Yet another exciting announcement coming from the Third Man Records camp! They will be taking over a storefront at 131 Chrystie Street (between Broome and Delancey) for a two-day pop-up shop!

The store will only be around on July 16th and 17th, open between 10 AM-6 PM. It’s the perfect opportunity to pick up a copy of Horehound — the debut album of The Dead Weather, a member of the Third Man Record’s roster.

Who knows, maybe some of the Dead Weather will stop by to say hello.

So exciting! See y’all there!
Continue reading ‘Third Man Records Comes to NYC!’ »

This just in: Jack White’s Third Man Records has announced their very own social network and subscription service. The basic jist is this- it’s called The Vault and it’s a two tiered subscription service: Premium service is $7 a month and the Platinum membership is $20 a month, both with a minimum of a 3 month signup. Members will have access to presales and exclusive content and merchandise for bands that are on the label (including The White Stripes, The Dead Weather, and The Raconteurs).

Explains Jack in a blog post, “The community we are building here will be like no other you’ve been a part of in regards to music. We hope to have a place where positivity and beauty in music and art can be shared together as a community. A place that has content that you can only see if you truly want to explore the deepest depths of the third man records vault.”

Platinum subscribers who sign up between July 3rd and July 21st will receive a double album of The White Stripes LP Icky Thump. This will be an exclusive never before heard MONO mix of the album on 180 Gram Vinyl, with customized artwork in a gatefold sleeve. In addition to that behemoth, you’ll also receive a 45 of The Dead Weather performing two covers, Pentagrams Forever My Queen and The Downliner Sect’s Outside. This 45 will come with special labels and sleeves that you will only get through the Vault. Last but not least, you’ll get a Third Man Records T-shirt, with a new design that AGAIN you can only get through The Vault service.

There’s a lot of info on the site, so check it out now.

Press release after the jump.
Continue reading ‘Jack White’s Third Man Records Launches “The Vault”’ »

Jack White’s newest business venture, Third Man Records, will be celebrating Record Store Day this Saturday, April 18th.

The store, located in Nashville, TN will be selling the Dead Weather’s 7-inch single of “Hang You From the Heavens” as well as “various Third Man-related vinyl and whatever else we find laying around.”

Cash only folks!
Continue reading ‘Third Man Records Grand Store Opening’ »

Officially in stores starting today, folks! The Raconteurs’ second album, Consolers of the Lonely. Post your first listen opinions right here. And if you have any photos of the record in your local shop, post those too!

For local peeps: Other Music opens at 12 noon and is selling the album for 16.99. Best Buy locations open at 10am and have it on sale for 14.99. Circuit City is selling it for 13.99 and open at 10am. Etherea’s site is down so not sure how much they are charging.

Sound Fix in Brooklyn is having a listening party today: “Come out and listen to the new Racontuers release “Consolers of the Lonely.” Free PBR and Vinnie’s pizza from 7-8pm. This is also street date for the CD so pick up a copy in the store.”

Some early comments, “Why are the Raconteurs grow-ers, not show-ers?”

Looks like the much bally-hooed effort of the Raconteurs to make their music available in various formats simultaneously has been foiled by the crew over at Apple’s iTunes. Folks over at The Little Room message board are reporting that they are now able to legally download the ENTIRE Consolers of the Lonely album via the iTunes digital website.

Writes one poster, “Um, so…am I in the dark about something?…cause I just downloaded the new album on itunes thinking it was a pre-order and now have the entire album on my computer…….isn’t official release tuesday?”

It’s currently available on the US and UK iTunes websites. UPDATE: Looks like Apple has at the very least disabled the US download.

It has also been rumored that some record chains in the US have already sold copies of the album to customers. Fans in the UK have been treated to auditory previews by overzealous music shop clerks who have played the album over the PA systems in stores.

In addition to that, folks are posting that the album has now made it to the illegal downloading circuit.

Will Jack and the boys be pissed at this technical snafu? Was this not a mistake, but a carefully planned “legal leak” to drum up publicity? Will Jack go on a No Country for Old Men-style rampage, killing everyone who downloaded the tracks early? You make the call… Either way, I’m kinda bummed that it’s already out there.

Tip for UK peeps: Don’t search for “raconteurs” — it won’t come up. Instead, search for “consolers” or “consoler”

PS: I haven’t downloaded it, will wait to purchase it next week in the store so I can’t say that it’s 100% true, but sounds valid. Have any of you, dear readers, been able to purchase a copy in advance?

Holy sheboigies! According to the LA Times, the second Raconteurs album, Consolers of the Lonely, will be out NEXT WEEK, on March 25th.

Why is this the first time you are hearing about this album? Oh, that’s because Jack White just dropped it off at the record label LAST WEEK. According to Radiohead’s Atease message board via Rolling Stone:

Jack White went into the Warner Bros. office last Tuesday, handed them the master tape for the new Raconteurs and told them that he wanted the album out this Tuesday.

The album will feature 14 tracks and will be available at “mom and pop” shops, iTunes, Amazon, and corporate superstores who are able to stock the title with such short notice. It will be released on Third Man Records via Warner Brothers and XL Records.

The first single, “Salute Your Solution,” will also be released on the 25th via the internet (all editing disasters aside).
Continue reading ‘The Raconteurs Release “Consolers of the Lonely” Next Week’ »

It’s almost Hanukkah/Christmas, so that means it’s time for major corporations to ruin everyone’s holidays by letting people “go.” I’m sad to report that Sarah “Ultragrrrl” Lewitinn’s Island Def Jam imprint, Stolen Transmission, got caught up in the mass firings over at Sony BMG, releasing the label into the wild and free to be “indie” once again.

