"Reptilia" is a song by indie rock

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 band The Strokes

The Strokes

The Strokes are an American indie rock band formed in 1999 in New York City. Consisting of Julian Casablancas , Nick Valensi , Albert Hammond, Jr. , Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti ....

, and the second single from their second album Room on Fire

Room on Fire

Room on Fire is the second studio album by American indie rock band The Strokes. Released in October 2003, it follows 2001's Is This It and includes three singles: "12:51", "Reptilia", and "The End Has No End." Grammy-winning producer Nigel Godrich was initially in charge of production, but The...

. The single's B-side contains "Modern Girls & Old Fashion Men", where lead singer Julian Casablancas

Julian Casablancas

Julian Fernando Casablancas is an American singer-songwriter and musician of The Strokes. Casablancas pursued a solo career during The Strokes' hiatus, releasing the album Phrazes for the Young on November 3, 2009....

 duets with Regina Spektor

Regina Spektor

Regina Ilyinichna Spektor is a Russian American singer-songwriter and pianist. Her music is associated with the anti-folk scene centered in New York City's East Village.-Early life:...

. The official release date was delayed slightly after Casablancas objected to the song being credited as "The Strokes and Regina Spektor", claiming that it should read "by Regina Spektor & The Strokes".

The title "Reptilia" refers to the "Reptilian complex", the central part of one's brain that handles basic emotions such as love and hate. The cover of the single features the artwork from the cabinet of the 1980 arcade game

Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...

 Centipede

Centipede (video game)

Centipede is a vertically-oriented shoot 'em up arcade game produced by Atari, Inc. in 1980. The game was designed by Ed Logg along with Dona Bailey, one of the few female game programmers in the industry at this time. It was also the first arcade coin-operated game to have a significant female...

by Atari

Atari, Inc

Atari, Inc. was an American video game and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Primarily responsible for the formation of the video arcade and modern video game industries, the company was closed and its assets split in 1984 as a direct result of the North...

.

In October 2011, NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

placed it at number 129 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".

Music video

The music video for the song was their first that was not directed by Roman Coppola

Roman Coppola

Roman Coppola is an American film director and music video director.-Early life:Coppola was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, the son of set decorator/artist Eleanor Coppola and Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola was born in the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine while his father was in Paris...

. Instead they chose Jake Scott

Jake Scott (director)

Jake Scott is a British film director who works primarily in the field of music videos. Most of his works were produced under the Ridley Scott Associates banner or RSA's music video subdivision Black Dog Films...

to shoot the video, which features close shots of the band members' faces and hands while performing the song. At the end of the video, Julian Casablancas blows smoke at the camera lens.