Electra Radio The Rock And Dance Radio - Webradio Rock Electro

The White Stripes are an American rock music duo from Detroit, Michigan, consisting of Jack White (principal songwriter, vocals, guitar, piano) and Meg White (drums, percussion, vocals). The group rose to prominence as part of the garage rock revival with their successful albums White Blood Cells and Elephant. The White Stripes are known for their raw, low-fidelity sound and simplicity of composition and arrangement, mostly inspired by punk rock, July 14, 2007, marked their tenth anniversary as a band, with a show held at the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, selling out in twelve minutes.

Career

The White Stripes and De Stijl

The White Stripes formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1997, first performing publicly on July 14. (See 1997 in music.) The duo began receiving more attention after Jack White's unceremonious exit from the Detroit garage-rock band The Go in 1999 after serving as their lead guitarist on their first album Whatcha Doin'. For years, it was reported that Jack and Meg were brother and sister, but it was later shown that the Whites are a divorced couple.

Their second release, De Stijl (2000), was named after the De Stijl (The Style) Dutch art movement, which they cited as a source for the approach to their musical image. De Stijl art is on the album cover. The work was recorded on an 8-track analog tape in Jack's living room; he said that, because of the many interruptions during the recording, he would never use that technique again.

White Blood Cells and Elephant

The White Stripes enjoyed their first significant success during 2001 with the release of their first major label album White Blood Cells, initially released on Sympathy for the Record Industry; the album was re-released on V2 Records in 2002. The stripped-down garage rock sound drew critical acclaim in the UK, and in the United States soon afterward, making The White Stripes one of the more acclaimed bands of 2002. The Lego-themed video, directed by Michel Gondry, for the single "Fell in Love with a Girl" off White Blood Cells brought them wider attention.

Their follow-up album, entitled Elephant, was released on April 1, 2003, again to widespread critical acclaim and even more commercial success, as it became The White Stripes' first UK chart-topper and US Top 10 album. It was recorded with Liam Watson at Toe Rag Studios, London. During their "50 Years of Rock and Roll" celebration, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it as the 390th best album of all time. In December 2003, NME Magazine made it their Album of the Year. The album's first single, "Seven Nation Army", was the band's most successful yet, and was followed with a cover of "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself", written by Burt Bacharach. The album's third single was the quite successful "The Hardest Button to Button". On February 8, 2004, the album won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, while "Seven Nation Army" won a Grammy for Best Rock Song.

In 2003, Jack and Meg White appeared in Jim Jarmusch's film Coffee and Cigarettes in a segment entitled "Jack Shows Meg His Tesla Coil". This particular segment contains extensions of White Stripes motifs such as childhood innocence and Nikola Tesla. Later in August of that year, Rolling Stone magazine included Jack White on a special cover of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" issue at number 17 between Johnny Ramone and John Frusciante.

Released in 2004, the music film Under Blackpool Lights was filmed entirely using 16mm film and was directed by Dick Carruthers. Jack White alerted fans to the film's more cryptic elements on his site postings, one of which was undoubtedly the writing scrawled on his arm. Recorded over two nights' worth of shows, the writing appears to say NOXIOUS, which "mysteriously" changes to OBNOXIOUS at certain points when film segments from the other night are used. The film features a cover of the Dolly Parton song "Jolene".

Get Behind Me Satan and other projects

A fifth album, Get Behind Me Satan, was recorded in Jack White's Detroit home and released in North America on June 7, 2005 and has garnered critical acclaim. Three singles were released from the album, the first being "Blue Orchid", a popular song on satellite radio and some FM stations. White's new spouse appears in the video for the song, and the second single was "My Doorbell". The third single, "The Denial Twist", featured a video by Michel Gondry which documented, in typically bizarre White Stripes fashion, the band's week-long appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. The album won Best Alternative Music Album at the 2006 Grammy Awards. They were also nominated for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for the song "My Doorbell".

The band released a cover version of Tegan and Sara's song "Walking with a Ghost" on iTunes on November 14, 2005. The song was later released on December 7, 2005 as the Walking with a Ghost EP featuring four other live tracks.

