SF City Cops
Music, Fashion, Film is not a rock album, no matter what she winkingly suggested on its lead single — but this Outside Lands moment sure was
The Strokes were halfway through their set last weekend at Outside Lands 2026 when Julian Casablancas brought a special guest onstage. Namely, as he put it, “Charli motherfucking XCX.” The British pop star joined the quintessential NYC band for “Take It or Leave It,” the closing track on their 2001 classic Is This It, as she and Casablancas traded verses, bringing the perfect amount of big city rock & roll swagger to the Bay Area.
Charli had performed her own set a night earlier at the festival, which is held in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. She’s touring in support of Music, Fashion, Film, her new album that beat out the Strokes’ Reality Awaits on the Billboard 200 — a fact that Casablancas had some fun pointing out to the crowd. “We had a great battle,” he told Charli, bowing down to her. “Congratulations, you defeated us in the album sales.” He then gestured to the audience: “Your new queen of everything, Charli XCX.”
It’s a fitting collaboration — not just because Charli already enlisted Casablancas to sing on “Mean Girls” for her 2024 remix album Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat, and not because they both sported sunglasses onstage, despite the fact that it was dark outside. What really made this feel like a full-circle moment is the way Music, Fashion, Film drew comparisons to rock bands like the Strokes, specifically in her use of raw guitar riffs, glitchy synths, and all the no-fucks-given, leather-wearing energy that goes with both. What’s more, both Music, Fashion, Film (“Wink Wink”) and Reality Awaits (“Dine N’Dash”) contain spoken-word segments. Alone, together, these two artists have a lot in common. Seeing them perform a song from Is This It together at a festival was so perfectly rock & roll. Right?
