The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

Well there was a leak but I didn't get hold of it and didn't really want to so am looking forward to finally hearing the album today. I'm not sure what to expect, I liked Steady as She Goes, and The Bane Rendition, but wasn't that keen on Store Bought Bones and haven't heard the other version of the 7". Anyway, thought it would be nice to have a new thread to talk about probably one of the most hyped albums so far this year (or something like that), hopefully it won't be horribly overrated. I'm off to Avalanche.

[Nuts 'n Gum]

I think it's actually being slightly underrated at the moment, judging by NME's indifference to it (hooray!).
It's pretty good, not perfect, very 70's Rock-the title track's really good, as is Hands, which both sound like Led Zeppelin. A couple of the tracks aren't that great, but it's only 33 minutes long, so it rattles along very quickly.
Pretty decent overall really.

[TheWizard]

I/ve been enjoying it, it's not the best album of the year but it's a lot of fun, something that they were all having by the sounds of it. Benson's Beatle-esque ear for melody have clicked well with White's Stooges' fantasies. Interesting to the the stabs at Psychelica that you'd imagine are beyond the two person dynamic of The White Stripes.

I sound like I write for Mojo there don't I?

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

Well first impressions are good. It maybe tails off a bit at the end but I'm sure the later tracks will grow on me. I love some of the songs though, Together is brilliant, as is Level, and Hands' verse's melody is the greatest thing I've heard in ages. I can't wait to get to know the tracks a bit better, I'm sure they'll grow on me, it seems like that kind of album. Thumbs up though, I was expecting a few more tracks but I quite like it short as it is.

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

Christ, anyone see any of their Reading set on BBC? I saw most of it (not all of it though much to my annoyance) on bbcthree and the interactive thingy, and they were bloody amazing. They did covers of The Christian Life and Interstellar Overdrive, if I had been asked a couple of songs that I would have liked to hear them do I don't think I could have come up with two much better than that. They were really on fire, wish I could see it all again, anyone know of a place that might have a torrent of reading sets? Anyway, yeah, I didn't think it was possible for me to like Jack White more than I did but after seeing him bang out IO... For me he's been the most important musician of this decade without a doubt.

[Labian Quest]

Yup, I totally agree with you APT, I could never quite see what the fuss was about with The White Stripes, but I saw The Raconteurs doing 'Steady as she goes' on BBC 3's Reading festival coverage and they blew me away, he's got a very solid band behind him now, according to my TV guide, BBC3 have got a best of Reading and Leeds show at 12 am on Tuesday night, so they might show them again.

[Toad in the Hole]

Only showed Broken Boy Soldiers on the Best Of.  Did anyone see the incredibly bizarre interview of the band by Colin Murray?

[Peking O]

I could make a more "important" contribution to the 21st century music scene by sticking a trumpet up my arsehole and farting through it. The White Stripes have a few nice songs, but Jack's a self confessed luddite isn't he? He has more in common with the past than he does with the present and I think he'd be happy with that. Perhaps you could expand on what you mean APTS?

[Frinky]

I could make a more "important" contribution to the 21st century music scene by sticking a trumpet up my arsehole and farting through it.

No you couldn't. Why would you say something like that, when you know that you couldn't? What if one of us were to call you out on that? You'd look a complete fool.

[Peking O]

You'd be surprised at the talents that lie in my arsehole. What I'm saying is that Jack White's music, while being enjoyable for the most part, could have conceivably been produced in previous decades. To say he's "the most important musician of this decade" is baffling to me. To me, "important" musicians--whick is a term I'd balk at using, but we're here now so let's roll with it--are ones who've moved things forward. Innovators, basically. Jack and his Tesla coils, Toerag Studios and whatnot are a Mark Lamarrian throwback to past times. And it's fun. But I'm struggling to see the "importance."

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

Funny you should pick up on the 'important', I was really fretting over what word to use there and couldn't think of a suitable word so just went with important, I didn't like it then and like it even less now. What I mean by it though is that on a personal basis (which is why I said 'for me') the music he has created has affected me much more than any other artist that has been active in this past decade. His music means a lot to me, it's through the White Stripes that I have got into other stuff and he has affected the way I play and think about music. There are a few bands (and say, comedians etc) that have had a proper affect on me in a way that most things don't get anywhere near, and Jack White is one of these people. I love his approach to making music. I don't need to go on about what the White Stripes are 'about', you either know that already or will spend the rest of your life making jokes about how Meg White can't play the drums. I'm not sure what I mean by saying he's 'important', I just couldn't think of a properly appropriate word. Basically I would struggle to think of a musician from this decade who has had anywhere near the impact on me that he has had. I do think his music is moving things forward though - what he does is original, and I think as he continues to make records he'll get more creative, start getting more experimental, I don't think he'll ever water down what he does. He's important in that the music he makes will influence a lot of future bands and bands that are around at the moment and I do think the White Stripes will go down in history, more than any other bands of this decade if that means anything.

