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Annual Austin-based music industry conference and festival South By Southwest is upon us, so we've prepared a playlist of some of the top artists you can expect to see while you're down there (or for you to listen to instead if you can't make it this year).
What are you most excited to hear?
Five years removed from the release of The Dead Weather’s second album, Sea of Cowards, the scrappy indie-supergroup relegated (or elevated, depending on your perspective) to Jack White side project, released their third album, Dodge and Burn.
Following some haphazard research (Google search: “Dead Weather new album promotion”), it has become increasingly apparent that the majority of music/lifestyle blogs and brands covering the Dodge and Burn release are under the impression that The Dead Weather is a project only signified by Jack White's presence and his growing relevance in pop culture.
For the sake of uniqueness, Transverso has elected to avoid diverting the reader with the ongoing and over-saturated melodrama of Jack White vs. Dan Auerbach, Jack White-Hates-Life memes, and the enigma that is TIDAL music streaming, and instead focus solely on his collaborative combination with Alison Mosshart, Dean Fertita, and (the apparently eleven-fingered) “Little” Jack Lawrence.
Dodge and Burn opens with the Zeppelin-leaning “I Feel Love (Every Million Miles),” with Mosshart caterwauling with a warped joy throughout the track. Fertita’s guitar stands out as the song’s flair piece, while White’s drums leads the track every which way, further extending the Bonham-esque nature of the song.
“Buzzkill(er)” and “Let Me Through” follow “I Feel Love” on Dodge and Burn, and both tracks fit the more “classic” Dead Weather sound – sonic allusions to Captain Beefhart, crunchy bass, unkempt drums, and the unhinged pacing. Both are solid tracks, but don’t necessarily offer as playful a tone as “I Feel Love.”
While the second and third tracks on Dodge and Burn maintain what’s familiar, “Three Dollar Hat” heightens the album’s diversity (and overall bad-assery) with a romp of a track. Batting cleanup, the song sounds like Kurt Cobain and The Mad Hatter got together to record an industrial rock track and blow it up one minute in. With only White’s vocals leading the track along, it only helps extend the screwball nature that has become The Dead Weather.
The middle part of Dodge and Burn hearkens back with sounds more reminiscent of Horehound and Sea of Cowards, though “Rough Detective” begins with a brief (but intriguing) sort of skuzzball jazz beat, eventually diving right into the scrappy rock and roll the band cut their teeth with. “Open Up” probably acts as the most archetypal Dead Weather song on the album, with a ravaging opening and the eventual swell into a massive crescendo that lays waste to any expectation of anything else.
Dodge and Burn closes out with a three-track cacophony of rock and roll blitzkrieg – a tight manifesto in “Mile Markers,” a vociferous unraveling with “Cop and Go,” and a triumphant exclamation point in “Too Bad” – and ends with a curious, almost Raconteurs-ish ballad in “Impossible Winner” that acts as a departure from the standoff nature of Dodge and Burn and instead offers the affirmation that The Dead Weather are not just another Jack White side-project, but in fact a full-fledged band that looks to continue for years to come.
Five long years after their last record Sea Of Cowards, The Dead Weather are releasing a new album titled Dodge & Burn this September via Third Man Records.
The supergroup consisting of Jack White (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs), Alison Mosshart (The Kills), Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age), and Jack Lawrence "spent their rare and sporadic free moments over the past year recording together in Nashville" to create something "thick and heavy" that "will satisfy your urges for the dark magic that is The Dead Weather for a very long time."
There will be no tour in support of the album, but there will be a deluxe version released in typical Jack White flair as Vault Package #25, which you can order here:
The LP will consist of eight new tracks and four singles that were previously released through Third Man's Vault subscription series, which you can sample below.
Way back in October 2013, The Dead Weather and Third Man Records announced an incredibly special 7” featuring “Open Up (That’s Enough)” b/w “Rough Detective” as part of Vault Package #18. These two tracks were a fierce battle cry heralding the announcement of a brand new Dead Weather album that was to be released in a revolutionary fashion. Teased out over the past year and a half via a series of 7” singles, the physical versions of which were ONLY available via The Vault (Third Man’s one-of-a-kind subscription mail-order service), the band promised this would culminate in a brand new album in 2015. The third Dead Weather LP would be a full length album comprised not only of the previously released 7” singles, but newly recorded, previously-unheard material. Today, The Dead Weather officially announce their new album Dodge & Burn. Dodge & Burn will be released worldwide in September 2015 on Third Man Records and will feature eight brand new songs, along with the four previously released tracks remixed and remastered. Alison Mosshart, Jack White, Dean Fertita and Jack Lawrence spent their rare and sporadic free moments over the past year recording together in Nashville. With the members of the band heavily involved in other projects, The Dead Weather will not be touring in support of the new album. Thankfully the thick and heavy Dodge & Burn will satisfy your urges for the dark magic that is The Dead Weather for a very long time. To learn more about Vault Package #25, visit http://thirdmanrecords.com/vault To subscribe to the Vault, visit http://thirdmanstore.com/vault/vault-subscriptions/tmr-vault-platinum-subscription