News > The Dead Weather
Listen To The Sounds Of The ‘Hound
By Johnny Firecloud
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
After conquering his corner of the music world with The White Stripes and The Raconteurs, blues demon Jack White has joined forces with Alison Mosshart (The Kills), Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs) and Dean Fertita (Queens Of The Stone Age) to form The Dead Weather, which you may have seen us mention here and there. The band’s massively-anticipated debut album, Horehound, is available for your listening pleasure exclusively on iLike for the next 24 hours – and unlike most other “stream before you buy” albums, this one has yet to leak on the file-sharing networks. Well, the stream has. Whatever.
Horehound was produced by Jack White on his Third Man Records imprint and was the first album to ever be recorded at his new Nashville-based studio. White issued a statement about the state of the musical union and his new band’s outlook:
“I feel it, you feel it – we’re all struggling with the trouble that this industry is in right now,” said Jack. “And it’s not about sales; it’s about beauty and romance and a relationship to art that’s turning invisible, and it’s affecting people’s perception of music. It’s affecting whether they think of it as a viable art, because it’s so disposable. It’s not about being modern or retro or a Luddite or being hopeful or pessimistic about the future; it’s about clinging on to what makes sense of our lives, and what gives our lives value, and what gives us a commonality and a feeling of belonging.”
The Dead Weather came to be when Alison Mosshart’s band The Kills opened on a few US dates for The Raconteurs. Jack White had been given doctor’s orders to take it easy on the vocals, so he invited Alison to sing a few songs onstage in his place. With the instant chemistry brewing, they recorded together during some down time, with White enlisting the Raconteurs’ bassist “Little” Jack Lawrence and Queens Of The Stone Age collaborator Dean Fertita. What they created grew legs and motivation of its own, despite initially being imagined as a one-off collaboration for a 7” single release. That “single” turned into a full-length album, which you can finally listen to, right now, just for today (until it actually comes out on the 14th).
Those of you even half as excited as we are about this project should check out Third Man Records’ The Vault, an online subscription service that kicks the shit out of any fanclub you’ve ever been a part of. I promise.
Dead Weather 2009 Tour Dates
07/13 9:30 Club, Washington, DC w/ Screaming Females
07/14 9:30 Club, Washington, DC w/ Screaming Females
07/16 Terminal 5, New York, NY w/ Screaming Females
07/17 Terminal 5, New York, NY w/ Screaming Females
07/18 House of Blues, Boston, MA w/ Screaming Females
07/19 Ottawa Blues Festival (Rogers Stage), Ottawa, Canada
07/21 Olympia De Montreal, Montreal, Canada w/ Screaming Females
07/22 Kool Haus, Toronto, Canada w/ Screaming Females
07/24 The Fillmore, Detroit, MI w/ Screaming Females
07/25 The LC Pavilion, Columbus, OH w/ Screaming Females
07/27 First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN w/ Screaming Females
07/28 Vic Theatre, Chicago, IL w/ Screaming Females
07/29 Vic Theatre, Chicago, IL w/ Screaming Females
07/30 War Memorial Auditorium, Nashville, TN w/ Screaming Females
08/17 Ogden Theatre, Denver, CO
08/18 The Depot, Salt Lake City, UT
08/20 Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA
08/21 Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, Canada
08/22 Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, Canada
08/23 Roseland Theater, Portland, OR
08/25 Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
08/27 Glasshouse, Pomona, CA
08/29 Street Scene, San Diego, CA
08/30 Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival, San Francisco, CA
10/2-4 Austin City Limits Music Festival, Austin, TX
Photo by Pooneh Ghana.
And here is AQ article #5 about this years winner of of the Rock Darling Hype Award.
Meanwhile, what’s the story behind the removal of that Van Dyk/Radiohead story?
johnny wanted to rewrite a bit of it. it’ll be back. and anyway lord knows there’s more radiohead articles than dead weather ones here.
The story *behind* the story… I feel like a snake eating its own tail. In other news, on first listen this album is way better than I expected it to be.
I’m holding out until I get my vinyls in the mail. I treated myself to 60 seconds of glorious Horehound, and it sounds like I’m in for a fantastic album listening party…with me.
was worried this wouldnt come outbefore the 13th, it’ll be nice to actually hear the songs before seeing them on the 13th
doh, can’t edit comments, excuse my repeating of the number 13
um thanks for the link, the music sounds great, will definetely be getting the album when it comes out. Love Alison’s voice, she sounds great and very interesting and cool arrangements*
Heh, gonna stream the shit out of this. I already had Bone House (FTB) on repeat, hope the studio version rocks too.
