Just Announced: De La Soul Live at the Commodore Ballroom

July 19. Tickets on sale May 17, $35 before fees. I think I gotta go:



Also, I wonder if this is/would be Jack White's favourite De La Soul song:

Jack White on Perfectionism

The Guardian: What life lessons did you take from working in the upholstery business?

Jack White: Well, from Brian's shop it was perfectionism to the hilt – to the last nail and the last tack. He's got it down to the last wrinkle. And I just recently rebuilt my shop in Nashville, so I've got it back going again. But I learned to take a step back from perfectionism: that there's beauty in not achieving it. The pursuit of it is interesting, but the actual achieving of it can be a disaster at times – especially with technology, and the sounds that come from trying to achieve perfect recording. There's a balance going on there. I'm glad I had perfectionism in the mix, because I think a lot of artists don't get that in the mix. Like, if you come up through punk you think: "Well, I can just do anything – and it's punk!" But if you have a mix of that with the perfectionist side, then something interesting can happen.

Read the full interview at The Guardian.

Jack and Johnny + Johnny Depp Discusses Iggy Pop

Apart from the obvious physical resemblance, Jack White and Johnny Depp even sometimes talk and sound alike: their stutters and stops, slight detachment, word choice, facial expressions. And like with Jack, I don't know how much I should believe anything Johnny says. Jack just has a bit more energy and seems to be a bit more engaged. It's too bad Jack is no longer scoring Disney's The Lone Ranger, and thus, there will be no formal connection between him and Johnny any time soon.

Google "jack white" "johnny depp" and see for yourself.

"... I Sort of Had a Nervous Breakdown When I Was 19."

"When I was a teenager I would recognise characteristics in people like ego and temper and say, I'm not going to do that. And it got to the point where I became so self-conscious that I sort of had a nervous breakdown when I was 19. I couldn't handle it: I was becoming very paranoid and extremely anti-myself. I wouldn't let myself enjoy anything. And remnants of that are still there. I don't do drugs, I don't get drunk, I don't vote. Girls I don't do. With this whole band [the White Stripes], it's obvious how much we're forcing ourselves and limiting ourselves all the time.”

 - Jack White

Additional 2013 Grammys Thoughts

How cool were Frank Ocean's podium and backdrop?:



I don't know what Wiz Khalifa does or is supposed to be, but Miguel is great:



Finally, they had Jack White and the Black Keys under the same roof, and they didn't join each other onstage? #missedopportunity #duelingguitars

Jack White - "Love Interruption" and "Freedom at 21" Live at the 2013 Grammys

Jack White - Love Interruption & Freedom At 21... by IdolxMuzic

The three best things in this performance in order: 3) Jack's sparkly outfit. 2) Dominic Davis' stand-up bass. 1) The way Jack simultaneously plays his final chord and whips his guitar away without giving a fuck.

Sometimes, I Wonder About Other Jack White Fans

I came across this on Deviant Art:

Where have I seen this before ... ? Ah, yes: "Homer! You've got it set on 'whore'!":

"Serious Jibber-Jabber" with Conan O'Brien Featuring Jack White

Watch Conan O'Brien's 75-minute interview with Jack White in which they discuss gender dynamics in artistic collaboration, the romance of the Titanic, Jack's relationship with Bob Dylan, Catholicism, U.S. history, comedy, upholstery, work ethic, inspiration, the perils of technology on creativity and consumption of art and more:

FULL STREAM: Jack White on Austin City Limits

Watch Jack White's Austin City Limits performance in full which includes one of the best versions of "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" I've ever heard. Just can't beat that segue from "Dead Leaves" into "Missing Pieces" and briefly back into "Dead Leaves." Also, there is no bad or even mediocre version of "We Are Going To Be Friends."

Watch Jack White on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

 

"Jack White's 'Blunderbuss' Is SoundScan's Best-Selling Vinyl Album of 2012"

Title taken from NME's (*shudder*) article of the same name.

"The figure was enough for 'Blunderbuss' to knock The Beatles's 'Abbey Road' from the top spot, which had been the biggest-selling vinyl record for the past three years running."

"The sales of 'Blunderbuss' are the highest of a new album (not re-release) since Soundscan began collecting vinyl sales data in 2008."

Jack White and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on Work Ethic and Inspiration

I actually wasn't looking up Jack White when I came across this article (via Brain Pickings).

Favourite Releases of 2012: Jack White - Blunderbuss (Third Man Records)

A no-brainer for anyone who knows me or reads this blog. This past April, Jack White, my favourite musician for the past eleven years, finally dropped his long-awaited debut solo album Blunderbuss. I tried to review Blunderbuss when it came out, but when it started becoming a God-damned thesis (after about day five), for the sake of my sanity and having a life, I scrapped it. So, I'm going to try to keep my thoughts on Blunderbuss short.

We've heard Jack in big-band situations before, most notably with the Queen of Rockabilly Wanda Jackson whose 2011 album The Party Ain't Over Jack produced, played on and released through his company Third Man Records, but we've never heard Jack play with a large ensemble totally on his terms, with him as the chief conductor.

