The last two stanzas of Jack White's "Courageous Dream's Concern."

Detroit, you hold what one's been seeking,
Holding off the coward-armies weakling,
Always rising from the ashes
not returning to the earth.

I so love your heart that burns
That in your people's body yearns
To perpetuate,
and permeate,
the lonely dream that does encapsulate,
Your spirit, that God insulates,
With courageous dream's concern.

And whether breaking a Von Bondie's nose,
or allegedly recording Electric Six cameos,
Will Jack White return when one least would suppose;
Donning the finest in red and white clothes?
Who knows?
Maybe he'll keep dressing like some Leslie West wanna-be like he did at Bonnaroo.

Exclusive: Read Jack White's poem for Detroit [Detroit Free Press]

"Being on a major label at the moment is like living in your grandparents' house," he says. "Everyone knows they need to move out, and they will eventually, but we kind of like our grandmother.

"It's obviously an antiquated model, because of the Internet, but we really love the people we work with. If we knew what the solution was to everything, then we'd do it. We have absolute respect for the Radioheads and Raconteurs and people who can do what they like. We're in contract though, so we're just going to make the most of it and enjoy the people we get to work with."

Coldplay's free gigs at Brixton Academy and Madison Square Garden this June will be unsponsored, in order to reaffirm that Coldplay is a real band with real feelings, and not merely slaves for granpappy EMI and other multinational relatives.

"We felt last time we f—-ed up so royally in New York when we were setting up 'X&Y.' We did an AOL thing, which was fine to do, but we tried to mix it with a buzz gig and we just came across as a huge and very impersonal corporation.

"So this time we want to do the ultimate buzz gig and have it not attached to anything or anybody. We're all very nervous because no one's done it before and it's a bit risky. When we first got asked to close (the) Glastonbury (festival) in 2002, it was a similar feeling of something a bit bigger than we felt we could do. But we really like that challenge."

Yeah, what if a multi-platinum act who've just sold 100,000 copies of a b-side threw a party at Madison Square Garden and no one showed up! I'd probably be really impressed by the effort (if not the "risk") if they'd put more than one hook on an album.

Coldplay on a mission to connect with fans [Reuters]

After a few sluggish months of slow-rising hits, the past few weeks have seen some major movement on the Billboard rock charts, with several new entries making big impacts. And the biggest comes from Disturbed, the Chicago nu-metal band distinguished primarily by frontman David Draiman's resemblance to Howie Mandel with multiple facial piercings, as well as his usually annoying, occasionally awesome Korn-meets-Shudder-To-Think vocal tics. "Inside The Fire," the lead single from their forthcoming album Indestructible, entered the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart at a staggering No. 5, and moved up to No. 4 last week—pretty impressive, considering that even the biggest monsters of rock tend to take at least a few weeks to reach that high on the chart. This marks the band's tenth consecutive top 10 hit, and it's also quickly becoming one of its biggest hits to date on Hot Modern Rock Tracks, where it's historically had less traction. But since Draiman neither goes "oooh-wah-ah-ah-ah" nor covers Genesis on "Inside The Fire," the song is not one of the rare instances where I will refrain from changing the station when a Disturbed song comes on the radio.

Elsewhere on the Mainstream chart, a number of recent entries suggest the following theory: rap-metal is back, just without the rapping. The chart is still littered with holdovers from that widely maligned subgenre's turn of the century heyday, but right now three of those acts have hits rising up the chart without busting a single fresh rhyme: Linkin Park's "Given Up"; P.O.D.'s "Addicted"; and Kid Rock's "All Summer Long." Now, don't get me wrong. Mike Shinoda, Sonny Sandoval, and Bob Ritchie are not among my top five MCs of all time; they wouldn't even make my top 10. (Sorry, Sonny!) But these bands' early hits were at least a lot more fun than listening to these jokers and their bandmates decide to get 'melodic.' Please, nobody tell Fred Durst that all he has to do to get back on the radio is start earnestly crooning. He might cover The Who again.

