Originally posted by movieking
Oh, and for Mort Crim, I used to watch him and Billy Bonds when we got Detroit stations. It sort of surprises me that he was a drunk. Are they both still on the air?

Originally posted by Buford T Pusser
I read somewhere that the cd could be purchase with five different covers. Anyone heard this? I've only seen one.

Originally posted by Lara Means
Meg White did not sing Cold Cold Night.

STRIPE TEASE

Fans ignore artistic shortcomings as bluesy Detroit duo succeeds while playing coy with the public

By George Varga
POP MUSIC CRITIC

April 24, 2003


Is the White Stripes rock's biggest underground sensation to break out – or the most overrated? (Answer: Both.)

Is this much-hyped duo from Detroit the neo-garage-rock answer to Led Zeppelin – or a post-ironic version of the Monkees with better guitar work? (Answer: Both.)

And is the brash, primal music made by singer-guitarist Jack White and his partner, would-be drummer and vocalist Meg White, derivative and formulaic – or fresh and daring? (Answer: Yes and no.)

If the responses to these questions don't clarify matters, well, that's par for the course.

Because not much about the White Stripes, which performs a sold-out San Diego show Wednesday at SOMA, is clear to begin with. And that perfectly suits this self-contradictory duo, which thrives on its artistic limitations and gimmicky self-promotion.

Prior to the recent release of its fourth and newest album, "Elephant," now ranked at No. 13 on the national Billboard charts, Jack went out of his way to downplay expectations. He even predicted universal disappointment among fans for the album, the sequel to the duo's 2002 commercial breakthrough release, "White Blood Cells."

Of course, it was a calculated way to increase expectations and interest in the album, which was released on the group's own Third Man label and is distributed by the major label V2.

Jack also suggested that White Stripes had disbanded. This contention, which was then quickly dismissed as a misquote, follows his frequent claims that the group will break up after its upcoming fifth album (a position from which he's shied away in recent months).

This kind of winking double-talk makes it all the more impressive that the Motor City duo has managed to maintain its all-important indie street cred.

Never mind the White Stripes' appearances on the "MTV Movie Awards" and "Saturday Night Live," or that Jack and Meg opened several arena shows last year for the Rolling Stones.

Never mind that the stage uniforms Jack and Meg religiously sport – '60s-style outfits that never deviate from a red, white and black color scheme – would get any teen-pop act laughed out of the room.

And never mind that the White Stripes have steadfastly billed

themselves as a "brother-sister" act, despite the fact Jack and Meg are actually a divorced couple, not siblings (or, as they have more recently claimed, cousins).

Making sense of it all is pointless, beyond the fact that these silly PR machinations detract from what should matter most about any band, and that's the music.

Alas, the White Stripes' music is the most problematic issue, at least for anyone who values originality and honesty – two qualities lacking in the work of this retro-chic pair.

Jack acknowledged the absence of the latter in an interview with an English music paper a few years ago, saying: "I like things as honest as possible, even if sometimes they can only be an imitation of honesty." Hmm, with this kind of logic, can a career in politics be looming for Jack after his duo's promised demise?

Either way, the White Stripes' music ranks among the most imitative heard on either side of the Atlantic in some time, rivaling that of such derivative neo-garage-rock sensations as the Strokes, the Hives and the Vines.

This doesn't mean Jack and Meg aren't capable of producing some visceral sonic thrills on stage, where the excitement of the moment can outweigh the weaknesses of Jack's not remotely original songs and Meg's ham-fisted nondrumming. Nor does it mean that the two aren't genuinely enthusiastic about making music that should sound familiar to anyone whose idea of classic-rock predates the Pixies and Nirvana.

By combining punk-inspired discontent and garage-rock raunch with minimalist instrumentation and the raw sensuality and down-and-out dejection of the blues, Jack and Meg have created a less-is-more approach. That approach is further emphasized by their sparse, guitar-and-drums-only instrumentation and lo-fi recording techniques.

The appeal of the White Stripes is obvious for youthful fans seeking an alternative to blustering rap-metal, computerized teen-pap, self-congratulatory hip-hop and the numbing sameness of most commercial pop radio in general. And for anyone unfamiliar with the pioneering blues artists whose music Jack and Meg shamelessly appropriate, the White Stripes probably sound like a revelation.

But the more you know about such blues greats as Robert Johnson, Son House and Blind Willie McTell (to name three of Jack's avowed favorites), the more obvious it becomes that the White Stripes are plundering a rich musical past of African-American music few of their listeners even know exist.

Jack and Meg's Led Zeppelin fixation is especially blatant, be it on "Why Can't You Be Nicer To Me?" (from the White Stripes' second album, "De Stijl") or "Black Math" and "Bail and Biscuit" (from the new "Elephant"), to cite just a few examples. Given how indebted that legendary English band was to American blues, hearing the White Stripes mimic Zeppelin's Robert Plant and Jimmy Page is in effect like hearing a distillation of a distillation, however spirited it may be.

If you enjoy Jack's slide-guitar work, then hearing the blazing playing of, say, Muddy Waters, Freddie Roulette and hot newcomer Robert Randolph should be a revelation.

If you enjoy the White Stripes' earnest but pale versions of Johnson's "Stop Breaking Down," House's "Death Letter" and McTell's "Your Southern Can Is Mine," prepare to have your socks blown off when you experience the originals, which should be as close as your neighborhood record store or the Internet.

Of course, any musician in any idiom is shaped by their influences, and even the greatest began by emulating the sound and style of their heroes. What matters is what new or established artists do with those influences and how they reshape them into something new and distinctive by adding their own ideas and innovations.

To be blunt, reinventing the music of the past is a noble goal; regurgitating it is not, as everyone from the Rolling Stones to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion has discovered over the years. After four albums, Jack and Meg still seem unable to transcend their influences.

Yes, Jack's admiration for Delta and urban blues is commendable, since virtually every musical style from jazz and rock to heavy metal and hip-hop owes a profound debt to blues.

But he has thus far shown himself incapable of adding his own imprint to the music he so obviously loves. And while he clearly has excellent taste in blues, folk and pop, as evidenced by his cover versions of Bob Dylan's "One More Cup of Coffee," Burt Bacharach's "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself" and various blues gems, his own songs don't even hint at matching them for quality or originality.

As for Meg's plodding drumming, the less said the better. Or, as one contributor to a music Web site in England recently posted online: "Meg White is cute, but is a disgrace to all female drummers (like me) out there – wait – a disgrace to ALL drummers out there."

The White Stripes are to be commended for helping re-popularize an elemental, back-to-basics approach in an age dominated by high-tech musical dreck. But unless and until Jack and Meg are able to begin innovating and stop emulating, the White Stripes' music will continue to ring hollow.