- Posted by AGM -
“I just don’t know what to do with myself,” Jack White moans on a 2003 White Stripes track off the Elephant album. He is certainly full of ideas though.
White is a restless soul. The Detroit rocker who Rolling Stone once ranked as the 17th best guitarist of all time has never been able to sit still too long. After garnering critical acclaim (a Grammy win) and selling over 12 million records as the front man of The White Stripes, White has spent the much of the last 5 years on a whirlwind of new projects.
The shaggy haired guitarist has tried his hand in acting (Cold Mountain, Walk Hard), producing (Loretta Lynn’s Grammy Award winning Van Lear Rose) and sharing the mic with Brandon Benson as part of The Raconteurs.
His latest project, however, has put White in unfamiliar territory – behind the drum set.
White, who moved to Nashville to unveil his Third Man Records Headquarters, recently debuted his newest side project – The Dead Weather.
Dead Weather is a four piece blues-rock powerhouse fronted by the Kills’ Alison Mosshart. The idea for the group was born on last year’s Raconteurs/Kills tour when a case of bronchitis put Jack’s voice on the sidelines and threatened to cancel some shows. Instead, Mosshart was asked to fill in and impressed the crew so much – “it reenergized the tour,” White told Rollins Stone – they created a new band around her. Weather is rounded out by the Raconteurs’ Jack Lawrence on bass and Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Dan Ferrita on guitar.
The band, who debuted for 150 of their closest friends in Nashville last month, will release their first album Horehound in June on White’s Third Man label. They also plan to tour and will hit NYC’s Bowery Ballroom this week.
Here is the first single “Hang You by the Heavens.”
Mosshart’s sireny voice and the track’s lyrics and attitude remind me of the White Stripes first album. It is a bit less polished than a Raconteurs track and it seems like White is steering the group back toward his Detroit garage beginnings.
It’ll be interesting to see how White handles being out of the spotlight and what this means for the White Stripes, Raconteurs and Kills…
The Dead Weather – Hang You From The Heavens / Are Friends Electric