As Chris Molanphy noted in his last 100 And Single column, the other big Modern Rock debuts come from the Raconteurs and Death Cab For Cutie. "Salute Your Solution," the lead single from the Raconteurs' Consolers Of The Lonely, is at No. 11 after entering the chart at No. 26 for the first week that anyone, including radio stations, had a copy of the song, given that the album it comes from was made available in "EVERY FORMAT AT ONCE" on March 25. Although Jack White's insta-release stunt was ostensibly done in part to circumvent the major-label "first-week sales" mentality, both the album and the single got off to very strong starts. Still, "Salute Your Solution" is one of my least favorite tracks off the album, and I can't see it topping the chart like "Steady, As She Goes" did in 2006. Death Cab, whose 2005 album Plans was just certified platinum this February, are right behind the Raconteurs at No. 12 with "I Will Possess Your Heart," an ambitious eight-minute single that most stations are presumably playing in its four-minute radio edit.

So what isn't on the Modern Rock chart? Two big rock hits currently in the upper reaches of the Hot 100 and the Pop 100.
• Three Days Grace's actually-kinda-good "Never Too Late" was one of the most-played Modern Rock hits of 2007, but it dropped off the chart well before its current crossover to VH1 and adult top 40 stations. That crossover was helped by program directors being made less squeamish about the song's anti-suicide theme through a new edit that changes the chorus line "you want to end your life" to "you want to change your life."
• Meanwhile, Fall Out Boy's cover of "Beat It," which has already been hailed by one Idolator contributor as potentially the best rock song of 2008, is all over pop radio, but it has yet to crack the rock charts. I'm not shocked, given that one of the big theories put forth in my '07 wrap-up was that FOB are quickly losing their rock radio support. But I wonder if those stations will keep holding out on this one, considering that many of them still play that damn Alien Ant Farm version of "Smooth Criminal." Personally, I think the band's take on "Beat It" is weak sauce—Patrick Stump earns his better-than-your-average-emo-frontman bona fides much more easily when he's not held to the higher standards of pop and R&B vocals. Nonetheless, when he hits the Rod Stewart Great American Songbook phase of his career in a couple of decades, he'll have a head start thanks to this cover, not to mention his previous work interpolating Supertramp and Jermaine Stewart with Gym Class Heroes and covering Go West with New Found Glory.

Yes, that's right: An Internet chart that doesn't have Nine Inch Nails as its automatic No. 1. Are we seeing a sea change, or is this just residual bile from the obvious hiccup that the numbers experienced the week before?

Battle of the Bands [Songkick Labs]

In a post topped with the not-at-all-inflammatory title "Is Jack White trying to kill music journalism?," David Bennun posits:

Despite the obvious drawbacks for any reviewer in not being able to audition the record in advance - one might even see this as a direct attack on the very existence of music journalism - I have to say that, like a turkey who can see the merits of Christmas, I quite like the whole idea. Whether born of innovation, boldness, spite, or some combination thereof, it strikes me as an effort to put the clock back rather than forward.

Given the band's recommendation that the release is best heard on vinyl, and their wish that digital services might consider offering it for sale without breaking it up into its component tracks, their principal aim would appear to be protecting the integrity of the album format (reports of whose death are greatly exaggerated) as a cohesive piece of work rather than something to be nibbled at, piecemeal.

It gives one a warm glow to read that: "The Raconteurs feel very strongly that music has worth and should be treated as such." This privileging of artistic vision over marketing is so unusual in the music business as to be quite startling. It's a shame that it's only really viable for an act which, including as it does Jack White, already possesses both presumed financial security and an existing audience. If nobody had heard of the Raconteurs, then without pre-publicity, they might as well shoot the album into space as release it to an oblivious public, regardless of format, date, content or the best of intentions.

So I guess the answer to the headline's question is "no"? Well, never let it be said that the upper-crust British press can't get as sensational as its tabloid compatriots. And really, I'd think that those people "defining it FOR YOU" that Jack White and Co. are talking about don't just include music critics, since nobody seems to really pay those folks too much mind. (Unless they write for a certain Best New Music-bestowing outlet.) He's probably talking about blabby bloggers and comment-section denizens along with those more-marginalized-than-ever critics.