On December 1, 2005, the group became one of the few bands ever to perform on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart when they performed "The Denial Twist" and "My Doorbell". On a previous show, the group Tenacious D also performed a song after their interview.

The White Stripes postponed the Japanese leg of their world tour after Jack strained his vocal cords, with doctors recommending that Jack not sing or talk for two weeks. After a full recovery, he returned to the stage in Auckland, New Zealand to headline the Big Day Out tour.

On May 15, 2006, The Raconteurs, fronted by Jack White and Brendan Benson, released their debut album Broken Boy Soldiers featuring the hit single "Steady As She Goes". White went on to tour with the band through the rest of the year.

During the 2006 FIFA World Cup, "Seven Nation Army" became the unofficial hymn for Italy's national team, the Azzurriand was picked up by fans of AS Roma, one of Serie A's best teams. The song was sung to serenade Roma's players on the national team, most notably Francesco Totti. The Italian fans often chanted the song's signature guitar riff. A version of the song featuring comments from Italian sports commentator Fabio Caressa enjoyed airplay on Italian radios and TV shows. The song's second line is "A seven-nation army couldn't hold me back," and, appropriately, the Italian team had to play against seven other nations to get the title (Ghana, USA, Czech Republic, Australia, Ukraine, Germany, and France).

The White Stripes appeared in an episode of The Simpsons titled "Jazzy and the Pussycats", which first aired on September 17, 2006. In the episode, Homer and Marge buy a drum kit for Bart in an attempt to find a constructive way for him to channel his energy. In one scene — a homage to the Stripes' clip for "The Hardest Button to Button" — Bart bashes his kit in his bedroom, down the stairs, into the school bus, through the halls of Springfield Elementary and down the street to a corner, where his kit literally collides with Meg's kit, prompting Jack and Meg to chase Bart in a similar drum kit bashing fashion. According to a spokesman for FOX, Jack and Meg recorded their lines in New York City on November 30, 2005, incidentally, shortly before Jack lost his voice and was ordered by doctors not to speak.

On September 25, 2006 The White Stripes were "featured" on the second episode of NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, titled "The Cold Open". Within the episode, the band was scheduled to be the musical hosts on the show within the show but had to cancel after Jack White was stricken with tonsillitis. Although The White Stripes never actually appeared in the episode, a comedian is seen wearing a jet black wig in preparation to act as singer Jack White for a planned White Stripes parody sketch. Jokes were also made about their mysteriously unknown relationship when it was suggested that a sketch was made in which Jack and Meg couldn't remember if they were married, siblings or "just good friends".

On October 12, 2006, it was announced on the official White Stripes website that there would be an album of avant-garde orchestral recordings consisting of past music written by Jack White called Aluminium. The album was made available for pre-order on November 6, 2006 to great demand from the band's fans; the LP version of the project sold out in a little under a day. The project was conceived by Richard Russell, founder of XL Recordings, who co-produced the album with Joby Talbot. It was recorded between August 2005 and February 2006 at Intimate Studios in Wapping, London using an orchestra. The album is available exclusively through the Aluminium website as a numbered limited edition of 3,333 CDs with 999 LPs also produced but now sold out. The download format will not be limited, and will come with an electronic booklet.

On January 12, 2007, it was announced that in the process of reconstruction, V2 Records would no longer release new White Stripes material, leaving the band without a label.

Icky Thump

On February 28, 2007, in an online post spuriously attributed to "Kitayna Ireyna Tatanya Kerenska Alisof of the Moscow Bugle" (a reference to Batman: The Movie), the band announced that they had completed work on their studio album entitled Icky Thump. The album was recorded at Nashville's Blackbird Studio and took almost three weeks to record — the longest of any White Stripes album to date. It would also be the first album with a title track. The album was released on June 16 in Australia, June 18 in New Zealand, the UK and Europe and June 19, 2007 in the United States, Southeast Asia, and Japan. The release came on the heels of a series of concerts in Europe and one in North America..

