bobbob1313 Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 "Conquest" rules. I didn't like it at first, but now I love it. It's so crazy. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Jules Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 Hopefully I'll be at Aragon as well. When do tickets go on sale for real? I'm camping out all day Saturday 11AM I believe. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Rufer Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 Also I think the album sounds really good, production-wise. Using the "modern equipment" paid off, Jack. Negative. I love the playing, singing, and songs. However, I can't be the only one who can hear the shit-ass mastering this album underwent. Who else can hear the sizzling, crackling distortion during the loud parts on this disc? Yes, I bought the disc so I know it's not an encoding thing. It almost makes it unlistenable. Almost, if like I said the songs didn't rule as much as they do. It's a shame that a band as into old-school sonics as the White Stripes are forced to do that--I can only assume it was a label decision. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hello_Operator Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 Negative. I love the playing, singing, and songs. However, I can't be the only one who can hear the shit-ass mastering this album underwent. Who else can hear the sizzling, crackling distortion during the loud parts on this disc? Yes, I bought the disc so I know it's not an encoding thing. It almost makes it unlistenable. Almost, if like I said the songs didn't rule as much as they do. It's a shame that a band as into old-school sonics as the White Stripes are forced to do that--I can only assume it was a label decision. Over on the white stripes boards there was a thread about this. Apparently not everyone has the sizzling/crackling (myself included), but everyone is noticing that the bass is incredibly heavy and loud. When I listen to it in my car at a not-too-loud volume, my mirrors still rattle. It's kind of bad-ass, but a little obnoxious after awhile. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Elixir Sue Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 Negative. I love the playing, singing, and songs. However, I can't be the only one who can hear the shit-ass mastering this album underwent. Who else can hear the sizzling, crackling distortion during the loud parts on this disc? Yes, I bought the disc so I know it's not an encoding thing. It almost makes it unlistenable. Almost, if like I said the songs didn't rule as much as they do. It's a shame that a band as into old-school sonics as the White Stripes are forced to do that--I can only assume it was a label decision.Huh. Sounds awesome to me...maybe I have unrefined ears. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rwrkb Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 i don't have the sizzling or cracking either Quote Link to post Share on other sites
noyes Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 i'm assuming you guys are watching this already.http://attblueroom.com/whitestripes/index.php here's the same thing bigger (just zoom to 200%)http://mfile.akamai.com/35369/live/reflect....asx?bkup=49551 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Rufer Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 Huh. Sounds awesome to me...maybe I have unrefined ears. i don't have the sizzling or cracking either Let me preface this post by saying, I definitely do not have golden ears and think a lot of audiophile stuff is just phooey. However, I have a hard time believing this issue is limited to my cd and a handful of other complaints I have read online since my last post. I've heard corroborations from other cd buyers and iTunes downloaders. I've heard it at all volume levels on my home stereo, home studio monitors, and headphones. I really hope this is not taken as condescending but I think this crackling and sizzling is there and maybe some are just not noticing it--in which case I guess it's not a problem--or they're just used to this kind of thing--which I think kind of sucks especially when applied to a band like the White Stripes. Anyway, I have a feeling that if you're just not hearing it, when your attention is called to it the first time you'll hear it everywhere after that. So I ask you guys quoted above to check out what I think are the most obvious examples: 1:40-1:52 of You Don't Know What Love Is.2:03-2:15 of 300 M.P.H.0:00-0:16 of Little Cream Soda--It's especially evident in the left channel. When you're listening for this, try to not focus on the music but (and I'm sure going to sound stupid) try to listen to the speaker itself. The crackling I'm hearing did not sound like that in the room and I'm sure did not sound like that through the mics. If you listen to the loud parts of The Nurse from Get Behind Me--where I think the potential for this problem is highest on that album--it's not there. All this said, I just want to say that I think the songs and performances on this album are the best these guys have ever done and I'm a huge fan. I love Rag and Bone, Little Cream Soda, Catch Hell Blues. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jc4prez Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 http://lastwaltzer.blogspot.com/2007/06/wh...with-their.html there is my review Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kalle Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 http://lastwaltzer.blogspot.com/2007/06/wh...with-their.html there is my review Icky Bump? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tongue-tied Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 is it just me, or is the keyboard in Icky Thump completely unrelated to the sound of bagpipes and that perhaps people were listening for bagpipes to appear on this record since they were mentioned and might have mistakenly heard them in Icky Thump? