhattan. Bassist Nikolai Fraiture had been friends with Casablancas and was attending the Lycée Français de New York. At age 13, Casablancas was sent to Le Rosey, a boarding school in Switzerland to resolve his drinking problems and improve his academic performance. In Switzerland, Casablancas met guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr..

Later, when Hammond came to New York to attend New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, he shared an apartment with Casablancas. They started a band which performed on the Lower East Side of New York, and at Manhattan's popular Mercury Lounge. Ryan Gentles, the Mercury Lounge's booker, quit his job to become the band's manager.

The band began rehearsing a twelve song set which included "Last Nite", "The Modern Age", "This Life" (an early version of "Trying Your Luck"), "New York City Cops", "Soma" and "Someday". Most of these songs now feature different lyrics. Their first release was via UK website NME.COM who gave away a free mp3 download of Last Nite a week prior to physical release as part of The Modern Age EP in 2001. The EP sparked a bidding war among record labels; the largest for a rock and roll band in years.The Strokes became the subject of enormous hype, causing a great divide among rock fans. Last Nite became the theme song for Australian department store chain Kmart.

Is This It: 2001-2003

The Strokes released their debut album Is This It in the US in October 2001 on RCA after some delay due to changes made from the UK-released version (released 27th August 2001). The cover of the latter features a black-and-white photo of a gloved hand on a woman's naked backside, shown in semi-profile, and is said to reference Spinal Tap's fictitious Smell the Glove. The naked model on the cover was photographer Colin Lane's girlfriend at the time. The North American version replaces this with an image of particle collisions taken from a bubble chamber consisting of a curious blue and anzac and replaced the song "New York City Cops" with "When It Started". The replacement of "New York City Cops", which contains the refrain "New York City Cops, they ain't too smart", was made in good faith following the September 11 attacks.

The melodic garage rock sound of Is This It received positive reviews from both mainstream and independent publications, including 4 stars from Rolling Stone, and a 9.1 from Pitchfork Media; it made many critics' top 10 lists, and was named the best album of the year by Entertainment Weekly and TIME. NME, in an article previewing summer concerts, urged readers to attend their shows, claiming that the band was touring on the strength of some of the "best pop songs ever". The influence of 1970s CBGB stalwarts Television was noted by many reviewers, although The Strokes themselves have stated that they are not fans of the band.

After the release of Is This It, the band toured around the world, featuring dates in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and North America staging for the Rolling Stones. The band headlined UK's Carling Weekend festivals in 2002, largely chronicled by a relatively hard-to-find mini-documentary entitled "In Transit" which was released to members of the now-defunct "Alone, Together" fan club.

In August 2002, the band played at New York's Radio City Music Hall on a bill with The White Stripes. Jack White joined the Strokes on stage to perform the guitar solo on "New York City Cops". During that period, the band also appeared as musical guests on various late-night talk shows. Is This It yielded several singles and music videos, all of which were directed by Roman Coppola.

The group began recording their follow-up in 2002 with producer Nigel Godrich (best known for his work with Radiohead), but later split with him in favor of Gordon Raphael, the producer of Is This It. Recordings with Godrich were never revealed. In August 2003, the band toured Japan, playing a couple of the upcoming songs: "Reptilia", "Meet Me In The Bathroom", "The Way It Is", "Between Love & Hate" (formerly known as "Ze Newie") and "12:51" (formerly known as "Supernova"). The band also played Paul Anka's "My Way" with Japanese lyrics.

As of 2007, Is This It has sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide.

Room on Fire: 2003-2005

They released their second album Room on Fire in October 2003, to good reviews, but to less success commercially, although it still went gold. The album's sound maintained the Strokes' familiar reference points, while also evoking groups such as The Cars, Bob Marley, and Blondie. In the process, they made the cover of Spin Magazine for the second time, with each member receiving his own cover. They also made the cover of Rolling Stone for the first time. Additional media coverage of the band came from the relationship between Moretti and actress Drew Barrymore, which ended in January 2007.