Three tracks were previewed to NME: "Icky Thump", "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told)" and "Conquest". NME described the tracks as "an experimental, heavy sounding 70's riff," "a strong, melodic love song" and "an unexpected mix of big guitars and a bold horn section," respectively. NME also confirmed the appearance of bagpipes in a video of the band recording the songs but stated that none of the previewed songs featured the instrument.

The song "I'm Slowly Turning into You" was featured in a video on the band's official website. The video depicts Jack White in the studio recording the vocals for the song while a skeletal figure dances in the background. It is also noted on their official MySpace website that "the actual music has been replaced with mid eighties sampling keyboard technology to prevent what industry analysts are now calling 'song poaching'."

The first single from the album, the title track "Icky Thump", was made available online through the iTunes music stores in the United States and Canada on Thursday, April 26, 2007, while it became available in the United Kingdom on June 4. On the US Billboard Charts dated May 12, 2007, "Icky Thump" became the band's first top 40 single, charting at #26, and later charted at #2 in the UK charts.

A leaked copy of the album was first played completely on Chicago's radio station Q101-WKQX on May 30 at 2 PM. Jack White personally called the radio station from Spain, where he was touring, to voice his displeasure. The radio station claimed that they did not intend to upset The White Stripes, and that 'leaking' records on the air was an attempt to stay relevant to its listeners.

One of the more unusual promotional performances for their new album was an acoustic benefit concert entertaining the Chelsea Pensioners in June 2007, most of whom had never heard of the band. Between songs, Jack White expressed his gratitude for the efforts of the wartime generation.

Meanwhile, the music video for the band's second single "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You're Told)" has been completed and slides can be viewed on their official site. It premiered July 30, 2007 on MTV2 Unleashed, MTV.com and MTV2.com. It was also hinted that track "I'm Slowly Turning into You" will also be made a single with a video shoot taking place in near future.

According to a new bulletin made by the band on MySpace and the band's official website, the forthcoming US tour has been cancelled "due to health issues." On September 11, 2007 the White Stripes announced the cancellation of 18 tour dates due to Meg's suffering from "acute anxiety" problems.

Music

Instruments and equipment

The White Stripes are famous for having only two musicians, which limits the instruments played live. Jack, the principal writer, has said this has not been a problem, and that he "always centered the band around the number three. Everything was vocals, guitar and drums or vocals, piano and drums." "Passive Manipulation" (from Get Behind Me Satan), "Who's a Big Baby?" (released on the "Blue Orchid" single), and "St. Andrew (This Battle is in the Air)" (from Icky Thump).

Early on, the band drew attention for their preference for antiquated recording equipment. The album Elephant was recorded on an eight-track machine that dated from the early 1960s. With few exceptions, Jack White has shown a continued partiality towards amps and pedals from the 1960s.

Jack uses a number of effects to create his sound, notably a Digitech whammy pedal to reach pitches that would otherwise not be possible with a regular guitar.

The guitars Jack White uses live are a 1964 JB Hutto Montgomery Airline, a Harmony Rocket, a 1970s Crestwood Astral II, and a 1950s Kay Hollowbody. He has also been seen playing various Gretches including a White Penguin with The Raconteurs. In concert with the Digitech whammy pedal, MXR Micro-Amp, Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi Distortion/Sustainer (now custom modified), and Electro-Harmonix POG (Polyphonic octave generator), White can produce a very distinctive sound. He also uses a Boss TU-2 tuner pedal. He plugs this setup into a 1970s Fender Twin Reverb and two 100-Watt Sears Silvertone 6x10 combo amplifiers.

White also plays other instruments such as a black F-Style Gibson mandolin, Rhodes bass keys, and a Steinway piano. He is currently using a Moog Little Phatty synthesizer. Jack plays a custom-made red and white marimba on "The Nurse", "Forever for Her (Is Over for Me)" as well as on the non-album tracks "Who's A Big Baby" and "Top Special". (This marimba was dumped over in Japan, at the last concert for the Get Behind Me Satan tour.)

