Upon the release of their debut album Is This It in 2001, the group met much critical acclaim. Since then, the band has maintained a large fan base all over the world but mostly in the UK, US, Canada and Australia. A number of members have embarked on a variety of side projects, although a fourth album, entitled Angles, was released on March 22, 2011.Lead singer-songwriter Julian Casablancas, guitarist Nick Valensi, and drummer Fab Moretti started playing together while attending Dwight School in Manhattan. Bassist Nikolai Fraiture had been friends with Casablancas and was attending the Lycée Français de New York. At age 13, Casablancas was sent to Le Rosey, a boarding school in Switzerland to improve his academic performance. In Switzerland, Casablancas met guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr.
Later, when Hammond came to New York to attend New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, he shared an apartment with Casablancas. They started a band which first performed at Luna Lounge on the Lower East Side of New York, and at Manhattan's popular Mercury Lounge. Ryan Gentles, the Mercury Lounge's booker, quit his job to become the band's manager.
The band began rehearsing a fourteen song set which included "Last Nite", "The Modern Age", "This Life" (an early version of "Trying Your Luck"), "New York City Cops", "Soma" and "Someday". Most of these songs now feature different lyrics. A demo sent to the newly reformed Rough Trade Records in the UK sparked interest there, leading to their first release via the website of the UK magazine NME who gave away a free mp3 download of "Last Nite" a week prior to the physical release as part of The Modern Age EP in 2001. The EP sparked a bidding war among record labels; the largest for a rock and roll band in years
Wikipedia