Solo albums are usually hit or miss with me (mostly miss), but there isn't one sour note on Blunderbuss. It's everything Jack White fans could and should have expected from him: a blend of songs that touch upon most periods of his extensive history of work. Lead singles "Sixteen Saltines" and "Love Interruption" could very well have been salvaged from the White Stripes' surely bottomless demo-bin - "Hypocritical Kiss," "Weep Themselves To Sleep" and "I Guess I Should Go To Sleep" re-upholstered from leftover Raconteurs material. And no one can deny the influence of Jack's work with Wanda Jackson on the jumpy, swingin', impossibly, unfathomably cool Little Willie Johnson cover "I'm Shakin'."

But Jack White fans should have expected that he was going to tread new territory as well, as he has with every single full-length album he's released in his career. Jack has never saloon-rocked like he does on "Trash Tongue Talker." More notably, however, nothing he has ever done has trembled like the low-rumbling "Freedom at 21," and while Jack seems to stretch his vocals in new ways every time we hear him in full-length studio format, we've certainly never heard him rap as he nearly does on "Freedom at 21." Perhaps he once again drew inspiration, this time from his long-rumoured session (sessions?) with Jay-Z and his ill-fated session with RZA that never materialized because RZA no-showed but, with a full band already on hand, ultimately led to jamming and writing the songs that would become Blunderbuss.

Although I've identified particular songs on Blunderbuss with particular periods of Jack White's work, I do so non-definitively: I simply mean to draw attention to what I feel is the most prominent leaning of each song. Ultimately, Blunderbuss can be considered Jack's opus because for the first time, Jack has truly combined everything he has ever done not only across one album, effortlessly and cheaply mimicking a career-spanning "best of" compilation, but within individual songs as well. That is the success of Jack White's premier outing as a solo artist. Though I see most of the styles and motifs Jack has covered on Blunderbuss re-appearing on solo album number two (if and when that ever happens), that Jack has finally made his statement as to who is as an artist today - who his fifteen-plus-year career has made him - has finally given him the leeway - the freedom and possibly even the peace of mind - to move on and really tread new territory.

Coming This Friday: Third Man Records Novelties Lounge

That's it. I'm moving to Nashville to pursuit my dream job at Jack White's Third Man Records.

Japandroids Guitarist Brian King Discusses Jack White and the "It" Factor

Pitchfork: As far as contemporary artists, I feel like that mythic [rock 'n' roll] aura is present in somebody like Jack White, too. Is that something you personally aspire to?

Brian King: I don't know if you can aspire to be that necessarily. In some respect, Jack White became that because he's Jack White. If you listen to the early White Stripes records, it's the same Jack White. That voice is the same. The songwriting ability is there. The guy just has that special thing. People like us cannot aspire to be that; you have to accept that it's OK not to be a Jack White. It's unfair to put that burden on yourself.

There's a difference between people who are born with that special thing and people who love the people who are born with that special thing so much that they want to try their best to get as close as they can to it. I don't consider myself to be a very creative person. We have to work really, really hard to write a song we think is really good. I mean, we have two records in three years, and the records only have eight songs each. It's a slow process. It might take a whole month to write a song we think is good.

If you lock Jack White in a room with an acoustic guitar, he's gonna come up with something great. If you don't have that gift, you have to grind away-- that's more what our band does. The Replacements seem like a band where no one was born particularly great. They were just along for the ride and kind of accidentally came out with something incredibly powerful.

Doug Aitken's The Source Trailer

Jack White, LCD Soundsystem, Beck, Lucky Dragons (so underrated, it hurts me) and more musicians, visual artists, actors, photographers and architects discuss the human impulse to create. Cannot wait for Doug Aitken's new documentary The Source:

Two-Star Tabernacle - "Garbage Picker"

This song goes out to whoever's been going through my recyclables at night: At least return my bin. By one of Jack White's bands between the White Stripes' formation and TWS' first album:

Jack White - "Inaccessible Mystery"

 
The B-side of Jack White's Freedom at 21 7" single, and it's flippin' awesome.

I'm 63 years old, you know. Look at you: you're just a baby; you're 22. [...] You wake up at 3 in the afternoon; you ain't got no mom, no dad, yeah, and nothin' else to do. Me, I'm wakin' up at 3 A.M., and I'm worryin' about somethin' that I know I can't undo.

There Were Three Times When I Enjoyed the Rolling Stones:

When I first heard "Gimme Shelter" in Layer Cake, listening to "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)" while driving around country roads in one of my best friends' Dynasty and when Jack White played "Loving Cup" with the Rolling Stones in the Martin Scorsese-directed documentary Shine A Light. Now, there's a fourth: Black Bananas' cover of "Before They Run Me Down" featuring Kurt Vile:



Find the track on Black Bananas' debut LP Rad Times Xpress IV (Drag City, 2011).

Jack White and Josh Homme Together at Last

FINALLY, long-time mutual admirers Jack White and Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme have come together in an official capacity! One of my top dream collaborations has come true! ... unfortunately only in the form of a brief-as-brief-can-be cameo by Josh in Jack's newest music video for "Freedom at 21"; Josh appears even more briefly than Beck did in the White Stripes' video for "The Hardest Button To Button." Now, if only Jack and Josh would make some music together ...

Okay, so the video was available in Canada when I started writing this post, but for some reason, the uploader (JackWhiteVEVO) has made it U.S.-only. So ... keep your eye out for Josh if you ever happen to see the video?

Radiohead + Jack White?

Thom Yorke at Bonnaroo last night: "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."

Holy. Shit. Jack White? Radiohead? Good thing(s) coming. For many like me, collaborations don't come bigger than this.