New Look and Number 63

I felt it was time for a little change, so I've gone to a brighter template! I'm not exactly a computer genius so I find these things very exciting. Anyway, the brighter template makes the words a little easier to read and makes things a little more colorful. One band that would approve of brighter colors is Number 63:

White Stripes - Elephant (2003)

The sound of this band's buzz was heard for years before they finally broke big in 2003. The White Stripes are an unlikely band, a "brother & sister" act that are comprised of a guitarist / singer and a drummer. And that's it. No long list of sidemen or studio hacks playing bass or keyboards, no wall of sequenced synthesizers to make up for missing musicians, just bluesy alterna rock played in a raw minimalist format.

I haven't heard what's supposed to be their best album, White Blood Cells (2001), but Elephant delivers pounding garage rock with palpable force. Guitarist Jack White clearly leads the band with his cutting, feedback driven guitar riffs and strong sense of melody. Drummer Meg White has been made fun of for her drumming style, but you must remember a drummer can be as important in what they don't play than what they do. Between Jack White's meaty riffs and screechy vocals a more technical drummer would just get in the way.

The big hit song, "Seven Nation Army" is probably going to be on the list of the best rock songs of this decade. The pulsing beat, plaintive vocal and downbeat groove hits hard and the equally memorable video of the duo repeatedly coming out of the background to the foreground has been repeatedly mimicked in commercials since. The other hit, "Hardest Button To Button" fares just as well with a powerful stop/start guitar riff and some great drumwork (yeah, I said Meg White's drumming is great!) . The video of the duo repeatedly moving across the screen in stop motion increments has been copied (just recently this video was paid tribute to in The Simpsons) as well.

Elephant has a great mix of edgy garage rock, brutal blues riffing and odd ball Velvet Underground style left turns. Zippy, fast rockers like "Black Math" and "Girl You Have No Faith In Medicine" are balanced by slower numbers punctuated with bluesy outbursts like "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" and "I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother's Heart". Two other stand out songs are the classic rock blues of "Ball And Biscuit" and the self motivational "Little Acorns".

The recent work of Jack White suggests there may not be a future for the Stripes, but Elephant will always stand out as a great garage rock album.