Were you at Friday’s Strokes show at American Family Insurance Amphitheater? Pretty incredible, right? (And HOT.) Want to keep the Strokes vibes going throughout the rest of the summer and into the fall? Then preorder the latest book from prolific author and music critic Steven Hyden, Is This It: The Never-Ending Rise And Fall Of The Strokes (And Rock ‘n’ Roll), NOW.
Is This It will be published September 8. The following month, on Thursday, October 15, Hyden will discuss the book at Milwaukee’s Boswell Book Company. He’ll be joined in conversation by me, Milwaukee Record’s Matt Wild. The 6:30 p.m. event is free to attend, though spots are limited. Reserve your spot NOW.
Hyden is the author of oodles of music books, including 2016’s Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me; 2020’s This Isn’t Happening: Radiohead’s ‘Kid A’ And The Beginning Of The 21st Century; and 2024’s There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born In The U.S.A.’ And The End Of The Heartland. An Appleton native now living in Minneapolis, Hyden has written for just about every pop-culture-leaning media outlet you can think of, including Uproxx, Grantland, Rolling Stone, and Pitchfork. His Substack, Evil Speakers, is required reading; his weekly podcast with Ian Cohen, Indiecast, is required listening.
Oh yeah! Hyden was also the City Editor for A.V. Club Milwaukee in the late ’00s and early ’10s! In 2011, he abdicated his throne to—you guessed it—me! Yep, I owe Steve A LOT, and Milwaukee Record probably wouldn’t exist without him! (I totally understand why he would keep these two facts far from his resume.)
Anyway, here’s a synopsis of the book. Preorder it HERE. Reserve your spot for the Boswell event HERE. See you in October!
In 2001, The Strokes broke into the indie alt-rock scene with their debut album Is This It, a work that was supposed to “save” rock music from the evils of nü-metal and teen pop. It did not. Hyden provides keen insight into The Strokes’ tumultuous longevity by turning a socio-cultural and critical lens on their career, as well as the careers of their contemporaries: The Killers (more successful but less cool), Kings Of Leon (the southern Strokes), The White Stripes (their friendly rival), The National (the tortoise to The Strokes’s hare), and more.
Hyden uses The Strokes’ classic album as a vehicle for examining rock’s radically changing role in pop culture over the last twenty-five years, and explores how while rock music may rise and fall, it—much like The Strokes—will never die.
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