[sam and janet evening]

Why can't 'Luddites' be important?
The thing I liked about The White Stripes was that they were obviously in thrall to the past but mixed up different elements, often elements that had been ignored by others, in their stuff. This was what (for me etc) set them apart from the other garage bands, the Cole Porter influence, the Judy Garland stage moves, the blues phrases that hadn't passed into rock's vernacular. Now I can't pretend they were startlingly original in the way that say Kraftwerk probably were, but they don't quite sound like their forebears either.
But more to the point, can looking back be in itself an interesting, valid thing to do? To reject certain elements of the contemporary sound and dredge up something that has been left behind? You can't create anything from thin air. Even Captain Beefheart, often held up as one of pop music's true originals, bears traces of predecessors - Howlin' Wolf, Charley Patton, Old Stringbands, Free Jazz type stuff (that I don't know much about). Now The Stripes never did anything that peculiar with their influences certainly, although I would argue that 'Get Behind Me Satan' though a flawed album was going in a quite interesting direction that was more idiosyncratic (actually, there are touches on there that bring Beefheart to mind). Plus the most celebrated 'Luddite' tendencies that the Stripes entertained usually served to set them apart from their peers - the non-digital recording approach, the blues structures, the lyrics and the attitude generally.
Looking to the past can lead to really interesting things (see: Bob Dylan's entire career) provided one looks back far enough and deeply enough. Too much 'forward thinking' music just looks around itself and ends up eating it's tail.
I'm not sure that Jack's the 'Most Important' figure in the last decade's music (although I'm not sure who is) but he certainly has had a great impact, all those garage rock bands that trailed in their wake, the idea that a song as ragged as 'Hotel Yorba' could be a hit in this day and age, a vague resurgence of interest in the blues. These may be bad things mind, but there you go.

Which is why I wish he'd get on with doing some more Stripes stuff rather than The Raconteurs who were great live, but whose record I find slightly dull. And, despite it's wider scope when compared to the Stripes, far more 'Trad'.

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

Very nice post SAJE. I wish he'd start doing more Stripes stuff too, I do like the Raconteurs album but it's nothing on any White Stripes release so far. I was very impressed by them on the Reading coverage though, I really hope they show more tonight, or at least the Interstellar Overdrive bit which had me particularly excited at the time. On the subject of Beefheart and the Stripes, Jack White is a big Beefheart fan, isn't he, they released the 7" Party of Special Things To Do with three CB covers on it. I'm yet to hear any of it though.

[Peking O]

Lovely use of coloured vinyl from Ver Stripes here:

[sam and janet evening]

I've got 'Party...' on a bootleg, it's pretty good (and unfortunately on vinyl, otherwise I'd post it up for you), Actually that boot's pretty easy to come by, they seem to have a very relaxed attitude to stuff like that, you can even get it in some (otherwise legit) indie record shops. Jack also picked the Captain as one of his heroes in a Mojo piece some time ago.
Try as I might I can't get that into Beefheart, I quite like his first album but the rest just...nah, It's alright, I don't dislike it - it just doesn't connect.

I have to say the Interstellar Overdrive thing sounds intriguing. They did storming versions of 'A House is not a Motel' and Bowie's 'It aint Easy' when I saw them (heh - *Clang* - I saw them! I saw them!! I saw them!!! Gimme a biscuit...).

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

I've got 'Party...' on a bootleg, it's pretty good (and unfortunately on vinyl, otherwise I'd post it up for you), Actually that boot's pretty easy to come by, they seem to have a very relaxed attitude to stuff like that, you can even get it in some (otherwise legit) indie record shops.

Yeah, I've seen a good few bootlegs out in proper shops which isn't that common. There's a good site that has torrents for shit loads of Stripes rare stuff and live shows etc, but you need an invite I think and I've lost the address (I've never got round to joining actually, always mean to email the guy in charge to become a member but have never got round to it).

I have to say the Interstellar Overdrive thing sounds intriguing. They did storming versions of 'A House is not a Motel' and Bowie's 'It aint Easy' when I saw them (heh - *Clang* - I saw them! I saw them!! I saw them!!! Gimme a biscuit...).

Yeah, I was a little worse for wear when it (the IO cover) appeared on the tv at a friend's house and was a little bit irritated because I knew I wouldn't enjoy it as much as I would have had I been full alert and able to hear without people talking over it, the Byrds cover they did was amazing too, I think I enjoyed it a bit more. I'm sure they were just jamming when the IO riff appeared, one of their songs just descended into it and it was all the more amazing. I may be completely misremembering though. I wish he wasn't so bloody popular so I could get tickets to his shows... It's a real life goal that I need to see the White Stripes live, but it took me a long time to get into them and now they are huge and it's hard to get a ticket without even mentioning how much they are.

[trotsky assortment]

I hate Jack White.  I really do.

However, I think Brendan Benson's a genius.  

Will I like the Raconteurs, or is it more White than BB?

[CaledonianGonzo]

While I doubt the sanity of anyone that prefers BB over JW (one being a musical jobsworth, the other being actually posessed by the spirit of music), I  think you might like them.  It's big, tuneful, Rubber Soul-esque pop:

http://rapidshare.com/files/6827287/02_Hands.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/6827979/04_Intimate_Secretary.mp3

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Lovely use of coloured vinyl from Ver Stripes here:

(picture)

I didn't know they were into catching Pokemon.

[trotsky assortment]

While I doubt the sanity of anyone that prefers BB over JW (one being a musical jobsworth, the other being actually posessed by the spirit of music), I  think you might like them.

Well, y'know, it's horses for courses, isn't it?  I'm into Jellyfish, Brian Wilson and all those influnces which can be found on the BB albums.  
JW, to my ears, is a squawking gobshite who isn't even fit to shine The Stooges' shoes, but whatever...

Thanks for the downloads - I'll check them out later!