If anything, the way the Raconteurs album fares will be a much better bellwether for how rush-released albums that haven't been promoted via traditional press fare in the current marketplace, where hostility to paying for recorded music is the norm—even among people who don't have access to the Internet. Of course, as Bennun points out, these sorts of anti-marketing strategies are currently only really working for artists whose initial profile was elevated by the promotion apparatus of the old-school record biz—am I really the only person in the world using the term "the Stars model"?—and it's somewhat troubling to think about how that little detail might, in fact, result in even the middle class of rock and roll semi-unwittingly becoming shaped by the now-crumbling top-down infrastructure of large labels down the road.

Is Jack White trying to kill music journalism? [Guardian]
Earlier: Jack White To Industry: Oh Yeah? Well, Watch This

Gnarls Barkley, the Grammy-winning, genre-wrecking partnership of artist/producer Danger Mouse and soul sensation Cee-Lo, will release their new album The Odd Couple a couple of weeks early.



Initially slated for an April 8th release, The Odd Couple will now be available at various online and physical music retailers across the week of March 18th.



"They felt the timing was right to just go for it," said an unnamed spokesman for the band. "With the shifting seasons, furtive romantic entanglements and fierce college basketball rivalries, the latter half of March can be confusing. People need to be soothed and inspired now."

This is pretty funny, though we still think the Raconteurs model beats it out. If Gnarls Barkley really wanted to act quickly they'd have released it the day it leaked. After all, it's already been two weeks since we first heard The Odd Couple.

The Raconteurs are happy to announce that in one week's time their second album, entitled Consolers Of The Lonely, will be available EVERYWHERE Tuesday, March 25th.

"Album" meaning: full length vinyl, CD and digital formats; and "everywhere" meaning: local mom and pop Indie retailers, corporate superstores, supermarkets, iTunes, Amazon, the band's own website and any other location that could get the record up and going this quickly (some places couldn't move this fast, so they will join in as soon as they can).

It contains 14 new recordings and is being released globally on Third Man Records in conjunction with our marketing/distribution partners, XL Recordings and Warner Brothers Records.

The album was mastered and completed in the first week of March. It was then taken immediately to a vinyl pressing plant. Then to a CD pressing plant. Then preparations to sell it digitally began. March 25th became the soonest date to have it available in EVERY FORMAT AT ONCE. The band have done no interviews or advertisements for this record before this announcement.

The purpose: to get the album to the fans as soon as possible and as we promised. We wanted to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding it's availability, reception or perception.

With this release, The Raconteurs are forgoing the usual months of lead time for press and radio set up, as well as forgoing the all important "first week sales". We wanted to explore the idea of releasing an album everywhere at once and THEN marketing and promoting it thereafter. The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by it's first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it.
Another purpose was to also allow people to have their own choice as to exactly which format they would like to hear the album in IMMEDIATELY, rather than having to wait for their favorite format to become available. The band are also not releasing any version of this record that contains bonus tracks. Musically this album will be the same as the band created it no matter what format it is purchased in (The sound quality of each format however, is a different story. The Raconteurs recommend hearing it on vinyl, but the choice is of course up to the listener).

The band also prefer that fans buy the album as a whole instead of breaking up the tracks, but until iTunes and other digital services allows bands to release their albums with the option of NOT breaking it up, it will be sold in that fashion on those particular sites. On the band's website however, the album will be sold in its entirety as an mp3 at 320kb bit rate. Also in Japan, fans will be able to download the record via their mobile phones, as that is how a majority of recorded music is consumed there.

The reason we are announcing this release one week ahead of time is because of retail pre-ordering and stocking, information about this album's imminent release was bound to come to light and could be confusing to fans. Also in the event that the record leaks, we didn't want this method of release to be seen as a REACTION to such a leak. It's not. The actual worst thing about a leak is the usual poor sound quality, akin to watching a movie on a wristwatch instead of in a theater. Which for the album's creators is a bit of a letdown, but again, it is completely up to the listener.

There will be a video up on the internet for the first single, "Salute Your Solution", on the 25th as well, provided it gets edited in time. We just filmed it the other day!

We hope not to confuse anyone with too many options, or deny them the formats that they like best. The Raconteurs feel very strongly that music has worth and should be treated as such. Thank you to all those who respect music in this fashion, and thank you to our label partners for working with us to get this album to fans in as many formats as possible all at once.

So . . . whose move is it next? TV on the Radio? D'Angelo? Neutral Milk Hotel? The 1910 Fruitgum Company? Tell us what you think.