This is pretty much the coolest thing ever. In a partnership between John Peel’s family, The John Peel Centre for the Creative Arts, Eye Film and TV, and website company Klik, and sponsored by the BBC and Arts Council England, the record collection of famed BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel will be available for the world at large to peruse via the interwebs.

The beloved disc jockey, who died in October 2004, was known for his encyclopedic knowledge of music of all genres and his supremely cool music tastes. Mr. Peel was an early supporter of The White Stripes and helped introduce them to a wider audience by having them on his show multiple times in 2001 and was a huge collector of their vinyl.

His family have given exclusive access to the collection which includes 25,000 LPs, 40,000 singles and many thousands of CDs.

You can browse the collection at TheSpace.org, complete with the album covers and John’s hand-typed index reference cards for each album.

Please also check out this awesome documentary done on John Peel in 2005 on Channel 4 about John Peel’s “Record Box” which included his favorite records ever:

I’m looking forward to discovering some great music!

An eagle-eyed reader tipped me off to a new app called Moquu that has some very special filter names. Check it out:

“Jumble,” “Sugar,” “Aluminum,” “Biscuit,” “Coffee,” “Blue Orchid”… anyone else sensing a pattern? Yup, the folks at Pangalaktik Media (the Budapest-based creators of the app) are most definitely fans of Jack and Meg — all the filters are named after White Stripes songs! If you needed any more confirmation, check out their March 11th tweet declaring their love of the Stripes.

Sadly no “Big Three” or “Icky Thump”, but I like your style Moquu, I like your style!

In this week’s edition of “Jack White Weekly” there are a number of exciting updates:

1. Jack’s debut solo album, Blunderbuss has been released! What are your thoughts? I’ll be taking an in-depth listen this weekend during a road trip.

2. Jack White is going to write, produce, and perform the score for Walt Disney Pictures’ version of The Lone Ranger which stars Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie “Winklevii” Hammer as John Reid, the Lone Ranger. Wait a minute – are Johnny Depp and Jack White allowed to be attached to the same project? Isn’t that kinda like them being in the same room together — impossible?

Although Jack contributed songs (and appeared in) Anthony Minghella’s Cold Mountain and one of those James Bond movies (please, let’s all try to forget that duet with Alicia Keys), this will be his first outing into feature film scoring.

3. Jack will be doing a special show for American Express Unstaged right here in NYC on Friday (April 27th) at Webster Hall. Even if you can’t be there in person (like me), you can watch the whole affair courtesy of the internets and Jack White’s VEVO channel starting at 9pm EST. The stream will be directed by eternal bada**, Gary Oldman. Yes, that Gary Oldman.

Trailer for the show:

The Third Man Records Rolling Record Store will also be in town starting tomorrow, giving out clues to where you can find one of the five pairs of free tickets to the show. Hit them up on the Twitter to see if you can sleuth it out.

4. Anyone else see something weird about everyone mentioned in this post?

(From L-R: Johnny Depp, Jack White in Another Mag, Gary Oldman in Dracula)

Just wanted to post an update — you can still see the Jack White mascot photo of this website up at Cake Shop!

Here’s a photo of my photo that I took at our 120 dB photo show opening:

Out of complete random curiosity today I googled to see what was going on with everyone’s favorite almost all-asian band from New York (via California), The Morning Benders and to my surprise they’ve changed their name to POP ETC.

Why the name change? According to a message posted on March 25, 2012 on the old Morning Benders website by front-man Chris Chu, the original name was chosen in haste — but the band discovered a hidden meaning to their name while touring in Europe for the first time in 2010:

Fast forward to 2010, many a dive bar, school quad, house party, county fair, pizza parlor later. We had just released Big Echo, and for the first time we were preparing for a world tour. We had toured a fair amount leading up to Big Echo, but never overseas, so when it came time to tour the UK and Europe we were quite excited. The touring went well, and we had an amazing time, but also something happened that we hadn’t anticipated. As soon as we had landed in London people started asking us about our band name. “What does ‘Bender’ mean to you?” people would ask. “Are you seriously called ‘The Morning Benders’ ?” was a common question. For those of you reading from America, you may still be confused. Well, it turns out that the word ‘bender’ in the UK and many parts of Europe is a slang term for ‘homosexual.’ We were told our band name was the equivalent of ‘The Morning Fags’ in America. We had been called The Morning Benders for 5 years, and we were just finding this out now? It was shocking. And quite sad, to say the least. We had spent those years touring night and day, championing our name everywhere we could, only to find out that the name had an alternate meaning- one that made us look hateful, or at best, ignorant.

