At her own space, Townswoman Citizen Mom delivers the goods on the recent Madison Square Garden concert by White Stripes with Porter Wagoner opening. Read all about it here, but first chew on the following excerpt, rock nerd hatas:
The prevailing wisdom on Meg White seems to be that she’s there only to be a foil for Jack, with people sneeringly wondering whether he writes the drum parts for her (as if that matters, actually), as if she’s little more than a performing doll, the little plastic ballerina who twirls only when you open the lid of the jewel box. Bullshit. This woman is far more sure of herself than her doe-eyed persona suggests, with far more skill as performer than her detractors allow. The importance of her presence to the expression of Jack’s furious genius is infinitely greater than any of us probably suspect.
Earlier on Rock Town Hall…
KingEd reviews Icky Thump and The Wagonmaster.
Makes a lot of sense to me, C Mom. He does the one thing, she does more or less everything else. She may be less the virtuoso at any single element of it, but that’s because she’s handling so many more elements. Your post raises some importantly tough questions regarding what passes for talent around these Rocktown Hall. But I wonder: are you suggesting that she’s the McCartney-Performance-Mom to his Lennon-Obsessive Genius-Child?
MWall wrote:
But I wonder: are you suggesting that she’s the McCartney-Performance-Mom to his Lennon-Obsessive Genius-Child?
Hmmm. That’s one way to put it but I see her role as more of a mother goddess/muse role than a taskmaster mother, if you get me. I don’t see her motivating by guilt, in the traditional mother sense.
As for what passes for talent around here, my thinking is more that because RTH, like the rawk itself, tends to be a more male-dominated arena (not in any kind of misogynistic way, just from a practical sense, I get the feeling there are more menfolk her than womenz), so it’s easy to judge Meg by the “regular” rock standards, which tend to be male-centric. This is NOT to say there are different standards for male and female rockers in the purely empirical sense, but in terms of Meg White as one particular woman in one particular rock band, she is certainly worth of consideration and her female-ness is central to that.
I actually went to that White Stripes show prepared to write about how I want to bite Jack White’s forearms (OK, I have a thing about guys with guitar muscles) but I really found myself watching Meg, listening to her and watching how the two of them related to each other, instead.
Women of rock, holla!
mwall, to claim that jack does “one thing” is more than a little bit crazy if i understand your meaning correctly.
the guy plays guitar in a number of different ways, sings, and often switches from guitar to keyboard or marimba or piano in mid song.
forgive me if i’m not reading you correctly…
that said, i’ve always been an advocate for meg, technical deficiencies notwithstanding. berlyant has, too. and we’ve gotten reamed for it time and again here on rth.
so c-mom, thanks for the succinct vote for meg. you sum up my thoughts on her contribution to the stripes quite well. it’s not about chops….never was. and those songs would wither and die in the hands of a more conventional drummer. my one complaint has always been that when she uses a crash cymbal like a ride cymbal, it hurts my ears. my one other complaint is that she’s not my girlfriend.
Meg is the reason I let my kids buy White Stripes albums, and I just borrow them. I don’t like her sound at all, and I don’t care that she’s a woman. Janet Weiss played some of the best rock and roll drumming ever recorded on Sleater/Kinney’s The Woods. I think Jack sounded better with The Raconteurs, mainly because Patrick Keeler and Jack Lawrence added such a nice, fat bottom to Jack’s guitar playing.
But I think Meg is doing what Jack wants in The White Stripes (and what she wants, too). I think the whole concept is to be able to treat the blues with a certain childlike irreverence, and in doing so not get slagged for disrespect. Whatever. It works, and the kids dig it. When I want to hear one guitar player and a drummer and I want a nice drum sound, I’ll listen to The Black Keys. My kids borrow them from me.
I think she’s great! Just right for the “bluesy” rock ‘n roll they play. I haven’t understood the “hate” she’s been getting.
Saturn, my meaning was closer to the one C-Mom responded to: Jack as the boy genius who does one thing (plays obsessively with his toys) and Meg as the counterpoint organizer who holds it all together, gets him to the stage on time and makes it possible to show him off to the world: “See, isn’t he just the cutest little genius?” C-Mom seems to have countered that Meg doesn’t so much organize as channel.
gotcha mwall. i agree with both of you. it’s not easy to develop a musical telepathy with someone. meg’s a really good intuitive player. she listens.
mrclean, i’m with you. i’m glad to see that our Baby Flamehead experiment in “Foreigner appreciation” back in the early 90s hasn’t tainted your appreciation for fun, unpretentious playing!!!
2k, i used to like the black keys, but i got tired of the guy’s voice. it’s such a put-on.
By the way, the write-in votes for today’s poll just keep getting funnier. Slade and Rosenau, Manzarek and Jimbo’s corpse — awesome stuff!
