White Stripes

[MOON TRAVELLER EXAMINER, APR 13, 2003] - When I got to Boston I was on the second leg of a journey to the big city and away from the country, or, more particularly, the Midwest.

Sure enough I hadn’t been in Boston too long before I was glad to meet a guy with a car, and be glad to be out riding. This is what we did back there in Wisconsin. So you could say: we leave; we come back. If we get hung up about the process -  that’s no good.

Cities are okay. But the long road rolling, the air to be breathing, blowing out the carbon: that’s part of God’s plan. And the music goes with it, much of it deliberately mixed for dashboard speakers.

Tommy Myra had the car and it was brilliant – a yellow Chevrolet SS Monte Carlo.. Circa 68. Chrome wheels. Like a GTO. Somewhat jacked up. And this was the time of Road Runner –“Driving past the Stop & Shop, with the radio on”, and in fact WBCN was on, and there was the model in the air and the experience on the asphalt there together.

All this is just homage to Lester Bangs. I am really trying to get to reviewing the White Stripes new CD.

You see, eager to get miles on, I had to listen to a lot of music that I would not choose to. And I hear this stuff in the new White Stripes CD. This included Golden Earring, Thin Lizzy, T-Rex, Jeff Beck, Queen, and others. Al l of which I hear, but it’s okay, in the new album from the two-piece White Stripes of Detroit. In the mix, it comes out a real rock.

The big thing here is that the band works fast, doesn’t hide it’s influences, and like in the momentous 45 rock era of the 60s, eats those influences for breakfast and spits them out for lunch.

This Elephant was recorded in London. And yes there is something of our Coalition Partners there in it. It’s a Mocker epic. From what I read of what Jack Stripe had to say about the making of this one, I would guess people were saying to him: ‘Well you’ll do something different now, right; you can afford other pieces now, right? Time to get out of the box isn’t it?’

So, being some kind of natural born genius, he and band mate Meg proceeded to: Stay in the box! And do the thing they do! And they don’t worry about perfection, as time takes care of that. And they deal with basic Detroit issues, which are simple – how do white folks do the blues? [Which is a problem the Brits seemed to have gave up on around the time that Black Sabbath went to its first Saturday Night Idiot Coven.]

And they got the Detroit Chevrolet sound too. But though I owe breath and air for several years to Tommy Myra, I go to pay ‘omage here to my old Midwestern Bud Jim Haas, who first pulled my coat to the White Stripes, when I was dismissive [She-hit, I could play that good, I said, or something ‘liarly’ to that effect], but to later wake up to their merit when I hear, in the car, Hotel Yorba on their White Blood Cells CD – which actually came out last year, these guys don’t waste time!]

Elephant rocks, but also has rocking blues, and pretty songs, a Bert Bacharach song, and good lyrics too. Actual uniqueness comes from close proximity to real feelings. He gets nervous when his girl comes around; when they break up, it is so hard to look at here that ‘it helps to have a mirror in the room;” he keeps her phone number in the back of his bible. And more.

Don’t thing too hard: The White Stripes Elephant CD is out and you should go and buy it.

Last update: 4/12/2003; 11:55:18 AM.