The first single taken from Room on Fire was the song "12:51", which used distinct keyboard-like sounds produced by Valensi's guitar. The video was also directed by Roman Coppola, and was inspired by the futuristic look of the 1980s film Tron. This consisted of a mainly black scene, with instances of glowing picton blue and riptide. In November 2003, The Strokes played on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, performing "Reptilia", "What Ever Happened", "Under Control" and "I Can't Win". During the 2003/2004 "Room on Fire Tour", the band played with Kings of Leon as support act and Regina Spektor. While on tour, Spektor and the Strokes recorded the song "Modern Girls & Old Fashion Men", released as a B-side on the "Reptilia" single. Also during the tour, the band included The Clash's "Clampdown" as a cover, which was released as the B-side for The End Has No End.

In late 2004, The Strokes revealed plans to release a live album. The Live in London LP was planned for release in October 2004, but was abandoned, reportedly due to recording quality problems. The chosen gig was one held at the legendary Alexandra Palace in North London. In February 2005, Julian Casablancas wed long-time friend and assistant band manager Juliet Joslin. The Strokes had a three-concert South American tour in October 2005, with dates in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina.

First Impressions of Earth and a short hiatus: 2005-2008

In late September 2005, "Juicebox", the first single from The Strokes then unreleased third album, was leaked online, forcing the single's release date to be advanced. The single was then released as an exclusive on online download services. "Juicebox" became The Strokes' second UK Top 10 hit, as well as their second US Modern Rock Top 10 success. During November and December 2005 the Strokes did a promotional tour for the still unreleased album, which involved doing one-off shows in major cities around the world.

Their third album, First Impressions of Earth, was released in January 2006 to mixed reviews and debuted at number four in the US and number one in the UK, a first for the band. In Japan it went gold within the first week of release. It was also the most downloaded album for two weeks on iTunes. Fraiture claimed that the album was "like a scientific breakthrough".In January 2006, the band then made their second appearance on Saturday Night Live playing "Juicebox" and "You Only Live Once".

The album was somewhat a departure from the band's two previous albums. One reason for this was a switch of producers from Gordon Raphael to David Kahne. Despite its initial strong sales, First Impressions of Earth received the chilliest reception, both commercially and critically, of all their three albums.

In 2006, the band played 18 sold-out shows during their UK tour. In February 2006, The Strokes won "Best International Band" at the NME Awards. In March, the band returned to the US with their longest tour yet. The second single off First Impressions of Earth, "Heart in a Cage", was released in March 2006.

During the summer of 2006, The Strokes played several festival dates in Europe, including the Hultsfred Festival in Sweden, Roskilde Festival in Denmark, the Oxegen Festival in Ireland (during this concert they were to be followed by The Who but due to the overwhelming reaction of the crowd they ended up staying on longer than scheduled), the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the FIB (Festival Internacional de Benicàssim) in Benicàssim (Spain) and Fuji Rock Festival in Japan. They then toured Australia and Mexico in late August and early September, followed by the second leg of the United States tour. While in the US, The Strokes opened for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers for five shows during their Highway Companion tour.

The Strokes went on to complete another US tour. During this final tour Casablancas stated to fans that the band would be taking an extensive break after it finished. An e-mail was sent out soon afterwards by Strokes manager Ryan Gentles, confirming that a "much needed break" would be taken. A new band website went online in May 2007 along with the release of an alternate video to their single "You Only Live Once" directed by Warren Fu. The video also featured a brief interlude with "Ize of the World", also from "First Impressions of Earth". In late 2007, the song "You Talk Way Too Much" was used in a commercial for the Ford Sync. Aleks Cisneros became the Strokes new assistant manager in late 2007.

The Strokes have annouced that they are currently planning to release their fourth studio album and follow up to First Impressions of Earth in 2009. This contradicts the suggestion that the Strokes in fact broke up in 2008.