Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner plays on the debut album from Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture’s aptly titled new project, Nickel Eye. (Say it aloud: “Nik-o-lie!). And it seems the collaboration stems from Zinner’s love of poker… and bars.
“Nick and I met playing poker at a friend’s house one night,” Fraiture told NME.com of the collaboration, which the two then-out-of-work musicians discussed further when they later met at a bar. “So he came by the studio and Zinner-fied one of the tracks!” According to Pitchfork, the song flaunting Zinner’s six-string prowess is titled “This Is the End.”
Nickel Eye’s debut album, The Time Of The Assassins, due out January 27, also features the piano work of New York songstress Regina Spektor on “Where the Cold Wind Blows.
Fraiture explained that the solo record happened because his Strokes bandmates were all off working on their own projects. “it wasn’t me going ‘Ok, I’m doing my album, my solo album.’ That wasn’t really the intention, as things went along I had more time (and) it just grew naturally.”
But just because the Strokes’ members currently have other plans, don’t count the band out just yet. “We met in May this year to get back together with the Strokes, Fab [Moretti] had Little Joy (self-titled debut album out Nov. 4), Albert [Hammond Jr.] had his thing, everybody was doing their thing, so it was a case of like ‘Ok, you go and you go’ and then we can all come back fresh and ready for the Strokes.” Rumors claim the band will return to the studio in February.
Meanwhile, frontman Julian Casablancas has something fresh and ready for hungry Strokes fans!
The Time of the Assassins tracklist:??
1. “Intro”
2. “You and Everyone Else”
3. “Back From Exile”
4. “Fountain Avenue”
5. “This Is the End”
6. “Dying Star”
7. “Brandy of the Damned”
8. “Providence, RI”
9. “Where the Cold Wind Blows”
10. “Another Sunny Afternoon”
11. “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye”
