A White Stripes Christmas

In my small stash of Christmas presents this year were a couple of White Stripes items. The first was their first album. The second was a DVD of their live performance at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool, England in January 2004.

The White Stripes is the latest in a long list of bands where my interest in them started off with a recommendation for a single album and I've then ended up buying all their albums. It started with Elephant, in particular the track The Hardest Button to Button, which I kept hearing on Radio Paradise. I now have all of their albums and the DVD compliments them beautifully. It's interesting that, for each artist, I almost always like the first album (the recommended one) the most. Then I seem to like the early work more then the later albums. This has happened with a lot of artists. I'm not sure exactly why. My guess would be that I subconsciously get a tad jaded with the same style of music and I prefer simplistic to complex, but I'm not certain.

In this case, the raw primitiveness of the White Stripes music is my main attraction. That seems to be lost a bit as the band gets more famous and settled in their ways. Don't get me wrong. All the albums are great, I just like their earlier work best.

The band in this case consists of Jack and Meg White who are brother and sister (or ex-husband and wife depending upon whom you believe). Meg on drums (with the occasional vocals) and Jack on guitar, keyboards and vocals. They work well together. Don't expect any fancy production frills here. Their simplistic (ie. eight track) recording techniques just works perfectly.

The DVD was a surprise in that it's recorded in a similar "raw" fashion using 8mm cameras. Initially I was a tad put-off by the grainyness, then I suddenly realized that it "just worked" and does a good job of captured the bands style.

A little while ago, Tim Bray mentioned that when he saw the band in concert that the audio and visuals weren't everything he was hoping for. The DVD would appear to be better than that. The lyrics are not completely lost in the noise. Having heard their music so much recently, I guess my brain also filled in the missing bits and gave me an enjoyable experience. There is still that large spotlight behind Meg that was blinding for the shots they did from the audience though.

I spend several minutes with my head tilted at 90 degrees trying to read what the tattoo on Jack's arm said, then gave up. If anybody knows, can they clue me in? A quick google for it didn't find anything. I'm also curious why the stage seemed to be covered in sawdust. I can understand it if Jack moved around a lot, but he doesn't really do that. Meg even less so. She has economy of movement down to a fine art, even performing some of the numbers with one hand behind her back. Still sounds great.

If you'd like a taste of the White Stripes, checkout the two numbers (and the interview) they did on Jon Stewart's Comedy Central Daily Show. If you don't come away with My Doorbell lodged in your head, then you must be just wired differently then I am.

[Technorati Tag: The White Stripes]

[Technorati Tag: Music]

( Jan 09 2006, 07:15:59 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [4]