First, they’ll join Guided By Voices for a two-night, end-of-the-year gig at the Apollo Theatre in New York.

Keeping to the lower portion of the States, The Strokes start in Florida January 21 and head west, with a stop in Mexico City on January 26.

After playing in San Diego on February 3, they island hop from Hawaii to Japan and then the U.K. before hitting mainland Europe on February 26. A show in Iceland on April 2 looks to be the end of their whirlwind world tour.

Fellow New Yorkers Longwave ride along January 21-24 and January 28 through February 3.

Thanks in part to the help of the U.K. music press, The Strokes have enjoyed virtually instant success. Formed in New York in 1999 by schoolmates Julian Casablancas, Nick Valensi, Albert Hammond Jr., Nickolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti, The Stokes became an underground club hit in their hometown before news of their lo-fi garage-rock style tunes spread across the pond.

While the rest of their homeland is slowly catching on, The Strokes have been a well-known name in parts of Europe for most of 2001. Originally slotted for a second stage show (which would have still put them in front of 10,000 people) at the NME Carling Weekender festival in the U.K. last summer, The Strokes were upgraded to a main stage after organizers feared fans would trample each other to see the band.