While in Canada, Jack and Meg took time off of their flashmob gigging and one-note symphonies long enough to team up with the Malloy Brothers (again) and hit the Nunavut territory in the Arctic to monkey around for this new Icky clip. It’s like a Stripes dating profile: on their off time, the faux-sibs enjoy white houses, red boats, and long beach-side strolls. And Arctic graveyards.
In other Stripes news, the duo played MSG last Tuesday night to a packed and reportedly rapt room. The New York Times‘ Kelefa Sanneh was on hand and impressed, but we found particular insight in his take on Meg White:
A White Stripes concert also underscores the importance of Ms. White, whose drumming is more sophisticated than many fans (and many more non-fans) realize. She refuses to imitate a metronome, refuses to flatten the songs by making them conform to a steady pulse. Instead she seems to hear the music the way Mr. White does: as a series of phrases, each with its own shape and tempo. In ?Icky Thump,? the title track from the group?s most recent album, which was released last month, she occasionally warped the rhythm by shortening one of the beats, perfectly in unison with Mr. White?s guitar. If her playing were mathematically precise, it would be less musically precise.
Never really thought about Meg’s playing that way before, and it’s an interesting take on the pair’s chemistry. Not clear how Kelefa means “refuse” vis a vis metronome imitation; not sure Meg’s choosing to keep roughshod time, but that’s besides the point — this ‘deconstructing the tunes to reveal a series of phrases’ theory is the most erudite capitulation we’ve heard yet for the basic premise most Stripes fans work upon: The shit just works, ya know?
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Of course, the irony is that despite being filmed in Canada, this video cannot be VIEWED in Canada. Thanks, MTV fascists!
Luckily i know how to use a proxy
I enjoy this song.
As for meg. If she were a poor drummer it’d be obvious. A shitty drummer is obviously shitty. The fact that there’s debate is proof.
i hope you brought enough proxy for the entire class, tibi
ryan, not in canada but once again us outside the u.s. are shat upon.
sign . . .
mother of god that video blows.
I think Meg raided Monica Lewinsky’s wardrobe.
Meg’s drumming is what keeps me from really enjoying this band. She might compliment some of the songs with her primitive style, but overall, the relentless cymbal bashing and lack of touch or dynamics wears thin. I think Kelefa’s critique is insightful, but I’d still call her a shitty drummer with an obscenely limited range.
decent review, but i’ve always been stunned by the stripes live for the opposite reason. the review talks about how stripped down everything is and how you realize how much you “can live without,” but what’s always struck me about the stripes is how much they give you when there’s only 2 of them. their sound is huge, and yes raw/rough, but still unbelievably polished in a lot of ways.
that show ruled. (but grinderman sucked.)
i think meg’s drumming is a part of why lots of other people like the white stripes, and i bet there are plenty of people who’d back me up on this.
I would. What it really comes down to is you either like the group or not. If you do, then you have no problem defending the drumming and if you hate the WS, then you feel like its necessary to take such an easy shot and say she sucks. People strive for perfection too much these days and use so many classic bands of the past as their basis for comparison on the groups of today.
I adore Icky Thump and I love the White Stripes, but this video does nothing for me.
That was definitely a runner up for the weakest video of all time. What is this? We take a whole bunch of random footage of Meg and Jack n’ slap it together?
I do have to agree with the statement that Meg’s drumming is very lacking. You can only really do so much cymbal bashing. Even Ringo demonstrated some originality once in a while and he has historically been looked at as being a glorified metronome.
I definitely agree with Jim and Dave….I think that Meg’s style is what sets her apart from the countless nameless drummers out there. I don’t think that it takes away from the Stripes’ music; I think it accents Jack’s rhythm really well.
The part of “Icky Thump” at the MSG show where Meg lost the beat and stopped playing for half a second…that was “primitive” and awesome. I think NY Times writer just wants to sleep with her. Good show otherwise. Loved Grinderman.
“You Don’t Know What Love Is” is a song Jack White found in Everclear’s vaults. Awful.
It’s all about chemistry with the White Stripes. I think that with a different drummer, the White Stripes wouldn’t be nearly as good. Anyone that disagrees can suck it.
Knocking Ringo…you may as well wear a t-shirt that says “I am a poseur and know nothing of music” or ?I like my music in a neat little box? or ?D-BAG.?
Meg can swing and she can follow Jack?s guitar insanity in a nanosecond. Intangible, chemistry, magic. She?s not Topper Headon, Buddy Miles, Neil Pert, nor a drum machine. Saying ?I like the White Stripes, cept for the drumming? is ludicrous.
