That the Strokes are getting media attention should not, on its face, be the main reason to love or hate the band. But even music purists have a tough time closing their eyes to hype, and the Strokes themselves are not blameless in creating an image for themselves. Singer Julian Casablancas is not only a noncommittal, take 'em or leave 'em slacker in his lyrics, he also plays at being combative during the band's live act. At a recent show at the San Francisco Fillmore, he spat out that there would be "no fucking encore" -- like he was doing the audience a favor by being up there at all. A couple of weeks before, the band had pulled a song called "New York City Cops" off its debut album -- they announced that the line "New York City cops ain't too smart" was inappropriate after the terror attacks of Sept. 11. That night, the band played it, as the song was just another song on the set list.

The Strokes have a sense of humor about their media image, though. When I interviewed the band back in August, Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti shared some of their favorite rumors batting around the mill: that the Strokes were started by Casablancas' father; that they all came from a modeling agency; they're a fake band that only goes on photo shoots, but doesn't actually play music -- even that Casablancas was the little kid in the movie "Big."

Casablancas knows the hype surrounding the band has always been double-edged, though. "People say, 'I see you in all these magazines but I've never heard you,' and that blows," he told me, frustrated. "I just want people to hear the music and decide for themselves what they think. I don't think people like having shit shoved down their throats. It's not like we're not doing that, the [press is] doing that, and we're saying in interviews that we're just trying to play music. I want people to hear us, but I'm so confused about [the press]. So I just go with the flow and hopefully later on I'll know how to deal with it."

The conversation is almost enough to make you feel some sympathy for the band. But turn away from the press and the Internet discussions and focus on the Strokes' original purpose -- to play music -- and the support only seems to be getting stronger. Courtney Love reportedly debuted a song she wrote about Casablancas called "But Julian I'm a Little Older Than You" at a recently show in Ventura. The Strokes are still selling out shows across the country, playing for packed auditoriums of kids who learned the lyrics from the import version of "Is This It" back in the spring, and the kids who listened to the band once on some commercial alt-rock station and liked what they heard. Lipsticked girls high on fashion stood next to frumpy hippie chicks in San Francisco, as both waited patiently by the Strokes' tour bus after their Fillmore show, holding their promo posters and hoping to meet the Strokes in person.

That, more than anything, provides the key to the mystery of the Strokes. Like the breakout bands before them, the band has become sort of a bridge between the mainstream and the indie rock world. For those who like the music, and I count myself in that camp, they are the band that stands in the mainstream arena against so much prefab pop, rock and metal. Of course, though, not all music critics will feel the same, and just as I finish this article, I get an e-mail an indie-rock loving editor sent to a group of writers that turns this whole discussion back on its head: "Is it just me, or has the record industry come to a grinding halt? Please, somebody turn me on to a good record -- other than the Rival Schools album, I hate all music," he writes. "And if anybody says, 'the Strokes,' you're off this list."

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