



Vulture has published this wildly fascinating excerpt from the upcoming book Meet Me in the Bathroom, which explores the rock and roll revival in New York City from 2001-2011.

Author Lizzy Goodman compiled a series of interviews with musicians, publicists, managers and journalists alike to piece together a very fruitful time for rock music in New York, mostly highlighted by the emergence of one of the genre’s most polarizing groups: The Strokes.

The story starts with an account from Ryan Adams, who lived in the city at the time around when the members of The Strokes started making music. He recalls one hazy night with the band members and his manager Ryan Gentles (who went on to manage The Strokes) when Adams summoned John Mayer to come over during a late night writing session.

“I lived down the block from John Mayer, and he’d been talking to me about his new song for a while,” Adams recalled. “So I texted him, because he was always up late back then. I said, ‘Come to this apartment. Bring an acoustic guitar. I really want to hear your new song.'”

“The doorbell buzzer rings, and I open the door, and John Mayer walks in with his fucking acoustic guitar, and they were all slack-jawed. John sat down and played the fucking acoustic guitar — three or four songs that probably have gone on to be huge — while those guys just sat there staring at me like, Oh my God, you’re a witch.”

The stories go on from there, each one increasing in color as this is truly a rock and roll story for the ages. Goodman traces the rapid rise of The Strokes and their contentious separation from Ryan Adams (“Julian thought Ryan was a bad influence on [Albert Hammond Jr.]) to dealing with critics after the wild success of Is This It and Room on Fire and the struggles with substance abuse that led to their split.

There are contributions from everyone around that time from LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and Jack White (a close friend of The Strokes during that time) to each band member, Adams, Moby, different journalists, record executives, managers and radio DJs.

Murphy maybe sums it up best by saying, “Is This It was my record of the decade. Whenever people pooh-pooh it, I’m like, ‘You’re saying that now, but I guarantee you you’re going to have a barbecue in ten years, play that shit, and say, ‘I love this record.’”

Either way, all ended well for both Adams and The Strokes. Listen to him cover the band’s “Last Nite” back in 2002.