Master Stroke, Julian Casablancas

The Strokes Plan "Secret" Tour

From Pitchfork, Rob Kleckner reports:

Hot on the heels of Coldplay's recent tour announcement douchebaggery come some new touring shenanigans from the Strokes. Get this: the failed rock saviors have announced some secret shows. That's right, the Strokes have announced that they will be playing secret shows. Some secret, huh?

Well, the venues and times are still clandestine, but not the cities or approximate dates for this buzz-gathering jaunt promoting the Strokes’ upcoming third album, First Impressions of Earth, due on January 3. According to Billboard.com, the secret tour began in Tokyo on Monday, and will continue to small clubs in Sydney, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Milan, and Madrid, wrapping up in mid-December.

Guitarist Albert Hammond told the site, "We'll do eight new songs and leave, just like how it was with the first record, with no one knowing any of our music. We thought it would build some excitement."

The week the album is released, the band will play more secret club gigs in U.S. cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, sayeth wise, all-seeing oracle Billboard.com. The jaunt will then morph into a regular ol' un-secret tour across the rest of North America from February through April.

First Impressions has a cut called "Ask Me Anything" that features just Master Stroke Julian Casablancas and a Mellotron. While they aren’t planning on including the ditty in the secret show sets, Hammond told Billboard, "When we start the main touring, we're definitely going to throw that song in. It will be a nice break from all the loud music."

The Strokes recently completed the video for First Impressions of Earth’s first single, "Juicebox". Far more entertaining than the song itself, the clip features David Cross as a clueless radio disc jockey, hot guy-on-guy and girl-on-girl action, and vomiting.

Here are some screencaps from the new video: