White Stripes - Icky Thump

I would like to be sexy dancing to this right now

<a href="http://www.filenanny.com/&quot; target="_blank"><img src="http://www.filenanny.com/files/44f7b9c9f14e0/20070523154309990001.gif&quot; alt="20070523154309990001.gif" /><br/>Free file hosting at filenanny.com!</a>

http://www.spinner.com/2007/05/24/video-premiere-icky-thump-by-white-stripes/

that should just be a link to the new video:

http://www.spinner.com/2007/05/24/video-premiere-icky-thump-by-white-stripes/

wow I really like this

Astonishingly good video

i don't get people who don't get this song

I don't either. Even completely sober, it just makes me want to fuck shit up. The modern day Stooges need to start taking notes.

It sounds like they're trying too hard. And as said above, it helps me remember why I hate Led Zeppelin (boring technical guitar shit, screechy vocals, too loooooong).

It never goes anywhere. Big thumping Sabbathy/Zep gallop for a little while, but then it's just more of the same for another 1:45.

I don't like the "Black Dog"-ish breakdown quite as much as the verse but I must admit I've come to very much appreciate Jack White freaking the fuck out w/his guitar

It felt meh when I first heard it but now seems awesome with the video. Also, usually I still get the creepy brother-sister vibe from them but in that video: Meg + Jack = hottest non-couple couple ever?

That is a great record.

I think I might have to go to crappy old Hyde Park, but I don't want to pay 40 quid.

It sounds like they're trying too hard. And as said above, it helps me remember why I hate Led Zeppelin (boring technical guitar shit, screechy vocals, too loooooong).

-- Tape Store, Friday, 25 May 2007 05:14 (Yesterday) Link

I love the screechy vocals, and most Zep (after III anyway) isn't even boring technical guitar shit, it's funk beats with mysterious hellhound vocals on top.

I like how awkward this song is, and I really hope it gets as much airtime as stuff from Elephant did, so all the frat guys who list "white stripes" on their myspace music section can hear the last verse.

"Black Dog" is a song of boring technical guitar riffs parading as important and fierce.

"When the Levee Breaks" = meandering, dull guitar playing TRYING to be serious and important.

And don't call LZ the blues; that would mean they had soul.

BTW, I could talk about other post-III songs. Those were just the first to pop in my head.

"When the Levee Breaks" = meandering, dull guitar playing TRYING to be serious and important.

And don't call LZ the blues; that would mean they had soul.

WHAT!?!? Nothing about that song is meandering!!! Probably the heaviest, most immediate, earth shattering thing they ever recorded.

And don't call LZ the blues; that would mean they had soul.

I didn't, and I don't care. Should I always judge bands by how much "soul" they have, or in the context of some old genre? Why can't I just like them?

Listen to Fool in the Rain, or pretty much anything off Houses of the Holy and if you don't like that, then you're incurable. Although I'm sure the major problem is that you're in high school and use music more as a source of personal identification than for actual enjoyment, and are trying to distance yourself from the assholes at lunch who were Led Zepplin shirts.

And don't call LZ the blues; that would mean they had soul.

You haven't heard their song "Since I've Been Loving You" have you? I invite you to listen to that and then come back and tell me that is not the blues, and that it's not soulful. You'd be right to say most of their stuff isn't like that, but let's not say they weren't capable of it.

Although I'm sure the major problem is that you're in high school and use music more as a source of personal identification than for actual enjoyment, and are trying to distance yourself from the assholes at lunch who were Led Zepplin shirts.

Hahahahah! This wouldn't be so funny if I didn't remember feeling exactly the same way about those assholes (and LZ) in high school.

I didn't, and I don't care. Should I always judge bands by how much "soul" they have, or in the context of some old genre? Why can't I just like them?

First off, I'm sorry for assuming that you'd reply with that argument. Everybody else seems to use it ("Awwww, man. You don't like Zep?! You must not like the blues."). I'm not saying you can't like LZ. I'm not opposed to people liking bad music (I guess i should say 'music that I deem bad'), just as long as they don't a) bombard me with it or b) praise it.

the major problem is that you're in high school and use music more as a source of personal identification than for actual enjoyment, and are trying to distance yourself from the assholes at lunch who were Led Zepplin shirts.

Uhhhh BULLSHIT. That's the exact reason I hate Zeppelin. If I listened to music for 'personal identification,' I'd totally love them. Almost everyone I admire, almost everyone I love--they all adore LZ. I generally judge music by the emotion it evokes. For most pop music, it's glee. For a lot of other stuff, it's gloom. And for the very best music, it's displacement. Led Zeppelin brings little emotion. It does transport me to another place, but I never want to go there (if you're interested, it's a warehouse where I used to practice with my old, old band...there were many long solos, some pot and a lot douchebaggery involved).

You haven't heard their song "Since I've Been Loving You" have you? I invite you to listen to that and then come back and tell me that is not the blues, and that it's not soulful. You'd be right to say most of their stuff isn't like that, but let's not say they weren't capable of it.

I'm not sure. I'm looking it up now.

Hey I'm not a Zep fan either but the guitar work Zep do isn't technical wankery, it's just rock dood.

I mean once I got my driver's license and stopped hearing classic rock radio 99% of the time when I was in a car I realized Zep don't sound pretentious* like, at all, they're just some dudes jammin' and doing a better job of it than, say, Cream.

*except "Stairway to Heaven"

Can somebody post an mp3 link to the song "Conquest" ?

I know theres a radio rip (french) of it floating around, but all the links I've found are dead.

Also, lets all cross our fingers for the day (probably next week or the week after) this leaks.

But in the meantime, the new Queens LP has leaked, and its fucking awesome.

Got it. And now I share it with you, fellow ILXers. Enjoy, it's a pretty sweet Patti Page cover. Way better than that Bacharach cover was.

-

http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/8/12/164816/TheWhiteStripes_Conquest.mp3

It does transport me to another place, but I never want to go there (if you're interested, it's a warehouse where I used to practice with my old, old band...there were many long solos, some pot and a lot douchebaggery involved).

So actually, filthy dylan was correct: you associate it with people you don't (didn't) like.

The Conquest track is great, btw, thanks Erock! Something kinda sexy about it, I dig. Just leave it to them to add those horns in the middle. That's why I love them.

Christ, I hope they release this new album on vinyl since they fucked that one up so badly last time.

So actually, filthy dylan was correct: you associate it with people you don't (didn't) like.

Yeah, but that's not the reason I don't like them.

Hey I'm not a Zep fan either but the guitar work Zep do isn't technical wankery, it's just rock dood.

If I knew more about guitar playing, perhaps I would agree.

I like this, and I don't like Led Zep at all.

"When the Levee Breaks" = meandering, dull guitar playing TRYING to be serious and important.

You're an idiot.

Yeah, but that's not the reason I don't like them.

Well this is where I just gave up arguing with you, with all due respect, I was gonna say I give up, earlier tonight.

Because the last post you had on this board had a paragraph where you attempted to describe WHY you hated Led Zeppelin and that's how we got here.

hahahaha Conquest is INSANE!!

Alex I'm glad you're back, we need your draconian hand in these hard times

alex in nyc otm

You're an idiot.

-- Alex in NYC, Sunday, 27 May 2007 12:24 (3 hours ago) Link

OHHHHHHHHHHHH. Doesn't that guitar work from ~2:10-3:00 really make you feel the pain?!?!?! With each successive note, swinging back and forth, PURE PAIN.

And that SAD, SAD HARMONICA, Wailing throughout!!!!!! its pain echoing the cries of the young! And Plant's palpable pain...having seen all that ravaging death...piercing your ears...hurting your heart...

OH, IT MAKES ME WONDER.

PAIN PAIN PAAAAAAIN.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/tapestore/ahaha.jpg

people still hate on led zeppelin in 2007?

I'm not out to convert you, Tape Store, but I want to say that I don't think of "Black Dog" as trying to be "important and fierce" at all. At least that's not what I like about it. The guitar riff makes me think of a festive horn line by itself. But with the way it interacts with the drums, it's like, I dunno, it's playing hide-and-seek and finally getting caught at the end. I think that what's going on is both a lot more fun and less self-serious and also a lot more interesting than what you suggest.

I don't think of WTLB as an intense evocation of pain either and never have (although I don't love it like some people do). (Although at least in this case, your interpretation makes some kind of sense given the lyrics.) I've been listening to it for more than 15 years and don't even know what guitar work you're referring to when you say it's trying to make me feel the pain. More just like a heavy groove with layered sounds. The mood is dark, brightening during the bridges, but I don't think of it as trying to be a soulful blues performance.

sundar otm

Sundar, I appreciate your response, and as much as I hate to say this, I think it boils down to 'different folks, etc.' I just listened to "Black Dog" again, and I totally understand where you're coming from (OK, not so sure about the festive horn line part, but still)...It just really doesn't sound that way to me. I call "Levee" fake soul because the original was a blues track, and Plant's vocals really sound like he's TRYING to bring that spirit. And when it comes to the harmonica and guitar, I obviously agree--it doesn't sound like pain. But Page wasn't stupid--why would he match 'heavy groove' with an "intense" blues song about floods, death, etc.

