The dead weather Jack White. Biography of The Dead Weather. New project of “old” rock stars

Nashville band The Dead Weather is a rare exception when a spontaneous experiment became a full-fledged project. Her music proves that masterpieces do not need decoration. Forget about arrangement, equalization and compression. Only studio recording, mixing and cleaning of sound, occasionally flavored with octaver.

This is the success of the group: all albums are listened to in one breath, and songs organically replace each other, so without a timer it is not always possible to say where the previous one ends and the next one begins.

New project of “old” rock stars

The Dead Weather is a supergroup. This is a traditional designation for rock bands, all of whose members have already achieved success in the musical field.

It’s difficult to characterize TDW in any other way – real monsters are involved in the project modern informal scene. Alison Mosshart from The Kills took over the microphone and rhythm guitar, Jack White from The White Stripes (also don't forget about) took place behind the drum kit (periodically replacing it with lead guitar), Dean Fertita from Queens of the Stone Age took up the keys and guitar, and Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs again) seemed to be firmly attached to the bass.

The Dead Weather first made their presence known in 2009, when Jack White asked Alison Mosshart to sing a few songs for him at The Raconteurs concert. The performance of this “patty-haired hysterical witch” impressed the band’s vocalist so much that immediately after the performance he invited Alison to record several songs together.

Jack White is believed to have created The Dead Weather. However, giving all the laurels only to him is unfair. TDW a joint project four musicians. He could not fully exist in the absence of at least one of them.

The genre that TDW play in is mainly defined as indie rock. This category usually includes groups that mix diverse styles. TDW is no exception. Her songs intertwined gloomy garage rock, electronic (sometimes even acidic) music, psychedelic rock, surf rock, jazz parts, set off by Alison's hoarse blues vocals and the sexy voice of Jack White (who unexpectedly exchanged his falsetto for a countertenor).

How to make a group famous in three weeks

The Dead Weather's first album, “Horehound,” amazed listeners with high-quality garage rock, flavored with keyboard parts (although we still need to figure out whether it’s a synthesizer or a guitar distorted by gadgets). It was released in July 2009 and for 10 weeks stubbornly held the 6th position on the American Billboard chart and 14th on the British Album Chart.

The musicians recorded their debut album in just 3 weeks. But the speed did not at all affect the level of the songs, and the quality of the record gives odds to many long-fought releases, usually marinated by performers for months, if not years. Wherein Jack White urged his colleagues on, saying that he had never written an album for so long.

The Dead Weather's album “Horehound” shows from the first notes how subtly the musicians feel each other. No one is rushing forward, trying to show off their playing skills or overpower the other participants with their solos.

All songs are an inseparable fusion of music and words. There are no passable things here or weak compositional segments: from the first to the last track - everything is on the level.

Second wave of success

The Dead Weather's second album, Sea of Cowards, was announced a few months after the release of the first. This time, the musicians needed much more than three weeks to record a new record: the release took place in May 2010.

To confirm that commerce bypassed The Dead Weather, Jack White streamed new tracks for 24 hours at the office. the band's website a couple of weeks before their release.

Like The Dead Weather's previous album, "Sea of Cowards" was highly praised by both music critics and fans of the quartet. The album took 5th place on the Billboard chart, and Rolling Stone magazine ranked it 11th on its list of the best albums of 2010.

The musicians themselves noted that the second album came out heavier and bluesier. It reveals a bizarre fusion of fusion, horror metal and space rock.

The calm before the spectacular comeback

After the release of the second record, the quartet fell silent for 5 long years. And in 2015 he returned to the enthusiastic squeals of fans with the new release of The Dead Weather - “Dodge and Burn”.

The third full-length record gives fans of the band the same ragged garage rock, paranoid notes of psychedelia and frantic keyboard parts.

And only the final composition suddenly surprises with its melodic sound with the classic jazz voice of Alison Mosshart. It turns out that she can not only wheeze hysterically into the microphone, but also sing quite well.

In general, The Dead Weather’s “Dodge and Burn” disc continues the anti-commercial (the recordings were again leaked by the musicians to the Internet a few days before the release), experimental and frivolous course of its creators.

From the first day of its existence until today, The Dead Weather group is a single fatal breakdown of nerves, guitar strings and synthesizer keys with a powerful, memorable sound. Their music is difficult to describe. You just need to listen to her.

Last updated: October 12th, 2017 by Rockstar

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The Dead Weather is an American alternative supergroup formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 2009. Featuring vocalist/guitarist Alison Mosshart from The Kills, guitarist Dean Fertit from Queens of the Stone Age, bassist Jack Lawrence from The Raconteurs and The Greenhornes, and drummer/vocalist Jack White from The White Stripes and The Racounters.

