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Lower East Side

Lower East Side and East Village, New York1999–20055 bands

A handful of small bars around Ludlow Street and an East Village dance label, where guitar bands and DJs shared the same rooms just before the world came looking.

  1. The Strokes

    Played their first gig in 1999 and spent 2000 on Mercury Lounge residencies, taking the club's booker with them as their manager; the first of these bands to break, with Is This It in 2001.

  2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs★ Named as an influence by 3 artists on the map

    Debuted at the Mercury Lounge in September 2000, opening for the White Stripes, and became a Brownies favourite; by Paul Banks's account, Nick Zinner knew people in Interpol and was part of a scene.

  3. Interpol

    Learned to play live at Brownies and Luna Lounge, booked by Rob Sacher; Paul Banks says the Strokes were hanging out in exactly the same places he was, and he didn't know any of them.

  4. The Rapture

    Came east from San Francisco by way of Seattle, were spotted by James Murphy at Brownies, and made "House of Jealous Lovers" with DFA in 2002, the single that put this scene's guitars on the dance floor.

  5. LCD Soundsystem

    Here as James Murphy before it was a band: DFA's producer and Plant Bar DJ, who made "Losing My Edge" in the Plantain studio. LCD Soundsystem played its first show as a band in London, in November 2002.

The room

Lower East Side and East Village, New York · 1999–2005

The rooms were small and a few streets apart: the Mercury Lounge on Houston Street, Luna Lounge on Ludlow, Brownies on Avenue A. The Strokes played their first gig in 1999 and spent 2000 on residencies at the Mercury Lounge and the Bowery Ballroom; the Mercury's junior booker, Ryan Gentles, booked them that August and left the club to become their manager. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs played their first show at the Mercury Lounge in September 2000, opening for the White Stripes with their drummer on Meg White's kit, and Interpol found their footing at Brownies and at Luna Lounge, whose co-owner Rob Sacher booked them.

A few blocks away the other half of the scene ran on records. James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy's DFA made records in their Plantain studio on West 13th Street, and Murphy DJ'd at Plant Bar in the East Village; he first saw the Rapture at a gig at Brownies in 1999, and DFA found them places to live and jobs at Plant Bar. Sharing rooms didn't make them a gang: Paul Banks has said the Strokes were hanging out in exactly the same places he was, and he didn't know any of them. In 2003 a compilation put the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, the Rapture and LCD Soundsystem on one record and called it Yes New York, after No New York. Luna Lounge closed in June 2005.

Room to room

No band in another scene names the bands here; 9 bands from 7 other scenes shaped them.

Red: who a band here shapedBlue: who a band here learned fromPoint at a band to see only its links; click a scene to go there.

  • CBGBThe Strokes learned from Ramones.LCD Soundsystem learned from Talking Heads.
  • SST RecordsYeah Yeah Yeahs learned from Sonic Youth.
  • Elephant 6Yeah Yeah Yeahs learned from Neutral Milk Hotel.
  • DC HardcoreInterpol learned from Fugazi and Bad Brains.
  • SeattleInterpol learned from Nirvana.
  • Düsseldorf–CologneLCD Soundsystem learned from Kraftwerk.
  • ManchesterLCD Soundsystem learned from The Fall.

What came out of it

NME named Is This It the album of the decade in 2009, and its short songs and two guitars became the default shape of a guitar band for years afterwards. "House of Jealous Lovers" started a run of New York dance-punk that LCD Soundsystem carried furthest, all the way to a farewell at Madison Square Garden in 2011.

Who they learned from 17

Who learned from them 4