No doubt, their image totally plays a role in my line of thinking. But, uh, my ears and brain do, too.

I know the original Kansas Joe/Memphis Minnie version quite well and I like it. I really don't think that Plant's vocals sound like he's trying to evoke the very straightforward and undramatic spirit of KJ's delivery. (That's not a criticism of the original BTW. I think that's a big part of why it works.) I do think he's going for something that's dramatic in its own way but I don't think it's got much to do with the type of soulful expressiveness in any sort of blues singing. The point, in any case, is that the appeal of the song for me has little to do with whether it evokes pain or whether it's got true blues soul. (It would fail on both counts.) I just think the groove moves well and the layered track is rich and beautiful, with Plant's precious voice offering a break from the bottom-heavy music. It doesn't bother me if it's not to your taste. I just wanted to respond to how you characterized the affect of the song and how people respond to it. I'm a little intrigued by the amount of effort and detail you're putting into disliking a band though. I'm not saying this is necessarily the case with you but it reminds me of how I used to elaborate my hatred for Pink Floyd or the Rolling Stones or U2 on here before I realized that I actually love them.

I think they're very good at placing things sonically, which is a skill the White Stripes also have.

I love the sounds of his thin voice sort of hovering above the super low drum rattle and a feedbacky guitar.

I just watched the film Coffee & Cigarettes today with Jack & Meg in it doing a skit about a Tesla Coil. It was cool.

i really want to see that movie... the screened the bill murray/wu tang encounter at a bill murray festival at the NFT here, that's all i've seen...

Yeah, the Iggy Pop/Tom Waits skit was pretty good, too. I've always thought Tom Waits was a great actor. But the best one was I think Steve Coogan with whoever he was with. That was the one that really made you think out of all of 'em.

Really? I couldn't bear it, and I LOVE Jarmusch ("Mystery Train" and "Dead Man" are both all-time faves. I found "Coffee & Cigarettes" to be somewhat excruciatingly dull and pretentious.

Some of it is like that, but the wu tang and white stripes ones are great.

I think Steve Coogan's was with Roberto Benini (sic) but I'm not sure if that's right.

Wasn't Coogan's bit with Alfred Molina. Again, I could be wrong as well,

generally judge music by the emotion it evokes. For most pop music, it's glee. For a lot of other stuff, it's gloom. And for the very best music, it's displacement. Led Zeppelin brings little emotion.

I'm not sure what this means. You listen to gloomy music? Pop music = "glee"?

Still, I'm sympathetic to your position. I like lots of Zep without loving it (bought most of the albums in grad school almost 10 years ago, have rarely played them since).

I hated Coffee and Cigarettes as much as anything I've seen in a theater (and yet went back in for another dose with Broken Flowers, ugh).

so all the frat guys who list "white stripes" on their myspace music section can hear the last verse.

?

Left alone
I hit myself with a stone
Went home and learned how
To clean up after myself.

For instance, right now I'm in a good mood. I'm listening to Lil Mama's "Lip Gloss." Why? It's catchy, and it makes me very happy. Those two things are fundamentally related.

A few days ago, I was feeling quite depressed (no need to go into the shitty circumstances). Lots of other people probably would play happy music in this case, but when I'm depressed, I find pop music futile...It doesn't change anything at all, so I play depressing music, like "Mad World" or "Love Will Tear Us Apart."

When it comes to emotions, Led Zeppelin doesn't really do anything for me. I find the music boring/soulless and as I've said 10391049+ times on this thread, it just seems to be trying too hard.

Just shut up, please.

THEN STOP ASKING ME QUESTIONS.

I had no idea people put on certain records to reflect a "mood."

You learn something new every day?

I've always assumed I played a, say, Meat Beat Manifesto album because I wanted to hear that MBM album then and there.

No one ever wants to hear a Meat Beat Manifesto album then or there or anywhere.

I mean, if you found out that your friend just died, don't you think that your mood would dictate the music you played? (obv. you're not going to run straight to the record player, but a week after finding out, wouldn't music be influenced by mood?)

Then again, music's different for different people.

No one ever wants to hear a Meat Beat Manifesto album then or there or anywhere.

You do when a friend dies.

I found "Coffee & Cigarettes" to be somewhat excruciatingly dull and pretentious.

Oh I think that's a valid criticism, actually. I was just commenting on what I felt were the few good highlights. Overall it wasn't that great. My main complaint with the film was it seemed like there were too many moments of long, awkward silence.

Coogan's bit was with Molina, btw. Benigni was paired up with Steven Wright.

I'm a little intrigued by the amount of effort and detail you're putting into disliking a band though.

this bears repeating

For the past five years of my life, I've been surrounded by friends who thought this, and consequentially, I'm often stuck listening to them whenever I go to their houses, cars, etc. They couldn't care less about my opinion, so I revel in other arenas.

good job, keep it up

Left alone
I hit myself with a stone
Went home and learned how
To clean up after myself.

-- milo z, Monday, 28 May 2007 20:11 (3 hours ago) Link

Yeah. That's part of it I mean, the last line. Which refers to previous verses about immigration.

Oh and I hope Tape Store wasn't talking about that god awful cover of Mad World from the Donnie Darko soundtrack.

Hahahaha! You got that right bro! AWFUL MOVIE AWFUL COVER BANISH IT TO HELL thanks.

Well, I was referring to the TFF version, but Bimble, you are sooooooo wrong. ESPECIALLY about the movie, which is brilliant (the original...I never plan on watching the director's cut (more science fiction-y aspects?!?! that's the only bad part of the first cut!)).

and thanks, Curtis.

Oh wait, this is an "Icky Thump" thread.

So Tape Store, do you like the White Stripes?

"...seems to be trying too hard."

maybe it's just stylized in a way that you do not find appealing?

I like Donnie Darko ;_;

I wasn't a fan of Elephant, but "Fell In Love With a Girl" is one of my favorite singles of this decade. Some of the stuff off the latest album is pretty good (e.g. "My Doorbell," kinda "The Nurse").

maybe it's just stylized in a way that you do not find appealing?

I'm going to throw a twist in here: I like "Sweet Child 'O Mine."

Oh dear.

And no, this doesn't validate filthy dylan's theory (fyi, all those Zeppelin kids wear GNR shirts, too).

I like how the real hook-y guitar doesn't come in until after the first verse (and then again after the second, etc..) and we get that sludgy organ eeriness right off the bat, while that guitar riff should very well be the first thing one hears in a White Stripes single. It's kind of convoluted...and then the not-subtle political message right up against a few cryptic verses about a Mexican woman with a bum eye (?) The songwriting has come a long way since "I'm Finding it Harder to be Gentleman."

And no, this doesn't validate filthy dylan's theory (fyi, all those Zeppelin kids wear GNR shirts, too).

-- Tape Store, Tuesday, May 29, 2007 4:41 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

Fair enough, you just have shitty taste.

roffles

Well that wasn't worth reading.

Though maybe there was good stuff in the 81 messages that got skipped.

Since I feel guilty, here are all "Icky Thump" related posts within the LZ talk:

Got it. And now I share it with you, fellow ILXers. Enjoy, it's a pretty sweet Patti Page cover. Way better than that Bacharach cover was.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/8/12/164816/TheWhiteStripes_Conquest.mp3

-- Erock Zombie, Sunday, May 27, 2007 3:18 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

The Conquest track is great, btw, thanks Erock! Something kinda sexy about it, I dig. Just leave it to them to add those horns in the middle. That's why I love them.

Christ, I hope they release this new album on vinyl since they fucked that one up so badly last time.

-- Bimble, Sunday, May 27, 2007 5:40 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

I like how the real hook-y guitar doesn't come in until after the first verse (and then again after the second, etc..) and we get that sludgy organ eeriness right off the bat, while that guitar riff should very well be the first thing one hears in a White Stripes single. It's kind of convoluted...and then the not-subtle political message right up against a few cryptic verses about a Mexican woman with a bum eye (?) The songwriting has come a long way since "I'm Finding it Harder to be Gentleman."

-- Preview of the Matrix 12, Tuesday, May 29, 2007 6:06 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

Actually, those first two aren't even "Icky Thump" related, and if you skipped ~81 posts, then WTF are you complaining about?

p.s. Mods, feel free to split thread in two, one part being called "White Stripes - Icky Thump" and the other "Tape Store vs. the World"

The songwriting has come a long way since "I'm Finding it Harder to be Gentleman."

i love icky thump, but i still think that's one of jack's best songs.

it's my favorite WS song.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/wpzdcx radio rip of album

oh my god, it's completely terrible and shitty.
some of it sounds like wolfmother, the rest sounds like kula shaker.
i hate it.

