The Dead Weather- Dodge and Burn (2015)

The Dead Weather- Dodge and Burn (2015)

“Playing drums feels like coming home for me. Even during the White Stripes I thought: 'I'll do this for now, but I'm really a drummer.' That's what I'll put on my passport application.

Jack White

By: Ghost Writer

It’s really amazing to hear an intense punked out Alison Mosshart ululate like a drunken banshee, in astonishing Robert Plant like fashion while getting crushed under Dean Fertita thunderous Jimmy Page life riffing, and then the next second, Mosshart getting guerrilla style funky in pure Zack De La Rocha fashion, an undeniable testimonial of the far out reaches of this volatile musical organization known as The Dead Weather, musically, Jack White is like a new version of David Bowie playing with his chameleonic powers, we have seen him as front man of a neo garage rock band, as low fi side kick of Neil Young, producing country legends, playing dirty rock n roll, or going into more rootsier ways, he is kind of Neil Young when the legendary Young goes from the electric storm known as Crazy Horse to the more placid and contemplative Stray Gators, here on The Dead Weather, White goes behind the drum kit, sounding as powerful as the mighty John Bonzo Bonham, and opener I Feel Love (Every Million Miles) is simply an inside out version of the juggernaut Immigrant Song by the mighty Zeppelin, after giving it the postmodern garage treatment.

White found out many places to exercise his outsider drummer skills, learned perhaps by listening a lot to Captain Beefheart´s Magic Band, a habit shared with band member Mosshart, and precisely, that comes to the front in themes like, Buzzkill(er), bluesy, messy and freakish, featuring amazing dissonant guitar work, showing Fertita exquisite talent for making noise, here Mosshart has a broader chance at creating a groovier vocal line that seems obsessed with dragging all of us to hell along with the loud blaring guitars while White sounds like a really “bone saw” here and the guy is not shy about loud drumming, just check the intro to Let Me Through, where drums and fuzz bass serve as brutal guidelines for the song, changing immediately the strategy for the weird funk of Three Dollar Hat a crazy sort of mix between Beck and Jon Spencer´s Blues Explosion garage rumblings first and then going into a cosmic blues punk groove that remind me immediately of The Mars Volta blizzard of sound, with some hip hopping thrown in for fun.

But is the blues that lies closer to the heart of The Dead Weather, and it really shows on the slow jam titled, Lose The Right, another good vehicle for spectacular musicianship, and passionate Mosshart singing, while Rough Detective takes us to more bluesier and funkier routes with devastating and groovier results.

In a way, Dodge and Burn is a riskier record for The Dead Weather, it sounds inclined towards free form much in the way garage legends The Stooges laid down the monumental Fun House, it has a free sound that obviously deviates from what could be radio friendly, in fact Open Up is astonishingly similar in sound and attitude to Fun House, its loud and bashing and at the same time dangerously sensuous, whereas the intro for Be Still thrives on the kind of primitive aggressive sound Iggy Pop talked about wanted originally for the stuff, Mosshart sounds like a cross between Patti Smith, the great punk poetess and Lydia Lunch, the great no wave icon, we can see the same kind of dirty raw energy some of the early Soundgarden records used to show by combining magically the world of blues and punk, and precisely, Soundgarden´s guitarist Kim Thayill expressed in some mag, his taste for the avant garde sunds of the might Beefheart, without a doubt a big connection and inspiration here, just check the jagged riffs and wild disjointed beats of Mile Markers.

Dodge and Burn is without a doubt a great record, it´s already The Dead Weather bets to date, it has some kind of unstable and intense type of energy, without a doubt is another great proof of Mr. White´s boundless creativity, although here White leaves the spotlight (not so much as he proves he is a terrific drummer) to Mosshart and Fertita whom just sound perfect for the job and leave us waiting for more of this addictive stuff.