Meg White Is Amazing!!

We're they born yet? *swoosh*

Completely neantherthal standards of technical proficiency are WHAT ROCK'N'ROLL IS ALL ABOUT.

That and being stick thin with big jugs.

EN I NOW IT.

i thought we were evaluating her drumming?

Sure sure is:

http://www.totallynsfw.com/videos/videos_meg_white_sextape/

that looks like a made-up comedy url

I don't think that's her.

http://www.holyshit.com/images/jenny_lewis_kissing_neko_case.jpg

http://M.assetbar.com/uua6DS6HG.gif

Would explain why she has cancelled tours due to acute anxiety.

oh, the poor thing. I feel so awful for her.

damn ghostrider's link didn't work. shame as holyshit are usually so reliable.

the link worked for me

neko looks like a good kisser!

"plus the big-breasted star of the sex tape keeps losing her rythm which is soo Meg White"

I'm at the office so I'll have to take you guys' word for whether this is a joek or not.

i really don't think its her.

which doesn't mean i didn't feel really ick watching as far as i did.

Hard to say. It does look more than a bit like her.

Especially the bit 'o' muffin-top.

it does look like her. if it actually is, i feel bad for her that something personal like that leaked. not that the video itself is all that embarrassing.

It looks *enough* like her, but when you see her in profile it pretty much invalidates it.

"plus the big-breasted star of the sex tape keeps losing her rythm which is soo Meg White"

-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, September 24, 2007 4:17 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

people keep saying this and everytime i listen to white stripes i listen to her and her tempo is just fine. she gets the most undeserved bad rap of any drummer in history. i like her super stompy minimalism. like what do people want for that band? neil peart or some shit?

People talk shit abt Ringo too and he was awesome, e.g. Yoko's Plastic Ono Band record.

How is Meg live?

it's not her.
there are lots of big breasted brunettes in this world (thank god)ya know

NABISCO: ok but so let me note what i've been saying about meg white since 2000
NABISCO: EVERY GIRL IN MICHIGAN LOOKS LIKE THAT
GIRL: HA!
GIRL: really?
GIRL: pale? honkey?
GIRL: she's kinda cute
GIRL: you no like?
NABISCO: well every time i see her i just feel like i'm in grand rapids
FRIEND: gross
NABISCO: it's like some dutch guy had sex with dolls and then it rained for six years and now there are a million Meg Whites running around the woods being weird

it looks alot like her

the new single from the White Stripes:

"Every time i see her (I Feel Like I'm In Grand Rapids)"

people keep saying this and everytime i listen to white stripes i listen to her and her tempo is just fine. she gets the most undeserved bad rap of any drummer in history. i like her super stompy minimalism. like what do people want for that band? neil peart or some shit?

-- M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 24 September 2007 16:46 (6 minutes ago) Link

I think I've come around to the position that I'm not so much bothered by her clunky behind the beat playing as by the fact that she bashes the ride cymbal on EVERY PART OF EVERY SONG when, say, a closed hi-hat now and then would suffice.

Hmmm looks like rent isn't too bad in Grand Rapids...

Grand Rapids you heaven.

Try BIG Rapids -- cheaper and weirder. Hell, go for Tustin or Elk Rapids or something: it's basically like if you took Twin Peaks and re-cast it with 200 imaginary Jack-and-Meg offspring.

she gets the most undeserved bad rap of any drummer in history. i like her super stompy minimalism. like what do people want for that band? neil peart or some shit?

OTM

I'll get started on the mashup immediately.

Matt OTM re: her drumming

That could just as well be an ultragrrrl sex tape as a meg white one. It looks like what I imagine every Killers/My Chemical Romance fan sex tape to look like.

fapfapfap

Yeah, now that you mention it, it actually *does* look a little bit more like Ultragrrrl.