I listened to some on my way home, thought Rags and Bones was really fun, Conquest(?) a bit over the top. KS indeed ahahaha!

i dont think i like them as much as i used to... not by a long shot. the satan album was very uneven but this album sounds like its going to be even more so.

leaked

it's ok i think.not more,not less.sounds more like "white blood cells", but less good compared to that record.
need more spins, though i'm not sure i have the patience for them anymore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri8R9sEsRVU

Icky Thump (Jools Holland)

The album has leaked proper now (retail, 320 bit).

I can't believe some of the responses I'm reading about the album, it's easily their most ambitious, and, though I know it needs the test of time (and isn't even officially out yet) I think it may be my favourite album of theirs.

There are at least 3 or 4 "holy shit" moments, and he actually solos several times on the album. The White Stripes are (to me) the most exciting "rock" band on the planet right now.

Sidenote - "Little Cream Soda" and "Bone Broke" are so fucking good

>>3 or 4 "holy shit" moments<<

Besides ICKY Thump (1)

Catch hell blues (2)
rag & bone (3)
little cream soda (4)

yes, yes indeed.

I'd throw in "Conquest", "St Andrew" (a john lennon style audio mashup ?!) and possibly the latter half of "I'm Slowly Turning Into you" as well, but yeah, those 4 that you mentioned are mindblowing.

cream soda and catch hell are huge highlights for me

There are at least 3 or 4 "holy shit" moments

otm. i think side one may be stronger than side two, but that also may be because i keep skipping back to hear the track that just finished, and so it takes me ages to get to the later songs

Icky Hump would have been a better title.

คู่พี่น้องร้องเพลงกลับมาแล้วครับ พร้อมซิงเกิ้ลใหม่ที่มีชื่อน่าสนใจว่า Icky Hump จะมันส์แค่ไหนไปฟังกันเลย

I really liked some of it so far but all I have is that stoopid radio rip which frankly does destroy the fun for me.

Good except for the retarded political duh moment in the middle.

The White Stripes - Black Math (Rock am Ring 2007)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuLmasUVlT8

only heard once so far but i wish he would stop recycling the same melody lines over and over or using the same (slightly leaden) kind of chord progressions album after album. i like the tracks with the spanish guitar and the one with the horns and bagpipes - theyre all great, but some of this just seems slapdash and not quite succesful in its 'experimentation'. doesnt help that megs style of drumming isnt always suited to stuff outside of their usual style either (not everything needs BOOM BOOM CRASH rhythms). i know WS fans might reject this cos it was their most succesful but elephant is still their most complete, well rounded album IMO. there, when they moved out of their usual zone, they didnt seem so out of their league. or jarred less at least.

You're just drunk

I played that Black Math video and it was great, but it made me realize that he stole the riff from The Replacements' "Takin' A Ride". What do you say folks? Am I right to say that?

I mean are there other songs to use that riff? If so, name them please, ILXors.

This album kinda reminds me of Spoon's Gimme Fiction. In that it's very good and there's lots of new things going on, but at the same time also feels like a Greatest Hits album. In a good way. It also returns to the formula of their previous albums, abandoning the awkward formula of Elephant.

elephant was their most cohesive/complete album IMO. this reminds me of the last one in that its similarly so totally all over the shop.

i just think it's lame.

i like "you don't know what love is" a lot.
it's basically if "icky thump" (the song) was good.
havent heard the album yet, but i have to imagine the rest of the songs are either "icky thump" if it was better/worse.

Is there another rock band that is so heavy and yet so light on their feet?
They're like children literally playing with lightning and thunder.

terrible title
-- Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, April 26, 2007 7:14 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What's it from?
-- Stormy Davis, Thursday, April 26, 2007 7:16 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

http://www.dvd.net.au/movies/t/08232-2.jpg

"Is there another rock band that is so heavy and yet so light on their feet?"

i see them as kinda like two clunky people with great ten ton weights tied to their feet but somehow defying the weights and trying to do the ballet (but not quite succeeding).

i like that, when jack does a genre, it sounds like the genre, and like jack, but not jack attempting a genre; ie 'you don't know what love is' goes for a southern country-rock feel, and totally nails it.

Yeah, what he can do with the most hackneyed sounds...I'm amazed his jive talking. Imagine George Thorogood doing "Rag & Bone"- sound-wise, it's a match. But the GT version would be lame, bordering on offensive.

i love the heavier moments on this - rag and bone, the track with the weird sound collaging, and the harder grinding moments of the spanish sounding one.

the songs sound pretty ramshackle here though. like hes not really made as much effort in really shaping them.

i really like the record. but i think 'get behind me satan' was their best yet, and don't really get all the 'return to form' speak surrounding this one.

i see them as kinda like two clunky people with great ten ton weights tied to their feet but somehow defying the weights and trying to do the ballet (but not quite succeeding).

I see this as a horrible stab at a simile by someone who should shove himself away from the keyboard the next time the urge to contribute arrives.

Is there another rock band that is so heavy and yet so light on their feet?

Yes Mr. Cheerleader. But it would take awhile to list them all. C'mon over and visit Rolling Metal.

Jack White's guitar tone:

http://steaks.allenbrothers.com/images/catalog/2006/fall/13/D/2/steaks.jpg

Most modern metal guitar tone:

http://fugato.net/wp-content/oatmeal-porridge.jpg

"I see this as a horrible stab at a simile by someone who should shove himself away from the keyboard the next time the urge to contribute arrives."

i see someone who doesnt take criticism of their fave bands very well.

Love that Ecky Thump sketch!

I'm sorry, but I really don't see how someone could think "Satan" was there best record. Not to sound like a jerk, but I personally think that may be their worst.

I mean, I like alot of songs from it (Red Rain, My Doorbell, Denial Twist) but there are some truly boring moments too (White Moon, The Nurse, Passive Manipulation, As Ugly as I Seem, etc.)

Personally, my 3 favourite Stripes albums would probably be -

De Stijl
Icky Thump
Elephant

I find the first record to not really have enough substance, White Blood Cells is way too bloated and, as I said, I just felt Satan was too uneven.

But anyway, that's just my opinion, obviously.

There really is something extraordinary about Conquest that I find it difficult to put into words.

Though "Little Cream Soda" is the kicker, I think. Please, if you're in a band today, take notes.

Rag & Bone is not exactly bad either.

satan is easily their worst record. its bizarre anyone could rate that so highly. esp when you have elephant and de stijl before it. *scratches head*

i love the nurse and ugly as i seem, tho. that probably why.

yeah but what about everything else around it on the album? lol. this album has its amazing moments, like the last one, but it just seems unfocused as a whole. the songcraft doesnt seem as thorough on the earlier albums. not sure what happened to JW after elephant. its like hes not making as much effort anymore.

OK, this is something I haven't heard of before. From www.clickmusic.com:

"White Stripes Release Album Memory Stick
The White Stripes will be releasing their new album 'Icky Thump' on a USB Flash Drive in America only.
The memory sticks come as each of the pair in their pearly king and queen outfits, meaning fans will choose between Meg and Jack. The sticks are limited to 3,333 of each band member, with sales restricted to two per customer. The sticks will not be available outside the US.
Sales are restricted to two per person, and are currently not available out side the US."

DO WANT

"OK, this is something I haven't heard of before"

http://hifiblog.com/past/2005/11/19/barenaked-ladies-release-album-on-usb-stick/
http://news.soft32.com/keane-release-single-on-usb-memory-stick_2562.html
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/05/15/bob-marley-usb-album-release-to-save-music-industrykill-the-cd/
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/43415-mia-namez-release-date-for-boyz-singleusb-stick

"OK, this is something I haven't heard of before"

http://hifiblog.com/past/2005/11/19/barenaked-ladies-release-album-on-usb-stick/
http://news.soft32.com/keane-release-single-on-usb-memory-stick_2562.html
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/05/15/bob-marley-usb-album-release-to-save-music-industrykill-the-cd/
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/43415-mia-namez-release-date-for-boyz-singleusb-stick
Well, pardon me if I'm not in a basement surfing for White Stripes news all day. It hadn't yet been mentioned in this thread is all ...

"You know what's hot? Barenaked Ladies. Whatever they're doing, we should start doing it."

Oops, now I gotcha ...

Those are other acts releasing stuff on USB sticks and I was just pointing out that it's not that new an idea anymore but sorry anyway. (xxpost)

DO WANT

have you checked the price?

http://whitestripes.kungfunation.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2

I couldn't give a rat's ass if someone else (esp. the likes of Barenaked Ladies!) had done this before, I sure as hell never heard of the concept either. I think it's kindof cute, really. But I wouldn't pay that much for it.

