defend the indefensible: jack white

It always bummed me out that the feverishly creative talents of Michel Gondry were wasted on this "back to basics rawk" doofus.

im mostly annoyed with the gimmick of making everything blue. wake me up after his next band has everything in yellow and he's covered all three primary colors.

at any rate it definitely seems like he spends more time comparing swatches than he does writing songs

He put out a good Wolf Eyes record

http://variety.com/2018/music/news/jack-white-to-auction-off-bizarre-items-from-his-career-on-discogs-com-video-1202736754/

Classic up thru Elephant in 2003. Classic for "Black Math" alone. That record is really great. I like the ones before it a lot too. Everything since = DUD

Just got the RS with him on the cover in the mail today.

idk why beyonce felt lemonade needed an appearance from him, but if *she* likes him, then

gave holly golightly her biggest exposure

tbh I think every white stripes album is at least fine. they were a cool band.

haven't found any of the solo records or other projects at all interesting until the over-the-top horribleness of that new album

Icky Thump is a remarkably weird album for what was, at the time, a pretty damn huge band

i think get behind me satan is the best white stripes record, the arrangements are occasionally v inventive in their attempt to expand beyond the rim of the v narrow concept of "the white stripes." some of the raconteurs singles are pretty good. i love "don't hurt yourself" but beyoncé really sells everything about it. his liner notes have always been super obnoxious. but i think this guy is obv very talented but as soon as the white stripes dissolved his songwriting got aimless probably bc it wasn't shadowed by the parentheses of a concept

Would have loved to have been in the room for the Stripes' Peel sessions -- they're great. (Speaking of John Peel, I always thought it was fitting when Liverpool supporters sang Javier Mascherano's name to the "Seven Nation Army" bassline...)

he was awful cute back in the day.

ew

always got an inbred vibe

one of the first things he did after the white stripes was "another way to die" with alicia keys which i think tells the entire story

as soon as the white stripes dissolved his songwriting got aimless probably bc it wasn't shadowed by the parentheses of a concept

totally agree, tho there are some good songs on the first dead weather and solo albums (still love "Missing Pieces")

C'mon, if he was disappeared after White Blood Cells he'd be a revered cult figure by now. Remember how defensible Weezer was after they made Pinkerton then basically went off the grid?

If the new definition of "indefensible" is "got progressively worse from their creative peak until they were insufferable", then it seems like that kinda opens the floodgates: pixies, morrissey, smashing pumpkins, and just about everyone else who didn't bow out at the right time.

w/r/t Pixies I sorta feel like any band that reforms 10+ years after splitting—even w/ the same personnel—isn't really the same band.

IMO Trompe Le Monde is brilliant, they quit at exactly the right moment.

Jack White is the worst kind of pseud. Headfaking asceticism but 100% bloat, White Stripes included.

Simon and brad otm.

I remember hearing Icky Thump at a high school party and nobody flinched during the bagpipe track. The stripes like the Beatles and radiohead seemed to get away with anything, their fans drank the kool aid hard

I remember watching them play "We Are Going to Be Friends" on one of Conan's last Late Night shows in early 2009. must've been one of their last live performances right?

I agree Get Behind Me Satan is their best, and I've used that phrase about the WS catalog in general.

that said I was glad when the Von Bondies secured that TV theme song money and were able to comfortably retire somewhere

i tried to see the White Stripes once. they were playing at Stone Mountain Park in 2003. as soon as we got on the highway we knew we were fucked. it was a crawling parking lot and we missed the show entirely.

i really like Elephant and loved Get Behind Me Satan. Icky was cool too. saw the "Great Northern Lights" documentary in a theater when it came out. always thought Meg got a bad wrap.

oh totally re: meg. encountered so much lazy sexism among my friends when the WS were super popular - "oh she's so horrible, she can't drum at all dude" - as if it weren't a stylistic/aesthetic choice. she was fantastic in that band.

Meg rules, people are dumb

He gave a friend of mine SFX work on a Dead Weather video. Can't hate.

i wish i looked like a vampire and could sing well and make weird albums so i admire him

he really nailed a one-man Led Zeppelin, riff like Page, singing like Plant. imo they should all make a record together.

he did neither of these things, come on

I tend to agree with Adam cuz I knew many older people who liked the stripes for their similarity to zeppelin (obviously nowhere near as good )

I loved Blunderbuss. The new album is sooooo disappointing.

I would love to know his yearly earnings from Seven Nation Army.

