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White Stripes Seven Nation Army

The White Stripes: Seven Nation Army

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by Gareth Dobson
Whilst it has been rumoured that even HRH Queen Elizabeth II now demands to be dressed solely in red and white in tribute to everyone's favourite Detroitians, we must briefly step away from the flag-waving of newly duotoned Union Jacks to deal with dull perfunctory duties, like the critical inspection of the first 45 from 'Elephant'.

Bit of a problem this; in these times of Stripular critical polarization (i.e. on one side, they are the best thing since, well, ever, and on the other side… actually there is no other side) how do you say: "the single's not actually that amazing," without sounding like a mardy old bastard? Perhaps by sensibly pointing out that, whilst it marries some nice edge-of-your-seat lyrical grit with a nice whammy-bar-slide-guitar line, it doesn't quite match up to a 'Hotel Yorba' or a 'Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground'.

There's certainly a nice fat wedge of drama in there, and when Jack promises that "I'm gonna work this song/make the sweat drip from every pore", he means it, and you can see why the man is currently eyeing up Hollywood for his next career step. Regardless, blanket critical appreciation means that any Jack n' Meg doubters will need to look over their shoulder for a while longer when they utter words of dissent.

"Everybody knows about it/From the Queen of England to the hounds Of hell". Quite, and that's probably half the problem.

  • The White Stripes 7 / 10

White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

eh - arent the white stripes detroitians??

and not chicagoans?

maybe im just stoopid and missing summat here

just thought id mention it though


peep

Re: White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

They're actually from Norwich. It's all a sham. You are being lied to. SUCKERZ!

Re: White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

No, you're right. My brain was momentarily monged. edited now. Ah. The powers of retrospect. brilliant.

Re: White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

the white stripes are from hull.

Re: White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

Wherever they're from, I prefer this to 'Hotel Yorba' (which I thought was a bit pants). In fact, I think it's my favourite track on Elephant at the moment.

White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

Dude! get that apostrophe out of "favourite Detroitian's"!!!!!!! it's wrong!



Is that an actual *bass* on Seven Nation Army or just an effects pedal?


Re: White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

Don't get me started on apostrophes. *twitches*

...still just the Emperor's new clothes

The White Stripes are still just the Emperor's new clothes. Uninventive, dull, overly-simple music that only goes to further demonstrate that girls can't drum.

Re: ...still just the Emperor's new clothes

Ouch. Harsh, but kinda fair - with regards to Meg White. The Halo Friendlies' drummer is quite good.

Re: ...still just the Emperor's new clothes

overly simplistic?!? yeah, jack white's just another one of those shit garage rock guitarists from london/wherever with 3 chords and a stooges album and "raw enegry" ((c) half the press releases i read currently..zzz...) in place of any talent/to-die-for tunes... whatever
see them live, at arms length from your face, jack tearing into utterly electric blues riffs with a mind of their own...i truly never expected him to be *that* good, seriously

+ "girls can't drum"?!? yeah, really brought the velvets down, that...and (for wont another more current e.g., off the top of my head..) Erase Errata's is tight as fuck. Just cos whatshername from seafood's never been able to hit those beats at the start of "gun trip" with any precision live...
there's a difference between simple drumming (meg, moe tucker) and shit drumming. I saw one band the other day who's drummer was truly godawful, 1 neanderthal beat regardless of teh song he was accompanying, it may have been Kenesis but i might just be getting them mixed up as they're plain godawful anyway..

Re: ...still just the Emperor's new clothes

calm down p p p p p p p... he was obviously just trolling.

Re: ...still just the Emperor's new clothes

tsch, that was but a drop in the ocean compared with one especially heated-to-the-point-of-volatility debate over the white Stripes between journalists that i've been in the presence of before ;)

anyway, y'know i only come on the board here to hate on things and argue the fuck about stuff in a highly arsey fashion, adie! ;) it's the insomniaaaaaaaa......

Re: ...still just the Emperor's new clothes

Was quite serious actually!

Re: ...still just the Emperor's new clothes

I have seen them live (November 2001) and it made no difference. Jack's riffs are the kind of thing that you cover first as a novice when you learn to play electric guitar, moving on quickly to more interesting chords and melodies. And while Meg's drumming is definitely simple, it is shit at the same time - she seems to have no grasp of syncopation (hands/feet playing different stuff at the same time), which I'm sure even the guy from Toploader could manage.

Re: ...still just the Emperor's new clothes

ach, thats a pile of cock [[[not the meg thing - she has basic competence, but that's still not shit drumming - unless one is the sort of anal fuck who wets theirself over prog wank or mathrock percussion complications obviously... i would be a shit drummer - i couldnt even do as much as meg or moe. anyway, the music of the white stripes is such that its frankly unnecessary for anything more than that, imho, they wouldnt be the same band otherwise and arguably not as good [bypass that if like you you think theyre arse anyhow], just think of the moldy peaches if they eradicated their shambolicness..nooo...]]]

but back to the point - i'd like to see you go lick-for-lick [ugh....thats a horrible word but i can't think of owt more appropriate, 'riff' isnt right..] with jack though - and i'm not talking about what he plays on record, i'm talking about the way he rips apart his on-record riffs and just flies into another electrified blues realm that stays true to the original aesthetic of the early early blues records jack adores so. wank wank wank. oops.

nov '01? was that in somewhere you could see right in front of you how jack was playing, then; or in slightly more cavarnously sized theatre venue, where, uh, you can't to that degree whatsoever unless yr in the front row? much as i abhor pomposity and selfrighteousness in people's posts and never would allow myself to be so...*deep breath*....yr comment re: jack's live guitar [it was live i was talking about so i assume you were too] is just drivel. yeah, every slightly-above-novice level guitarist can play like that, silly me for my astoundment..
ho hum..


thinking back to that other argument though....they really seem to polarise opinions, as this shows i spose..it all reached an utter impasse there too and blood was shed.... i did laugh [in an innocent rather than superior way] when someone compared them to the sultans of ping at one stage there tho.
So i'm happy to leave it, really..the meg issue is v open to attacks anyway, but thats my stance on it ;)

then again Dizzee Rascal's album's gonna be sooo better than 'elephant' [still havent bettered de stijl, imho zzz] so what do i fucking care :)



mmmm. i think you can tell i'm bored and narked this afternoon....

The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

the white stripes are absolutely fuckin wank

Re: The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

I agree with the person posting above, the white stripes are awful. Jack White is terrible at the guitar, and the less said about megg White the better.

The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

i wonder how white stripes ever got big...
this song ruins the image of girl drummers...
it sucks SOOOOOOOOO bad!




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