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hello_Operator Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 Let me preface this post by saying, I definitely do not have golden ears and think a lot of audiophile stuff is just phooey. However, I have a hard time believing this issue is limited to my cd and a handful of other complaints I have read online since my last post. I've heard corroborations from other cd buyers and iTunes downloaders. I've heard it at all volume levels on my home stereo, home studio monitors, and headphones. I really hope this is not taken as condescending but I think this crackling and sizzling is there and maybe some are just not noticing it--in which case I guess it's not a problem--or they're just used to this kind of thing--which I think kind of sucks especially when applied to a band like the White Stripes. Anyway, I have a feeling that if you're just not hearing it, when your attention is called to it the first time you'll hear it everywhere after that. So I ask you guys quoted above to check out what I think are the most obvious examples: 1:40-1:52 of You Don't Know What Love Is.2:03-2:15 of 300 M.P.H.0:00-0:16 of Little Cream Soda--It's especially evident in the left channel. When you're listening for this, try to not focus on the music but (and I'm sure going to sound stupid) try to listen to the speaker itself. The crackling I'm hearing did not sound like that in the room and I'm sure did not sound like that through the mics. If you listen to the loud parts of The Nurse from Get Behind Me--where I think the potential for this problem is highest on that album--it's not there. All this said, I just want to say that I think the songs and performances on this album are the best these guys have ever done and I'm a huge fan. I love Rag and Bone, Little Cream Soda, Catch Hell Blues. I think I hear now what you're talking about. However, it doesn't really bother me. I didn't notice it before, or if I did notice it, I just though it was a reversion back to the old, gritty sounding Stripes from the 90's, which I love. But I can understand how some people would be a bit annoyed by it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Papillon Parade Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 I just heard that Ashely MacIsaac will be opening for them at the 10th Anniversary show. Ashley is a killer fiddler from Cape Breton Island who apparently Jack is related to somehow. I have a feeling they are going to blow the roof off the place with Rag and Bone together. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
watchtower41 Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 For you Chi kids out there, anybody try the XRT pre-sale this morning?? Tickets had to have been gone in less than 10 seconds, I was literally in there at 10 on the dot and everything was gone. I expected these to go quci, but damn..... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Reni Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 so - have I missed the rage about the White Stripes being cross advertised with Target? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hello_Operator Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 I have my tickets to the Saturday show at the Aragon. I hear it's a pretty bad venue, though. You'd know better than I. I've been to the Riviera a few times, but never this one. Hope to see some of you folks there! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MrRain422 Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 There's a cool interview up on Pitchfork today. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Elixir Sue Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 #1 album in the UK. Greg Kot's loving it: White Stripes turn discards into gold On their new album, “Icky Thump” (Warner), White Stripes fun couple Jack and Meg White masquerade as two junk collectors on the song “Rag and Bone.” “I saw some stuff in the yard,” Meg says. “Are they gonna give it to us?” “Awww, Meg, don’t be rude,” Jack scolds “Why not?” “They might need it. … We’ve got plenty of places to go, lots of homes we ain’t been to yet. On the West Side, the Southwest Side, Middle East, rich house, dog house, out house, old folks house, house for unwed mothers, halfway homes, catacombs, twilight zones. … So take a last lick of your ice cream cone, and lock up what you still want to own.” The absurdist dialogue emerges as a little play within a song, and it illustrates just how self-aware (and funny) this former husband-and-wife couple can be. The White Stripes have been scavenging for musical discards for a decade and turned them into commercially successful rock albums; their previous three albums have sold nearly 3 million copies. The Whites play with dated musical ideas (blues stomps, country weepers, classic-rock boogie, supperclub pop) and inject them with humor, aggression and drama. They strive to make the familiar seem newly outrageous, all within the confines of a two-piece guitar-drums (no bass allowed) lineup that has remained consistent over six albums and 10 years. “Icky Thump” finds Jack White recharged after a couple of detours. The previous White Stripes album, the 2005 release “Get Behind Me Satan,” was also the most controversial, a conscious break with the duo’s guitar-heavy garage-rock sound to flirt with keyboards, marimba and moody ballads. White followed it with a modest side project, the Raconteurs, shaped by simple pop songs lacking his typical adventurousness. Jack White plugs in again with a vengeance on “Icky Thump,” and he pushes his guitar and his band to new extremes. On “Bone Broke,” his riffs and Meg White’s cymbal splashes rise up and collide, then dissolve into a black hole of static. “Little Cream Soda” is a demented surf song, riding the waves of Jack’s chords and Meg’s lusty stomp. A slide guitar shivers and then slashes like a machete through “Catch Hell Blues.” These songs thrill because they’re daring. Who else in mainstream rock besides the Stripes would dare channel the amplifier-frying simplicity of Hound Dog Taylor? It’s that gusto that has defined the duo and also limited them. They sometimes used their