Album Review #6: The Raconteurs

So I'm back from a bit of a blogging hiatus, after trips to San Diego and Austin in the last 10 days. And judging from the mounds and mounds of fan mail ("Josh, please, start blogging again! How I miss your nonsensical and unfocused drivel!"), I figured now's as good a time as any.

The latter of my two recent expeditions can be blamed on my first visit to the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Whoa. Eight stages, 130-odd bands, six bazillion people. Acts varied quite a bit: from John Fogerty to N.E.R.D, from Foo Fighters to Patty Griffin. But one group clearly stood above the rest to me, just as I expected they would.

(seamless segue to album review)

Consolers of the Lonely (2008), by The Raconteurs

I nabbed this album about three weeks ago after hearing them on Pandora and immediately was totally blown away. These guys are good. But after seeing them from about 46 feet away at ACL, I have come to one conclusion:

Jack White is a bad-ass.

Yep, the pallid male half of the White Stripes has launched The Raconteurs (or The Saboteurs to the Aussies. No kidding.) to the cusp of stardom since the band's debut album, Broken Boy Soldiers, in '06. White splits the singing (and guitaring) duties with Brendan Benson. Benson's voice is much more refined, and White provides his usual raw and unfocused half-yelling/half-singing that has grown so popular throughout the decade. The two really balance each other out well. Bassist Jack Lawrence, complete with giant black-rimmed glasses, and Patrick Keeler on percussion (both from The Greenhornes) round out the quartet.

Many tracks do clearly show that White Stripes' influence that punches you in the face, in particular the first two tracks, "Consoler of the Lonely" and "Salute Your Solution" (the single you may have heard on NFL on FOX promos).

But (as I've preached in other reviews) the variation on this album makes it great. Jack White throws in a little piano on track 3, "You Don't Understand Me", which by the way also has great lyrics. The distorted voice and keyboard that dominate "Hold Up" rocks, too. (That just might have been the best part of their show at ACL.)

The album is just a tad top-heavy. After "Many Shades of Black", it fades into a slight dry spell until the Dylan-esque closer, "Carolina Drama".

But if you ever get a chance, see The Raconteurs live. If you can't do that, then just go buy Consolers of the Lonely and tell me I'm wrong. Or just check out their video for "Salute Your Solution".



Grade: A-

Parallax

I just think this looks cool:



Notice the parallax effect. The sun is situated above the street lamp in real life, but if you look at the reflection in the water near the bottom of the picture, it looks like the street lamp is brightly lighting up the landscape at twilight.

"Wikipedia picture of the day". Reason #367 why I love Wikipedia.

A Brilliant* Idea

Say you're mailing a letter from Address A to Address B, and you realize you're out of stamps. And driving to the post office or Tom Thumb is an undesirable task at the moment. What's stopping you from just writing Address B as the return address and mailing it without a stamp? Wouldn't they just "return" it to your intended destination for insufficient postage?

Did I just single-handedly figure out how to beat the U.S. postal service? Am I a genius? Surely I'm missing something... Remember, this is from the same brain that once asked, with much gravity, "Why isn't there a place where you can rent books?"

Hedberg-ians Rejoice! ...and Remember

"Imagine being killed by a bow and arrow. That would suck, they would never solve the crime. 'Hey, look at that dead guy...let's go that way...'"

No matter how many times you hear one of those priceless nuggets of wisdom from the late Mitch Hedberg, it's still hilarious.

"I was at a casino minding my own business. when this guy came up and says, 'You're gonna have to move, you're blocking the fire exit.' So if there was a fire, I wasn't gonna run? If you're flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a fire exit."

Ever see a Mitch Hedberg quote on a Facebook profile, or some other written media (e.g., the previous paragraph)? Just not the same as if you hear it out of his mouth. It's also an interesting phenomenon to watch the transformation of someone from before and after their first exposure to Mitch. At first, you recite a Mitch line, to which the other party gives you a puzzled gaze, thinking, "You seriously think that's funny?" Then you play some actual Mitch clips, and within about two minutes, they're turned into a lifetime fan. That's just how special his delivery is.