I have no problem with Meg’s drumming, the songs are presented in this minimal manner and they’ve worked for me and lots of other people.
However, there’s this assumption that Meg is following Jack… because Jack is the writer and leader.
But Jack is a good musician in the traditional sense. I’ve always just thought he was reacting and even anticipating Meg’s drumming quirks or technical limitations. It could easily work the other way, but I believe the nytimes is wrong. Meg isn’t cutting her beats to match Jack’s guitar riff, he’s adjusting to her to match the way she’s playing and make the song sound as good as possible.
If you’ve played in a band before, someone in that band had a very different skill level than everyone else. You have two choices, accommodate that or leave them in the dust — the former usually works much better.
any real musician will tell you that Ringo ranks up there as a top-notch drummer. Just because he played simple beats doesn’t mean he could be replaced by a metronome – on the contrary, the mark of a great musician is that you don’t notice how good they are, or even their playing at all, only that the song fuckin rules. people who complain about playing being simple (“they only play chrods” is a common one) should listen to other elements of the music (Billie Joe and Kurt Cobain’s rhythm guitar is incredibly hard to replicate).
in that vein, i’d complain about Jack White far more than Meg – his wankery, not only guitar but synthesizer too, screams “look how awesome i am!” Her modesty, as well as knowing her limits, is far less irritating.
the video does suck, though. the only entertaining part about it is how Meg doesn’t even pretend to try to replicate the tamborine in the recording (probably because Jack played it). oh, but then there’s Jack pretending to play the electric guitar line in the song on acoustic guitar, and f(l)ailing miserably. again, he pushed his limits (it is hard to play fast electric guitar lines on acoustic guitar, Clapton notwithstanding), while Meg kept it simple and dignified.
I saw them in Boston a few days ago. it was okay. “icky thump” rocked pretty hard, but whose idea was it to play My Doorbell on bass? oh, right. it was jack’s.
In the Raconteurs, he demonstrated that he didn’t have to be a showboat, which makes me wonder if the only reason he keeps up a band with Meg is because she lets him do whatever the hell he wants.
As simple as Meg’s drumming style…
Have boobs, will drum.
As simple a drummer as meg is, she does the one thing that is most important…
she simply rocks!
you can take the best technical drummer in the world, but if they are boring it does nothing. Her playing may not be complicated or intricate… but there is no denying that she carries the flow and can rock a house.
i was at the MSG show … Grinderman did NOT suck. I guess if you’re really into the White Stripes and have never heard of Nick Cave (that description fits many in the audience) then you might have disliked their set. Actually it made me feel a little bad for Mr Cave, who has been playing awesome music since before Jack White was even born (literally). But I guess we’ll see if Jack and Meg are still playing when they’re 50 years old.
White Stripes rocked it out that night, playing a pretty fun set. Honestly i thought the worst part was the audience, who fell into the “drunken frat-boy” variety a little too much for this guy’s taste. I was reminded pretty often of Steve Martin’s quip to a drunken heckler during a show: “I remember when i had MY first beer”. Not sure if others there felt the same way as I did…
As for the video: I agree with everyone. WTF was that? I don’t know the Malloy Brothers work, and I’m sure that they’re smart fellows with some kind of rationalization for this poor video, but i can’t think of it. It reminds me of a video that you’d make if you were given a camera, the band, and told to make a video in 15 minutes. I mean, walking around in a graveyard? what is this? 1987?
That said, there were a few nice performance beats from Jack, whose acting seems to get better all the time in my mind (excepting Coffee and Cigarettes). But was it me or did Meg wind up looking kind of terrible in the video? When i first saw them i thought that Meg was really pretty and Jack sort of freaky-looking — in this video, they seem to have switched sides.
As the ten millionth person, I’m not sure i need to comment on Meg’s drumming. All I wanna say is that the members of “Yes” are all really really talented musicians, but overall they basically suck at making Rock and/or Roll — so maybe it really doesn’t matter.
jack and meg, please stop using the malloys, your music is way too exciting to enlist mediocre directors.
avant garde directors for avant garde bands, that what i say..
this video has a lot of interesting and beautiful shots, but ultimately its no frill approach takes away what is supposed to be an exciting song.
the simplicity of the video is appreciated, but a director should be able to juggle their simplicity with something visually complex, just like gondry did with their hardest button to button video, or the video for seven nation army.
that said, every malloys video except my doorbell has been bad. that includes the raconteurs video for steady as she goes.
Love the White Stripes but that video was really boring. Looks like they just decided to make a video one day and went outside with a camera.