How is Meg live?

very unsteady tempos, the one time i saw the stripes play. no, i don't expect neil peart, but it did detract from their sound imo. OTM about the ride cymbal bashing too, but i still think she sounds pretty good on the records

she didnt mean 'live' like that

I just don't understand these conceptions of Meg's drumming not being completely integral to the White Stripes' "sound" (as if there are parts she's not doing justice too, or that they could be played better by some other drummer - Meg's minimalist style is one of THE identifying hallmarks of the band. Its like saying the Sparks are okay but Ron Mael's piano playing really holds back the material or something)

agreed

meg white RIP

I prefer Vanessa Hudgens. As the White Stripes drummer.

hahah

haha when i saw this thread title i was wondering if it was an old thread or if someone was easily impressed w/ sex tapes

she IS a huge part of the stripes sound and they are all the better for it, but she still uses the cymbal bashing trick too much

Yeah, I totally agree about her drumming - further evidenced by the fact that that other band Jack White is in with a "real" drummer completely blows.

she should get some other cymbals

and a gong

ride cymbal is the best cymbal

She certainly does know how to ride a cymbal, amirite?

(NB, I haven't actually clicked on that link)

She does have some nice tom-toms
She does have good stick control
Her single stroke role is impeccable

(roll)

looks like he's gonna give her a Pearl Export for her birthday!

Whoa dude.

omg

oh god gross is that what white stripes refers to *weeps for lost innocence*

pitchfork.com is anti-tits.

pitchfork.com is a farm-supply website, I'm sure they've got a hookup on some sort of milking device

roffle!

nabisco in paragraph mode >>> nabisco in 50 one-liners mode

Fair play to the guy for giving it the old "finger in the mouth" routine, but that always makes me feel like I'm inspecting a racehorse for tooth decay.

fingers in mouth is instinctive act of primal lust, not opportunity for some reflective lulz

You probably shouldn't post to this thread.

"*urp*"

http://www.fototime.com/CDFE35079D5DA7D/standard.jpg

l-r: ilx, offed

jagger surprisingly otm

whats next, passantino otm about rap music that isnt non phixion?

You probably shouldn't post to this thread.

-- Dom Passantino, Monday, 24 September 2007 19:51 (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

if i need a sex tape from the burger king handicapped stall ill IM you

There are lots of things I can spin multiple paragraphs out of, but "there's a sex video on the internet and the girl looks vaguely like Meg White" is SO not one of them.

liar

thats not true at all; all that stuff about grand rapids above could have easily been a 300-wd, 2-paragraph nabisco classic instead of a copy-and-pasted IM session and a couple follow ups

haha why did just spend 40 seconds of my life trying to argue with nabisco about whether or not he could have written more about meg white making the beast with two backs

Jag offed

what ladies does the am0n ride 4

how could anybody who has seen a photo of Meg White think this was Meg White

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/GLO/FAN00025~UFO-I-Want-to-Believe-Posters.jpg

http://www.freedomisforeverybody.org/images/Osama_faces_2.jpg

Matt H OTM about Meg's drumming. I'd sooner listen to a Meg side project than one of Jack's. (and "Cold Cold Night" is the only White Stripes song I listen to regularly these days)

OK yes: I actually looked at it and that does not look like Meg White in the least

http://www.24ur.com/media/images/extra/Jul2005/6049967.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e210/thinknutt/meg_white232.jpg

http://www.9giantsteps.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/white-stripes.jpg

I wonder what kind of rack mount she uses

[ / s ]

What would be so cool is if you said that and she was the one to provide the rimshot. :)

ok i watched this again, and while it very well might not be meg white i don't understand the incredulity from those thinking it doesn't look anything like her.

having watched this 8 times in a row i'm fairly confident by now that it might be her

LJ, watching porn so you don't have to.

having watched this 8 times in a row i'm fairly confident by now that it might be her

[eyesight joke]

my zing was too subtle :/

mine too :\

dally should have revived this one instead.

I hate everything about this.

https://www.elle.com/culture/music/a43846386/meg-white-interview-2023/

I sympathize with the author. She clearly needed to write this. But why bother? Meg has repeatedly said interviews makes her uncomfortable. Why did the author feel this would be different?

Furthermore, I love Corin Tucker and Kid Congo Powers but I’m not sure they really advance this story.

i do not sympathize with the author

All the piece achieved was confirm she was a) alive and b) apparently well. Which I guess is not nothing.

Ugh. I know I've been guilty of the same impulse, wanting to track down or understand someone who walked away after having a big artistic success. Now it seems like a kind of ideal career arc though. She obviously doesn't want the attention, leave Meg White alone.

yeah, leave the best rock drummer of all time alone.

