Comments on: Jack White To Industry: Oh Yeah? Well, Watch This

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:14:02 +0000

If everyone listens to this release ALL AT THE SAME TIME I fear that we’re headed for a disaster of biblical proportions! Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies, rivers and seas boiling, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:55:50 +0000

Sounds to me like Jack White is kinda pissed that Thom Yorke and Trent Reznor beat him to the creative punch, so now he's just scrambling to find something to make him cutting-edge and trend-setting or whatever. I don't care how the product is released. I just want it to be good. As soon as someone realizes THAT'S the priority, I'll start getting excited about these new forms of release.

==TJ==

PS I say this as a fan of Jack White's work in The White Stripes, and a satisfied customer of In Rainbows.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:56:04 +0000

sky blue sky is seriously underrated

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:59:46 +0000

I want to go back in time and fix every “it’s” in that release.

By: narymary

narymary — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:31:21 +0000

It must be nice to have guaranteed sales.

By: futurehorse

futurehorse — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:29:19 +0000

OK, just as someone who works in the manufacturing aspect of this business: there is no freaking way they can turn the vinyl around that fast. Seriously. I don’t know what plant they’re using, but having vinyl to a distributor two weeks after the master is done is insane. CD, maybe. But vinyl?! I’m tempted to call shenanigans.

By: How do I say this ... THROWDINI!

How do I say this ... THROWDINI! — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:24:14 +0000

@blackmailismylife: I'm not seeing that, but maybe its just a Rorschach Test on how one feels about Jack White. I think he's great, so I think this is awesome -- record an album and get it to the people right away. Maybe you just think he's overhyped, so you think its about avoiding bad press.

(Just a guess, maybe you're the biggest Jack White fan in the world and I'm a presumptuous douche. Always a possibility.)

Plus, I love that he doesn't wait 3+ years between albums like most bands these days. I have 80 gigs on this iPod dammit and they demand to be filled with good music.

By: Michaelangelo Matos

Michaelangelo Matos — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:19:04 +0000

I wouldn't say it's strange at all--makes perfect sense, in fact. If the rumor I saw at [www.rollingstone.com] is true, and White really did go in and demand his shit come out in a week, it's a pretty good piece of muscle-flexing on his part. But even as a critic whose income derives largely from writing about records before they come out, I don't have that much of a problem with this--letting the chips fall where they may usually makes for a better story anyhow.

By: jt.ramsay

jt.ramsay — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:14:13 +0000

Does anyone else think it’s strange how this seems to be as much about potential bad press as it is piracy?

By: Ned Raggett

Ned Raggett — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:11:09 +0000

The next step is to go back in time and release an album in the past.

By: Chris Molanphy

Chris Molanphy — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:50:37 +0000

I'm with Matos, and the "bad press" crowd clearly have not been paying enough attention to Jack White's M.O. That's not to say the new Raconteurs record will be great or anything, but his motivations are actually pretty simple:

1. He likes physical product, especially vinyl. If he's going to do a Radiohead or NIN-style insta-release, it's got to include physical. I would imagine, like Apple preparing for the release of a new iPod or something, they secretly went into pressing the vinyl, like, a week ago. Tough but not impossible.

2. The thing that pisses him off most about the digital economy is prerelease leaking. Remember the radio-DJ chew-out incident last year? He gets apoplectic at the thought of people hearing his new music before it's officially released. This aligns him, ethically, with the record-company stooges releasing his product, but really, it's more a function of Jack's control-freakness than anything business-related.

So basically, this is a post-In Rainbows release, Jack White style. Unfortunately for him, he probably won't be able to pull off this level of surprise twice.

By: CortneyH

CortneyH — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 05:54:09 +0000

@BawstonSean:

Just got off the phone with United and they didn't press it, for whatever that's worth.

Indie retail seems pretty happy about this.

By: Captain Wrong

Captain Wrong — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 05:17:10 +0000

@futurehorse: Isn't RTI the only game in the States anymore? And, though I've been out of the manufacturing side for years, I think it could be done. I'm assuming WB has the muscle to make it happen (and they are doing boutique pressings of back catalog on a fairly regular basis.)

By: BakerStreetSaxSolo

BakerStreetSaxSolo — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 05:16:43 +0000

Good idea, I hope it goes well for them. One of the best things about the In Rainbows release was the genuine event-ness of everybody getting the album at the same time. If its a success we’ll be talking of a ‘new model’ for the press soon, a model than involves reviewing albums that are already out in physical form rather than leaks of albums that you’ll be bored of by the time they’re out.

By: The Van Buren Boys

The Van Buren Boys — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:40:20 +0000

I think this is a good idea. At the very least there are mainstream artists trying new methods of distributing their work because a system is obviously needed. As much as anything else, this plan, as well as the Radiohead and NIN plan, essentially makes it so everyone is essentially forced to hear the album at the same time. Something that has been lost in the digital age is the shared experience of hearing an album for the first time.

Plus, I'm psyched for a new Raconteurs album.
/Jack White fanboy

By: Lucas Jensen

Lucas Jensen — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:25:20 +0000

@michaelpop: And is there really such a thing as bad press for an artist like Jack White? Modest Mouse, Wilco, and the Shins turned in albums widely regarded as letdowns last year (that Modest Mouse album was doggy doo) by pretty much everybody, and I saw them all over top ten lists with loads of feature press (aka positive press). Jack White has entered the Wenner Seal of Approval Club, so how can he get less than four stars, quality be damned?

By: Lawson

Lawson — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:19:10 +0000

at least the way the press release is written is mildly hilarious in that it kinda pokes fun at all this new model hoo-ha, nah mean?

By: michaelpop

michaelpop — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:18:30 +0000

@Hiphopopotamus: Hahah, well played.

And I agree with Chris and Matos in that I didn't get a sense that this was done to avoid bad press. I didn't care much for the first album, and I have a feeling it's probably more of the same, so at this point you're either on board or you're not.

In any case, I'm all for avoiding the awful two month lag between when an album leaks and when it's actually available for purhcase because there's nothing worse than already being fatigued over something before even getting a chance to hear a note of music.

By: Hiphopopotamus

Hiphopopotamus — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 03:30:07 +0000

Maxim rated it two and a half stars before they even recorded it.

By: HomefrontRadio

HomefrontRadio — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 02:42:25 +0000

Summing up:

"This way the fans can buy it before the reviews tell them not to"