"I like vending machines because snacks taste better when they fall."

Mitch died a little over three years ago (wow, already three years). So just when I thought I'd memorized every last Mitch joke, I was sent this article. Do You Believe In Gosh? -- his first posthumous release -- is in stores today. Recorded in January 2005 (two months before he died), it consists of many jokes that were still works-in-progress. But knowing him, they were probably plenty funny already.

"I use a 2-in-1 shampoo, but 2-in-1 is a bullshit term because one is not big enough to hold two. That's why two was created. If it was 2-in-1, it would be overflowing; the bottle would be all sticky and shit..."

So I went to Best Buy right after work today to pick it up, and was surprised to find it had already sold out. The bad: Crap, I wanted it. Today. The good: Apparently, people haven't forgotten how great Mitch was, even after three years. It's a testament to his immense popularity, and it's amazing to think how renowned he would be now if he was still alive.

Now excuse me while I go to sleep, so I can dream about trying again to buy it tomorrow. Or maybe about "building a go-cart with my ex-landlord."

It Would Be Way Easier If I Wasn't An Idealist

America is just too good for politically-motivated slander.

It's that time again, when certain political analysts on CNN and Fox News and overzealous supporters from both sides of the political aisle conjure up the gods of meaningless insult, acrid slander, and empty arguments. You've heard me rant on this before, but get ready, 'cause here comes another one.

I'm all for political debate, as long as it's at least loosely concerning issues that Americans will actually be affected by. Part of Mitt Romney's speech at the RNC earlier tonight, when considering that a movement away from recent conservatism sought by the Democratic Party isn't really accurate: "Is it liberal or conservative when the Supreme Court awards constitutional rights to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay? Is it liberal or conservative when Congress listens to the teachers' union instead of being concerned about our children's education?" I heartily disagree with that, but hey, at least he's addressing issues that matter without resorting to petty name-calling, rumor-spreading, or other inappropriate propaganda.

When you start involving a VP candidate's family (i.e., Sarah Palin) or insisting that, dammit, Senator Obama was sworn in on the Quran, then I've got a problem. It's a tactic employed by people who probably don't fully understand an issue, and so desperately scramble for other arguments that miss the point, play on emotion, and support their prior beliefs (or, more accurately, destroy opposing beliefs).

Now, to be fair, I've been watching both conventions on both CNN and Fox, looking for things to get mad about and put in this blog entry. And to their credit, both networks have for the most part refrained from any egregious (in my mind) cases of slander, etc. You kinda have to look for it. Although, once you start reading some far-right or -left blogs, you don't have to look that hard.

But you have to believe that as we get closer and closer to that first Tuesday in November, you'll start seeing negative campaigning, negative mudslinging, and a generally negative attitude towards politics engulf our country. True, we were meant to debate -- it's what we like to do -- but not to the point where it gets needlessly offensive.

Like when religion gets mixed with politics. (And weather...?) The result usually isn't good:

"I was just thinking that [Hurricane] Gustav is proof that there is a God... that it would be on its way to New Orleans on day one of the Republican National Convention."
-- Michael Moore on an interview on CNBC.

"Would it be wrong to ask people to pray for rain of Biblical proportions two minutes before [Barack Obama's] acceptance speech begins?"
-- Focus on the Family spokesman Stuard Shepard as quoted in this article. (And by the way, apparently he wasn't kidding...there was an urging for people to do just that.)

Not dignifying either with a response.

So please, let's not say things that demolish rather than accomplish. And let's try and avoid those "I'm Right, Those Other Guys Are Wrong, End Of Story" television advertisements, chain e-mails, or casual discussions over drinks (alright, those are usually harmless and way entertaining). It's an attitude that will do our country a lot of good. And I think the vast majority of Americans are fed up with it anyway and, no matter who's elected, would love to see Democrats reach out to Republicans (and Joe Liebermann) and Republicans (and Joe Liebermann) reach out to Democrats and actually get some good stuff done.

*Stepping down from soap box, to wild applause*