Anyway, I find I'm feeling disappointment with this album overall. Like many have said upthread, there are high points, but it seems like treading water a lot of the time, too. Just doesn't hold my interest like it should, and I love the last two albums.

Also, they sold out two nights here in less than 24 hours. Why don't they just start playing stadiums already?

had an old-fashioned get-together in a friend's back yard with a boom box and my five white stripes compact discs. my friends love me, or they don't give a fuck.

as of right the drunken now:

1. s/t (1999)
2. white blood cells (2001)
3. De Stijl (2000)
3. get behind me satan (2005)
4. elephant (2003)

WTF

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/entertainment_enl_1181721987/img/1.jpg

After first listen to the full record, this is really good stuff. Love 4-5 songs already, a good sign

Still lose interest in their "soft" songs as quickly as ever though.

Yeah, they played for the Chelsea Pensioners last week to see how many would survive. Isn't it great? (xxpost)

"Still lose interest in their "soft" songs as quickly as ever though"

same here
theyre very dull, generally speaking
theyre still best when they sound like theyre beating the shit out of their instruments

Well, "Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn" is just magic, worthy of Led Zep's III maybe.

I'm with Onimo, what IS that all about?

those pooor OAPs. they must have not known what they were in for.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/article-23400385-details/White+Stripes+win+over+the+Chelsea+pensioners/article.do

This just makes me love them more.

"Fantastic! Normally we only get the odd carol service in here," said pensioner Paddy Fox.

Hero.

They did TWO songs on Conan last night - it's been awhile since I've watched but is this standard practice on his show these days? - anyway they did a rowdy one with these weird sort of disjointed chunks which you could almost call prog, then they did one of the mellow/country-ish ones out in the audience. Loved it.

After the first 3 listens of the album today, and I think it's great.

sounds ok. but not thrilling. the white stripes have always been the kind of band i like in theory but find extremely unoriginal. this is just glam rock meets hardrock meets blues meets irish folk music. too much, really.

Am I the only person that sees their primary influence as Wire? (Less musically, more conceptually.)

interesting idea Ned - I totally see it but can't say it had occurred to me before.

that first song on Conan last night -- I'm thinking it was probably "Icky Thump" seeing as it matches the descriptions at the top of this thread -- was 100% Sabbath. It was good 'n' all but I was hoping for a new direction. All in all, WS bore the shit out of me.

please explain the Wire thing
ok both are minimalistic.and?

(did lots of people fantasized about Wire drummer as well?)

i don't understand that comparison. could you elaborate, ned? musically they have hardly anything in common. wire was a band at the frontier to modernity. the white stripes are a band at the frontier to the past. they are not opeining any new paths. they are just cruising on itineraries which have been travelled many times before.

"just glam rock meets hardrock meets blues meets irish folk music"

Yeah, I'm sick of all those albums that are "just" those genres, so unoriginal.

as fas Wire goes - its the minimalism, the two bands share an aesthetic goal of stripping down rock n roll to its bare essential components and then toying with various ways of rearranging them.

My feeling re: Wire is more an impression than anything else, and yes there's the whole minimalism ethos. But there's something about them that when I started thinking of them as a self-conscious art statement in general rather than 'just' a band, then all of a sudden they became about ten thousand times more interesting to me (and that feeling has remained to this day -- I find them incredibly easy to admire as a result). Similarly I was and still am mostly bored with all the roots/revival/redux talk, whereas seeing them as an incredibly modern/in the moment act that happens to use older elements as ingredients in a collage makes a lot more sense to me. In both cases, Wire feels like a logical reference point in trying to encapsulate these particular impressions. (That Jack and Meg may completely disagree with these impressions is all right to me -- this is the framework through which I enjoy the band more than anything else, and it doesn't have to be anyone else's.)

there are much more acts than only Wirh and WS doing the minimal thing you know

Actually Ned I remember some interview where Jack sounded weary of the White Stripes, exact words: "it's such an art project."

Ned OTM its a total art project with a deliberately contrived (and restricting) aesthetic

but then y'know interesting things happen when artists make up rules for themselves.

x-x-post -- Hahah, really -- if you could dig that up as a link or whatever I'd be intrigued.

Good points, Ned. White Stripes certainly follow the art-school aesthetic more successfully than, say, Fischerspooner.

Also, it's not like they've *hidden* their obvious knowledge of modern art. De Stijl, I ask you. So rather than thinking I've discovered a secret, I tend to think of it in terms of a logical teasing out of what they've long referenced.

good stuff ned, weird cuz i just read this and he say it don't matter none

"Icky Thump," the White Stripes

The White Stripes The mumbo jumbo surrounding the White Stripes is by now well known: Band members Jack White and Meg White are a divorced couple who refer to themselves as siblings; they're troglodytes, slavishly devoted to vintage gear; and you'll never see them wearing anything but red, white and black. ("Why would we be so bourgeois as to all of a sudden wear blue and green?" Jack recently asked an interviewer.) But, really, who cares? Was Foghat's fashion sense so heavily scrutinized? Was BTO burdened by self-mythology? Those aren't blind comparisons, either. For all their arty affectations, the White Stripes are basically blues-based hard rockers, far more in the tradition of Deep Purple than De Stijl (the Dutch art movement that gave the band's second album its name).

So forget about the band's new "Icky Thump," as a piece of fine art. How is it as a slab of rock? Well, it's harder and heavier than anything else the duo have ever done. Songs like the funky, metallic "I'm Slowly Turning Into You" and the creepy "A Martyr for My Love for You" combine Jack White's meatiest riffs with a newfound appreciation for groovy keyboard textures that deepen, but don't soften, the band's crunching sound. Meg White has stepped up her game too. In the past her one-two beats have tippy-toed between simple and simplistic, but throughout "Icky Thump" she matches Jack's guitar every stomp for glorious stomp. On the album's eponymous first single, Jack's muscular riffing and Meg's smashing drum work demolish any hope of resistance.

Resistance is a subject Jack White knows well. Whether it's wrestling with a neglectful deity on "Little Cream Soda" ("God screams to me/ There's nothing left for me to tell you") or his own material desires on "Rag and Bone" ("Come on and give it to me!"), "Icky Thump's" songs break down, with a few exceptions, to a catalog of denials and sacrifices. On the two or three songs where some slightly sub-excellent music can't compensate for the whining, Jack comes across as, well, a bit of a drip. But those scattered moments aside, "Icky Thump" is so vital and rocking it makes the band's preoccupation with high art and higher ideals seem silly. Who cares about colors when the music's this good?

Favorite Track: "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You're Told)"

xxx-post

ka-BOOM

http://www.slate.com/id/2094027/

x-post -- See, all THAT talk just bores and irritates me. It's criticism as kabuki, and as dedicated to its own tropes as Jack and Meg are to theirs. God knows I've fallen into the trap of obvious recitation more often than not, don't get me wrong. But this is the type of literary reclamation project that is redolent of the worst kind of 'gotta keep it REAL' approach to anything and everything out there under the sun, the more so because it's self-conscious about it -- 'forget all the art crap, RAWWWWK.' To my mind the 'colors' and much more besides multiply the potential pleasures rather than distract or subtract from them, and to stomp on them so literally implies willful abnegation.

In the end, taking sides: Jack and Meg vs. Gilbert and George (vs. Neil and Chris?) (if they're going to talk about being all UK-influenced on this album, let's go all out, then).

cmon Ned its all just bullshit maaaaaaan don't you like boobs and beer and loud guitars and stuff

yeah also, the deep purple comparison is just lazy...other than that they are both rock bands, like you really can't tell the difference between the stripe's strict minimalism and DP's over the top organ space truckin' guitar soloin', gillian bellowing thing? that just seems weird like he picked a 70s band out of a hat.

I THINK I can imagine Neil and Chris covering "Seven Nation Army."

just got the album today...

and i think this is really great. now that i don't just have a sketchy leak i can really hear the rockin on this.

i love the second half of the album a little more than the first. this is my favorite WS album since elephant

Also, it's not like they've *hidden* their obvious knowledge of modern art

I'd bet my life you know more about modern art than Jack White. I'd also bet it that you can't strut around and play the guitar and sing as wonderfully as he can.

cmon Ned its all just bullshit maaaaaaan don't you like boobs and beer and loud guitars and stuff

I don't know about the boobs? I loves me the whole damn woman!!! :~)

favorites off the album:

Bone Broke

Let's rock.

Little Cream Soda

Let's fucking rock some more!

You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told)

Maybe too smooth for you, you...

Icky Thump

Would anybody care to dance?

Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn / St. Andrew (This Battle Is In The Air)

other-worldly and beautiful.

Catch Hell Blues

the majestic white bombast stripes strut

I'm Slowly Turning Into You

Let's pause for a little rock opera, shall we?

Rag And Bone & Effect And Cause

give us a smile, love.

oh nickypaws

Got the vinyl just now. Bee-yoo-tee-full packaging and sound.

