Third Man Us レコード& CD

Review: Let's face it, Jack White has never really stood still, with the stream of solo projects put out since The White Stripes days proof of just how relentless his creative spark is. However, as many have pointed out in reviews of Fear of the Dawn, there's not been that much of a stylistic shift since his joint venture with Meg. As such prepare to be blown away with this latest effort. Although we're not going to say whether that's in a good or bad way.

To call the tracks here obscure is nothing short of horribly reductive. A strange, at time obnoxious and jarring fusion of blues, theatrical rock, prog, and plain weird, it's nothing if not consistently unexpected, and wholly unique. Often huge in sound, but then occasionally minimalistic, it's the noise made by a man who has always threatened to throw the kitchen sink at fans, and has finally found the muscle to do it.

Review: Limited to just 2000 copies, Jack White's newest solo album 'Fear Of The Dawn' comes in a distinctive blue and white sleeve, making this move away from the White Stripes' native red and white colouration clear. Prefaced by the buzzing lead single 'Taking Me Back', we're stoked for the promised energy of this LP, which is the first of two albums slated to hit the shelves in 2022. This LP comes in either single black, 'astro' blue, or 'glow' white versions, as well as CD for the digi-heads.

Review: Jack White is most famously the founding member of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather but is also an accomplished solo artist. His fifth studio album, Entering Heaven Alive, is another one that sticks to his signature approach to making music, and that is in DIY fashion in his own Third Man Studio throughout 2021. It comes almost alongside his other new album Fear of The Dawn and neither of them had much backstory. This one is said to simply draw from "different inspirations, different themes, different moods."

Review: ***B-STOCK: Slight surface mark on the record but otherwise in good working order***


Ever the king of the DIY approach, the inimitable Jack White recorded this one at his own Third Man Studio last year, then mastered it and released it himself on his own label. It's his fifth solo album - the second of the year - and is something of a therapy session for the cult singer-songwriter, with highlights galore. There is a real confessional quality to the songs here, especially on the likes of 'Please God, Don't Tell Anyone' which is about his regret for the way he lived certain parts of his life. He also professes his love for his new wife Olivia Jean, with plenty of fluid melodies and understated grooves also featuring throughout a fine album.

Review: Notably breaking away from their distinctive red and white colour palette, this new edition of The White Stripes' blues rock classic 'White Blood Cells' comes as a heavyweight LP. Cut directly from the original 14" master tapes and happily repackaged into what is arguably its best reissue yet, we're sure any true White Stripes fan will be lost without it; while it is their third album, White Blood Cells was for many music listeners their first introduction to the Detroit duo, thanks to the breakout hit 'Fell In Love With A Girl' catapulting them to stardom.

Review: For a city that famously has been losing inhabitants since the decline of the US motor industry began, leaving behind both economic scars and neighbourhood-sized population block holes, Detroit's impact on western music culture has been ridiculously consistent, with the Michigan metropolis ranking among America's healthiest and most significant sonic hubs. From Motown to techno adn Eminem, sounds born here have echoed around the world, and in many cases made a bid for global domination.
Less talked about is the space rock, shoegaze and dream pop scene the town has long been home to, which was in a particularly good place during the 1990s. The second Southeast of Saturn compilation returns to that community and that time, presenting a number of lesser known talents from the area. Highlights including Grimble Grumble, Sabine, Shapeshifter, Star Phase, and The Sunflower Conspiracy.

Review: Returning a half decade on from their critically acclaimed sophomore effort A Distant Call, Philadelphia's 70s rock imbued punk outfit Sheer Mag return with their most honed, poignant collection of material to date. Moving on from the "personal coming out party" that was their first few projects, lead vocalist Tina Halladay has made it abundantly clear that this material could not have been penned just a few years prior, while their mission statement going into Playing Favourites was to rectify the fact that no artist seems "to write straight up rock bangers anymore", with an emphasis on having "huge, catchy songwriting front and centre". Signing to Jack White's Third Man Records seems simultaneously like a fitting rite of passage as well as affirmation of the band's monumental success, with their retro-fitted, fuzzed out 70s psych-tinged rhythm & blues grooves swaying and weaving around Halladay's sultry, snarling cadence with a resolute confidence only achieved over time.

Review: The debut LP from the Raconteurs, released in May 2006. Serving as most fans' introduction to the band, Broken Boy Soldiers is the home for such canonical classics as 'Blueveins', 'Hands' and the anthemic 'Steady, As She Goes'. Such hits went so far as to charm even stalwart director, Jim Jarmusch, to direct a mystical music video for the lattermost song, owing to his penchant for music with a looming, bluesy edge, an aesthetic which the band had by then nailed. Railing against the predominant order of the day - steady living, unquestioned teleologies - the Raconteurs successfully delivered and now re-deliver a compelling, authentic Detroit blues rock project, best, it must be said, known as a latter-day effort by the one and only Jack White and friends.

Notes: "With his gratifying archive, Matt Goody details one of the most successful eras in the history of rock music - Flying Nun Records, formed in 1981 by Roger Shepherd in a Christchurch record shop. Shepherd and his brilliant cohorts served up the legendary output of not only kingpins like The Clean, The Chills and Tall Dwarfs, but also captured the best from favourites of mine like Able Tasmans, Bird Nest Roys, Look Blue Go Purple and The Verlaines. Goody provides the most comprehensive presentation yet of Flying Nun's rise from Shepherd's notepad to international underground rock sovereignty - and a vital part of one nation's collective art history." - Bob Nastanovich, Pavement

In this remarkable tale of creativity and chaos, do-it-yourself innovation and extraordinary attempts at world domination, Needles and Plastic tells the inside story of one of New Zealand - and the world's - great independent music labels. Hundreds of full color & black and white photos illustrate the story! Founded in 1981 by Roger Shepherd in Christchurch, New Zealand, Flying Nun Records unleashed an extraordinary wave of music that had an impact around the world. Needles and Plastic is the first comprehensive history of the early years of the label and its bands covering the critical period from 1981-1988 when many of the most influential and critically acclaimed artists emerged on Flying Nun, bands like - from The Clean, The Chills, The Verlaines, Straitjacket Fits and Bailter Space. The influence of the obscure label became apparent in the 1990s, when big-time indie acts like Pavement, Cat Power or Yo La Tengo started covering Flying Nun bands.

In entries on over 140 records from The Clean's 'Tally Ho!' 7" in 1981 to The Verlaines Bird-Dog LP in 1988, Matthew Goody tells the story through the records themselves. His book draws on years of in-depth research to reveal the stories of the bands, the recordings, the songs, and the audience, with a host of significant characters contributing along the way - Shepherd, Chris Knox, Doug Hood, Hamish Kilgour and many more. In this remarkable tale of creativity and chaos, do-it-yourself innovation and extraordinary attempts at world domination, Needles and Plastic tells the inside story of one the world's great independent music labels.