Band: The White Stripes (Detroit, US) Active: 1997–2011 Album: De Stijl – their second LP Released: 20 June 2000 – 20 years ago
Stereogum writes: “An upstart two-piece garage-blues band from Detroit, one that has a couple of records out on a subgenre-specific indie label, probably will not get the chance to change the world, to capture the hearts of millions… Everyone who encountered the White Stripes in the ‘De Stijl’ era has a “holy shit” story about it. Me, when my roommate Janet brought home a copy of De Stijl and played “You’re Pretty Good Looking (For A Girl)” on the CD boombox in the living room of an art-student flophouse: “Holy shit.” My wife, when she saw the White Stripes open for Sleater-Kinney at the 9:30 Club: “Holy shit.” The White Stripes were bright and bold and haughty and theatrical. They had riffs and hooks and swagger. They stood out. If you heard them once, you wanted to hear more. And if you looked into what they were doing, there was plenty beyond the riffs and hooks and swagger.”
Keywords: Holy shit, one of their best ‘raw and rough’ performances, Jack White shows
how he would turn the blues into a massive 21st Century success, I love Meg, holy shit Key tracks: You’re Pretty Good Looking ‘For A Girl) / Apple Blossom / Death Letter / Sister, Do You Know My Name / Let’s Build A Home
From ‘HOTEL YORBA’, the funny tune that made THE WHITE STRIPES famous.
It was the lead-single from their third album White Blood Cells released in July 2001.
The pair had to shoot the video outside the former Hotel Yorba building in Detroit, as
they were denied permission to film inside.
THE WHITE STRIPES scored a No 1 album in the UK on 24 June 2007, today 12 years ago with their sixth and final LP ICKY THUMP. One of their rawest and back to the red-sharp blues roots of their first recordings. It peaked at #2 in the US and won a Grammy Award for best alternative album.
Here’s the ramshackle racket in full…
.
One of my fav highlights was RAG AND BONE, a simplistic yet funny story and musically
a big booming banger. It was released as a 7″ red vinyl single with every copy of British music mag NME on 6 June, two weeks before longplayer’s release. More info here.
20 years ago, on 15 June 1999, unknown Detroit blues rockers THE WHITE STRIPES released their self-titled debut LP. It was all about raw and rough, scream & hit DIY blues racket. Only a few critics noticed the record upon its release, but one famous one, the late great JOHN PEEL spotted it in a shop when it came out and said: “I just liked the look of it and I looked at the titles – you develop an instinct, d’you know what I mean? And it looked like the sort of record I would like, so I took it out and I did like it, and started playing it.” The rest
is history.
Here’s a perfect idea of the early The White Stripes with
a ramshackle live version of ‘Suzy Lee‘ one of the LP’s tracks…
Fantastic memory – Brussels – In a 150 cap. club and had a chat with cool Jack
