No, of course Meg does it. Seriously, why on earth would an indie band who released two extremely obscure albums before getting big just draft in a drummer to do live shows and photo shoots? And why would a band who obviously has no interest in refined recording, who gained a larger audience without any overt effort to do so go to the trouble of having a live-only drummer?
Go see them live. Meg’s a kick arse drummer, as valid a part of the band as Jack. You’re talking as if they’re Evanescence or something.
This has nothing to do with the Grammys, but I’ve got a second-hand White Stripes story:
My wife is an artist, and six years or so ago she moved into her current studio building. This building is a small converted factory, and houses about 30 studios of various sizes. It’s owned and managed by a family; the tenants are mostly artists (including the mom), but there’s also a graphics arts company (run by one of the sons) as well as a commercial photographer and a furniture maker.
Now (and I’ve told this part before in another thread) when my wife moved into the building, she took over a ground-floor studio from a guy that just moved out who’d used it to do upholstery. That guy was Jack White. As a matter of fact, he left behind a quite sturdy 10 ft long table that my wife still uses. (Ooooh! Jack White’s table! That’s as close as I’ll ever get to meeting someone famous!)
Just recently, I was talking with the son that runs the graphic arts company. Turns out that Jack left the building because he wanted to concentrate more on his musical career and less on his upholstry. This guy had a long talk with Jack, advising him that he’d have more certain prospects sticking with upholstry, it’s a skill that’s always in demand, it’s hard to make a living in the music business, you can’t depend on making it big, etc etc. I guess he wasn’t very convincing, because Jack did wind up concentrating more on his music career.
So (as this guy laughingly admits) he now has the distinction of being the guy that told Jack White not to quit his day job.
About 2 years ago they gave an interview on NPR. Jack mentioned that they usually don’t do interviews at all but he always listened to NPR in his apholstry shop.
for the masses who don’t understand the importance of Marketing, It’s called Garage Rock… It’s supposed to be primitive. The slack jawed simplicity of her drumming makes it more… earthy? soulfull? human ?
old argument on these boards. you either don’t like it, or you convince urself that u understand their raisn de etre or their gestalt or whatnot and the fact that she’s terrible adds to their coolness / thereness realness ratio… the primitivity makes it “garage rock”, which apparantly is a Freakin GREAT marketing ploy lol.
Jack carries it, and he’s damned talented to be able to do so much on his own. Zep/BigStar influences out the wazoo, with an even more heartfelt rock/blues sensibility.
I wanted to hate them, I’m an old prog rock sophistico, but damn I like it. The fact that he sings like a crippled Buckley makes me want to punch him and then plug in my bass and show them how much suckier it would be with bass…
I thought they sounded just about as good as every one of the hundreds of garage bands I have ever heard. That someone actually signed them is a mystery to me. They will probably have another record or two in them after the grammy exposure, then off to the bargain bin.
I guess I wasted my money on those drum lessons. As of recently, you can go ahead and play like shit and that is perfectly fine. It’s all about the vibe, man.
I absolutely love The Stripes but in all fairness Meg is an absolutely shite drummer! I also have only seen them live once (Glastonbury Festival) and they were extremely disappointing which pissed me off because they always seem to rock when playing awards shows etc. and I’ve heard they rock in concert. I’d like to think it was problems with the sound system or maybe just an off day. Also can someone clear this up for me; are they brother and sister or (ex) husband and wife?
Crap. I don’t like the Stripes, but hearing they did that song made me curious. I don’t know Death Letter offhand, so first I had to cope with having Seven Nation Army in my head for 24 hours straight. Now I just found a sample of their cover of Death Letter online. It sounds very cool - I think the stripped-down sound they want actually works on a blues tune. Crap. Now I have to reevaluate my opinion of a band I don’t like. Thanks a lot, Sam Stone.
Oh, and if you want to see an absolutely killer live performance from them, see if you can download “Let’s Build a Home” as they performed it on the Conan O’Brien show. Jack starts in with that song, segues into another, then goes back to the original. Walks over to Conan’s desk, throws his guitar on it, and starts playing it like a lap steel. On the way back to the stage, the guitar shorts out, so Jack throws it down and just segues to an a-capella version of ‘John The Revelator’ to finish the song. Meg doesn’t miss a beat through the whole thing.
They’ve both got lots of talent. Meg isn’t a flashy pyrotechnic drummer, but Jack throws a lot of bizarre transitions and odd time signatures at her (listen to “Hardest Button To Button”), and she handles it all fine.
I do understand what they’re going for in their sound. I can’t listen to that song, though. Heard it in the car once. All the people who talk about the quality of his lyrics (someone in that ‘oral history’ link compares him to Dylan) will have to explain to me the brilliance of “the hardest button to button” sung unintelligibly 58 times in succession.
Wasn’t blown away by the Ball and Biscuit sample I heard. The performance you mentioned does sound interesting, though. I found the Grammy performance online and I’m about to watch.
Wish I hadn’t had to absorb yet another 90 seconds of Seven Nation Army first, but that was pretty cool. I liked the album sample better since he seemed to keep the vocal stuff in check… it’s a cool song and I may appropriate it for the blues thing I was talking about doing in the thread I started, but I still don’t like the man’s voice.
…And I like it even less when he’s trying to squeal John the Revelator like he’s running a race or something. I like that song, and that was just painful.
How on earth could anyone put The White Stripes’ performance above Robert Randolph’s? I’d never even heard of him, but I was completely blown away. I’ve ordered the CD from Amazon now because of it.
<minor hijack>
Who in the hell is the woman I saw on MTV2 this week butchering “Fell In Love With A Girl”? It’s suitable for playing in department stores but…
Randolph is very cool. There isn’t a lot of variety in his sound, and interestingly I’ve heard a lot of people who like him make the same complaint (he gets bad intonation). Didn’t hear the Grammy performance, though.
I found a different live version of Death Letter that I like better than the Grammy one. I think maybe the occasion had Jack too amped up, he’s a little more under control in this one. Also, it doesn’t require me to listen to Seven Nation Army again.