When White Stripes' music shows the capacity to be as challenging, visionary and cutting edge as Wire's, and especially when their lyrics achieve even 25% of the outright mindfuck weirdness of Wire's, then we can compare them. Until then, I just don't get it. WS are quite talented and I like the fact that they tend to take random snippets of musical styles of the past and sew them into a nice quilt of modernity. But at the end of the day, they are a pimple on Wire's ass as far as pushing boundaries and confounding expectations, which is what I believe "art rock" - if it has a firm definition - is and should be.

GOOD NIGHT

I see the Wire thing, but I don't know why it has to be Wire instead of say, John Oswald or any other artist who's re-assembling previous musics.

xxpost - agreed. The White Stripes are not representatives of "art rock" in the way I percive that term. What I like about them, is their ability reach a broad audience, by coupling well-established rock and blues elements with those of other genres. They do theirs to help rock evolve, maybe not in the radically experimental sense, but in introducing new ideas to the public (and having them accepted). It's that balance between catchiness and innovation, which allows them into the top of the charts, that makes them so special to me.

I enjoyed this more on first listen than I have any White Stripes album since White Blood Cells. Rag & Bone brought me out into a broad grin and everything from then on is fantastic. First half not bad too.

Also...

CON-QUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEST!

more rocking please.

less experimentation.

i ordered my vinyl copy today.

i hope i get a slipmat in mine.

CON-QUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEST!

haha, OTM!

I found the "art project" article for everyone:

Usually described as minimalism or primitivism, the aesthetic of the White Stripes is also a kind of formalism, in that they have always made themselves work within a set of carefully defined structures that matter more than their contents. They are obsessed with form, as well as with the dissembling of forms into smaller, essential units: a couple of instruments, a few chords, three colors. "The band is so special and so boxed in, and there are so many limitations," Jack White told the Ottawa Citizen a few years ago. "It's such an art project, in one sense.... I think eventually it's going to burn itself out. It can only go so far."

Two years later, we have, in Get Behind Me Satan, White's manifesto for survival: an album that attempts to retain the specialness of the White Stripes by keeping the box, retaining the limitations, and changing only what is inside. The White Stripes still fetishize the past--Satan sounds as if it were recorded in Sun Studios after Elvis's sessions, and the CD booklet has a staged black-and-white photo of Meg and Jack White as members of a rockabilly band that could have been in Memphis in 1954. They still play all the instruments themselves, with Jack handling most of the creative work, and nearly all their songs are still variations on the same three models: electric blues, country blues, and children's music. Now they're doing so with acoustic instruments.

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050725&s=hajdu072505

I enjoy this record so far. Fun and loud and kinda touching sometimes.

"Why don't they just start playing stadiums already?"

hope they dont

I find this 300mph Torrential Outpour Blues track sounds really really like a White Stripes version of a Swell song.. Umm.. must listen to rest of album

<i>Got the vinyl just now. Bee-yoo-tee-full packaging and sound.

-- Davey D, Wednesday, June 20, 2007 5:55 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Link</i>

how much is the vinyl?

ooh vinyl must have

picked this up after work yesterday. The album is great, but I feel a slight let-down coming after 'Get Behind Me Satan', which is their best album. this album doesn't have the range of moods and sounds, it's back to full-bore rock more or less. ha the "Rag and Bone" music sounds like "Fools" by Van Halen.

store here had the vinyl for $32.98 ... um, no thanks.

wtf is up with all these 50 minute album vinyl editions being double LPs .. the Wilco album is the same way. like, the *only* bad thing about vinyl is switching sides. the White Stripes album is 48 minutes and they make the vinyl a double? that's annoying.

i got an email back from my local record store and it was priced the same...it's on 180 gram vinyl, which is heavier and more expensive...also as far as the double record thing goes, the more minutes you cram on a record, the shallower/narrower the grooves are which affects the sound quality, i think they recommend like 15 min. per side max, but i think you CAN do like 25-ish if you really push it....so i'd imagine it's a quality thing.

yeah, I unnerstand about the grooves (wasn't born yesterday) but I still think it's bogus for a 48 minute album. HI LET ME CHANGE SIDES EVERY TWELVE MINUTS

Xpost

M@tt, I got mine (here in PDX) for 22 bucks. Pricey but worth it.

Yeah, switching sides so often is annoying, but I think it's worth it for the sound quality benefits. I mean, that's why we buy the clunky stuff, right?

side one of the first Pretenders lp is like 23 minutes long and it sounds great!

That double LP thing is a drag, 'cause listening to it I'm struck by how clearly this is a two-sided album.

Side One = Icky -> St. Andrews (aka Led Zep III, side 2)
Side Two = Cream Soda -> Effect & Cause (aka Led Zep II, side 2)

And it's great sequencing. It's rare these days that the hardest hitting stuff gets saved for the second half.

I only made it through five tracks so far, but it's pretty dull so far (and the lyrics to the second song - "ur a ten-year old" or whatever - were just awful.

the first three albums were so catchy, even had some swing to them and now it's just thud-thud-thud + awful lyrics.

Miccio's "Violent Femmes playing Zep (and Stones, I'd add)" still makes more sense to me than any of the comparisons upthread. Haven't heard the new album though but am looking forward.

haven't heard anything except the single...but just checked out You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told) - goddam awesome! Totally BAD COMPANY JAMZ!

actually i'm wondering if the main chord change is identical to "Shooting Star"

they just make single albums into double vinyl pressings so collectors (the only ppl still buying vinyl really) like me cum all over themselves.

xpost, re: You Don't Know What Love Is

Hunh, I've been thinking it borrows from "Hey Hey What Can I Do" and that "Signs" song.

"The album is great, but I feel a slight let-down coming after 'Get Behind Me Satan', which is their best album"

I feel a letdown due to the fact that you actually think that is their best album, but each to their own.

re: You Don't Know What Love Is

I keep singing Let It Be Over the chorus..

whisper words of wisdom, let it be, let it be

its very let it be.

Village Voice first calls it total crap, then gives second opinion:

Fell Out of Love With a Band, by Nate Cavalieri

While absorbing the Blueshammer ersatz and pheromone-scented metallurgy of Icky Thump, the White Stripes' sixth record, it's hard not to long for the candy-striped sibs who once sat in that little room, working on something good. Remember them? Way back before the supermodel weddings, Nashville mansions, and sundry side projects? Just Jack on guitar and Meg on drums. So what if she played like a paste-addled fourth-grader? All that stuff about falling in love with a girl, going to Wichita, and seeing rats on the doorstep was as straightforward and vibrant as the wardrobe. Jack himself certainly remembers—on Thump's "Little Cream Soda," he lays aside the thrasher riffs for a second to recall the days when "a wooden box and an alley full of rocks was all I had to care about," only to toss off the sentiment with a dismissive snarl: "Oh well."
"Oh well"? Oh well, the affecting style that made them the most imaginative revivalists of their generation has been replaced by half-assed and half-hearted prog rock. Oh well, the pair of blues tunes here ("300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues" and "Catch Hell Blues") have such an awkward gait they actually feel like they're played by obligated divorcees. Oh well, it sounds like Jack wrote these songs in five minutes and Meg learned them in three. Oh well, the mere fact of being the White Stripes has spoiled the very thing that once made them saviors.

But unless they're saving the army of Candy Children from a deficiency of Bad Company, tunes like "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do What You're Told)" and "Effect & Cause" don't reinvent the wheel so much as hastily retread it. Owing much to young Ozzy ("Icky Thump"), old Ozzy ("Little Cream Soda"), and Humble Pie ("I'm Slowly Turning Into You"), the rest of Thump 's character seems just as lazily borrowed. What's worse, the scraps of originality—the bullfighting, trumpet-backed fanfare of "Conquest" and the two-part bagpipe jig "Prickly Thorn, but Sweetly Worn/St. Andrew (The Battle Is in the Air)"—are simply absurd.

Which leaves "Rag and Bone," a half-song/half-skit wherein Meg and Jack talk about ransacking a vast, cluttered room in a sprawling mansion. Jack admits the motive ("Make some money out of 'em, at least!"); "This fits me perfect," Meg answers in a greedy whisper. They don't notice that they're still standing in the same little room they once built, but it's just become too icky to recognize. Oh well.