According to Sarah’s postings on AbsolutePunk, Stolen Transmission will live on–returning to the place of its origin, Sarah’s apartment on the Lower East Side.

Ultra’s only regret? According to her comment on Idolator, “My only sadness is having to leave behind the Oohlas who were upstreamed to Island a few months ago. Our connection with each other is stronger than A&R/Artist, so i’m glad we’ll continue to be friends and cheerleaders for each other.”

Can’t wait to see what ST does next, now that they are no longer fettered by a big ol’ record label. Everyone knows that major labels are aging dinosaurs these days.

Who didn’t see this one coming from a mile away? From EW.com:

Sources say actress Evan Rachel Wood, best known for her dramatic performances on film (Thirteen, The Upside of Anger), television (Once and Again), and as Marilyn Manson’s girlfriend (see her starring role in his steamy, slightly NSFW “Heart-Shaped Glasses” video), is close to signing a recording contract with Interscope Records, which happens to be Manson’s label. The deal is “still in negotiations,” says an insider. Look for an announcement in the coming weeks.

A reader writes in:

Did you happen to see this comment on The Village Voice review of Icky Thump by Nate Cavalieri? It seems like reviewer Mr. Cavalieri has worked with Jim Diamond in the past (Diamond famously sued Jack White). It is difficult to say what Mr. Cavalieri’s relationship with Diamond is like now, However it seems to be bad journalism on the part of the village voice to have a potentially biased person (whether it be positive or negative bias) review an album. I can’t help but feel reading the review that there was sort of ulterior motive since it was so malicious. It is interesting to note that Cavalieri has worked with Diamond in the past and he essentially says in his review that Jack’s best work are essentially in the days when Diamond engineered his albums. It is a bit suspect, they essentially gave the album a score of 30/100 a score that seems remarkably low even if you didn’t enjoy the album.

Of course bias is an inevitability in journalism, but it seems like you might be able to do something it either with your blog or by making a phone call to the Village Voice asking for a comment. Whether or not the village voice is aware of the potential bias, perhaps they should be made aware. I would do it myself but i don’t have an influential blog or anything like that, and this seems to be important. The sad thing is that the metacritic tabulation of nationwide reviews for the album are absolutely fantastic, however the Village Voice review pulls down the weighted average score of the album to 80 (Generally favorable reviews) as opposed to Get Behind Me Satan’s status of “Universal Acclaim”. Let me know what your thoughts on this, if you’d like.

Continue reading ‘Village Voice Review of White Stripes’ “Icky Thump” Biased?’ »

Woooaahh! Chicago radio station Q101 played the entirety of the new White Stripes album, Icky Thump, on air yesterday at 2pm. At 4pm the station got a ring a ding ding from Mr. Jack White himself–long distance from Spain, where the White Stripes are currently touring. The phone call was all business, with the main objective being to give Electra, the radio DJ to did the deed, a piece of his mind–and then some. This phone call sounds like my worst nightmare.

On the one hand I understand why Electra would want to play the album for the world to hear–as a fan of the band, I too am excited about the new material. On the other hand I would NEVER go ahead and play the entire album on air without the specific consent of the White Stripes. Longtime followers of the group will know that Jack White certainly has strong opinions on 1. America 2. artist’s rights 3. the internet – and lord help the person who crosses him.

I can’t believe that the station allowed something like this to happen… can’t they get in a whole load of legal trouble for doing this? AND they have basically screwed themselves for any coverage of the White Stripes and perhaps of ALL Warner Brothers artists. I can’t think of any major label that would want to work with a DJ/station after a stunt like this! I can’t believe this DJ has not been fired yet.

I don’t want to seem like a corporate fascist or anything, but I think we can all see how much this could have been an act of passion–as any rational thinking person would think long and hard before playing an entire album before its release.

Sometimes I think Jack and the labels can be a little overzealous about hating some things (such as having Product Shop NYC shut down for linking to downloads of “Conquest” and “You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told)” AFTER they had removed the links by request of the label !!!!), but I gotta side with the man on this one–Q101 totally effed up on this.

You can read a first-hand account of the phone call right here on Electra’s blog. Comments on her post are now disabled, so please feel free to leave your two cents about the situation right here. Thanks to J for the link.

Look, we all make mistakes–although it’s hard to believe, I would be willing to buy into the whole idea that the DJ didn’t “know any better” because sometimes people really are that clueless–but when someone is shown the wrong of their mistakes and they continue to insist that they were in the right and then NOT say “sorry” for any damage they might have done (I didn’t hear the on-air discussion but “I’m sorry” didn’t seem like that was said in the aforementioned blog post)–well, I just find that flabbergasting.

PS- I read some of the supportive comments people left for Electra on her Myspace page, and one in particular really got my goat: “Jack needs to take a lesson from Trent on how to use leaked music to his advantage and STFU.” Umm…Trent Reznor is not FOR people releasing his music in an unauthorized fashion–he’s against record labels screwing over consumers by charging retarded expensive prices for CDs and in addition to that, it seems as though he is in FAVOR of artists self-releasing their material and taking control back from the record labels about how their music is distributed and at what cost.

I have to stop thinking about this. The stupid is hurting my head. Read more commentary at my homies Web Vomit and Stereogum.