Quote #1. “I wrote a great song, and literally everyone who heard it said: that’s it, it’s a hit. One problem: I tried to record it with Meg, and it didn't work out. Then he brought it to The Raconteurs' studio - again bypassed. And what do you want us to do here?” (Jack White)

Fact No. 1. The recording of The Dead Weather's debut album "Horehound" took place in White's newly built studio in Nashville and took three weeks. In addition to Jack and Alison, the new group included guitarist Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age) and bassist Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs), and White himself took the place behind the drum kit.

Detail No. 1. Jack White hasn't played drums since 1995, when he still went by the name John Gillis and played in the Detroit country-punk band Goober & the Peas.

Fact No. 2. The Dead Weather's first performance took place on March 11 at the Third Man Records record store, another of White's Nashville businesses, which opened that day. The debut of the newly minted supergroup was witnessed by 150 guests, each of whom became the owner of the single “Hang You from the Heavens” released on vinyl.

Detail No. 2. Contrary to first impressions and general opinion, the author of “Hang You from the Heavens” is not White, but Fertita and Mosshart. All the band’s musicians took part in the recording of the eleven songs included in “Horehound,” and only one of them, “I Cut Like a Buffalo,” was written by Jack alone.

Quote #2. “Not a day went by without Jack punching me in the face. Well, not literally. But we constantly tease each other and get on each other's nerves all the time. That’s just the way our relationship is, there’s nothing we can do about it” (Alison Mosshart).

Rumor #1. In mid-May, the tabloids reported a fight between Jack and Alison that allegedly happened in a New York bar. Mosshart denied the rumor, describing it as “absurd.”

Detail No. 3. As in the case of The Raconteurs' first tour, The Dead Weather intend to compensate for the lack of their own material with covers. Their concert repertoire already includes songs by Them, Bob Dylan and Gary Numan.

Opinion No. 1. "The Dead Weather shamelessly exploit White's habit of delivering great pop hooks under the guise of overexcited garage rock" (Brand Burstyn, Q).

Opinion No. 2. “It’s clear that White can make records like this in his sleep” (Chris Campion, The Observer).

USA Where Language of songs Label Compound Related projects The Dead Weather The Dead Weather

History of the group

Horehound

The group was created by the leader of The White Stripes and founder of The Raconteurs, American musician Jack White in early 2009. During three weeks of January, their first album was recorded at his studio in Nashville. Horehound. During the recording, Jack was accompanied by no less eminent musicians - Alison Mosshart, Dean Fertita and Jack Lawrence, for each of whom The Dead Weather was not the first project. It is characteristic that all members of the group took an active part in the work on the album. Besides compositions own composition The musicians included a cover version of Bob Dylan's song “New Pony” on the album.

bluesier and heavier than we ever thought we could be

Subsequently, the first single of the album was the album “Die By The Drop” released on March 30, 2010, and for the first time everyone could hear the album in its entirety on April 30, when it was broadcast from vinyl for 24 hours through the band’s official website.

Composition of the group

Alison Mosshart; vocals, guitar, percussion
Jack White; drums, vocals, guitar
Dean Fertita; guitar, organ, piano, synthesizer, bass guitar, backing vocals
Jack Lawrence; bass guitar, guitar, drums, backing vocals

Alison Mosshart (Discount and The Kills)

Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age)

Jack Lawrence, Stockholm.jpg

Jack Lawrence (The Greenhornes and The Raconteurs)

Jack White Aug 2008.jpg

Jack White (The White Stripes and The Raconteurs)

Discography

Albums

Year	Information	Chart position
Year	Information		CAN		AUS		NOR	AUT	SWI	FRA
2009	Horehound Release date: July 14, 2009 Label: Third Man Records Formats: , ,	6	7	14	50	24	25	43	14	19	63
2010	Sea of Cowards Release date: May 11, 2010 Label: Third Man Records Format: CD, LP	5	6	32	28	13	11	-	19	30	76
2015	Dodge and burn Release date: 09/25/2015 Label: Third Man Records Format: CD, LP

Singles

Year	Single	Chart position			Album
Year	Single	US Singles	US Alt.		Album
2009	"Hang You from the Heavens"	8	-	-	Horehound
	"Treat Me Like Your Mother"	-	40	168
	"I Cut Like A Buffalo"	-	-	-
2010	"Die by the Drop"	-	20	154	Sea of Cowards
2010	"Blue Blood Blues"	-	-	-	Sea of Cowards
"-" means the song did not chart

