"Is this it" by The Strokes notes:

I had no idea there was a different album cover.

Love this album.

I always thought the vocals were so odd. never could quite put into words what I thought they sounded like. Best attempt so far was that the singer called someone on the phone and they put that phone up to a mic.

they are odd but it works really well. gordon raphael explains how he recorded and produced it in that video.

re: the is this it vocals:

quote:

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There was an interview with Gordon Raphael in EQ mag a few years ago - according to him Julian mostly sang through an AT 4033A into a solid state Peavey amp, which was mic'ed up with a U47. I can't seem to find the article online anywhere, but here's an excerpt from a SoundOnSound interview with Gordon from 2002 (there seem to be some discrepancies in the information - in EQ mag Gordon said it was a U47 on the amp, SoundOnSound said it was a TLM103):

"One of the most distinctive features of Is This It is the sound of Julian Casablancas' vocals, which are curiously distorted and compressed from beginning to end. "There were two techniques," explains Gordon. "One consisted of an Audio-Technica 4033A mic going through the Avalon 737, and I would usually work with Julian for an hour just to get the voice tone. Until the final result was achieved he would be extremely suspicious and unhappy, and invariably the final result would have some kind of messiness or not-quite-rightness about it, at which point he would smile and say, 'This is great.' So, that was one technique, and then the second technique was something that Julian had discovered on his own at home while making the demos. He liked to sing through his Peavey practice amp, which is about eight inches tall, and I'd mike that with a Neumann TLM103, so he'd still be singing into the Audio-Technica (Julian found the Neumann distasteful!), but I'd be Neumanning it in order to get the exact details of what this horrible little amp sounded like. "

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This was a highly anticipated record after The Modern Age EP came out earlier in the year...

I was able to get the original cover art w/NYCC, because I ordered it through Rough Trade UK prior to 9/11.. it was released in August in the UK... Obviously I didn't know at the time that 9/11 would alter the track listing..