🚨🚨 she eats a honey crisp apple every day 🚨🚨

Before White Blood Cells, the band had been, for the most part, an underground secret.

is this really accurate?

budo jeru otm. She doesn't want to be interviewed? Then kill the piece. It's not complicated. It's like that book where the author is looking for Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson. All it does is reaffirm -- to the subject, to the audience -- that walking away was the right move for them, and that the potential interviewer is a stalkery insensitive schmuck for trying to track them down.

after all the shit in this thread I wish her a very nice life out of the public eye

i do not sympathize with the author

― budo jeru, Monday, 5 June 2023 14:53 (one hour ago) link

Yeah. I’ve been trying to be more generous.

Before White Blood Cells, the band had been, for the most part, an underground secret.

is this really accurate?

― Paul Ponzi, Monday, June 5, 2023 12:12 PM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I suppose it depends on your definition of “underground” or “secret.” I saw them sometime in 2000 or 2001. I’m from Detroit and obviously a music nerd but I wasn’t part of the garage rock scene.

I think the CMJ set was into them after De Stijl came out. I remember one of my college roommates being a pretty big fan but it may have been one of those things where White Blood Cells came out and everyone picked up the prior releases at the same time

Not underground, but honestly there were so many bands that went absolutely nowhere that were momentarily college radio darlings and toured small venues that it works for certain levels of "underground"

The Meg White piece reminded me of old pieces about trying to interview J.D. Salinger, where the whole point was about the writer trying but failing to interview J.D. Salinger and Do YOU SEE?

This kind of piece only enhanced salinger’s mystique and the same will be true of meg white.

Does white want to cultivate mystique or merely to be left alone? She pointedly doesn’t say.

I like the idea that she enjoys being mysterious because the alternative seems to be that she found being famous horrifying and unpleasant due to the rampany misogyny in the indie music scene.

And that is depressing.

The worst part about that piece is that makes serious use of the term "indie sleaze." I don't see anything wrong with a Meg White appreciate piece, structured around the idea of seeking a new interview with her (it doesn't sound like the writer stalked/hounded her or anything). Anyway, I learned some stuff I didn't know... Olivia Rodrigo being a fan, for instance.

Indie sleaze is a meaningful term, it’s more of an aesthetic than a music genre or scene though. Think american apparel circa 2007-2012.

(it doesn't sound like the writer stalked/hounded her or anything)

I don't think the author was peering in Meg's windows or anything, but ffs, "roughly three years of persistent (yet respectful) inquiry"? That can be extremely triggering to someone known to have anxiety about fame and attention, and to Meg may well have felt like stalking/hounding. If it's known after the initial inquiry that the subject does not do interviews, fucking drop it. The writer of the piece isn't entitled to an interview, nor is the audience.

If the piece had been something along the lines of, "Here's why Meg White is great, here's how influential and important she is," with a parenthetical "(Meg White doesn't do interviews)," that'd be fine. But three years of inquiries is something that can actually cause extreme stress to someone and weigh heavily on their mental and emotional health. Knowing what the writer does about Meg's stance on interviews and her anxiety, that much pestering is in fact fundamentally disrespectful.

xp Keep it to fashion, I say... don't retroactively refer to the 2000s rock scene that way.

I totally agree no one's entitled to an interview (and three years of persistence does sound like a lot), but I'm assuming the writer was never a jerk about it, as it doesn't sound like Meg was particularly aggrieved by the inquiries.

I agree with tarfumes

I don't think there's enough context to know whether this was actually bugging Meg White or not or if the mutual contact even relayed anything

three years asking for something after a no is 100% jerk behaviour and it's irrelevant if you asked nicely the 2nd-402nd times

One specific thing about the piece that bemused/annoyed me was the weirdly convoluted way Sympathy for the Record Industry was described. You can just say the name! (And they're still around, just.)

she wasn't asking her directly ffs

Didn't think Meg was being hounded for an interview. Doesn't sound like it caused Meg "extreme stress". Surely people around her would've cut the interviewer off at any sign of a thing like that.

I never have given a fuck about The White Stripes so it was an interesting enough read.

