Posted by Christopher Glotfelty (02/09/2010 @ 8:48 pm)
During the Super Bowl, an Air Force ad ran featuring a song strikingly similar to the White Stripes’ “Fell in Love with a Girl.” Like most bands, the White Stripes don’t appreciate having their songs ripped, and they were swift in letting the culprits know about it.
From Rolling Stone:
“We believe our song was re-recorded and used without permission of the White Stripes, our publishers, label or management,” the band writes in a statement on their official Website. “We have not licensed this song to the Air Force Reserve and we plan to take strong action to stop the ad containing this music.” Watch the offending commercial on the Air Force Reserve site. UPDATE: The video and page housing it have both been pulled from the Air Force Reserve site.
“The White Stripes takes strong insult and objection to the Air Force Reserves presenting this advertisement with the implication that we licensed one of our songs to encourage recruitment during a war we do not support,” the Stripes write. “The White Stripes support this nation’s military, at home and during times when our country needs and depends on them. We simply don’t want to be a cog in the wheel of the current conflict, and hope for a safe and speedy return home for our troops.”
Bad move, Air Force. The Super Bowl is the last place you want to advertise if you’re trying to avoid copyright infringement.
As I compiled my list of the best music of the decade (a much, much longer list than you see here) one inescapable conclusion reared its shaggy head: the last 10 years pretty much belonged to Jack White.
How many other artists produced five stellar albums in the aughts, not to mention a couple of killer side projects and (that old rock critic standby) incendiary live shows?
No one, that’s who.
So, the best album of the decade really came down to which White Stripes album did you like more, White Blood Cells or Elephant.
Thankfully there’s no wrong answer. I first became enamored of “Fell in Love With a Girl,” totally fell for “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” became quite close to “We Are Going to Be Friends” and spent a lot of time in “Hotel Yorba” and “Little Room.”
On the other hand, Elephant had “Seven Nation Army.”
“Seven Nation Army,” motherfuckers. How could a song released in 2003 sound like it invented the bass line? Not just that bass line, but the whole concept of bass lines.
So as we recap our favorites of the decade, rock lives on into the new century in various forms, from low down and dirty to high and arty to pulsating and poppy, while what was once the cutting-edge hip-hop has devolved into auto-tuned disco synth. No doubt something new will emerge in the next decade to take our minds off it.
1. The White Stripes: White Blood Cells (or Elephant)
2. Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
3. Outkast: Stankonia (or Speakerboxx/The Love Below)
4. Green Day: American Idiot
5. The New Pornographers: Electric Version (or maybe Mass Romantic)
6. The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
7. LCD SoundsystemL Sounds of Silver
8. TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain
9. Jay-Z: The Blueprint
10. The Strokes: Is This It?
Just a few of the runner-ups:
Queens of the Stone Age: Songs for the Deaf, Rated R
Belle & Sebastian: Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Drive By Truckers: Southern Rock Opera, Dirty South
Sufjan Stevens: Come On Feel the Illinoise
Arcade Fire: Funeral
Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand
Decemberists: Picaresque, Crane Wife
Radiohead: In Rainbows
Ben Folds: Rockin’ the Suburbs
Missy Elliott: Miss E…So Addictive
The Roots: Phrenology
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Posted by Christopher Glotfelty (12/18/2009 @ 2:09 pm)
During the summer of 2007 (seems like ages ago, doesn’t it?), the White Stripes stuck to their promise of touring every province in Canada. With camera crew in tow, Jack and Meg also stopped at an old folks home, rocked out on a public bus, and snuck in frames of bowling before their culminating gig in Nova Scotia. The result is Under Great White Northern Skies, a beautifully shot tour documentary due in March.
Third Man is currently selling the documentary as part of a mega box set, which includes a live album, live DVD, and photo book. If you have $179 to spare and are a White Stripes nut, have at it.
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Posted by Christopher Glotfelty (10/15/2009 @ 2:46 pm)
It may come as a surprise to some that the White Stripes have never released any outtakes throughout their lengthy career. Most bands would jump at the opportunity to milk every last dollar from their adoring fan base, patching together worthless compilation after compilation. Frontman Jack White has been busy in 2009, delving into projects with the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, and Dead Weather. Thankfully, he’s found it in his heart to let fans hear how his primary band sounded in their developing years.
Third Man Records announced today that the White Stripes will exclusively release outtakes from the “Let’s Shake Hands” recording sessions in March 1998 to Platinum members of the Vault subscription service. This is the first time in the White Stripes’ celebrated career that they have released outtakes from any studio session. Alternate versions of “Let’s Shake Hands,” which was the duo’s first official 7″ release, along with its b-side “Look Me Over Closely,” will be part of the offering. Arguably, though, the most exciting part of the news blast (for fans of Jack White’s other bands) was that Vault members will also receive The Raconteurs: Live in London, a double LP, recorded in 2008, and a limited-edition Dead Weather screen-print poster designed by Rob Jones.
Registration for the next Vault Platinum membership service is open now until October 22nd.
Check out the Vault’s website for more information. You have to admire guys like Jack White and Neil Young who never seem to take a break.
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Better than the 2003 collection that bears his name, this michelgondry.com-exclusive set of music videos is simply staggering. The beauty of Gondry’s work is that his methods are surprisingly low-tech (Beck’s “Cellphone’s Dead” being this set’s exception). He uses reflective glass to create the ghosts that haunt Paul McCartney’s house in “Dance Tonight,” and Steriogram’s “Walkie Talkie Man” is a brilliant stop-motion clip, using both real people and their string equivalents. Gondry assembles a couple of clever yet completely unique one-take videos with Michael Andrews and Gary Jules’ cover of “Mad World” and the White Stripes’ “The Denial Twist,” and his videos from the pre-CGI early ’90s, namely Thomas Dolby’s “Close but No Cigar” and Sananda Maitreya’s “She Kissed Me” (otherwise known as Terence Trend D’Arby to your older brothers and sisters), look as good as any video made today. The set comes with a bunch of behind-the-scenes footage, a couple films featuring Gondry solving a Rubik’s Cube with various parts of his body (feet and nose, to be precise), and they also added the parody of Gondry’s video of the White Stripes’ “The Hardest Button to Button” that appeared on a 2006 episode of “The Simpsons.” Genius stuff, across the board. If only he could replicate this consistency in the feature film arena.(ElektroFilm)