@Joseph Well man, sorry, but fuck that shit. Im so happy to be excited about music again. Hype? Are you serious? You cleary didn’t watch or catch that FTB stream, nor the free downloads did you? How much justification that they kick ass do you need actually…
And can you guys stop putting Fertita in the Queens camp? He was in the Raconteurs at first and was just touring with Homme and Co. Reznor had more to do with the creative process… Sure he’s cool, but everybody’s copying you and it jus’ ain’t true. Unless you have info on the liner notes of the next QOTSA that is.
PS: Must give “Cut Like A Buffalo” more spins to like tho, so hard…
yeah, actually, now that i think about it, you’re right, it isn’t fair to put fertita in the qotsa camp like that. it isn’t just us, i see it every time he gets mentioned, and i guess we’ve just kinda subconsciously absorbed the obligatory name drop. i know he’s tight with those guys, but musically he deserves more credit for his part in raconteurs i think. good call.
HEY NOW, Dean is part of the QotSA camp, YES. You know who was the first to mention him as part of the QotSA camp? JACK FUCKING WHITE! On the original press release about the band, Dean was cited as a QotSA member. And nothing more fair, really – after all, the Racs never accepted him as an official band member (big fucking mistake if you ask me), while Josh Homme embraced Dean and recorded some b-sides with him. One easy way to settle this: Josh Homme lets Dean take a bow with the band at the end of the gig. The Raconteurs did not let Dean take a bow with them.
oh snap, counterpoints. now i’m confused and need to do research.
Come on now, White said it himself? Bow at a gig? Well, the 3 I was at they didn’t have the time to bow. With Dean I mean. If you have the Natasha benefit in mind, Im gonna counter with the fact that Shuman (young bassboy wonder) bowed also, but as I read at the forums he is no longer a member. Or for now. Jack Black was in there too? So much for the bowcard.
To me its just to get more people hooked. I find it a bit cheap, but that’s just me complaining…
This is one argument I could honestly care less about.
Dean also played a few live shows with Eagles of Death Metal, surprised those assholes didn’t throw that in there to hook even more people.
The homework was done. His title stands. This is like arguing over matches in a forest fire.
passenger seemed on point, because every time i’ve heard “dean fertita of qotsa,” part of me has been like… ‘who the heck is dean fertita?’ and i’m more familiar with the dudes in that band than i am with most. but yeah, i dug around. fertita of queens of the stone age. and raconteurs. and he also fronted a band that the white stripes covered.
Yeah, The Waxwings. Anyway, Dean was never considered an official Racs member, just like their last keyboard player. Dean was official with QotSA, he was on the publicity photos and all. Also, he owns: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGq1UYP4MwE
Dean is in qotsa. Has played in both bands but is an actual member of qotsa, he just played keys on tour with the raconteurs. Fernando’s right, he was never in the videos or publicity shots with the band. With queens he has recorded and toured and is in videos and photos for the band, and on and on so for me he’s in qotsa, no question. I never saw raconteurs live so I mainly know him for his playing with qotsa anyway and from there hearing he played in raconteurs so it makes sense to me that they mention him as mainly being from qotsa.
He does have recording credit playing clavinet on Consolers of the Lonely, not just a touring member.
But yeah, just the clavinet.
haha I didn’t know that but consolers came out after the last queens record as well which was kinda my point on how his affliation is mainly with qotsa…other than touring with raconteurs…and playing the clavinet on their record :)
Ok, fine, no big deal. But still, why not give Dino credit for the Waxwings too? I’m not the one for arguing, but I was kinda bummed to see him every time lined exclusively just with qotsa. Oh well…
We’re blessed to have such
obsessivedetail oriented readers…. Keep up the good work!our comments discussions usually pwn any music message board thread i’ve ever trudged through. except for a few lulzy ones over at prp and rekords rekords.
@ Passenger
And why not give Alison credit for Discount, LJ for The Greenhornes and Blanche, Jack for his time spent in Goober & The Peas?
The fact of the matter is they credited each of them to the last band they played in (except Jack got the extra Stripes mention…not that people didn’t know one already).
And mind my asking what PRP is?
ha.. theprp.com. i’ve been checking that site since back when we ran the perfect circle site. i believe it stands for “pimp rock palace.” i know. but the kids on the message board are funny sometimes. some gems were gathered for this piece:
musicians vs. assholes on the internet