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Notes

Links

The Dead Weather

Studio albums

Singles

Horehound

Having driven up the mountain and into a small street in the village, Pierre saw for the first time militia men with crosses on their hats and in white shirts, who were loudly talking and laughing, animated and sweaty, working something to the right of the road, on a huge mound overgrown with grass. .
Some of them were digging a mountain with shovels, others were transporting earth on planks in wheelbarrows, and others stood doing nothing.
Two officers stood on the mound, ordering them. Seeing these men, obviously still amused by their new, military situation, Pierre again remembered the wounded soldiers in Mozhaisk, and it became clear to him what the soldier wanted to express when he said that they wanted to attack the whole people. The sight of these bearded men working on the battlefield with their strange clumsy boots, with their sweaty necks and some of their shirts unbuttoned at the slanting collar, from under which the tanned bones of the collarbones were visible, affected Pierre more than anything else he had seen and heard so far. about the solemnity and significance of the present moment.

Pierre got out of the carriage and, past the working militia, ascended the mound from which, as the doctor told him, the battlefield could be seen.
It was about eleven o'clock in the morning. The sun stood somewhat to the left and behind Pierre and brightly illuminated through the clean, rare air the huge panorama that opened up before him like an amphitheater across the rising terrain.
Up and to the left along this amphitheater, cutting it, wound the great Smolensk road, passing through a village with a white church, which lay five hundred steps in front of the mound and below it (this was Borodino). The road crossed under the village across a bridge and, through ups and downs, wound higher and higher to the village of Valuev, visible six miles away (Napoleon was now standing there). Beyond Valuev, the road disappeared into a yellowing forest on the horizon. In this birch and spruce forest, to the right of the direction of the road, the distant cross and bell tower of the Kolotsk Monastery glittered in the sun. All along this blue distance, to the right and left of the forest and the road, in different places one could see smoking fires and indefinite masses of our and enemy’s troops. To the right, along the flow of the Kolocha and Moskva rivers, the area was gorged and mountainous. Between their gorges the villages of Bezzubovo and Zakharyino could be seen in the distance. To the left, the terrain was more level, there were fields with grain, and one smoking, burnt village could be seen - Semenovskaya.
Everything that Pierre saw to the right and to the left was so vague that neither the left nor the right side of the field completely satisfied his idea. Everywhere there was not the battle that he expected to see, but fields, clearings, troops, forests, smoke from fires, villages, mounds, streams; and no matter how much Pierre tried, he could not find a position in this lively area and could not even distinguish your troops from the enemy.
“We need to ask someone who knows,” he thought and turned to the officer, who was looking with curiosity at his huge non-military figure.
“Let me ask,” Pierre turned to the officer, “what village is ahead?”
- Burdino or what? - said the officer, turning to his comrade with a question.
“Borodino,” the other answered, correcting him.
The officer, apparently pleased with the opportunity to talk, moved towards Pierre.
- Are ours there? asked Pierre.
“Yes, and the French are further away,” said the officer. - There they are, visible.
- Where? Where? asked Pierre.
- You can see it with the naked eye. Yes, here you go! “The officer pointed to the smoke visible to the left across the river, and his face showed that stern and serious expression that Pierre had seen on many faces he met.
- Oh, these are the French! And there?.. - Pierre pointed to the left at the mound, near which troops could be seen.
- These are ours.
- Oh, ours! And there?.. - Pierre pointed to another distant mound with a large tree, near a village visible in the gorge, where fires were also smoking and something was black.
“It’s him again,” said the officer. (This was the Shevardinsky redoubt.) - Yesterday it was ours, and now it’s his.
– So what is our position?
- Position? - said the officer with a smile of pleasure. “I can tell you this clearly, because I built almost all of our fortifications.” You see, our center is in Borodino, right here. “He pointed to a village with a white church in front. - There is a crossing over Kolocha. Here, you see, where the rows of mown hay still lie in the low place, here is the bridge. This is our center. Our right flank is here (he pointed sharply to the right, far into the gorge), there is the Moscow River, and there we built three very strong redoubts. Left flank... - and then the officer stopped. - You see, it’s difficult to explain to you... Yesterday our left flank was right there, in Shevardin, you see, where the oak is; and now we have carried the left wing back, now there, there - see the village and the smoke? “This is Semenovskoye, right here,” he pointed to the Raevsky mound. “But it’s unlikely there will be a battle here.” That he transferred troops here is a deception; he will probably go around to the right of Moscow. Well, no matter where it is, many will be missing tomorrow! - said the officer.
The old non-commissioned officer, who approached the officer during his story, silently awaited the end of his superior's speech; but at this point he, obviously dissatisfied with the officer’s words, interrupted him.