Jack White News

Jack White loves making music.  He has produced music as the leading member of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather, and, most recently, has released Blunderbuss, the first album of his solo career.  Because Jack White makes so much music, and also owns his own record company, Third Man Records, there is almost a ceaseless stream of information centered around his many projects.  What has he been up to? 1. On July 9th, Third Man Records released two records, each that feature the audio from The White Stripes’ performances at the Detroit bar the Gold Dollar back in 1997.  These live recordings mark the beginning of The White Stripes’ career as their first performances. Live at the Gold Dollar 7″, which has recordings of “Jimmy the Exploder,” “Love Potion #9,” and “St. James Infirmary Blues” (from their eponymous album, later released in 1999), is from the open mic night at the Gold Dollar of July 14, 1997. The second record, a 12″ white vinyl that, along with the red of the 7″ completes The White Stripes’ trademark color theme, includes audio from The White Stripes concert debut on the 14th of August, 1997.  It is also titled Live at the Gold Dollar and features preliminary takes of “Screwdriver” and “Lafayette Blues,” and, as a bonus, their cover of the Stooges’ “TV Eye.” Check out some footage of their show at the Gold Dollar on November 27th, 1999 here. 2. At this year’s Bonnaroo, before playing “Supercollider,” Thom Yorke teased the crowd by dedicating the song to White: “This song is for Jack White. We saw him yesterday. A big thank-you to him, but we can’t tell you why. You’ll find out.”  This obviously started quite the buzz. On July 5th, in an interview on BBC 6Music, Jack White confirmed that Radiohead made a trip to Nashville to record at Third Man Records.  He didn’t say much, as he wasn’t sure what the band wanted to be common knowledge: “I don’t know how much to tell about. I didn’t play with them or produce it, but they came and recorded at Third Man, and I don’t know what else they want to be said about that so that’s probably all I can say!” It is too bad that there wasn’t any collaboration between the band and White, but, hey, at least Radiohead recorded some stuff! 3. The last piece of news is the release of the teaser trailer for the Jack White’s coming video for his third single off of Blunderbuss, “Freedom at 21,” due to make its debut on Monday, July 16th.  Directed by Hype Williams, mainly a video producer for rap artists (including Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac, Nas, and LL Cool J) who has occasionally dabbled in the realm of rock, most notably producing the video for Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida.” It seems as if the video will have some edge to it, as it features White speeding along in a washed out world where only his neon green car has any true vibrancy to it.  Toward the end of the trailer, White is shown being arrested by a scantily clad female police officer.  It seems as if his new thing is being bound inside of cars, such as when he is burned alive in the back of a car at the end of the official video of his second single off of Blunderbuss, “Sixteen Saltines.”  It certainly won’t be minimalistic and reserved like the video for the first single, “Love Interruption.” Regardless, it will likely be a pretty fast-paced and visually stunning video, as White has a penchant for creating good visual representations of his work.  The song is one of my favorites of his and I am certainly looking forward to the video’s release on Monday. Make sure you keep up to date with the many endeavors of Jack White as I expect more out of him in the next couple of weeks.