The Strokes' "Juicebox"

If you’ve ever doubted the awesome power of a fully operational eighth-note bass line, consider “Juicebox,” the fiery single from New York rockers the Strokes. With a grinding snarl and a dose of hipster attitude nicked from Duane Eddy’s version of the “Peter Gunn” theme, Nikolai Fraiture blows open the track with the evenly picked line in Ex. 1a. Driving and repetitive, this eight-to-the-bar E riff and its ominous 5 and 2 (B and F) convey the verse’s barely contained fury, which is eventually released in Ex. 1b’s heavy chorus riff. Though the guitar plays both riffs—sometimes along with the bass, sometimes mixing and matching—it’s not the weird notes or the power-chord bombast that makes this line work. It’s the rhythmic phrasing: the cool contrast between the verse riff’s “rest-less” drive and the equally spaced-out chorus part, which leaves room for the snare drum on beats two and four.

Rhythmic twist No. 3 comes in Nikolai’s bridge bass line, shown in Ex. 2a. Together with the drums, the part anticipates the downbeat before walking from the low E back to B. After repeating the bar three times, check how Nikolai alters the line’s shape beginning in the fourth bar, hitting the E an eighth-note early to be in position for the longer walkup to C in the second phrase. Mastering this change-up may take some practice; try to remember to hit the B’s three times and the C’s twice. On the way back to the verse part, the bridge line evolves to the part in Ex. 2b, descending in a pattern that reflects the high chordal guitar part during the first portion of the bridge. At the end of the song, the band alternates between the line in Ex. 2b and the Dm punctuation in Ex. 3.