Jack White on Conan

It's hard to argue against Jack White still being the central figure in modern rock music. Following the end of the beloved White Stripes, and lengthy hiatuses in his side-projects, White became more popular than ever in 2012.

White played a special performance of "I'm Shakin'," alongside his familiar all-female band on Conan. Fans should know the two have a lengthy past together; The White Stripes played the final show of Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and the premiere show when he moved to TBS, so this is a little more significant than usual. Check it out below.

Monday Bears: New Jack White - Love Interrupted

It's been a long time coming. Ever since the effective end of the White Stripes, it's all been a matter of the waiting game until Jack White would truly release some real solo material. And while I can't imagine this will hault the eventual work of The Dead Weather and The Raconteurs, it's better than five-minute shots on Storage Wars.

Listen to White's first single "Love Interrupted" below, and grab his first solo album Blunderbuss this April.

Thursday: Unreleased White Stripes covers

Yesterday, courtesy of Some Kind of Awesome, a pair of unreleased covers from the White Stripes archives were unveiled. Outside of Record Store Day's release of the band's "Let's Shake Hands" 7" (which fans already heard off of their live album Under Great White Northern Lights).

Platinum members of Jack White's Third Man Records received physical copies of the Otis Redding and Love covers. Listen to them both below.

White Stripes - I've Been Loving You Too Long (Otis Redding Cover)



White Stripes - Signed D.C. (Love Cover)

Thursday Bears: Strokes make Letterman return

The Strokes just seem to fit on Letterman. During their 2000-06 heyday, the band constantly frequented the Late Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien (including month long specials). Now with Conan dearly departed (Jack White/the White Stripes were always his band anyway) from the New York area, and the Strokes already previewing Angles on SNL, the Late Show seemed apt.

Last night, the group returned, performing the live debut of "Taken for a Fool," one of Angles stand-outs. It still has that classic Strokes-performance cool apathy, but they seem to try a bit harder than they did on SNL a few weeks ago.

The Strokes - Taken for a Fool (Live on Letterman)

New Radiohead. King of Limbs. Saturday.

Last night, I slept happily after witnessing Arcade Fire stun the music world by shafting mainstream pop, effectively giving indie and alternative music an actual landmark moment. But when I woke up to hear that Radiohead were releasing a new album this Saturday, it seemed sort of unreal.

All of this came a week after the White Stripes and LCD Soundsystem announcing the end of their careers, putting a solid bandage on that open wound.

News was released a little while back that the band had actually finished recording the album, which was supposed to be due out some time this year, but no one was sure exactly when or even certain that an album was coming out. Well, here's the rundown:

Radiohead's new album The King of Limbs is due out via digital release this Saturday, February 19. Soon huh?

• You can preorder the MP3 copy for a lowly $9, or the WAV copy (higher quality) for $14.
• One person who orders the digital copy will win their own two track 12" vinyl, signed by the group.

If you aren't the digital type (you're online, aren't you?) or if you wanna splurge a bit, you can order The King of Limbs "Newspaper Album," also available for preorder. The package includes.

• Two 10" clear vinyl records.
• A CD version of the record.
• A shit-ton of artwork (over 600 large and small pieces).
• A digital download of the album.
• All of these are available for preorder now, but the physical pieces will not be shipped until May 9. The Newspaper version with the MP3 download is available for $48, while the WAV version is $53.
• One person will also win their own signed pair of 12" vinyls.

So, the In Rainbows "pay what you want" project seems to have gone by the wayside, which may disappoint a handful of people. Be that as it may, it's Radiohead, so stop complaining. We can say through Radiohead at Ease that the album will likely be eight tracks long. Check the details here.

Preorder your copy of King of Limbs now. Or not, you know, do what you want.

In Memoriam ... LCD Soundsystem

Last week, after the White Stripes announced their untimely (or timely, depending on how you look at it) end, LCD Soundsystem also announced that they'll be on their way out in April when the group plays their final show at Madison Square Garden.

The James Murphy led-group sprang up with the release of "Losing My Edge" in 2002 - an eight-minute speech about whatever "cool" is over Murphy's iconic beat. A handful of singles, and a few years later, LCD released their self-titled debut in 2005. Throughout the years, the group has become an affirmative for-runner for perennial, subtly impossible to quantify singles - from roaring, fun, and restless professions like "Drunk Girls," "Daft Punk is Playing at My House," and "North American Scum," to dearly heart-wrenching affixes, typified by the group's standout song; "All My Friends."

While the group's end isn't quite the shocker that the White Stripes was (the group announced several months ago that 2010's This is Happening would indeed be their last album), the end seems to be too soon. With only three studio albums to their credit in the span of five years, Murphy is ending the band at their respective peak.

