Forever just that one crucial half-step behind the hip and happening, tonight finds Plain Or Pan puffing, panting, gasping and wheezing in order to bring you the most exciting thing I’ve just heard since, oooh, well, the last exciting thing I’ve just heard (that’td be the Danger Mouse album, scroll down a wee bit). Aye. Most of you will no doubt at least have heard of these tracks by now and will possibly have them already. Some of the more astute amongst you may even have actual physical shiny black vinyl copies of a couple of the tracks. If so, bear with me. And do tip me off about such things in future. For the rest of you who pop over here from time to time, I bring you The Dead Weather.
Aye. the Dead Weather. An electro-blues based guitar supergroup of sorts. Featuring a Queen of the Stone Age on guitar, a Raconteur/Greenhorne on bass, a Kill on sulky vocals and the multi-talented Jack White on yer drums. A line-up like that could be a catastrophe in the making but no, everything I’ve heard so far sounds just as you’d expect. Distorted vocals. Crunching riffs. Stops. Starts. Squealy bits. To compare The Dead Weather to that drummer’s other 2 bands would be folly. The White Stripes? Bluesy, loud, fantastic, but the drummer cannae play for toffee. The Raconteurs? They’ve taken their history classes in classic guitar rock, filtered out the worst excesses and passed the test with flying colours. And a decent drummer. Kick out the jams and all that. The Dead Weather? Aye. All of the above and more. They sound NOW!, not retro. These tracks have all been floating around cyberspace for a wee while now, but the versions below are the best quality mp3s around.
Hang You From The Heavens (First singe. Track 1 on Horehound)
Are Friends Electric? (b-side to single. Gary Numan/Tubeway Army cover)
Treat Me Like Your Mother (track 2 on Horehound, out July 14th)
They’re all fantastic, but on first listens alone, Treat Me Like Your Mother makes it straight into my Best of The Year compilation that I pass out to friends every Christmas. A duet of sorts ‘tween singer n’ drummer, it sounds like Led Zeppelin battling it out with PJ Harvey. It’s that good. “M.A.N.I.P. Yooolate!” If I had it on vinyl, it’d be worn down to the thickness of a flexi-disc by now. As I don’t, the only only other thing that’s puffing, panting, gasping and wheezing round here is Windows Media Player. Even it’s not fed up of The Dead Weather yet. Unlike that Danger Mouse album, if truth be told (!)
Plain Or Pan 