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"At 6 A.M. on June 2nd, the Strokes were winding down the recording of their third album and about to jet off for a vacation to celebrate drummer Fab Moretti&amp;apos;s twenty-fifth birthday. Three days later, the Smoking Section got to hear all fourteen songs, which clock in at more than fifty-one minutes. Dare we say it? OK, we will: The awesome range and punch of the new one make the Strokes&amp;apos; first two albums sound like child&amp;apos;s play. And those albums are excellent. &amp;quot;I don&amp;apos;t wanna go overboard,&amp;quot; says singer Julian Casablancas, sitting on a stoop on Fourteenth Street in Manhattan, &amp;quot;but I&amp;apos;m pretty excited. It&amp;apos;s like a seedless watermelon &amp;#x2013; I like it.&amp;quot; With no deadlines hanging over them in the studio, the Strokes had plenty of time to perfect the tunes, which, you&amp;apos;ll be happy to hear, feature Casablancas&amp;apos; voice front and center for the first time. Just a few of the highlights: Casablancas venting on &amp;quot;Razor Blade&amp;quot; with the cutting line &amp;quot;My feelings are more important than yours&amp;quot;; guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. ripping into a solo on &amp;quot;Vision of Division,&amp;quot; sounding like Dick Dale on crack; and the starkly beautiful &amp;quot;Ask Me Anything&amp;quot; (which came to the singer in a dream), featuring only Casablancas&amp;apos; vocals, and Mellotron courtesy of guitarist Nick Valensi. The album is slated for January, and expect a tour more major than the one following the previous album. &amp;quot;We were a little road-weary after Room On Fire, so it was light,&amp;quot; says Casablancas. &amp;quot;Now I think we&amp;apos;re ready for fatal touring again &amp;#x2014; to go all out. We got our energy back.&amp;quot; The band is working closely with studio whiz Andy Wallace on the final mix and Casablancas is racking his brain for the album&amp;apos;s title and artwork. But he feels like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. &amp;quot;I&amp;apos;m relaxed now,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;Almost done.&amp;quot;\r\nThe waiting is the hardest part: While relaxing in Malibu, California, just days before his summer tour kickoff in Florida, Tom Petty decided to launch this torpedo in the Smoking Section: &amp;quot;I&amp;apos;ll have an album out by next year.&amp;quot; says Petty, &amp;quot;unless it gets out this year, in the last little bit of December. It&amp;apos;s called Highway Companion, and it&amp;apos;s a solo record.&amp;quot; If you remember correctly, his last two solo records &amp;#x2014; Wildflowers and Full Moon Fever &amp;#x2014; are freakin&amp;apos; unbelievable, so how does this one stack up? &amp;quot;I think it&amp;apos;s a special one,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;I really do.&amp;quot; Yes! At his gigs this summer, Petty and his amazing Heartbreakers will road-test a couple of the new tunes &amp;#x2014; a song called &amp;quot;Melinda,&amp;quot; and, says Petty, &amp;quot;one that we&amp;apos;re really excited about called &amp;apos;Turn This Car Around.&amp;apos;&amp;quot;\r\nThis story is from the June 30th, 2005 issue of Rolling Stone.&amp;#xA0;\r\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/smoking-section-tom-pettys-new-record-the-strokes-third-album-20050630>