The MSG finale, scheduled for April 2 (so it's not a joke), is set be around three hours, filled with special guests. For anyone in the area, go (or try to go) and do yourselves a big favor. See them, in their best. Oh, and wear black and white.

LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends

In Memoriam ...

As everyone has already heard, the White Stripes are no more. For over a decade, the iconic two-piece band comprised of Jack and Meg White established a more than well-deserved reputation as one of rock music's most preliminary acts, issuing stellar album after stellar album. During the time, the duo also earned a reputation as one of the most invigorating live acts in the world.

Since 2007, after the release of the band's now final studio album Icky Thump, Jack has been jumping around from multiple side-projects with the Raconteurs and Dead Weather, along with producing work for other artists. It was a somewhat long hiatus for Jack's original project, which was rumored off-again, on-again to be returning to the studio and on tour, but to no avail.

In the band's official statement, the two wrote that, "The White Stripes belong to you know, and you can do with it whatever you want." There was no collective difference between Jack and Meg, apparently, and there were no outside issues that prevented the group to continue their work, but rather the decision to go out on top. For an industry that far too often sees its greatest artists fall by the wayside in their twilight years, the White Stripes never left their prime. If any solace exists in the news of the group's demise, that's it.

But it's never fair to a band or artist of this quality to just say, "they're done," there's little justice to what the White Stripes actually accomplished in that. Few artists in the 2000s were more groundbreaking, earthy, and consistent as the Stripes. From their low-fi self-titled debut in the late 90s, the band truly emerged in 2001 with their breakthrough album White Blood Cells, and Michel Gondry's instantly memorable music video for "Fell In Love With a Girl." For those that may remember, White Blood Cells was also featured on Bears and Bullets list for the ten best albums of the 2000s as well.

The group's stellar career continued to tick upward through the years, peaking with 2003's Elephant. Their last two albums, Get Behind Me Satan and Icky Thump may not have been as sincerely enriching as the group's first four LPs, but they were still remarkable achievements in its own right.

Personally, a little hole was left open when I heard of the band's breakup. Through my concert-going years I've never had the privilege to see Jack and Meg together live. I've seen the Raconteurs and Dead Weather, ironically, but not the band that had me interested in those two in the first place. For those who have, I now am forced to only imagine the experience.

There's a saying among sports fans when talking "one of a kind" players - players who combine such sporadic and unique elements to their game that can define them and only them. When those kind of players retire, fans know we'll never see another one like them again. We'll never see another Hakeem Olajuwan. We'll never see another Bobby Orr. And, unfortunately, we'll never see another White Stripes. Jack and Meg combined such an ephemeral veracity with Jack's otherworldly talent to create an awe-inspiring, and, at times, polarizing act that many music fans truly failed to appreciate.

Luckily, history will remember them well, as a band that rarely (if ever) failed expectations during their now too short career.

Usually I'd put a few music videos here for a situation like this, but I think this performance of Son House's "Death Letter" typifies the band better than any singular song.

The White Stripes - Death Letter (Live)

The end of the White Stripes

Very sad news today.

Jack and Meg White have officially announced the end of the White Stripes, one of modern music's most collective, powerful, and endearing groups. Read the group's statement here.

White Stripes (1997 - 2011)

Bears and Bullets Top Ten Albums of the Decade - White Blood Cells

#6: White Blood Cells - The White Stripes

Here's an argument waiting to happen; Jack White was the most important musical figure of the decade. The brainchild behind The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather, White is an archetypal rock n' roll visionary whose talents are almost limitless, and if he isn't the decade's most prominent musical force, who is?

That discussion starts with White Blood Cells. After their eponymous debut in the late 90's and second album De Stijl, the Detroit duo of Jack and sister/wife/friend Meg White re-released White Blood Cells on major label V2 Records (before moving a couple more times) a year after its initial release. The result, heard clearly, was a more polished and crowning record that still inhibited the gnarling and exhilarating aesthetics of their previous two albums, while (with the help of Michel Gondry) catapulting them into the mainstream discussion.

"Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground," is proud, jolting stomp that starts the record before it leaps into the alt-country pop fixture of "Hotel Yorba," and shortly there after to the two-minute garage punk romp of "Fell in Love With a Girl." After the first four songs you're exhausted, but still clenching your nails for more and more. Rarely does the beginning of a record say so much about a band and leaves the listener gasping - and that's just the start.

The following White Stripes records - Elephant, Get Behind Me Satan and Icky Thump - for all their glory and prowess, leaps from the band's original form. That's not saying that their newer material doesn't compare with their early work, it's just that their early work was that good.

The White Stripes - Fell in Love With a Girl

The White Stripes - We're Going to Be Friends

The White Stripes - Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground

#10: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon
#9: Dear Science - TV On The Radio
#8: Fever to Tell - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

#7: In Rainbows - Radiohead