That's actually a factor for me, too – as a non-fan, my interest was held.

Before White Blood Cells, the band had been, for the most part, an underground secret.

is this really accurate?

I'd say yeah, in the sense that they were still playing small clubs in 2000 and along the lines of the Dirtbombs in popularity (or below, maybe).

i thought it was an interesting article. Meg White, like Darcy from Pumpkins before her, is someone who had an awful lot of fans who wondered what the hell happened to them... it's kind of amazing to think people can actually disappear in this day and age (Darcy I understand got into drugs, then started to pop up again here and there, sometimes in disturbing ways).

with Meg, you wonder...does she still shop for groceries? do lots of people in her community know her and keep her privacy intact? Or is she well off enough that she has everything delivered to whatever house she is sequestered in?

Bobbie Gentry is another vanished person, though I understand she is/was very well off. There was a picture of her from sometime in the past 10-15 years that showed up a while ago.

Meg White Flight

I saw a recent photo of her, i think just in my insta feed bc i follow other indie-ish content. She is likely only “hiding” from journalists.

I saw a recent photo of her, i think just in my insta feed bc i follow other indie-ish content. She is likely only “hiding” from journalists.

She is not a recluse. I used to see her bumming around.

It’s a very 2023 idea to describe anyone who isn’t constantly clamoring for attention a recluse.

I say this as someone who constantly clamors for attention.

Bobbie Gentry is another vanished person, though I understand she is/was very well off.

Case in point: this article, which (IMO) is significantly less interesting than the Meg White one, and doesn’t function as much of an appreciation or meditation on Gentry’s artistry or influence, but is literally pretty much just “let me see if I can track her down…”.

(Spoiler alert, if you’re not able to get past the paywall:)

After a few rings, a pleasant woman’s voice said: “Hello.”

I introduced myself and my newspaper. I said I was looking for the person whose name appears on the property owner’s record.

There was a dead pause of several seconds. My fingers clenched open and closed.

“There’s no one here by that name,” she said, finally.

I apologized and started to read back the number, to make sure I had dialed it correctly, and she hung up.

What a dick

This is just like this Sundays thing from a few years ago, right down to the title

https://longreads.com/2019/07/30/searching-for-the-sundays/

I just remembered my friend’s ex who was an ok guy but was super-pissed about his exit from Detroit and being in bands there. Apparently his bandmate spent all their money, or so he said, and he ended up selling all his production gear to other Detroit musicians. I guess some of the stuff he sold to Brendan Benson was in the background pictures in a Raconteurs album sleeve

Any attention or fame is one of those things where it can tip either way

Oh god that longreads piece is so frickin cringe.

Hey dood the people you want to interview have made it crystal clear that they do not wish to be interviewed by the likes of you; you could just let it go instead of publishing 750 words about not getting the interview you wanted.

Also fuck off.

I assumed that Brindley and the other members would be intrigued by my questions, which I saw as refreshingly personal. I figured they would be glad to discuss the members’ experiences both inside and outside the band

Wow, you actually think that your list of questions will change the dynamic? Like, people who have been intentionally quiet for 25 years will magically open up because of your refreshing questions?

I have been a professional journalist myself, and even at my most arrogant I would never have ascribed this kind of power to my reportorial approach.

The Sundays are not stupid. If they wanted to be interviewed they would be interviewed. They're not sitting at home waiting for a certain someone to ask them the right questions. They either want to talk, or they don't. Mostly, they don't. They know what they are doing.

Uh, wrong thread I guess

i think it's pretty cool, in 2023, to talk about meg white and what she accomplished and the shit she endured and how much she meant to people (including the author?)

centering it around how 'wow she won't talk to me' is absurd tho. and god bless meg for *not* talking to someone who would frame it that way

Xpost no not at all, I was reminded of The Sundays' thing too.

I hate the strawman mystery of these pieces - just because you don't know what someone's thought process is doesn't automatically make it a mystery. Also, your lifestory in investigating this purported mystery rarely justifies the word count.

Leave Meg alone. I remember that when Pink Floyd started touring again in the 80s, Syd Barrett would get a new set of fanzine writers and/or stalkers trying to sneak a photograph (or worse, just knock on his front door)

https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2017/12/macca-farleyv2.jpg

Remember when you were in the Beatles? That was cool.