Really, Saturn? What makes it sound like a put-on? To me, the guys that sound like a put on are the American kids that try to sound British. I’ve never felt anyone else was doing much other than singing. Is it Dan’s phrasing or something? I can understand someone’s voice putting you off (Led Zeppelin is fingernails on a blackboard to me because of Bob Plant), but I haven’t met anyone yet that didn’t like the Black Keys for that reason. Too sparse, too raw, too noisy and stuff like that, but not vocally. I like that when I drive around Akron, their music just fits perfectly. Where’d you give up on them?
I find it odd that Patrick (the drummer) has done most of the production work in their career, but Dan seems to be the one producing new bands, at least lately. Have you checked out Radio Moscow or Brimstone Howl? Noisy, fun stuff with very different production on both, the latter is essentially a wal of sludge, while the former is a solid blues rock album from a guy that’s around 21 years old.
Oats wrote:
I didn’t think anyone knew about us.
2k: plant bugs the shit out of me, too. no doubt, american kids trying to sound british can be tough to take sometimes, too.
but before i answer your question, i have a question of my own: how do you feel about bob pollard’s notion that he’s not trying to sound british consciously, but that he’s just listened to so much beatles, and absorbed them so thoroughly, that he writes songs where it’s natural for him to sing that way? does his voice bug you? not me.
so it’s never been about british boys sounding american (our discussion of “dear doctor”), or american
with the keys, i should explain: i didn’t “give up” on them. i have it all. and i’ll buy more. i’ve seen them play 3 times and i’ll go back again. i love the way he plays guitar, and i like their grooves.
but the thing that keeps me at arms length from them is his voice. i can’t say i’ve thought about it all that much, but on a visceral level, it doesn’t feel at all genuine to me. it’s like i don’t know anything about that guy from listening to him sing. he’s a very studied replica of a simulacrum of an emulation of his masters. i’d rather hear him just let loose in his own voice and tell me something about what’s on his mind.
that said, he’s a very GOOD student. you know he’s not gonna chunk a note or anything. you even know you might hear a phrasing or a melody that is well chosen.
i’d rather hear something a little embarrassing and awkward just leap the fuck out of him because he can’t help himself. but that almost NEVER happens. he’s so reverently in control of his mastery of his masters.
this is such a subtle / subjective thing that i don’t expect you to agree. my own doubt about this often sends me back to them. but whenever i go back i walk away feeling the same way about his voice. he should stop idolizing and emulating guys who sang with feeling, and just sing what he’s feeling.
oh…forgot about your radio moscow / brimstone howl question:
i’m not surprised after the mr. airplane man connect that we’d also both be down with a bunch of other indie rock bands who have chosen the underbelly as their address.
i like both those albums on first listen…they’ve been sitting on my mantle for a few months now. i gotta get to ’em.
I can see your point now. In Dan’s defense, from what I can tell it looks like it’s hard to sing and play guitar at the same time (harder yet to play bass, and I think drummers that do it must actually have two brains). When you’ve only got two guys and your reputation is that you can both play, chunking a note doesn’t sit well with your nerdy fans.
It would sit just fine with me, because virtuosity is not a prerequisite for me. I like your point about Dan being a “good student.” He definitely is, and I think he treats the blues with great reverence, where Jack White can kind of hide behind Meg and play fast and loose and use rock n’ roll or even country stylings in his blues songs. He doesn’t have to “do it right.” I haven’t figured out whether or not how I think about Jack printing the lyrics in Icky Thump and actually printing the first line of the title track as “Aiiiieeeee.”
Isn’t that the part that’s supposed to just rip itself out of you? I can see their nerdier fans poring over bootlegs and mentioning that Jack “changed a lyric in the third stanza last night from ‘Aiiieee’ to ‘Ahhhwwwooo'” and wondering what he means by it. While I don’t think Dan would ever print that, he does keep his emotions kind of in check vocally. I don’t think his playing has the same problem, but I’ll listen to them a little more critically (they’re from around here and they treat us damned good, from freebies after the fact to limited posters that only get distributed in Ohio to shows at The Beachland Tavern, so I tend to go easy on them).
Bob Pollard. Man, I think I have more of the problem you have with Auerbach on this one. GBV has never been one of my favorites. Actually, I don’t much care for them, which is odd because they’re Ohio rockers and I try and support the home team (Black Keys, Two Cow Garage, Coffinberry, New Salem Witch Hunters – I buy it and I go see it), but I just don’t believe the guy, I guess. There’s a lot of reasons why I don’t like stuff that I understand, and there’s reasons I don’t understand. Did you hear Pollard’s Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft single last fall or so? I hated it. It gave me the same reaction The Eagles, Led Zeppelin and asparagus give me. Yuck. So I’m a bad person to ask about him.
Brimstone Howl is perfect for driving around. Hell, it’s just perfect. Noisy and dumb. I love it.
Oh, someone asked about New Grog Shop or Old Grog Shop. I like the new one. It’s more comfortable and it smells better.