surefire instincts for sonics and gimmicks (such as the “Rag and Bone” dialogue) to disguise Jack White’s shortcomings as a songwriter. It’s telling that many of the band’s most memorable songs have been covers, including Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “Boll Weevil Blues” and Loretta Lynn’s “Rated X.” “Icky Thump” adds another to the pantheon, a brilliant remake of a Patti Page B-side from the ‘50s, “Conquest.” The song adapts the flamenco feel of the original and turns it into a rip-roaring cage match between White’s guitar and a mariachi trumpet player. Once again, it nearly steals the show from White’s originals. But White has come through with several winning songs of his own this time, and they’re the reason that this is one of the White Stripes’ strongest and most varied albums. “You Don’t Know What Love is (You Just Do As You’re Told)” underpins a classic country feel with soul-drenched Hammond organ and builds to a memorable chorus. “300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues” is yet another in a long line of Jack White homages to Led Zeppelin, and it’s a good one, swapping acoustic introspection with electric bombast. “A Martyr for My Love For You” is a Gothic testimonial that puts a compelling twist on the babe-I’ve-got-to-ramble blues trope. And “Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn” sounds like a pre-20th Century Scottish folk ballad, a mad swirl of conflicted emotion punctuated by the bittersweet drone of bagpipes. “The thistle is a prickly flower, but how it is sweetly worn,” White sings on the latter, a conceit that summarizes two of the album’s key themes: temptation and identity. In several songs, White dances with femme fatales, and their roles as hunter and hunted, seducer and seduced, user and abuser, shift constantly. “I’m Slowly Turning Into You” serves as something of a conclusion. It could be a lovely meditation about a couple’s union, but Jack White puts a creepy spin on it. He sounds like the Wicked Witch of the West in the midst of her big meltdown as he recites the song’s title in the chorus, and it becomes not so much a song about merger as it is disintegration. What an actor. It’s the same impulse that drives Jack White to update blues and country songs; they allow him to create characters outsized enough to fit his personality. But along the way, he’s learned a few things from the masters he so frequently emulates. Already expert in the art of dramatizing sound and persona, Jack White keeps getting better at the less conspicuous details of his craft. Pretty soon he’s going to demand attention for the increasing sturdiness and consistency of his songs. greg@gregkot.comfrom http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/tur...rock/index.html Also, Greg and Jim discuss Icky Thump on Sound Opinions (after the hip hop discussion). "This album's an unqualified masterpiece!": Sound Opinions Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Elixir Sue Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 I have my tickets to the Saturday show at the Aragon. I hear it's a pretty bad venue, though. You'd know better than I. I've been to the Riviera a few times, but never this one. Hope to see some of you folks there!It's not bad...I haven't been there since 2003 (I think), but my only complaints were that it was hot as hell inside, and it can take forever to exit the place after a show. Other than that, I liked it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
myboyblue Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 I have my tickets to the Saturday show at the Aragon. I hear it's a pretty bad venue, though. You'd know better than I. I've been to the Riviera a few times, but never this one. Hope to see some of you folks there! I disagree with Elixir Sue on this one. In my opinion, it's the least desirable location for a show. Unfortunately, some bands are a bit too big to play the Riviera or the Vic so they wind up at Aragon. The sound is bad from many of the locations, the concessions and restroom aren't convenient either. I haven't been there in years but every concert that I have gone to there has sucked. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Elixir Sue Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Hey, I'm just happy they're playing a general admission venue in Chicago again. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
myboyblue Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Hey, I'm just happy they're playing a general admission venue in Chicago again. No, I'm with you on that... I'd just rather they play 3-4 nights at The Vic. It's just my least favorite of all Chicago venues. Maybe they should consider a Ravinia show :-) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MrRain422 Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 I saw the Pixies at the Aragon and thought it was fine, other than being really hot. Tickets went on sale when I was out of town so I missed out. :-/ So angry. I've caught them at least once on every tour since 2001. It's not looking good this time around though. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jdmel Posted June 26, 2007 Share Posted June 26, 2007 i got vip passes for the aragon show... maybe theyll ask me to be their bassist. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
the_ashtray_says Posted June 26, 2007 Share Posted June 26, 2007 i saw the white stripes twice at the aragon in 2003 i believe. very good shows, i think they were a couple of the more eclectic setlists they've ever played. the stage is way too high, a good five feet or more off the ground. the first night we were on the floor down near the front and it got hot, but the second night we booked it upstairs & got a couple of the very limited seats on the side. i have to admit i was a tad jealous of shows when i saw them announced, simply because the last time they played there was so great. you guys should be in for a treat. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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