Fucking love Meg White’s drumming. Don’t give a shit about any other aspect of her life that she’s not interested in discussing. First half of this thread is puerile and repulsive.

I was reminded of Richard Simmons.

This isn't even the worst Meg thread from early ilx.

Jack White’s entire career separate from Meg is the best argument for her value as a drummer.

^^^^^^^^^^

OTM, that's also my go-to argument. How many Raconteurs songs do you know?

"Steady as she goes", that's it.

And, as for the the Dead Weather, um...

i'd thought about posting that elle article earlier but ended up not doing so after looking at all the meg white threads on ILX. The general White Stripes threads honestly weren't much better, where meg was concerned. just seeing it all at once made me so sad, just how much fucking shit she faced while the band was active.

personally, I actually really liked the article as a recognition of Meg and all the crap she went through, though I agree that the framing of it as the hunt for an interview is lame. It would have worked just fine as a long appreciation piece. 

Roz, exact same!! I recently looked up MW here and saw how bad it was and like 1000 posts about her body and couldn’t bring myself to revive until this article and I still didn’t post it bc I didn’t want to see the grossness all over again.

Completely agree that you don’t need to find her and force her to talk to write an appreciation piece which I also agree is long overdue.

In addition to the young women she inspired I wonder what the collateral damage of the misogyny was — we’ll never know because you can’t count discouraged people but I’m sure (from my own experience) that there are a.non-zero number of women who actually chose not to pursue drumming bc of the way they saw her being treated. Who would sign up for that but the most courageous who probably would have started playing without the inspiration of MW??

Even when I finally decided to start playing and learning there were always chucklebutts who would say discouraging things like “well good luck, there’s hardly a shortage of awesome drummers in (city where I live)” Fortunately they did not deter me but obviously I still think about it from time to time.

Basically everyone but obsessive Jack White weirdos totally agrees and acknowledges that the White Stripes is BY FAR the best work he's ever done and yet there's still some question about how important the other person in the band was? It's kind of like debating why Mick Jagger solo albums aren't as good as Stones albums, gee I wonder.

If I had worn the outfit that Meg wore on the cover of Icky Thump, I would totally have gone into hiding as well.

disappointed you're not open-minded enough to embrace the Pearly way, scott

fame isn't really worth it if you have to wear that hat.

Yesterday's Meg White shitposters are Today's Horny Dad posters.

I can't remember the last time I listened to a Jack White solo album, but the Stripes come up regularly in my rotation.

And what is not to like about these outfits?

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1K+jbj+1bL._AC_SX425_.jpg

Even when I finally decided to start playing and learning there were always chucklebutts who would say discouraging things like “well good luck, there’s hardly a shortage of awesome drummers in (city where I live)” Fortunately they did not deter me but obviously I still think about it from time to time.

― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Wednesday, June 7, 2023 9:20 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Because I know your goal in starting drums was to get that Top Gig with the Headline Band

In any USian city there are WAY more superfluous guitar players than there are drummers.

(This is partly why I mainly play mandola and bodhran. Less competition.)

(and also if I had the ability to hire La Lechera I would do so in a heartbeat)

well thanks for the vote of confidence! i appreciate that
i think you're right about guitar players also

My kid was smart to pick the bass.

^indeed

A guy who works in the music industry recently told me that if I wanted to be a full-time musician I should learn pedal steel, that there's always work for pedal steel players. I'm kind of tempted to go for it.

I’m hoping to be go-to gong gal in my perfect world.

someone who has their own gong and can dependably show up? a rarity in these days

It me: Mature reliable gong-enabled 😎

Even with messing with a lap steel, it is definitely a different kind of beast than a guitar.

I’d love to get a chance to fart around with a pedal steel or b bender guitar, just to try them out but don’t know anyone that plays one and they are really expensive.

