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.
Showing posts with label The Dead Weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Dead Weather. Show all posts
Monday, January 30, 2012
Thursday, February 3, 2011
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)
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)
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Tuesday Bears: New Kills - Satellite
Yesterday, Twitter (hey, I have one of those) went ape shit, somehow, over Fleet Foxes newest single "Helplessness Blues." In the thick of it, the Kills newest single "Satellite" seemed to be unfairly overshadowed.
, Allison Mosshart (taking a break from the Dead Weather) and Jamie Hince are set to release Blood Pressures, an album which was famously delayed when Hince's notorious girlfriend Kate Moss through his laptop, which contained six brand new songs, into a pool for some Kate Moss-ish reason.Blood Pressures is due out April 5 via Domino Records.
The Kills - Satellite
Thursday, December 31, 2009
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
Friday, July 17, 2009
Dead Weather Tonight
Tonight I'll be lucky enough to catch Jack White and Alison Mosshart's side-project The Dead Weather at New York City's Terminal 5 at 8 PM. Ask for me if your going too.
The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother
The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother
Monday, July 13, 2009
New Dead Weather Video: Treat Me Like Your Mother
Jonathan Glazer's newest video for The Dead Weather's single "Treat Me Like Your Mother" off their album Horehound (out this Tuesday) scores the simple concept of Man vs. Woman. Man (Jack White) and Woman (Alison Mosshart) stagger towards each other in the backyards of a California-looking suburb and discuss their differences in a classic Western-American tense - shooting the Hell out of one another.
Simple logic would tell you that neither can be harmed by mortal weapons.
The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother
Simple logic would tell you that neither can be harmed by mortal weapons.
The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother
Friday, June 19, 2009
The Dead Weather and Phoenix do Talk Shows
Last night marked the television debut of The Dead Weather, with Jack White (on drums) performing on Conan's stage for the first time since Late Night with Conan O'Brien came to an end last March.
The band, fueled by The Kill's Alison Mosshart bending and maneuvering her typical on-stage swagger through "Hang You By the Heaven's" vocals, shows a little than some of the previous Tonight Show (cough* Gavis Rossdale) acts. Locals can catch the band at NYC's Terminal 5 July 16, and 17 if they're lucky enough to get tickets.
Hang You By the Heavens - The Dead Weather (Live on Conan)
And for those that missed it (and this) Phoenix performed "1901" from the band's recently released Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix album on Letterman.
Phoenix - 1901 (Live on Letterman)
The band, fueled by The Kill's Alison Mosshart bending and maneuvering her typical on-stage swagger through "Hang You By the Heaven's" vocals, shows a little than some of the previous Tonight Show (cough* Gavis Rossdale) acts. Locals can catch the band at NYC's Terminal 5 July 16, and 17 if they're lucky enough to get tickets.
Hang You By the Heavens - The Dead Weather (Live on Conan)
And for those that missed it (and this) Phoenix performed "1901" from the band's recently released Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix album on Letterman.
Phoenix - 1901 (Live on Letterman)
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