Hots On #5: Ick.

Gangsters retire and move to Miami; rock stars never retire, but some do move to Nashville, have kids, and start making records by the numbers. Who wouldn’t? It’s not like you’d need to impress anybody anymore.

Exhibit A: Icky Thump, the 6th LP from the Artists Formerly From Detroit, the White Stripes. Icky Thump follows a similar template as last year’s under-appreciated Get Behind Me Satan—open with an iconoclastic berserker of a single and spend the rest of the album confusing people as to what the Stripes are about. On Satan, that mostly involved tricking out songs with marimba arrangements and other non-minimalist frippery; unfortunately, the big revelation Icky provides us with is Jack White’s ability to make appallingly self-indulgent artistic decisions.

The title track features an acid-fried guitar squiggle for a hook, as well as some tasty America-baiting in the lyrics: “Why don’t you kick yourself out, you’re an immigrant too!…well you can’t be a pimp and a prostitute too.” It’s the most Zeppelin-esque thing Jack White has ever attempted, which is to say it’s a perfect White Stripes track.

Then you listen to the rest of the record. Despite a few lyrical barbs, “You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told)” resembles a Keith Uban song more so than anything else in the Stripes canon. But that’s just boring; things don’t really get hairy until about track 4.

A cover of an old Patti Page tune, “Conquest” is tricked out with a sweaty nu-metal-meets-bullfight-fanfare arrangement and is sung by White in a teeth-gnashing, projecting-from-the-diaphragm fake opera voice that I managed to listen to for exactly 50 seconds before throwing my iPod out the window and hiding under my desk. You can actually hear him chewing the scenery. As pieces of music, “Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn” and its companion, “St. Andrews (This Battle Is In The Air),” would be easier to swallow were they being performed facetiously by Will Ferrell in an SNL parody of Riverdance, rather than as an actual for-serious attempt at Celtic mysticism. “Rag And Bone” casts the White sibling meta-characters as dandified rag-pickers, with Jack talking in silly voices and cranking his amp to…not 10, more like about 7 1/2. They don’t like it too loud in Nashville.

To paraphrase Jay-Z, Jack White has stacked his paper so high that he’s pretty much above the law—but not even Jigga could put a travesty like “Conquest” on a record and avoid the consequences. And, with the exception of the title tune, even the good songs sound rote—take three chords, plug in lyrics about girls or bad weather or themselves, ta-da. Whereas earlier records featured a rewrite of Zeppelin’s “Your Time Is Gonna Come” almost as a matter of course, there are three on this one. It’s not that the sound is tired, per se—more that it’s the most forced Striped album yet, the most encumbered, ironically enough, by White’s complete artistic and financial freedom. See what happens when you have kids?

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By matthew dewitt on June 21, 2007 1:38 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Tex

Ruthie Foster makes me want to stick knitting needles into my ears.

kc

the Onion also covers local music in the AV Club section (paper copy, online only covers national). It's slanted toward somewhat of the same demographic, but it's an alternative to the chronicle too.

D

It is just my opinion that at the local level I'd prefer if the people whose job it is to tell us about local music, let us know about bands that we don't know about rather than coverage on personal favorites over and over.

I probably do more work than most casual music fans in reading about and listening to local music, so it is disappointing when I have trouble finding a new album to listen to only because I read 5 articles this week about Voxtrot or Ghostland (examples) and not 5 articles about 5 different bands I've never heard of. Introduce me to new bands. Let me do the work to decide if I like them or not.

Of course Chris Gray at the Chronicle has been extremely in touch with the local music, nobody is saying he isn't. I would hope he is, he's one of few who gets paid to know it. It is just some of us wish he, and other local music media outlets (Austinist, Austin360, others) would cover it a bit more deeply, rather than writing the easy articles.

To me the Chronicle rarely seems like its trying. Their record reviews are garbage. Read Darcie Stevens' reviews this week. Her reviews tell me so little about the music, they could only put the album cover shots there and I would have known as much. A personal local fav is included this week, (knew about them months and months before the review, album has been out since April, Chronicle is over 2 months late to the party) and I read the review and wonder if we're listening to the same disc. I could have written those reviews by listening to 15 seconds of one song off each album. She did contribute 5 reviews this week, so maybe 15 seconds is all that's she listened to them.

Perhaps with Chris leaving, someone new will put a new look on things, but I'd imagine most of the Chronicle's music strangeness falls on Raoul. It's a shame that they have such a stranglehold on mainstream local music coverage in Austin.

That's why we ask sites like this Austinist one to do the better coverage. They aren't a real media website, so get people who like to go see local music writing about their local favorites, their best friend's brothers band, the band playing for 5 people at a Red River club on a Tuesday, I'm not so concerned fantastically worded articles. Who are they, what do they sound like, why should I like or not like them.