I've bought my wife a couple of gongs over the years. She is not into droning out on them - just enjoys a well-placed strike to re-center herself. One was a 10" wind gong that has gone slightly out of tune due to parades of kids just walking up and smashing it. A year or two ago I bought her an 18" chau gong. It is much more sturdy and sonorous and she has placed it out of the way of young ne'er-do-wells. But yesterday morning, before anyone was awake, one of our cats discovered it and decided that she enjoyed brushing up against it and giving it headbutts.

going to need video of this gong head-butting cat asap

The best strategy is to follow the Nashville model, master one instrument but be at least competent at one or two others. I love stories like Buck Owens and Don Rich, where Rich started out on fiddle for several years before Owens learned he was not just a good guitarist but a great guitarist. Or Bill Berry in REM, who iirc surprised his bandmates (who probably already knew he could play guitar) that he was a piano player, too. The Beatles, of course, swapped instruments here and there as needed (though it helped that Paul was a legit prodigy on his primary instrument).

But yeah, the world is awash in good guitar players, but as the saying goes, a band is only as good as its drummer.

gong cat to (cat) thread

there were always chucklebutts who would say discouraging things like “well good luck, there’s hardly a shortage of awesome drummers in (city where I live)”

what fucking cities are these? IME drummers are absolutely the most in demand and hardest to find part of any group. every time I find someone who has availability and desire to play in my band I feel like I won the lottery

Last year I played a show where there were five bands. I was the drummer in three of them.

co-sign there is no city awash in drummers period nevermind awesome ones, boo to those chucklebutts and to every awful chucklebutt at the start of this thread, jack white has gone on record in "under great northern lights" that meg is absolutely integral, he plays with one of the best living drummers alive today and he cannot replicate what meg does at all

by which I mean daru jones is an incredible drummer that is living and alive, presently, but he is no meg white

Brighton has a fair few, just as well for our Alice's sake...

Yeah the number of bands I’ve seen that are better than their drummers beg to differ with the idea that there’s a glut of great drummers.

It was framed as an acknowledgement that there are a lot of excellent drummers in this particular city (it’s true, there are) and I shouldn’t bother trying bc I’d never measure up. Because I’m here specifically.

The idea that there is a drummer shortage doesn’t appear to be particularly true here.

Regardless of the on-the-ground reality in this city I can’t imagine anyone saying something that discouraging to anyone they cared about at all. Whether it’s widely true or not I mentioned it bc it reflects the attitudes of the people who gave Meg such a hard time — like their (baseless) criticism of her was normal/justified and wasn’t hurtful. It was not justified and it was hurtful.

yeah it's just assholish, it's not like wanting to be a musician is something that makes any kind of rational sense, you have the love for it, and no one knows how it will turn out. (i guess i feel like performing very niche music for an attentive crowd is success to me, the chances i've had to do it)

i mean hell the white stripes as long as we are on this thread, who would have bet money when they were new that they were going to be bigger than any of that era of garage rock bands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWrrx7uQfS0

^^Solid Smoke

(i guess i feel like performing very niche music for an attentive crowd is success to me, the chances i've had to do it)

ultimately what's better than this imo?

not much really

nothing imo, it is the greatest

i learned drums bc it was impossible to nail a drummer down for our band, they’re all in 3-5 bands already

That clip is fire

god yeah

also perfectly illustrates her importance, in the hands of a more conventional drummer that could have been a really corny blues workout, but it's just pummelling.

swingy / funky / in the pocket too. there's an effortlessness to it.

She's not being swingy or funky at all in that clip or ever

Those are rock solid eight notes w/ funky Jack on top. I mean she's still great, I just wanted to point that out

Basically playing 1/4 time spiritually if not officially, just a one-one-one-one heartbeat ploughing on into infinity. Ask most drummers to do that and they won't even understand the concept! I say this from bitter experience.

She's got good technique though, not locked up and playing from the elbow or anything, the stick's bouncing, nice big sound. Not saying this to be critical, just stuff I've worked on myself and I haven't seen footage of her playing in forever.

Plus, watching that clip, I think what is most striking is their combined energy. The whole was greater than the sum of its parts.

god jack white used to be so cool wtf

i like that jordan focused on meg's technique, not something i would've noticed a few years ago

i think the important thing is that the white stripes would've sucked majorly without her

Jack White peaked when he punched the Von Bondies guy.