I like him about as much as I like the Smashing Pumpkins. One or two songs, hate the conceptual stuff, don't like him as a singer or guitarist. Don't even like that Loretta Lynn album. I guess I like him most in that Electric Six cameo.

i've seen a trusted source describe the new record as sci-fi jazz/funk, which sounds kind of intriguing tbh

I would love to know his yearly earnings from Seven Nation Army.

No kidding - it's such a huge "Jock Jams" / soccer stadium riff! (and I assume those uses are licensed)

He's making massive royalty earnings because it's played globally at sports events.

having listened to the new albums a few times through now, I can easily say it's my favorite post White Stripes.
It sounds great loud on a good stereo, which seems weird to say about a Jack White production. I find about 75% of
the music pretty exciting. It plays much more like an album than a collection of songs.

If this was some kind of sloppy purge with the past, and messy rebirth into a new Pro Tools phase, then I'm optimistic.
I can see a fuzzed out Uriah Heep doing "Sign O The Times" coming down the line.

I admire the new album, but ultimately things seem like genre exercises. A lot of grooveless grooves and unfunky funk. There are occasional moments of "wow that's cool" but they are few. I admire him for going this direction though.

I still think Elephant is a great record - one of my favourite albums to come out of that ilk in the '00s.

this dude sucks

I still think Elephant is a great record - one of my favourite albums to come out of that ilk in the '00s.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Tuesday, April 3, 2018 4:07 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm, along with Is This It it's definitely the best album by any of the 'The' bands

In defense of Jack White I once had a good friend. Her questionable guitar boyfriend and I went to see the White Stripes on the De Stijl tour. Was a good show. Afterward we talked outside and agreed it was good. The boyfriend asked if I saw Jack White's dick. I said what, and he said I was pretending not to have noticed Jack White's dick and it was huge. I actually have no idea even now about the size of Jack White's dick.

I found some evidence to bolster your questionable friend's claims. Brace yourself:

http://elvisqueso-iii.tumblr.com/post/74843085223/jack-white-best-bulge-in-rock

well hello. you might even say solid evidence.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8299798/jack-white-nicki-minaj-hip-hop-is-the-new-punk-rock

Funny that he seems mainly interested in the "extreme lyrical content" (at least in the quote excerpted in the article):

But Minaj, and her track "Only," in particular, set a new standard for him and what he's hoping to achieve in his work.

"I mean, some of those lyrics are like, ‘Holy shit!'" he told Clash. "I, as an adult, listening to that by myself, am shocked at some of the words that I’m hearing. But it’s brilliant! It’s brilliant to be able to say that, to be able to say whatever you want. I couldn’t get away with saying half of those things that Nicki Minaj says in that song. It’s just brilliant to see how far things have gone in that sense, and how cool it is for people to talk about these moments and say, 'Wow, check this out.'"

Now I'm picturing JW sitting in a tastefully appointed den, listening to "The Pinkprint," and wondering if he could "get away with" singing eat my a$$ like a cupcake...

i heard a song off this on the radio that sounded like ween doing a joke rage against the machine song

Whoa Jack White thinks hip-hop is the new punk rock! What trenchant insight...in 1980

"Hip-hop is like...its the CNN of the streets" Jack White, today probably.

Jack White is like one yr older than I am, how is he just now realizing this?

I agree but at the same time (in his "defense"), I bet some of his rock-d00d fans are like, "Hip-hop sucks, real music uses real instruments," etc. So maybe he's putting something useful into the world with these dorky-sounding musings.

i really did love pussy galore so i don't want to diss the guy too much. he just went in a direction that wasn't really my bag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeW-mOXdkvU

^ always puts me in a good mood

i'm not a big retro/nu-garage/nu-rockabilly band kinda person. i've never had a pompadour.

The A-Bones were a fucking blast live. I was at their "farewell" show at Maxwell's and it was just a preposterously drunken rock 'n' roll party. I saw Reverend Horton Heat pretty early on, too, maybe on the tour for his second album. That was a good show.

I’ve still never really heard anything like Rocket From The Crypt’s Circa Now, it’s like if Wire worked at Boll Weevil and ate a bunch of glue

wire/pixies idk weird album

A Frames rule, yes

I'm really surprised at how much I love this record. Now I'm suddenly a Jack White fan again.

"Bless Yourself" off the new one is pure ear candy to me.

Third Man records has put out/reissued some good stuff

He did a pop-up show at a small-ish club here last week. The clips I saw looked fun, if you like Jack White and had $120 to spare (and were quick on the draw). I'm kinda shocked he still plays 7 Nation Army.