Don't cover the White Stripes. There are a million other places to hear out about them. I don't even read the articles here on national acts.

I don't know how much the role of publicists works on a local scale. If there are publicists always in the ear of this website, and the local papers, then of course that will affect the results on the page.

mark

Stan, you couldn't carry Chris Gray's jock strap. And, I think you know I mean that figuratively, so don't write back with how you wouldn't want to, etc. etc.

Chris knows more about local music than you probably know about any one subject, kid, and it's too bad he's taking it to Houston.

truecraig

We try. We really, really do. Take that for what it's worth to you.

Stan

D & N -

You're both completely dead on accurate.

Maybe some of the local media coverage will change when the Chronicle's TCB column goes away in a couple of weeks. Hopefully it'll be replaced by someone a bit more in tune with helping break new bands, instead of just jumping on the (local) bandwagon after being told for 6-12months about how great a band is. (As an example of how horrible that column is, take the week of the ACL Fest lineup announcement -- TCB "broke" the lineup in a column located IMMEDIATELY NEXT TO a full page color ad featuring the entire ACL Fest lineup. Couldn't that same column ink have been used to talk about some local bands?)

Anyway, I digress. The Austinist has done a fairly good job giving press to new indie bands. Like I said before, my major complaint would be that they get stuck harping on 1 or 2 bands for a couple of months at a time. A minor complaint that goes hand-in-hand with the aforementioned major complaint is that their own sponsored shows are similar in lineup frequently. And an even more minor complaint would be the apparent lack of editing a lot of times; Some times is just overuse of adjectives that really don't describe the band or the music and sometimes its just an abuse of grammar and commas, etc.

Regardless, you get what you pay for and think, overall, the Austinist does a fairly good job covering the local indie rock scene.

D

Absolutely n,

There are a good chunk of the indie/Red River bands that get the local media love that are absolutely awful. Add that to the terrible bands out there that get no media attention, and that makes an uninspired/I should have stayed home night more frequent than not. I'd say I find a new local band that is good maybe one out of 5 or 6 nights. (1/20 bands worth seeing again? That sounds about right)

I don't know why I don't agree with the local publications more. Do I sit on the fringe of the indie music scene and the noisy stuff that I feel is garbage is what is appealing to the cool kids? Or are the publications lazy and just go for what they know or have heard of, not really caring where the best music is being played.

Underrated/overrated is definitely relative. Some bands that may be underrated if you look at the whole scope of Austin, are definitely overrated if you're active in the music scene.

n.

As far as the Austin local music acts go..a good number of them are underrated but on the other hand, if I ever hear the black angels (they opened for the black keys on sat.) it'll be too soon. I thought they were terrible..it was one big wall of sound..and not good sound. i enjoy the indie reviews on this website and the daily-ist. I check it almost daily to see what is happening in Austin. The events and bands that they write about are part of my lifestyle. They are events that when i show up without dreadlocks, without tie die, and patchouli oil.. I feel welcome. i can only handle so many drum circles a week.

t. Cooke

*Get Behind Me Satan* was released two years ago. How can we take this music critic seriously when he doesn't do his homework!?!?

By the way, this new White Stripes album rules. I respect them for trying new things on their last one, but the things they try on their new one are actually listenable.

D

I half agree with Carl. The show coverage is great, probably the best website for Austin music events, tons of locals. But yes, maybe this website should focus album reviews a bit more on local bands.

With the last 14 being

White Stripes, Straylight Run, Fridge, Maps, Polyphonic Spree, Manic Street Preachers, Maximo Park, Travis, Rocky Votolato, Megadeath, Poison, Blitzen Trapper, Queens of the Stone Age, The Narrator

...I'm still looking for an Austin band...

But please, stay away from the KGSR music side of the city. There are a million media avenues for the roots rock in this town - Ruthie Foster, Toni Price, they get shoved down our throat living here.

Stan

To be fair, it's not like the Continental Club is the Dirty Dog or BD Rileys on your blues/songwriter blues club scale. A larger percentage of the hack bluesmen who play Continental Club are probably more successful, established, and/or "important" in their relative "scene" than the bands covered by Austinist who play Mohawk, Beerland, etc.

I don't think you can cover everything and Austinist is just aiming to cover the sweetspot of its demographic.

I do wish the Austinist wouldn't focus on the same 5 bands over and over and over again (ie, the past 2 months hardon is for the moderately interesting and talented White Denim; previously it was for Ghostland and the Black Angels). But, there are limits to the abilities of a few writers not being paid to cover everything, etc etc etc.

Bob Dobbs

If you think that Ruthie Foster and Steven Bruton are in any way representative of Austin's "scene" you don't even deserve to attend concerts at Central Market.

Spend a few months down on Red River, or at Scoot Inn, or Trophy's, and then get back to us, Spacklehead.

MD

This is it before I take a nap.