Now that the band are readying to release their newest album on June 12th, they felt it an opportune time to change their name for the following reasons:

1. We simply cannot go on using a name that is demeaning to the gay community. The reason we are making music is to reach and unite as many different kinds of people as possible, and the idea that our name may be hateful towards anyone makes us sick.

2. In the UK and many parts of Europe the name has simply become too distracting. The MUSIC has always been our number one focus, and we want to present that to people in as pure a way as possible

You can check out some new tracks from POP ETC via their free mix tape, available on their new website, http://popetcetera.com/. The sound is definitely more hip-hop and R&B influenced with a dash of late 80′s slow jam cheeziness (breathy whispers circa New Kids on the Block, I’m looking at you), but still retains the extremely catchy poppiness that is the band’s signature.

In a recent interview with Pitchfork, Chu describes his rediscovery and new appreciation of the “well-crafted music” of beloved bands from his childhood (Boyz II Men, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper), and the new sound is definitely a result of that.

Take a listen:

Need I remind you that my mom loves Keane?

I’m sure she’s already seen the new video for “Silenced By the Night,” the first single off their upcoming album, Strangeland (May 8th), but maybe you haven’t.

See below for a complete list of Keane North American tour dates:

June 12th Boston, MA House of Blues
June 14th N. Bethesda, MD Music Center At Strathmore
June 15th New York, NY Beacon Theatre – SOLD OUT
June 16th Philadelphia, PA Merriam Theater
June 18th Montreal, QC Olympia de Montreal
June 19th Toronto, ON The Sound Academy
June 21st Nashville, TN. Marathon Music Works
June 22nd Chicago, IL The Vic
June 23rd Milwaukee, WI Pabst Theater
June 25th Denver, CO Paramount Theater
June 26th Salt Lake City, UT The Gallivan Center
June 29th Los Angeles, CA The Orpheum Theatre – SOLD OUT
June 30th Oakland, CA The Fox Theater

Ol’ Jackie White has released a new music video for “Sixteen Saltines,” directed by AJ Rojas for his second single off his debut solo alum, Blunderbuss (coming out on April 24, 2012).

The vid is a little bizarre, with Jack White finding himself in a precarious situation at the hands of a group of Lost Boys painted blue. The rest of the scenes involve kids in various states of causing mischief and self-harm (some of it a little tough to watch).

The vibe is sinister, dangerous, and reckless — a perfect match to the strong guitar riff that guides the song.

Take a look:

Thumbs up (through covered eyes)?

More disturbing scenes after the jump


Face tattoos for everyone!

Breakfast of (white trash) champions.

This is pretty damn awesome! In anticipation of the April 24 release of Jack White’s debut solo album Blunderbuss (Third Man Records/Columbia), on April 1st Third Man Records tied 1000 flex-disc records containing an unreleased Jack White album track “Freedom at 21″ to blue helium balloons and launched them from TMR headquarters in Nashville, TN.

According to the press release, similar balloon launches show a recovery rate of approx. 10%, so probably less than 100 of the 1000 records will actually ever be discovered. But if you do discover one of these balloons, a custom postcard with instructions on how to submit photos, the discovery location, and date are included and will be tracked at http://thirdmanrecords.com/balloon.

Some early reportings in Alabama indicate the winds must’ve been blowing south.

And for those of you worried about these balloons being bad for the environment, the label was sure to use biodegradable latex balloons and all-natural twine in the process.

Happy hunting!

Yes! 120 dB, the concert photography show I was a part of is back by popular demand, this time in Manhattan!

If you remember, our opening night at Fort Useless was a major success, so if you were not able to trek out to Brooklyn in the dead of winter, please head to Cake Shop this Friday, 6-9pm, to get a look at a select group of photos that were on display in January. My photo of Jack White (aka – the unofficial mascot of this blog) will be featured.

Below are all the deets:
Join us at the opening reception of 120dB, a group photo show of concert photography at Cake Shop (152 Ludlow Street, NYC) on April 6th from 6-9pm.

The exhibit showcases the work of thirteen female concert photographers prominently featured in Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, Prefix, Impose, Village Voice, NPR, House List and many other sites and publications. Participating photographers include: Jessica Amaya • Abbey Braden• Amanda Hatfield • Leia Jospe • Devyn Manibo • Samantha Marble • Gabi Porter • Emily Tan • Tear-n Tan • Maryanne Ventrice • Diana Wong • Dana distortion) Yavin • Laura Young

Hope to see your beautiful faces there!

Last night Mr. Jack White made his tv debut as a solo artist on Saturday Night Live. Check out the performance below:

What do you think of Jack going solo?

Also performed “Sixteen Saltines”: