he hasn't made anything i've loved since elephant, and i'm not sure if that's bc he's changed or if i've changed. in either case, i kinda keep an eye on him to see if anything he does is really interesting again. seems like a lot of boring side projects like raconteurs, dead weather, black belles? maybe the magic is just gone
― Mordy, Monday, 16 April 2012 03:18 (twelve years ago) link
i think he's got a free pass to fuck around with merely solid side projects and Third Man vinyl nerd ephemera for a little while. i'm still entertained by it all.
― caulk the wagon and float it, Monday, 16 April 2012 03:41 (twelve years ago) link
2nd Raconteurs album was A+, imo
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 06:04 (twelve years ago) link
digging "Sixteen Saltines" a lot.
― UnderControl, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 06:57 (twelve years ago) link
I had very low expectations of this but it is easily his best album in a decade, albeit a decade in which I have only really liked a couple of Raconteurs songs and little else. I dont understand this notion of Jack lacking authenticity, he is from a working class background and dragged himself up from nothing. I get a feeling he doesn't really have much control of this beast he has created, but that doesn't make him a phony.
― Damo Suzuki's Parrot, Saturday, 21 April 2012 12:02 (twelve years ago) link
I'm lukewarm over this. It's sorta plain jane. It's like a 67/100, but that's dumb. I don't know why I was expecting so much, lol. The sound is cool. I like the production. I think he's a great producer. I just think the songwriting is lacking, musically and lyrically.Some lyrics just totally seem free styled to fit the melody. I guess I wish it also had more electric guitar.On the plus side, at least he's not relying on that Digitech Whammy so much.
― nicky lo-fi, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 18:02 (twelve years ago) link
my vinyl copy is sat at the post office because it wouldn't fit in my letterbox. won't have a chance to pick it up till saturday. am resisting temptation to dl illicitly, as that's not how a true white stripes fan should behave.
― I accidentally sonned your dome (stevie), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 18:08 (twelve years ago) link
I get a feeling he doesn't really have much control of this beast he has created, but that doesn't make him a phony.
― Damo Suzuki's Parrot, Saturday, April 21, 2012 8:02 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark
surely there have rarely been rock stars in more total control of the beast he created than Jack White!
― some dude, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 19:48 (twelve years ago) link
I like the first song, "missing pieces," with it's great rhodes piano. I also like "blunderbuss," and the last song, "take me with you..." I also like the first two singles. I don't really hate anything on here. I think I just had out of this world expectations.
― nicky lo-fi, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 15:44 (twelve years ago) link
Discovering that it was Meg who terminated the White Stripes, while Jack would have gone on indefinitely, has totally changed my reading of the lyrics. Like his divorce is a red herring and the subject of a song like Missing Pieces is actually Meg. Maybe this is the common reading but I listened to a review copy a lot before I found out how the split went down.
― And I have been called "The Appetite" (DL), Thursday, 26 April 2012 09:00 (twelve years ago) link
Quite like it so far.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Thursday, 26 April 2012 09:06 (twelve years ago) link
sounds like a series of sketches, interspersed with back of fag packet moments.
― For bodies we are ready to build pyramids (whatever), Thursday, 26 April 2012 14:30 (twelve years ago) link
I wasnt such a big fan of the 2nd Raconteurs album, though it had its moments, but I'm probably the only person who has a soft spot for the 2nd Dead Weather album
― when will Jesus bring the composition chops? (loves laboured breathing), Thursday, 26 April 2012 14:35 (twelve years ago) link
xp to Vegemite Grrrl
― when will Jesus bring the composition chops? (loves laboured breathing), Thursday, 26 April 2012 14:36 (twelve years ago) link
INSIDE LOOK: Jack White & Gary Oldman - Amex UNSTAGED
A live + Digital Music Experience April 27 9pm EST
http://www.youtube.com/user/JackWhiteVevo/unstaged
― nicky lo-fi, Friday, 27 April 2012 16:07 (twelve years ago) link
Discovering that it was Meg who terminated the White Stripes, while Jack would have gone on indefinitely, has totally changed my reading of the lyrics
she quit in the middle of a tour iirc?
