Whites Won't Change Stripes
By: Mary Huhn - NY Post
April 5th 2002 7:20am
THE White Stripes, a dynamic garage-rock duo from Detroit, put out its third album, "White Blood Cells," just under a year ago on the very-indie label Sympathy for the Record Industry. And, as they say, three's a charm - even if it's a slow-working one. "The first time we were going to play in New York, Meg and I were just talking and we said, 'They're not going to like us,' and they're gonna have this attitude - 'We've seen it all before,' " he told The Post from his Detroit home. But an outpouring of Big Apple enthusiasm proved otherwise. "It's been better than other places," he said. "It's always been really warm and accepting." Combining Jack's rough-you-up guitar riffs, Meg's primitive pounding and some piano, the band performs rock reminiscent of late-'60s/early-'70s bands, from Traffic to T. Rex. Jack, who brings on a Kinks feeling as well, bangs out passionate songs such "Fell in Love With a Girl," an MTV and radio hit. Remarkably, Jack labels his punk-infused garage rock as folk music, because it includes storytelling, melody and rhythm. "Whether it's handled really loud or angry or punk, it's still folk music," he explained. The duo's relationship - whatever it may be - has caused as much of a stir as their sound. Jack, as well as his p.r. team, insists Meg is his sister, but that's not so certain. Time magazine even assigned a reporter to investigate rumors they were a divorced couple - and reported that they were. Jack insists otherwise. "She's my sister," he said. "Things got out of hand. We told a guy at Time we weren't brother and sister. We didn't like the guy. We were playing a joke on him, but the joke's on us because we've had to deal with that eversince." Jack began playing the drums at age 5, but at 19 turned to the guitar as he began writing songs. Meg took up drumming in 1997, when she and Jack formed the White Stripes. Fooling around in the attic of the family house (which Jack now owns), the two laid down a version of Bowie's "Moonage Daydream" on a two-track. "It sounded good, like kids playing," he recalled. So they decided on a kind of "childish" sound and went so far as to paint peppermint candies on Meg's bass drum. The name White Stripes as well as their signature red-and-white outfits grew out of this theme. But they don't need candy-coated gimmicks to sell their sound. "Jack is one of the best songwriters out there," said Andy Gershon, president of V2, the record label which signed them to a two-album deal. "They're great people, and they're fantastic live."
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