The Raconteurs

One Liner: Jack White's power pop band still tossing out jams

Wikipedia Genre: Alternative rock, garage rock, blues rock, indie rock, power pop
Home: Detroit (now in Nashville)

Poster Position: 2

Both Weekends.

Thoughts: I love these guys.  One thing I wish is that I didn't have to read their name every time I typed it - my brain refuses to recall how to spell that word.  But this is, of course, one of Jack White's bands.  As they shut down the White Stripes, who were freaking awesome, he fired up a few different bands to go along with his solo stuff, and this is the best of the bunch.  He partnered up with a dude named Brendan Benson, who was a semi-poppy rock soloist and a member of a band called the Waxwings, and then the rhythm section from a band called The Greenhornes.  Benson is also a Detroit area guy, like White.

I think Benson helps hold White back from some of his freakiest impulses.  Some of Jack White's solo tunes are pretty brutal - too much noise, too many layers, not enough groove - but these tunes almost all contain a pop sensibility and groove that elevates them into the right spot for me.  Great rock and roll, and Benson also adds a much better singing voice than White to the mix.

I'm honestly shocked that I have never reviewed any of their music, but then I'm even more surprised that these albums are so OLD!  If you would have asked me when their initial album came out, I would have said like 5 years ago.  Thirteen years ago!  Holy crap!  Although when I think hard about context clues that I recall about this album, I recall using it a lot as I worked on our first house here in Austin - painting the nursery and digging up/moving sprinkler lines - that was a great house.  I have four discs that immediately bring that time to mind - Raconteur's Broken Boy Soldiers, M.I.A.'s Kala, Fall Out Boy's From Under the Cork Tree, and the Garden State soundtrack.  Weird.

Broken Boy Soldiers came out in 2006, in between the White Stripes' Get Behind Me Satan and Icky Thump.  It seriously jams - "Level" has a groove that refuses to stop, plus fuzzed out guitar heroics, and I'm very here for it.  if you don't bite your bottom lip and move your head like a chicken while that song plays, then you are probably in the FBI.  "Store Bought Bones" and "Hands" also jam.  But the big hit from the album is the opener, "Steady as She Goes."  85.9 million streams.

The album itself was nominated for the Best Rock Album Grammy, and this track was nominated for Best Rock Performance.  They didn't win either.  The Chili Peppers won both (Stadium Arcadium and "Dani California"), over these guys, Neil Young, Tom Petty, and the John Mayer Trio.  What do the Grammy people even do all day?  I also dig "Blue Veins," even though it is more of a chill tune.

2008 brought us Consolers of the Lonely, which doesn't depart in the slightest from the excellent formula on the first disc.  Tuneful fun rock and roll for everyone.  They again got nominated for Grammys, but lost Best Rock Album to Coldplay and instead won a tech one for Best Engineered Album.  "Salute Your Solution" is the top hit for streams with 25.5 million.

Blistering, pounding, straight-forward rock and roll.  I dig the breakdown in the middle, with its fuzzed out guitar and singing about spiting me.  "Carolina Drama" is also a good one - a great story song.  "Rich Kid Blues" and "Old Enough" are also good stuff.

Then, the thing that has made me hold off on reviewing this band until the very end - they just put out 2019's Help Us Stranger.  I thought that "Don't Bother Me" was saying "don't follow me," like he didn't want people to look at him doing something online (because he also complains about "all your clicking and swiping.").  Best part of this song is about half way through when they change the pace and jam.  "Live a Lie" sounds very much like some of the songs Pearl Jam put out in the late oughts.  I like that one.  "Bored and Razed" starts out like a Grateful Dead song, ready to noodle your face off, then then the band kicks in and jams the beat into your face instead.  "Now That You're Gone" wins for streams (10.8 m), but I kind of like "Sunday Driver" better (7.6 mill.).  Here's the former.

Brendan's voice is just pretty.  It really sounds nice.  pretty good little bluesy rock number there.  It's another good album.  These guys don't do anything out of the ordinary, really, they just make nice rock and roll tunes that I plan to jam out to before GNR.