Meg White is one of my heroes.And I am cool with an ethos that embraces Megness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-tOXU-qCd8

just came here to post that video, super enjoyed it. just don't read the comments, or the top of this thread, or ...

she turns 50 in december; something should be planned

Damn I didn't get her anything

Are the White Stripes the biggest festival reunion payday that hasn't gone for it? I imagine Coachella or Lollapalooza would roll up with a Brinks truck if they'd agree to play.

I think they're both doing fine, though. Jack has enough tiny hats.

XP Of the bands that feasibly could (i.e. no dead essential members), it's down to the Stripes and maybe like Dire Straits.

I wonder if she holds the distinction of the youngest drummer who has been able to retire.

Of the bands that feasibly could (i.e. no dead essential members), it's down to the Stripes and maybe like Dire Straits.

Spacemen 3, Sonic Youth, the Smiths (Andy Rourke not essential)

The Jam, though they mean nowt in America apart from a few Anglophiles.

Xp REM

Carrying over from the TayTay thread: OutKast

... although they actually did one of those at Coachella ten years ago.

Talking Heads have to be the biggest reunion holdouts.

(Andy Rourke not essential)

Rude!

Of the bands that feasibly could (i.e. no dead essential members), it's down to the Stripes and maybe like Dire Straits.

Spacemen 3, Sonic Youth, the Smiths (Andy Rourke not essential)

― Pierre Delecto

yeahhhh not sure the smiths would work

Decent chance the set ends with Johnny smashing his guitar over Morrissey's head so I'm on board with it.

The Coachella crowd vibing to "Sultans of Swing" would be amazing. "This was my grandpa's favorite song!"

OutKast did Coachella in 2014

^^I caught myself with that right after I posted them. Whenever I think OutKast reunion, I immediately flash on the Key & Peele sketch and forget that it actually happened.

The slogans Andre 3000 printed on his clothes during the OutKast reunion tour (he was at one point wearing literal price tags reading "SOLD OUT") make it unlikely there will ever be another.

I remember posting here myself one time about how Dire Straits were the biggest broken-up band that there was no demand for a reunion, but then I saw somewhere that Knopfler has been turning down stupid huge paydays from (European) promoters for years.

Interesting to think of which legacy act reunions would hold sway at a place like Coachella. The recent muted response to the Blur reunion makes me think a Kinks reunion might draw similar levels of apathy.

Oasis would get a good reception at a US festival.

Oasis would be victim to Gen X'er fans who are now too old to chase festivals. I think One Direction could still attract millennials with time and money to spend, though.

Dire straits reunion would be cool if they toured with some of the Tuareg/North African bands they influenced

Coachella’s owners have done an old people act festival on its own.
The timeframe for a legacy act being a headliner has, I think, shortened. The festival just isn’t as much of a draw for people above a certain ceiling, and with the audience being mostly people in their 20s wanting at most a revival of someone they loved in their teens or a childhood callback, I don’t know if Meg and the Stripes are it.

I feel like part of the late 90s/00s legacy acts being successful at the festival was the Pitchfork-esque cred of knowing an act that’s name-checked as having cred. And even that seems like a throwback to the earlier era. Maybe if something other than Seven Nation Army is a tiktok hit there could be enough pull

For a 22-year old the White Stripes were on the radio when they were a kid in the car with their parents, for a 30-year old "Icky Thump" was a middle-school jam

You could probably push back another ten years to the alt-rock heyday and capture an under-30 crowd (who have all been exposed to grunge via Youtube) but all those bands are either impossible to reunite (Soundgarden) or have carried on in zombie form (STP, Alice in Chains) anyway.

My kids know the Stripes catalogue like I knew the Beatles as a kid

it could work! Meg’s not coming back, though

I basically ILX me included is too cool to care but Jack White's popularity post White Stripes to a similar but somewhat different crowd is not to be underestimated

The Jam, though they mean nowt in America apart from a few Anglophiles.

I never got to see them; they came nowhere near the mountain west of the U.S. I'd welcome a reunion tour, although it's extremely unlikely they could match the energy that is apparent even in videos of their live performances back in the day.

(Andy Rourke not essential)

Rude!

And wrong! He was as important to their sound as Johnny.

Hell, I'd settle for a Style Council reunion.

The Jam won't happen ofc but Weller, Talbot, Dee and Steve played It's a Very Deep Sea at the end of the SC documentary