Some of Us Really Like Icky Thump, by Tom Breihan

God knows I have more baggage with Jack White than I do with practically any other working musician. His whole man-out-of-time schtick has always bugged the fuck out of me, the way he portrays himself as this anachronistic drifter who doesn't understand emails and TVs and cell-phones, who wouldn't mind totally abolishing the internet even if it had everything to do with his rise to fame. And then of course there was the time where I spent twelve-hour day in precarious fourteen-inch shoe-lifts so that I could make a two-second appearance in his band's video; I wrote about it the next day and apparently somehow diluted his carefully-cultivated air of mystery, whereupon he called me "some asshole actor" in an NME interview (only half-right!). But I still get all rapturous when I think about the drive back to my house after I bought White Blood Cells: windows down on a rare warm and sunny day in Syracuse, those first three or four utterly perfect songs absolutely rearranging my brain. I loved that album to pieces; it was probably the last time I've heard a young band pull off cliched-for-a-reason classic-rock moves with such supreme panache and confidence. Even though I really liked Elephant and Get Behind Me Satan, I couldn't help feeling a certain sense of dashed expectations. Fame and pressure, it seemed, had gone a long way toward evaporating their sense of starry-eyed playfulness, and even when they were having fun with big-rock stomp-snort, it felt like they were bracketing that fun in quotation marks (see: "Ball and Biscuit"). And so Icky Thump, for me, feels like a revaluation, like the rock-stardom leap I've been hoping they'd make since I first saw the "Fell in Love with a Girl" video on MTV. They sound like they're having fun again: making weird and sometimes deeply annoying noises, turning songs halfway into skits, pushing their self-imposed limitations as far as they'll go, but still remembering to write some fucking amazing songs. I was not expecting to hear a great album from the White Stripes at this late date, but that's exactly what Icky Thump is.

I sort of get what Nate Cavalieri was saying when, in the pages of this newspaper this week, he basically said that Icky Thump finds the band drawn into the fame echo-chamber, bereft of joy or direction. But "half-assed and half-hearted prog rock?" I don't know, dude. Icky Thump definitely has a lot of weird noises, and at least a few of those weird noises are pretty ill-advised. Jack has apparently bought some new effects-pedal that makes his guitar (or maybe his keyboard; they sound almost exactly the same sometimes) sound like a cat being strangled, and he lays that trebly shred-noise on way too thick sometimes. The unhinged distorto-shredding on the first-single title-track isn't particularly satisfying; there's a moment about 2:03 into the song where it sounds almost exactly like Lightning Bolt except with totally rudimentary drumming, which isn't a great look. I would've much preferred if they'd opened things up with a statement-of-intent like "Seven Nation Army," which is as perfect a marriage of arena-rock and disco as we've heard since Billy Squier's "The Stroke" or Ace Frehley's "New York Groove." But the White Stripes don't need that first single to establish themselves; they've already done it, and they can afford to fuck around a bit now. God knows I'd rather get a slice of day-glo noise from them than hear them go Nickelback or something. And after "Icky Thump," the album immediately slides into the deeply satisfying choogle-thud banger "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do What You're Told)," which, with a slightly different arrangement, could've been a Bob Seger greatest-hits track (that's a compliment). "You Don't Know What Love Is" is one of maybe eight songs on Icky Thump that keep the hooks coming in total classic-rock overload form: overbearing swagger, dickish lyrics, gargantuan riffs. "Conquest" is a Patti Page cover, but you'd never know it from the screaming fake-mariachi horns and riotous fuzzed-out guitars. "Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn" works in bagpipes and mandolins but somehow avoids sounding anything like a folk song. "Rag & Bone" is a neat little song-skit analogy about stealing old junk and turning it into gold, but the central riff is straight-up ZZ Top. "A Martyr for My Love for You" builds beautifully from a sinister simmer to a furiously cathartic chorus. I'm not as crazy about the pounding garage-rock songs where Jack really overdoses on guitar-noise, but even those songs seem necessary for pacing; they allow the band to space out the surging melodies for maximum impact. The one big misstep is "St. Andrew (The Battle is in the Air)," were the guitars and bagpipes and drums all totally ignore each other while Meg goes off on a creepy spoken-word rant. It's borderline unlistenable, and it seems to be there just to remind us how weird this band is, which, I don't know, maybe they needed to do.

I've got this theory that there are two basic ways that indie-rock bands can interpolate classic-rock tricks. There's the smirky and tongue-in-cheek thing where they'll pick up a few bits of bluesy choogle but use them with a sort of jokey distance, purposefully half-assing them; that's what Blitzen Trapper does on their new piece-of-shit album. And then there's the Meat Puppets thing: absorbing these sounds but marrying them to your own sensibilities, making adjustments for whatever drugs you're enjoying, twisting them around and making them weirder. The White Stripes are somewhere between an indie-rock band appropriating classic-rock sounds and an actual classic-rock band; they are, after all, headlining Madison Square Garden next month. And on Icky Thump, they really make their own innate weirdness work with their enormous crunch. Jack White's lyrics here are more impenetrable than they've ever been, and they're also better. "Little Cream Soda" seems to be a classic example of his all-consuming nostalgia for a time that probably never existed, but he delivers his lines in such a creepy, opaque yowl that they turn out fascinatingly evil and wrong. He never lets us know who he's turning into on "I'm Slowly Turning Into You" (his dad?) but when he accepts and celebrates that fate on the third verse, he makes it into a triumphant moment. On "Effect and Cause," he's practically an alien, totally flummoxed and frustrated at humans and their illogical forms of interaction. I wrote yesterday that Kanye West is the only guy working who takes pop stardom seriously. Well, Jack White apparently is the only guy working right now who takes rock stardom seriously, and that's a different thing. He's totally determined to drag all of us into his squirming, feverish brain-space, and he's willing to write some amazing songs if that's what it takes to get us there. Icky Thump makes his universe sound like a fun place to be.

All you need to know
can be shown in the writing
styles of these pieces

my thoughts exactly. just so ugh.

lots of dudes need to have their blueshammer privileges revoked

Jack White interview from the Onion AV Club:

Interviewed by Noel Murray

AVC: You reportedly spent three weeks in the studio working on Icky Thump, which is the longest The White Stripes have ever spent on an album. What did the extra time do for you?

Jack White: I haven't been able to figure that out yet. Sometimes when something sounds better, you play it back and you start wondering. Is it the new engineer? The new microphone we never used before? The type of tape stock? Or are we just a little bit more experienced than we used to be? I think this record sounds… the songs sound better, you know? And I don't know if that had anything to do with how much time we spent. Mostly the reason we spent more time was that we got really sidetracked while we were writing. In rehearsal, we got called away to do all this other stupid junk that was unavoidable. So we ended up needing more time in the studio to just finish writing the songs. I guess it's all for the better, though, 'cause we're happy with the finished product.

AVC: The record still feels very loose, though. Not like you've worked the songs over and over.

JW: Oh, good. Probably because, like most of our records, it was half-written in the studio right before we pressed "record." That always lends a sense of urgency and immediacy to the songs, to do it in that fashion. I like to work under those conditions.

AVC: The song "Rag And Bone" is mostly a spontaneous-sounding dialogue between you and Meg. How much of that was written ahead of time, and how much did you improvise?

JW: The music was written at my house, but all the dialogue was written in the studio. We actually have three different versions of that song, and I was worried that the version we have on the album now was a little too funny, and that people wouldn't get the metaphor because it was just too humorous. For a while there, we went back and forth deciding if we should put it on the record. At the last second, we said, "Eh, forget it, let's see what happens." And I'm glad we did, because people have responded to it really well.

AVC:The White Stripes have always written a lot of funny songs, though you rarely get recognized for that.

JW: I just get worried that sometimes when it's really up front, it overwhelms the longevity, the timelessness of the song. Sometimes if you hear a joke, "Ha ha, it's funny," but the next time your friend tells you the joke, you're like, "Eh, I already heard that joke." That's what worries me. But I think this song might just escape that.

AVC: "Funny" often seems to be a matter of performance. You've done some acting. How would you compare performing as an actor vs. performing as a singer?

JW: Well, it's different in front of a camera. I've learned from watching playbacks on a movie set that what you think is fake in your head comes off as not enough on camera, a lot of times. You almost have to overdo it, in this overly, sort of Broadway, large-gestures kind of way to come off as being realistic on camera. It's strange. I think a lot of people think, "Well, bad actors are just people who don't act like themselves. They don't act real enough, they act fake." But it's almost backward. You almost have to act really fake to come off looking real.

Musically, though, you're a character and you're singing a song. If you're not your own character, you're the character in the song, most of the time. Even blues musicians, a lot of them who were the most realistic, at times, they were singing a song and portraying a character in the song. There's something to be said for getting involved in the emotion of a song, too, with the characters.

AVC: A lot of your songs are written in second person. Do you have a certain person in mind when you write a song that's written to an unnamed "you?" Or are you sort of aiming into the ether?

JW: I tend to write about other people's problems more than my own. I'm just saying, if everyone in the room put all their problems on the table, you'd take yours back before you took anyone else's in exchange. You know that phrase? I think that may be true for real life, that you might want to take your problems back, because they're the ones you can manage. But when it comes to writing songs, my problems are the least interesting to me. I'd rather get interested in other people's situations, you know, and attack it like a psychologist.

AVC: Last year, when you were talking about the Raconteurs album, you said that you could tell that songs you wrote for The Raconteurs weren't White Stripes songs. Does a White Stripes song have certain parameters?