― heavy is the head that eats the crayons (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 27 April 2012 16:08 (twelve years ago) link
like, it doesn't get more obvious than that
Ha, well I can't have been following it too closely then.
― And I have been called "The Appetite" (DL), Friday, 27 April 2012 17:00 (twelve years ago) link
huh yeah i didn't know meg quit
― l0u1s j0rdan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 27 April 2012 17:17 (twelve years ago) link
iirc it was around the same time that a rumored sex tape of Meg was circulating (it was, not surprisingly, fake)
― heavy is the head that eats the crayons (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 27 April 2012 17:48 (twelve years ago) link
Now I know why you were following Meg's activities so closely.
― And I have been called "The Appetite" (DL), Saturday, 28 April 2012 08:18 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.chacha.com/question/does-jack-white-of-the-white-stripes-wear-makeup-to-look-so-white
― Fellini.Kuti, Saturday, 28 April 2012 08:33 (twelve years ago) link
I think there was some common agreement about the split.
Didn't the White stripes reconvene and carry on after Meg's break?
― Mark G, Saturday, 28 April 2012 11:53 (twelve years ago) link
I suppose being an obsessive blues fan means rewriting the influences into nuevo misogynist bilge.
cuz "Sixteen Saltines" is crap.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 28 April 2012 12:01 (twelve years ago) link
the whole show is up, and it's not bad. it starts about 10 minutes in.
the setlist:
with the girls backing
Dead Leaves And The Dirty GroundMissing PiecesFreedom At 21Love InterruptionHotel YorbaTwo Against OneTop YourselfI'm Slowly Turning Into YouBlue Blood BluesTake Me With You When You Go
with the boys backing
Sixteen SaltinesI Cut Like A BuffaloWeep Themselves To SleepTrash Tongue TalkerYou Know That I KnowWe're Going To Be FriendsHypocritical KissHello OperatorCarolina DramaSeven Nation Army
favorite misogynist moment is in "Top Yoursef," where he growls:
"How you gonna rock yourself to sleep, when I give up that midnight creep, girl...Yeah how you gonna get that deep, when your daddy ain't around to give it to you..."
― nicky lo-fi, Sunday, 29 April 2012 23:16 (twelve years ago) link
Finally picked this up - it's a lot better than I expected. Really love the middle group of songs, Love Interruption, Blunderbuss, Weep Themselves to Sleep ...the piano and slightly, I dunno, honky-tonk/country-fied approach really suits him.
I feel like he's still got a lot of artifice in his songwriting that he needs to get rid of. He feels too self conscious still or soemthing, like he's trying to prove something with his songs. I think if that ever goes away and he writes from the heart he'll be incredible.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 21:40 (twelve years ago) link
I like the artifice, at this stage in the game a rich white guy playing blues-rock is about as artificial as you can get so he might as well play around with it.
This is a pretty good album, better than the Dead Weather at least, I agree that middle section is the strongest, although I need to give it time to sink in a bit more.
― Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 07:41 (twelve years ago) link
i think Get Behind Me Satan was pretty from the heart tbh. in fact i think most of jack's stuff is from the heart. its just that jack's got a weird heart.
― It was you. Miming to Tenacious D. (stevie), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 07:51 (twelve years ago) link
I don't like thinking about artifice vs "from the heart" as a binary anyway but I think it's especially unhelpful with this record. The whole album is clearly about the emotions following a split with his bandmate and/or his wife, only dressed up in fantastical narratives.