Guitar tuning

In addition to the standard tuning for guitar, Jack White uses also several open tunings in many of his songs and also in covers by the band:

• Open D tuning: "Let's Build a Home", "Sister, Do You Know My Name?"
• Open G tuning: "Death Letter", "Little Bird" (both played in Open A during live shows)
• Open E tuning: "A Boy's Best Friend", "I Fought Piranhas", "St. Ides of March", "Stop Breaking Down", "Suzy Lee", "Let's Build a Home" (live), "Goin' Back to Memphis" (live)
• Open A tuning: "Red Rain", "Seven Nation Army", "Catch Hell Blues"

White also uses a Digitech whammy pedal which creates among other things an octave lower to what is played on the guitar, which he uses most notably on the songs "Seven Nation Army" and "The Hardest Button to Button".

Jack White is known to use GHS strings with an unknown gauge on his guitars.

Recording sessions and live performances

Several White Stripes recordings were made rather rapidly. For example, Elephant was recorded in about two weeks in London's Toerag Studio. Jack frequently improvises with solos and often cuts a song short to jump into another. Because of this, no two shows in the same venue are exactly alike, and show length time can vary from 70 to 100 minutes.

On April 25, 2007, the duo announced that they would embark on a tour of Canada performing in all 10 provinces, plus the Yukon, Nunavut and Northwest Territories. In the words of Jack White: “Having never done a full tour of Canada, Meg and I thought it was high time to go whole hog. We want to take this tour to the far reaches of the Canadian landscape. From the ocean to the permafrost. The best way for us to do that is ensure that we perform in every province and territory in the country, from the Yukon to Prince Edward Island. Another special moment of this tour is the show which will occur in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia on July 14, The White Stripes’ Tenth Anniversary.”

On June 24, 2007, just a few hours before their concert at Deer Lake Park, The White Stripes kicked off their cross-Canada tour by playing a 40 minute set for a group of 30 kids at the Creekside Youth Centre in Burnaby. The Canadian tour was also marked by concerts in small markets such as Glace Bay, Whitehorse and Iqaluit, as well as by frequent "secret shows" publicized mainly by posts on The Little Room, a White Stripes fan messageboard. Gigs included performances at a bowling alley in Saskatoon, a youth center in Edmonton, Alberta, a Winnipeg Transit bus and The Forks park in Winnipeg, a park in Whitehorse, the YMCA in downtown Toronto, the Arva Flour Mill in Arva, Ontario, and Locas on Salter (a pool hall) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Video clips from several of the secret shows have been posted to YouTube.

Following Canada, the band returns to the United States to play the first leg of the 16 states they have yet to visit during their career, as well as a limited number of performances in other markets, including New York City and Boston.

Covers

Jack White composes all the White Stripes' music, with the exception of cover songs. In interviews, Jack White has claimed to have performed hundreds of cover songs since the band's inception. He also said that hearing the a cappella song "Grinning in Your Face" by American bluesman Son House "was a transformative moment". The band has covered that song as well as Son House's signature "Death Letter", and "John the Revelator", a traditional song for which House was noted. In LPs and singles, the duo covers other American blues artists such as Blind Willie McTell ("Lord, Send Me an Angel", "Your Southern Can Is Mine"), Leadbelly ("Boll Weevil"), and Robert Johnson ("Stop Breaking Down"). The White Stripes also did a version of the song "St. James Infirmary Blues", which has no known writer but has been performed by many earlier musicians, including The Animals, Louis Armstrong and Janis Joplin. The White Stripes have performed Gene Vincent's "Baby Blue" at some of their shows, including their show for BBC Radio 1 at Maida Vale, London.

The band also plays many covers of Bob Dylan songs, including One More Cup of Coffee, Isis, Love Sick and Outlaw Blues. Black Jack Davey was also recorded and released as a B-side; the song is traditional, but has been made popular on Bob Dylan's Good as I've Been to You. Jack White said that Dylan covers are usually suggested by Meg, who is a huge Dylan fan. Jack White also performed "Ball and Biscuit" as an encore with Dylan on March 17, 2004 at Detroit's State Theatre.

The Stripes have covered Dolly Parton's "Jolene" (which was released as the B-side to the single "Hello Operator" in 2000, and as a live version in the 2004 single "Jolene"), as well as Burt Bacharach's "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" on the album Elephant.