JW: Oh yeah, lots of them do. There's an overall structure of simplicity, and it revolves around Meg's drumming style. And it can't be beat. We can't do those structures in The Raconteurs. We couldn't do them if we wanted to, and that's the beauty of Meg. In The Raconteurs, there's so many more components, so many more personalities involved. If you get another person in the room, you're dealing with something else. It's a different kind of collaboration, you know?

But yeah, the parameters of the White Stripes… you know, 70 to 80 percent of what we do is constriction, and the other 20 to 30 percent is us breaking that constriction to see what happens. And when we do break the rules, like, "What if we do 16 tracks of vocals on this?", it's something we obviously can't do live. And people notice that, because of the structure of the band. "There's two people here, and this song is explosive and crazy, there's no way they could do this live." Not the case with The Raconteurs. People listen to it and don't think about it at all. They just go, "Oh, there's a bunch of guys in this band, someone must be playing that synthesizer." No one says "How the hell are you going to play 'Broken Boy Soldier' live? You guys don't have a pump organ onstage!" But they say it to The White Stripes. It becomes a debate, which is great, that people realize that those rules are in existence. That's a great thing to recognize.

AVC: How much do you think about the live show when you write a song?

JW: Well, live, we don't ever have a set list, and we don't talk about what we're going to do. And I like that we didn't talk about it. I've always thought that if you say to somebody, "Okay, make sure you've got the lighter fluid and a box of matches on top of my amp, because I'm gonna set my guitar on fire tonight," and it gets managed in some way, there's no excitement to it. It becomes a different thing altogether, again, like a Broadway show. But if I just have lighter fluid in my pocket, and I have some matches tucked under my sleeve, and I come out and just do it, and I don't even tell Meg about it, then something explosive happens. I think the crowd immediately can smell when something's not planned. And I think they appreciate it very much. When the crowd notices something that wasn't planned, they notice that something unique happened tonight. And in an era of, "Everything is pre-planned and, lip-synced, sampled, and computerized," I think people really appreciate something that they know nobody else can experience, except people who were there that night

AVC: The new album has bagpipes on it, and the songs "Icky Thump" and "Rag And Bone" both reference British slang. You didn't record in the UK this time, but it sounds like you're still kind of an Anglophile.

JW: Well, yeah… I call it "sideways exotic." People who speak the same language but live in different countries. There's something exotic to these phrases that we don't hear in America. And even moreso, what's very interesting to me is how many different types of accents there are in Great Britain, in a place that's about the size of Michigan. Imagine if the people the next town over from your town had a different accent than you. I find that really bizarre. So many dialects in one tiny little place. You'd think on an island, everyone would talk the same, you know? It's pretty funny.

But yeah… I was the kid in school who thought Monty Python was funny, and nobody else did. Not like I was better than them or anything, I just thought that some of the minutiae, the phrasing of things was really funny, and I aspired to things like that. Because, you know, in my neighborhood, nobody said anything eloquent. [Laughs.]

AVC: Would you say that you're less of a musical traditionalist now, or was that always kind of overstated?

JW: I don't know. It kind of goes back and forth with how people perceive what I do. I have a lot of opinions about those things, and they mostly concern my life. I don't like to tell people what to do or anything. But you get a lot of things thrown on you. People, for example, think that I'm a sellout because I wrote a song for this Coca-Cola commercial. Or, because we used more tracks on this album, we've sold out the entire DIY ideal of The White Stripes, whatever that is. I mean, I don't really remember signing some declaration, you know, stating the way that things are supposed to be on Planet Earth. [Laughs.] "Join my army, please, if you will." You know, people ask me, "How do you like to do stuff?" So I tell 'em. You know, "I like to record on analog tape," or such-and-such. That kind of thing. People are always up for headlines, so if you say anything off the beaten path, it becomes a headline. And then the headline gets misconstrued as your manifesto. That's the funny part.

i find it hard to believe any of that tom breihan piece. seems like hes just blogging for bloggings sake or appease the label or the pr or fall in line with what people are thinking and embody the zeitegist or whatever the fuck. if you were going to suddenly fall in love and 'get' the WS, this seems a weird record to do it with. i dont see how its 'the rock-stardom leap'.

I've got a very long history with garage rock. And I was unconvinced by the WS for a long time. I thought The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were gonna be the keepers from the class of 2002 (not that they were garage exactly, but they were getting hyped together) and Jack White as a bit of an understudy for Mick Collins' brilliance. "My Doorbell" is what cemented it for me. And relistening to the early records, seeing an early cover of "Moonage Daydream" on YouTube, I'm convinced that it's wrong to view the WS in a 1966/Nuggets context. I hear far more Bowie and Townshend in all his songwriting than I did at first. He makes dramas, not rave-ups, and I think that's what people respond to, why they've got such a broad appeal.

there's a bit of T-Rex in there as well, or at least Bolan - not the pixie-ness, but a certain otherness, and a capacity for showmanship.

but a certain otherness, and a capacity for showmanship.

Absolutely. They seem to have come to terms with their Anglophilia. Gazing at the cover art, they'd do a killer cover of Traffic's "Pearly Queen".

actually i'm wondering if the main chord change is identical to "Shooting Star"

I'd confirm this, but I'm traveling sans guitar...

However. "Icky Thump" = totally "Walk This Way".

the cover just blows my mind. i only just saw it today. that hat! they kinda look like idiots. no offense.

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/61Fuvh7ULcL._SS500_.jpg

I tried one more time with this album today and well...I give up. Even the two best tracks, Little Cream Soda and Rag & Bone, just seem stereotypical, like a parody of White Stripes rather than something genuinely creatively engaging. I'm especially disappointed with the St. Andrews bagpipes thing...I freaking *love* bagpipes and it seems to me they could have done something much more satisfying with that. Instead it just kindof peters out. Ah well...maybe they just needed to be British to do an interesting enough hybrid there.

I like the cover, but I can see how those outfits are a little excessive. Maybe the rot has set in for good.

http://www.pearlysociety.co.uk/patcarolebw.JPG

Hahaha brilliant!!

For some reason (possubly due to the fact that I never thought they' do something like that) I love St Andrews Fall. It really reminds me of a mini "Revolution no. 9" or something. Really cool, in my opinion.

I love this album, it's better than 'Satan'. Good to hear Jack playing the guitar again, and while some of the songs are irritating throwaways, the likes of 'You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told)', 'I'm Slowly Turning Into You' vagy az 'A Martyr For My Love For You' are flawless.

And let me say again that they know how to whip up good long song titles like nobody's business.

zeus OTM. This is the first album on which I warmed to their shtick before the shtick got me het up.

"irritating throwaways"

i still hate them for making one of those throwaways so popular (that incredibly annoying my doorbell from the last album.. thank god theres nothing as irritating on the new one)

Man, I did love that song

Roberto: who are those people?

from pearlysociety.co.uk:

The London tradition of the Pearly Kings and Queens began in 1875, by a small lad named Henry Croft.

Henry was born and raised in an orphanage in Charlton Street, Somers Town, London, NW1. At the age of 13 he had to leave the orphanage and make his own way in life. His first job was as a Municipal Road Sweeper in the market of Somers Town. Henry worked hard in the market and soon made many friends, he was particularly drawn to the Costermongers who were a tough breed of market traders. He got to know more about their way of life, their generosity and their fashion of smoke pearl buttons sewn on the piped seams of their trousers, jackets, waistcoats and caps. This showed their status as they worked the market stalls from day to day. The Costermongers were caring and looked after each other if they were sick or in need.

Henry was so fascinated by this way of life and decided he would like to help those who were more unfortunate than himself, including the children back at the orphanage where he had spent his early life. He knew that in order to collect a lot of money he needed to draw attention to himself. So as Henry swept the market streets he started to collect all the pearl buttons he found that had fallen off of the clothes of people visiting the market, and when he had enough he started to sew them on his cap and then continued until his entire suit was filled, the very first smother suit.

Because Henry was an orphan he had no one to help him with his suit so he had to learn how to sew. It was this that started the tradition, which is still carried on by descendants of original Pearly Families, that the Kings do all the designs and sewing. Designs on suits tend to run in families but here are a few that you may see and recognise:

Horseshoe = Luck

Doves = Peace

Heart = Charity

Anchor = Hope

Cross = Faith

Wheel = Circle of Life

Symbols of Playing Cards = Life is a gamble

Flower Pots = Costermongers

Donkey Carts = Costermongers

Henry Croft was in so much demand for his charity work, as many of London's hospitals, workhouses and orphanages needed help, that he turned to his friends the Costermongers and they did not let him down. Many of the Costermongers became the first Pearly Families. There were 28 families, one for each of the London boroughs, one for the City of Westminster, and one for the City of London.