― Get wolves (DL), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 13:03 (twelve years ago) link
he's a fraud cuz that one song sounds like the beginning of 'heart shaped box'
― Poliopolice, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:37 (twelve years ago) link
i think that binary is unhelpful with jack in general because he is a uniquely self-aware artist who nevertheless writes from a very wounded and self-involved perspective. every time i've interviewed him i've marveled at how he seems, simultaneously, unaffected and yet playing me as an interviewer. he is sharp as heck. i don't think this album is as 'plainly' about the split from karen/meg as you suggest, but i also think that's a prime motivator. the thing with jack white is, you never quite know when he's cluing you into how john gillis really feels. that's part of his magic, why he's more interesting than, say, the potatoes in the black keys.
― It was you. Miming to Tenacious D. (stevie), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:38 (twelve years ago) link
Jack White is not a sexist!
― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 30 May 2012 21:02 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.paintingmania.com/arts/gustave-caillebotte/large/portrait-man-writing-his-study-151_8902.jpg
"Jack White... not... a... sexist. Got it."
― Mordy, Wednesday, 30 May 2012 21:52 (twelve years ago) link
This was a better response to the Jessica Misener article imo
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2012/apr/27/jack-white-problem-women-laura-barton
― Get wolves (DL), Thursday, 31 May 2012 08:59 (twelve years ago) link
certainly not since Dylan has an artist played with our perceptions the way that White does
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 31 May 2012 09:10 (twelve years ago) link
Not to mention that White, né Gillis, did something the overwhelming majority of men are too threatened by women to do: he took his wife’s surname.
Where did he take it?
― Mark G, Thursday, 31 May 2012 09:30 (twelve years ago) link
xp Yes well I'm not cosigning every line but I like the gist. I thought Misener's argument relied on cherrypicking, misreading and faulty information.
― Get wolves (DL), Thursday, 31 May 2012 09:30 (twelve years ago) link
I think the article is fine, just pondering JWhite's 'use' of his wife's surname: Where did that happen?
― Mark G, Thursday, 31 May 2012 09:42 (twelve years ago) link
Um, all the time? He calls himself Jack White, after Meg White. Or are you thinking of Karen Elson?
― Get wolves (DL), Thursday, 31 May 2012 09:52 (twelve years ago) link
Well, yeah I was.
― Mark G, Thursday, 31 May 2012 09:54 (twelve years ago) link
OK, being 'pka' is not the same as actually taking yr wife's surname in marriage.
― Mark G, Thursday, 31 May 2012 09:55 (twelve years ago) link
http://consequenceofsound.net/2013/08/karen-elson-obtains-restraining-order-against-ex-husband-jack-white/
― Deafening silence (DL), Thursday, 1 August 2013 23:06 (eleven years ago) link
Somehow I missed that they'd even divorced, but this is a pretty gross development. Stop being a creep, Jack White!
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Friday, 2 August 2013 01:55 (eleven years ago) link
White wanted Elson to contact their kids’ private school in an effort to get their kids out of a class in which another entertainer’s child was present. White said that he feels that entertainer 'ripped off' his music, the order said.
Any guesses as to who that might be?
― Position Position, Friday, 2 August 2013 01:56 (eleven years ago) link
Dan Auerbach, I bet.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Friday, 2 August 2013 01:57 (eleven years ago) link
xpost You don't remember their weird "divorce party?"
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 2 August 2013 02:22 (eleven years ago) link
I didn't even know who Karen Elson was until he released her album (and then immediately ceased paying further attention).
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Friday, 2 August 2013 02:23 (eleven years ago) link
The leaked emails are gruesomely fascinating. He really hates the Black Keys.
http://www.tmz.com/2013/08/02/jack-white-wife-karen-elson-black-keys-singer-dan-auerbach-divorce-restraining-order-email/
― Deafening silence (DL), Friday, 2 August 2013 17:35 (eleven years ago) link
can you blame him
― tylerw, Friday, 2 August 2013 17:36 (eleven years ago) link
Two balding men fighting over a limited edition BluesHammer comb.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 2 August 2013 17:43 (eleven years ago) link