THE STROKES - STROKES SUPPORT HAMMOND JR SOLO EFFORT

THE STROKES have lavished praise on bandmate ALBERT HAMMOND JR solo efforts, even though his songs weren't good enough for the IS THIS IT hitmakers. Last month (OCT06), the guitarist released solo album YOURS TO KEEP, a compilation of all the songs he had written originally for the group, but which had been turned down. However, singer JULIAN CASABLANCAS is adamant the rejection didn't mean the group weren't fans of Hammond Jr's sound. Speaking to baseball fansite Yankees2000 Casablancas says, "It's great. He's my bro and I'm rooting for him. I like the album a lot, I think it's cool. "When you're in a band it's kind of hard to bring stuff that five people agree on, but it's cool because he wanted to do this, he wanted to do his own thing. "I'll tell you though, I don't know how he does it, going straight from our tour to his tour, I think he's gonna crash after this."