Party of Special Things to Do, a single released in 2000, features three covers of songs by Captain Beefheart: "Party of Special Things to Do", "China Pig" and "Ashtray Heart".

They have covered Canadian indie rock duo Tegan and Sara's "Walking with a Ghost", Brendan Benson's "Good To Me", "Shelter Of Your Arms" by The Greenhornes. Their most recent cover, released on 2007's Icky Thump, is of "Conquest", a song written by Corkey Robbins, which was then covered and subsequently popularized by Patti Page.

Shortest live show

The White Stripes recently played their 'Shortest live show ever'. This show was performed on 16 July 2007 on George Street, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. Jack played a single C# note accompanied by a bass drum/crash cymbal hit from Meg. At the end of the show, Jack announced, "We have now officially played in every province and territory in Canada." They then left the stage and performed a full show later that night in St John's.

Record collecting

Jack and Meg White are both self-proclaimed connoisseurs of vinyl and record collecting. The White Stripes are, according to Record Collector Magazine, the most collectible band of modern music. Highly sought after are the band's first two releases on small Detroit label Italy Records. The first pressings of "Let's Shake Hands" and "Lafayette Blues" were issued on red and white wax, respectively, and both were limited to one thousand copies. These singles have fetched in excess of $100 USD on the auction website eBay.

The "holy grail" of collectors is the "Lafayette Blues" first pressing with a hand-painted sleeve and a marbled red and white vinyl. Only 15 copies exist worldwide, and the sleeves were painted by Jack & Italy Records owner Dave Buick. Jack painted 7 (signified by a 'III' in the corner), Dave painted 7 (signified by a HW over the letter B in the corner), and they collaborated on number 15. These extremely rare records have sold for as high as $2,800 and were only available at the record release party at Detroit's Gold Dollar back on October 23, 1998.

Another highly collectible White Stripes record is the Sub Pop Singles Club release of Party of Special Things to Do, which contained Captain Beefheart covers issued on half red/half white wax and limited to 1,300 copies. It contained the tracks "Party of Special Things to Do", "China Pig" and "Ashtray Heart".

In more recent times, the latest collectible is the Triple Inchophone, a specialized record player which plays reformatted White Stripes singles on 3-inch records, including the track "Top Special" which is exclusive to the 3-inch format. While the band was intent on purchasing as many of the record players as possible from the manufacturer, Bandai, there were only 400 available. This made the record player worth far more than it would have been otherwise — some fans have paid in excess of $1,000 for one. Even the Rob Jones-designed White Stripes 45 boxes (used to store either the Inchophone or 7" singles) are known to sell for over $200. The Inchophone and 45 box were available only at the shows on the 2005–06 Who's a Big Baby? World Tour. There are also 3-inch records for "The Denial Twist" that are only available from Jack personally.

The most rare recording has yet to be discovered. According to Jack White, he recorded an as-yet unheard song on a record. White and Brian Muldoon hid 100 records in 100 pieces of furniture in 2004 in celebration of Muldoon's 25th year of upholstering furniture in Detroit. Says White, "we put 100 records in 100 pieces that year, and maybe, one day, they'll be found. This is a record no one has ever heard and maybe will never hear, but it's a nice time capsule. I'm sure a lot of upholsterers would open up a chair, pull out that record and throw it away, so that's the funny part about it."

The most recent high profile record release of the White Stripes is a special limited edition red vinyl recording of "Rag and Bone" from their Icky Thump album. It is included for free with the June 6, 2007 issue of NME. The record has no audio on the B-side instead featuring an etching of Meg White. It was shipped in special gatefold packaging with room for the "Icky Thump" 7" single which was pressed in white vinyl to match the special edition red Rag and Bone record. It features an etching of Jack White on the b-side. Jack has said that both songs are "Interesting bits of British phraselogy, so we wanted to give them to the good children of Britain first"

Lyrics

Interpersonal relationships, especially those between men and women, are the main theme of White Stripes song lyrics. Jack White does not write about politics, as a rule. However, "The Big Three Killed My Baby" could be considered as a political song as well, as the lyrics attack the automotive industry's lack of vision and the fall of the major labor unions of the 1960s to 1980s in Detroit. Also, in the song "Icky Thump", he sings "White Americans, what? / Nothing better to do? / Why don't you kick yourself out / You're an immigrant, too." The song "The Union Forever" features lines from the Orson Welles film Citizen Kane.