It seems like Carl feels a certain umbrella of styles are underrepresented here, mostly singer-songwriter/ blues/hippie whatever. The simple fact is that style of music is not our beat. I like Dale Watson and Junior Brown-and we've covered those guys--but that's because they actually stand out and innovate and appeal to a lot of people. We write a lot about indie bands because it's a "niche" our readers like. I'm sorry to hear that Stephen Bruton has cancer, but lots of people (like my aunt) have cancer, and we're not writing about them. Basically, you can't say we're not an Austin publication just because we don't cover every hack bluesman that plays the Continental Club. g'nite!

ryan s

Carl Spackler

Whining in G

[Austinist; 2007]

Rating:0.2

Stan

Uh, I like the album, because uh, I like the music and songs. And stuff.

What's their gimmick that would actually drive people away from their music? That they don't have a bassist? That they wear red & white? A gimmick is what the Yuppie Pricks or the Jolly Garogers or the Dung Beatles are based on.

Clarisa

Matt, I'm glad you have the balls to about how the new White Stripes album is merely Jack White masturbating in a recording studio. Although I'm totally biased, because I dislike the duo (they're too gimmicky, I think), you broke down the reasons why you didn't like the album - while the haters didn't really back up why they like the album.

Carl Spackler

Last Article on Willie 5/25/06.

But I'm glad you comprehend I was talking about local artists that don't play at emo's and brought up Prince and Lindsay Buckingham, it correlates so well.

I don't care what scene or lifestyle you represent, you could be the N.A.M.B.L.A. president for all I know/care, but the fact is you represent yourselves as an "Austin" publication but do not feature many prevalent Austin artists. Y'all should just re-print Pitchfork reviews and be done with it.

Ruthie Foster has a great new album out produced by Papa Mali, no mention of it on this site. She gave a free show for Blues on the Green last week.

Stephen Bruton is battling cancer, and could use support, might be worth mentioning...nahhh.

By the way, I understand the writers don't get paid, but the ads on this site have to support something. But maybe y'all are just proud that Cazadores is the worlds premium tequila.

md

C-SPACK MY MAN

While your provocative combination of gay-baiting and "lifestyle" bashing may have finally led me to see the error of my ways--wait, no it didn't--it also leads me to believe you don't really read this blog. Whether the acts we cover are your cup of tea or not sort of depends on whether you're the type of person who keeps up with homosexual/lifestyle blogs, but we still cover ALL KINDS of non-indie artists, from Lindsay Buckingham to Willie Nelson to frickin' Prince, and we show so much love to local acts it's not even funny. Sorry we don't cover your friends at The Continental Club, but the beauty of not getting paid for this is that we actually get to write about what we're interested in. Maybe you can start a heterosexual/non-lifestyle blog and do just that!

Carl Spackler

Dewitt, its well known that the Austinist does not cover Austin Bands, but rather Indie Bands. You only hear about Ghostland and Spoon when some of the true Austin Artists aren't even mentioned.

Its appalling that Austinist did not even mention Toni Price moving to San Diego and her farewell celebration at the continental club. But why would the Austinist cover a musician that doesn't play emo's!

Y'all should change the name to Austinist- Focused on the Homosexual and Indie Lifestyle.

Back to Icky Thump, while I don't think Conquest is the bee's knees, it isn't nearly as bad as the vitriol you spewed out about it. Much like Wilco's "Sky Blue Sky" the album was hindered more by fan expectations than anything. After a couple more listens, I am sure you'll come around, much like I have to Sky Blue Sky recently.

md

Carl Spackler-

You got me on the Paris Hilton thing...it honestly was a pretty arbitrary decision for me to write about "Icky Thump" this week.

A.) It just happened to be lying around,

B.) I have a viral infection and haven't been able to think or focus on anything the past 4 days, and

C.) I felt like counterbalancing all the autobot positive reviews I've read because IT REALLY IS A SUCK RECORD, esp. compared to Get Behind Me Satan.

I know I know, excuses excuses. I'll try and write more about Austin bands when some good ones come along ;)

John,

If you really can sit and listen to "Prickly Thorn" or "St. Andrews" or "Conquest" or "Rag And Bone" all the way through without vomiting, crying, or both simultaneously, I'm totally cool with you saying I'm full of shit.

sean

I hear disco prog rock is making a comeback.

John

You're full of shit. That album is awesome.

Carl Spackler

I have absolutely no comprehension of your hate for Nashville, several artists go there to record music as its a hotbed for session players, producers, mixers and the like. Detroit is not, nor is it a nice place to live. I suggest you go live in D-Town for a couple a years before giving someone flack for leaving town.

The album is very good and Dewitt has deplorable music taste, so its not shocking that he doesn't like it.

You know, Austin artists release albums too, maybe Austin-ist should try reviewing some of those before these hard pressed "reviews" on an album that has seen more press than Paris Hilton.