Far Out 40: The greatest songs of the ‘Meet Me in the Bathroom’ movement
Did the New York rock revival of the 2000s gradually unfold organically, fueled by a new galvanising spirit born from the aftermath of 9/11? Or is New York just one of those cities where you can pretty much will a ‘scene’ into existence overnight with the right combination of clothes, promoters, journalists, and angular guitar hooks?
Lizzy Goodman’s 2017 oral history book Meet Me in the Bathroom and the corresponding 2022 documentary film of the same name (both a reference to The Strokes song) were made by people who were there when it all went down, and by no coincidence, their view on the rise of bands like The Strokes, Interpol, LCD Soundsystem, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and TV on the Radio is a very soft-hearted and romantic one.
This wasn’t just the 17th recurrence of New York City touting its place as the focal point of rock and roll relevance; it was also probably the last time anybody would care who owns that title. As such, what might have otherwise become just a leather-clad gaggle of CBGB cos-players is instead remembered as a unique community of legendary artists, maybe the last rock bands that mattered. Call them ‘indie sleaze‘ or ‘hipster chic’ or post-punk grave robbers, the fact remains that the world was indeed paying attention.
The Strokes remain perhaps the most fascinating of these bands, even if they were arguably the least interesting musically. The amount of buzz around the group’s 2001 debut, Is This It, was deafening and quite unique compared to anything from the decade prior. Forget Seattle and nu-metal, rock was coming home to New York, where the bands looked like The Velvet Underground again, and played guitar like Tom Verlaine, and messed around with synthesisers in the cool archaic way, like Suicide. And you didn’t have to wait to see it on MTV, for it was on the internet, with the whole birth of a scene right there on Napster at your naughty pirating fingertips; the sleaze aspect wasn’t just about fashion or the club scene, but the way we acquired most of this music.
Originally the press focused on the emergence of various retro-minded post-punky bands from all over the world at the dawn of the 2000s, following The Strokes’ success. These were the ‘The bands’: The White Stripes from Detroit, The Hives from Sweden, The Libertines from the UK, The Vines from Australia, The Coors—well no, not The Coors, but you get the idea.
Of course, New York’s powerful musical tastemakers were none too pleased about this wider global perspective, and they soon managed to angle the lens back onto themselves. We’re just fortunate that, in this particular instance, they actually had some pretty good shit to shove down our throats.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs literally threw themselves together overnight to open for The White Stripes as their first ever gig, and somehow came out fully formed and incredible. TV on the Radio sounded like the dream-scenario lovechild of Radiohead and Prince. Even Interpol, no matter how much they plucked from the playbook of 1980s bands like Wire or The Chameleons, managed to make the definitive post-9/11 album of them all with their debut Turn on the Bright Lights: a record which could stand right alongside any other great New York rock album from the city’s earlier golden eras.
As a music writer living in Chicago during the latter half of this period, the onslaught of like-minded, second-wave Brooklyn bands that came through town did start to get a bit nauseating after a while. Interviewing the guys from these bands, and they were still usually guys, rarely involved the sort of amusing soundbites you might have gotten out of a James Murphy or a Karen O. These were the indie sleaze dregs, and they were stepping on fuzz pedals with their Chuck Taylors like paint-by-numbers.
By reading Meet Me in the Bathroom or watching the documentary, however, even the most embittered Chicagoan, ever distrusting of the East Coast’s naval-gazing superiority, will have to acknowledge that something cool happened over there for a minute. Millennials who had their realities knocked off their axis in 2001 had something to gravitate toward and rally around without having to pay any mind to Rudy Giuliani or George Bush. It was celebratory music that tapped into an old vein of rock history, but did so with a fresh, uncynical energy, and while they might not have been approachable bands in the college rock sense, sometimes you need comic book heroes in leather jackets and face paint rather than something down-to-earth and relatable.
The 40 best songs from the ‘Meet Me in the Bathroom’ era:
- The Strokes – ‘Hard to Explain’
- The Walkmen – ‘The Rat’
- Interpol – ‘PDA’
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs – ‘Maps’
- The National – ‘Baby, We’ll Be Fine’
- LCD Soundsystem – ‘Daft Punk Is Playing at My House’
- TV on the Radio – ‘Staring at the Sun’
- The Rapture – ‘House of Jealous Lovers’
- Regina Spektor – ‘Us’
- The Bravery – ‘An Honest Mistake’
- The Strokes – ‘Meet Me in the Bathroom’
- Le Tigre – ‘Deceptacon’
- Fischerspooner – ‘Emerge’
- LCD Soundsystem – ‘Tribulations’
- Jonathan Fire*Eater – ‘When the Curtain Calls for You’
- Les Savy Fav – ‘The Sweat Descends’
- Longwave – ‘Pool Song’
- Interpol – ‘Obstacle 1’
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs – ‘Y Control’
- Liars – ‘We Fenced Other Gardens with the Bones of Our Own’
- LCD Soundsystem – ‘North American Scum’
- The Strokes – ‘Reptilia’
- The Rapture – ‘Get Myself Into It’
- Vampire Weekend – ‘A-Punk’
- Blonde Redhead – ’23’
- The National – ‘Secret Meeting’
- TV on the Radio – ‘Province’
- The Strokes – ‘Juicebox’
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs – ‘Zero’
- LCD Soundsystem – ‘All My Friends’
- The Walkmen – ‘We’ve Been Had’
- Vampire Weekend – ‘Oxford Comma’
- The Moldy Peaches – ‘Anyone Else But You’
- Gang Gang Dance – ‘House Jam’
- Interpol – ‘Evil’
- The Bravery – ‘Fearless’
- TV on the Radio – ‘Wolf Like Me’
- The Strokes – ‘Someday’
- LCD Soundsystem – ‘New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down’
- Karen O and the Kids – ‘All Is Love’