Many White Stripes songs refer to school and childhood, namely "Sister, Do You Know My Name?", "We're Going to Be Friends", "I Think I Smell a Rat", "Suzy Lee", "Black Math", "The Hardest Button to Button" and "Passive Manipulation".

Curiously, all six studio albums feature songs with titles starting with the word "little". In order of album release, there is "Little People", "Little Bird", "Little Room", "Little Acorns", "Little Ghost" and "Little Cream Soda". Furthermore, on the intro to "Let's Build a Home", from the De Stijl album, there is a recording of a song called "Little Red Box". Live they have covered Bacharach & David's "Little Red Book" made popular by the 1960s LA group Love. The song that Jack wrote for Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose album is called "Little Red Shoes" and is timed at 3 minutes and 33 seconds, the number 3 being Jack's personal signature.

Jack White has a personal fascination with redheads and it shows up in his lyrics. Songs like "Fell in Love With a Girl", "Icky Thump", "Take, Take, Take" and "300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues" all mention redheads or red hair. White has said in interviews that Rita Hayworth (a redhead) was his focal point during the recording of Get Behind Me Satan and he also happens to be married to Karen Elson, an English supermodel famous for her red hair.

Band motifs

Color scheme

Red, white and black, the band's signature colors, are, according to Jack, "the most powerful color combination of all time, from a Coca-Cola can to a Nazi banner." These colors permeate the duo's distinctive wardrobe and album artwork. In some interviews, the group has said that the colors red and white refer to peppermint candy, a symbol of childhood innocence. Jack has also mentioned that the colors are used in baby toys because they are easily visible to infants, who are slightly colorblind at birth. Besides the red, white and black that the band wears, Jack also said hats are "really important."

Interestingly, before forming the band, Jack had also created a three-color scheme for an upholstery business he started in his early twenties. All of his tools, his van, and his uniform used the colors white, black, and yellow.

Song lyrics often include the band motif of colors mentioned in the above section. Song titles sometimes feature these colors ("Black Math", "Red Rain", and "White Moon"). Incidentally, the album Icky Thump was recorded at Blackbird Studio in Nashville, TN. The title track from Icky Thump integrates all the trademark colors of the band into the song's lyrics and storyline: "redhead señorita", "black rum" and "one white eye".

The number three

Jack has emphasized the significance that the number three holds for the band, citing it as inspiration not only for their tri-colored uniforms, but their pared-down approach to what he considers the three elements of song: storytelling, melody and rhythm. The number three also frequently appears in White Stripes' album artwork, and texts written by Jack, such as liner notes or messages written on the band's website, are often signed with "Jack White III" or simply "III". There are also only three sounds--drums, guitar and vocals--in most of their songs; sometimes keyboard or piano is substituted for guitar. Jack also only uses three electric guitars for the band's live concerts: a vintage 1960's-Airline, a 1950's Kay Hollowbody and a Crestwood Astrall II. Also notable is Jack's admiration for the Carol Reed film The Third Man, which is similarly the name of his production company. Another interesting point of Jack White's seeming fixation on the number three was his choice of nickname which he wanted to be known as during the band's 2005 UK tour, "Three Quid".

Discography

Awards

• 2002 MTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects for Fell in Love with a Girl
• 2002 MTV Video Music Award for Best Editing for Fell in Love with a Girl
• 2002 MTV Video Music Award for Breakthrough Video for Fell in Love with a Girl
• 2003 MTV Video Music Award for Best Editing for Seven Nation Army
• 2004 Brit Award for Best International Group
• 2004 Brit Award for Best Single for Seven Nation Army
• 2004 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album for Elephant
• 2004 Grammy Award for Best Rock Song for Seven Nation Army
• 2006 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album for Get Behind Me Satan

Nominations

2007

• MTV Video Music Award for Best Group