Each outfit can hold many tens of thousands of buttons on it and can weigh as much as 30 kilograms or more. There are two types of suit - a Smother Suit and a Skeleton Suit, the former having very little cloth showing and totally covered in buttons, and the latter having far fewer buttons.

It is estimated that when he died in 1930 (aged 68), he had collected over £5000. The equivalent in today's values would be approximately £200,000.

His funeral was a spectacular affair, and was filmed by Pathe News. All of the Pearlies attended (roughly 400) and they followed the coffin to where Henry was buried. The charities that he had helped over the year all pulled together to help pay for a statue of Henry for his grave. Unfortunately in 1995 the statue was vandalised and no longer stands in the cemetery. It has been replaced with a headstone, inlaid with Henry's photograph, so it can be easily found by visitors.

The statue has now been fully restored and can be seen in the crypt at the church of St. Martins in the Field, Trafalgar Square.

The Pearly tradition has survived for over 125 years and hopefully it will continue for many more to come. We still have a few families who can be traced back to the original generation of Pearlies. Henry Croft's family still carries on the tradition with his Great-Granddaughter wearing the title of 'Somers Town'.

http://whitestripes.kungfunation.com/images/USBset.jpg

From the White Stripes shop: $57 each, or buy both for $99

That's the "USB Drive" version(s) of "Icky Thump" btw.

Thanks Nicky!

titchyschneiderMk2:

"My Doorbell" was the best song on the last album. Almost everything else could have been called irritating throwaway, but not that song. I love "My Doorbell" too.

Oh god, don't throw them away. Meg and I can use them. We can give them a home. I mean if you don't want them...

Excellent use of Rag and Bone

they kinda look like idiots. no offense.

Yes, `cos they normally look so dignified, don't they!

Incidentally, I take back my original quasi-scathing review of the single. I still wince at the widdly prog bits, but otherwise, I'm hooked.

what's up, Alex?? doing well??

one thing occurs: curious that they did not throw on that Coke commercial diddy ... it almost might have worked quite well as a little palate cleanser maybe on the second side. and they also could have been like "oh yeah that was some throwaway we wrote for the new album" ... now it stands out more crassly..

Icky Thump was one of 3 CDs for sale at the cashier's booth at Whole Foods when I was there yesterday. Good to see that WS have gone for the all-organic, free-range rock.

My "Icky Thump" LP is in the mail and I'm going to see them on saturday night !

I know nobody else cares, but whoo !

good times

these
are
the
good times

leave
your
cares
behind

these
are
the
good times

good times

these
are
the
good times

our
new
state
of mind

these
are
the
good times

Bhahahahahah! Nicky rulez!

i like this album,it's very enjoyable in it's way of returning back to the "white blood cells" basics,gimmicks and self parody ( i thught i got tired of that,but i didnt really) and again,they remind me of the pixies among others (am i the only one?), but i wonder: should i see them live?
when i think about the fact that they are only 2 persons,the arrangements of the songs will be even more stripped down while being played live, and i'm not sure it worth the 50& ticket, in a place where i probably couldn't see much anyway..
why can't they get another musician to help them on the live performence?on the record,there is another level of playing that is probably missed live.
just to add a rhythm guitar or something (not to mention a bass player,which is a curse for them isn't it).

why can't they get another musician to help them on the live performence?on the record,there is another level of playing that is probably missed live.

they really don't need it - a lot of the excitement comes from their frantic attempts to make enough noise, despite only being a duo. you gotta see them at least once...

little cream soda is totally killing me today.

"you gotta see them at least once..."

thanks ,i took notice.but it won't happen this time cause the only seats available are far, far away from the main stage.
"
the stripes owe a lot to "thee mighty ceasers" don't they?

amazing to think that it's the stripes that are probably the most successful garage band ever,while most of them will dissapear or at least keep their dayjobs forever.

some pictures from the Toronto YMCA appearance this week:

http://www.edge102.com/shared_gallery/cfnyfm_2007_7_5_16-28-19/0.jpg http://www.edge102.com/shared_gallery/cfnyfm_2007_7_5_16-28-19/12.jpg

http://www.edge102.com/shared_gallery/cfnyfm_2007_7_5_16-28-19/7.jpg

http://www.edge102.com/shared_gallery/cfnyfm_2007_7_5_16-28-19/8.jpg

http://www.edge102.com/shared_gallery/cfnyfm_2007_7_5_16-28-19/9.jpg http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/01b8b2a8-f449-4746-8e42-e3e213ae7ba8/whitestripes004.jpg

i've enjoyed them at festivals and huge venues in the past, but i totally understand not wanting to pay $$$ for such an experience...

xpost ok those pics are seriously adorable. In fact, this whole past week has been nothing but warm, fuzzy white stripes love, what with them randomly showing up in tiny canadian towns and performing on public transport. For the kids!

Since Nicky posted the YMCA pictures, I may as well show off the fruits of my 8-hour queue with my general admission tickets. I took my 15 y/o siblings (coincidentally named Jack & Elizabeth Megan) and we were front row, on the barricade, in front of Jack!

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1308/738572052_6edd1d3eee.jpg?v=0
this is the kids having their mind blown. note I <3 Jack / I <3 Meg face paint that got them plastered all over the jumbotron.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1071/738494594_022885ee9a.jpg?v=0

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1360/738572014_0597f4a944.jpg?v=0

FANTASTIC Show, oh god. And yes - The White Stripes are For The Kids!

anyone going to the Madison Square Garden show? cant decide if i want to, im not really sure what to expect. I've only seen them in small-ish clubs, twice, so this would be different and I'm just not positive I want to hang out with 20,000 tweens.

im kinda touched they did a show for the kids. always thought that would be their ideal audience. although not sure they have enough songs that are catchy enough for the little uns.

xpost with pictures. I am candy stripped with envy at the vantage point you had :~)

Also loved seeing Jack sit down to play some blues with that street musician (from youtube link above)

My favorite story about kids and The White Stripes is about the grade school class that sang one of their songs for them. After the second album came out, a grade school teacher in Detroit recorded his class singing "Apple Blossom," and sent the tape to Jack and Meg. Jack said that he and Meg were genuienly moved by it, so the kids must have done a good job.

The show last night at Bluesfest here in Ottawa was amazing !

They basically played an all blues set, to prove they could headline a blues festival (as if there was any doubt - Kanye West is headlining too).

I saw them when they were touring for GBMS and this show blew it away. He was goin' crazy on the solos all night.

They only played 3 tracks of the new one though, sadly, though their version of "Icky Thump" was better than the album version, so that's good I guess. I really wanted to hear "Little Cream soda", "Conquest" or "Rag and Bone" though.

Ah well, still a hell of a show. Best live show I've seen in awhile.

You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told) Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs-bS7BW8qI

"Catch Hell Blues" live a couple of months ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs-bS7BW8qI

i love the little proggy breakdown in this

HOOS

HOOS LET THE PROG OUT

HOOS! HOOS HOOS!

I'm deeply disappointed I missed this.

This is like one of the very best songs of the year. Sorry the album didn't live up to the hype.

oh god. i'm sorry guys. i've matured, i promise.

lol has college turned you into a zepp fan

:/

haha

today zeppelin, tomorrow coldplay

haha, I totally missed the clusterfuck portion of this thread

tangentially related question on my mind: I don't know shit about Zep, but I know that I am loving "Immigrant Song" and am really not loving "Stairway to Boredom". What other Zep will I like?

LOL such a cute question about Led Zep. And "Stairway to Boredom" is correct. You're on the right track, Rev! Why not start with the Led Zep III album, from which Immigrant Song is from, but which doesn't sound like anything else on it, really. Or you could just cut straight to the chase and get to the LZ album almost everyone agrees is the ultimate shit - "Physical Graffiti". Up to you.
Hopefully someone else more helpful than me will come along with You Tube clips or something.

I love this album, but god that mariachi track is goddam awful.

I was thinking about this album earlier today, actually. It would feel strange to pull it out, but perhaps I should.

Reverend, my friend, check out Houses of the Holy. Some of it's even dance music!

this album is oddly off-putting and I never listen to it. sad, really cuz Get Behind Me Satan was one of their best.

agreed, for some reason i think I listened to this once and didn't go back to it. there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it, it just wasn't necessary.

also, yeah, houses of the holy is the best zepplin album, certainly the only one I ever listen to and own

This album is great, but more so in a sort of, last round of the stripes just doing their usual stuff. I give then credit for debuting on warners with an album.of songs that are not always the most complete, but have tonnes of energy and fun. It's kind of like a return to their earlier albums, but less raw. The synths on the title track still sound awful tbh, and I like the sentiment of the lyrics but hate how they're delivered/written (sounds clunky af... reminds me of some of princes 'political' lyrics actually) I know a lot of ppl liked it as it sounded different for the stripes, but I'm not sure different quite worked for them, and I'm tempted to say if you think thats one of the best things they did, or did here, you might not like them that much.