The Dead Weather Muse on the Future of Music, Supergroup Wars

Rolling Stone recently had a kind of stream-of-consciousness backstage chat with the Dead Weather where Jack White and Co. tackled topics ranging from time travel and geography to the art of picking band names and avoiding being sued (for instance, White insists, the Arctic Monkeys added the "Arctic" to sidestep the legal wrath of the Monkees). We also quizzed the band on who would win in a supergroup slugfest, the Dead Weather or Them Crooked Vultures. Watch White's response in the video above.

White also spilled some details about the next Dead Weather album, which the band hopes to finish recording in time for their tour of Australia in March 2010. "We'll probably be having a new album by that time, if we're lucky. We have a lot of songs cooking right now, we've been playing a few of them live, and I'm sure by March the entire 20 or 25 songs will be onstage by then," White tells Rolling Stone. "We can't tell you that much about it except that it's gonna be really expansive, and I use that word loosely in a scientific sense, meaning that I'm just using it to distract you."

Check out supergroups from Cream to Them Crooked Vultures.

Related Stories:
• Jack White Says Expect a New Dead Weather Disc in Early 2010
• Jack White Turned Down Slash's Request to Sing on Solo Album
• Jack White Can't Stop Dancing in Dead Weather's Second "I Cut Like a Buffalo" Video

• 
  MUSIC The Top 25 Teen Idol Breakout Moments
• 
  MOVIES & TV 'Game of Thrones': The Show Vs. the Books
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Facebook IPO vs. Shareholders
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive: Garbage Rip Through 'I Think I'm Paranoid'

Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter