By: David Schultz

In a world where rock stars are becoming increasingly interchangeable commodities, Jack White has chiseled an unshakable reputation in stone. With his sister/ex-wife/third cousin, once removed Meg in tow, White has methodically worked his way from the underground clubs of Detroit, Michigan onto the cover of Rolling Stone with the Rolling Stones. Just in case he’s getting too much attention on his own, White has rejoined his don’t-call-it-a-side-project side project The Raconteurs for a summer tour that brought them back to New York City for three sold-out shows at Terminal 5. On the offhand chance there was still any debate on the subject, The Raconteurs shows established one simple fact: Jack White is a rock star, a flat-out, honest-to-God, bigger-than-life rock star.

A year ago, The Raconteurs – or The Saboteurs as far as our Australian readers are concerned - played an efficient one hour set at the Roseland Ballroom. Sounding gritty and raw, the show centered on their noteworthy debut album Broken Boy Soldiers. For their Saturday night Terminal 5 set, The Raconteurs moved well past the ninety minute mark playing, tapping into the electric blues maelstrom they unleashed on their recently released Consolers Of The Lonely.
At a White Stripes show, when he’s only accompanied by Meg on drums, White is essentially a one man inferno, prowling the stage and blowing audiences away with his charisma, energy and wild interpretations of traditional blues riffs. As a member of the Raconteurs, White still digs deep into the well of distorted blues rock, he just gets more help in rounding out the sound from bassist Jack Lawrence, drummer Patrick Keeler and guitarist Brendan Benson.

Amid the stylized curtains, unusually ornate sets, high-quality posters and identically dressed roadies, The Raconteurs seemed a little out of place within their own creation when they hit the stage in casual dress. If they’re trying to bring back Seventies style guitar-based power rock, they are doing it by bringing back the wild white-boy afros that went hand in hand with the genre. Packing arena-sized rock into the concert hall, Benson and The Greenhornes rhythm section played like they were an extension of Jack White, in tune with his penchant for electrified blues. At times they sounded a little like Black Sabbath, at others they had a touch of Robby Krieger-heavy Doors style and Keeler seemed to know the exact moment when the drumbeat from “My Doorbell” would accentuate what they were doing..

Even though their time together has been relatively short, The Racs played with veteran assurance. For “Steady As She Goes,” White and the boys set up the song as if they were leading into a classic rock powerhouse before delivering it like that’s exactly what it is. Benson and White traded lead vocals for most of the night with Benson’s sounding like a more measured and calm version of White’s excitable, often manic delivery. When they sing together, as they did on “Together,” they put forth a nice change of pace from the direct and incendiary rave ups of “Rich Kid Blues” and “Consolers Of The Lonely.”

With their opening set The Black Lips matched The Raconteurs for vintage sound, pushing the distortion levels to new highs. Heavy on garage style psychedelics, the Lips sounded a lot like a young version of The Who must have sounded in the early 60s, tearing off one fuzzy yet melodic riff after another. The only set that remained lacking was The Raconteurs encore, during which they seemed to have lost their focus. Lacking the same zip of the main set, they became mired down in plodding guitars. They did earn themselves a little bit of New York bo-ho credibility by bringing out Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs who came out to trade licks with White and Benson during “Broken Boy Soldier.”

Unlike the traditional lead-in to the many tours, The Raconteurs didn’t sow the seeds of expectation by recording an album and then letting anticipation build by making people wait for an arbitrary release date. Rather than let the tracks sit and wait for the inevitable leak, The Raconteurs moved while the iron was hot and got the new album out there. It hasn’t hurt them one bit and they may have created a blueprint for other bands to follow. After all, once the album is done, why let it sit for weeks when people could be listening to it? Then again, by now we should be used to going wherever Jack White leads.

Labels: Jack White, The Raconteurs

Given the success of Jack White's "side project" The Raconteurs there was some speculation that perhaps Jack wouldn't do further recordings with Meg White as the White Stripes. Stories circulating on the net now say otherwise. Reports have the Whites close to a new record deal.

Warner Brothers is reportedly close to signing the duo to a one record deal. No word on when the said project may commence but the deal could garner the Whites a $3-4 million dollar guarantee. Not a bad haul in today's market before selling a single disc. Although I have no doubt that if the Stripes can recapture their former magic they'll move some units.

Labels: Jack White, The Raconteurs, White Stripes

By: Rinjo Njori

When Jack White and Brendan Benson announced they were forming The Raconteurs with Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler (The Greenhornes' rhythm section) there were rumblings through the "underground" that not only did this make sense, but that fans of both The White Stripes and Brendan Benson's power pop would by default create the elusive "supergroup."

Benson, a pop song writer and producer, has been releasing albums since the mid-90s. White, the reluctant avant-garage godfather, had just released Get Behind Me Satan and produced Loretta Lynn's comeback album, Van Lear Rose. While seemingly sudden, the truth is the band had been evolving for some time, with friends coming together to write some music void of expectations. In a perfect world, the two would bring everything great about their respective bodies of work and create something greater, perhaps a spectacular rock record that would incorporate blues, country, rock and power pop. Sadly Broken Boy Soldiers makes you think this might be a one shot deal. There's nothing spectacular or great, just pretty good music with Benson and White rarely taking any chances.

The ten songs on Broken Boy Soldiers cover just over thirty three minutes. "Steady As She Goes," the first single, is a good song and lays the groundwork for the rest of the album. White and Benson trade verse and chorus and display their aptitude for writing lyrics. As usual, White inundates the song with all sorts of "effects." Fortunately, he has left the marimba at home and the "effects" are limited to guitar pedals, solos, and Benson's work on the keyboards. "Hands," "Together," and "Yellow Sun" are textbook Benson tunes; purely crafted pop songs with shades of the 60s and 70s singer-songwriters. While Benson handles the majority of the vocals on these songs, it's White's singing on the chorus that brings them to life. "Store Bought Bones" and the creepy and magical "Broken Boy Soldier" are the two most adventurous songs. The middle-eastern flavor of "Broken Boy Soldier" matches up with the hauntingly repetitive chorus, "the boy never gets older," and showcases what kind of great songs The Raconteurs are capable of writing. Lawrence and Keeler are obviously along for the ride and have the least at stake. They provided the rhythm section behind White on Van Lear Rose and prove again to be more than able behind White and Benson as they run through the songs along a range of styles.

Where it mostly goes wrong for The Raconteurs is on the last two tracks. The Benson tune "Call It a Day" sounds like a half finished Weezer song. And, not even Weezer's best stuff - think green album, not the blue album. "Blue Veins" is nothing that White hasn't done before with The White Stripes. He sounds more like Robert Plant than he does in the White Stripes and the blues-jazz music just doesn't translate. Benson also fails to offer much on the songs where he sings the chorus over White's lead.

In the whole, Broken Boy Soldiers is a good album. When "Steady As She Goes" and "Store Bought Bones" were initially posted to their official website [one of the goofiest sites the Earvolution E-I-C has seen] they were met with indifference and most hoped that Broken Boy Soldiers would have even better songs. On "Together," Benson sings, "you want everything to be just like/the stories that you read but never write/you got to learn to live and live to learn." Perhaps that's the expectation that White and Benson set for themselves when they concocted The Raconteurs in Benson's attic. An expectation that isn't quite met.

Labels: Jack White, The Raconteurs

Jack White's new project The Raconteurs suffered a minor setback last week when they learned that they will be unable to use the name in Australia. Upon learning that a jazz band based in the land Down Under already owned rights to the name, Jack White's Raconteurs have opted to use The Saboteurs for Aussie marketing purposes. Embodying the "spirit of espionage and subversion" may seem like fun to Jack White and company, but surely they must be wondering how their lawyers seemingly forgot to make the simplest of International trademark searches.

While Jack White under any name probably sounds as sweet, the release of The Raconteurs/Saboteurs new album Broken Boy Soldiers remains May 15.

Labels: The Raconteurs

Fresh from a summer tour with his significant other, Jack White has quickly moved onto his next project, as one fourth of the all-star combo The Raconteurs. Joining White in this new venture will be guitarist Brendan Benson, Greenhornes' drummer Patrick Keeler and bassist Jack Lawrence.

The Raconteurs' first album, Broken Boy Soldiers, will be released this May. For those who can't wait, two songs, "Steady, As She Goes" and "Store Bought Bones," can be streamed at their wonderfully retro-style web site.

The seeds for The Raconteurs were sown when Benson and White got together over the summer and wrote "Steady, As She Goes." Inspired by their new song, the two were motivated the put a band together with old friends and recruited Keeler and Lawrence for the effort. Benson and The Greenhornes opened various dates for the White Stripes on their recent tour.

Labels: Jack White, The Raconteurs