The Raconteurs Live MP3s and Videos!
Shaky video of early Raconteurs gigs have turned up on YouTube. Above is a cover of David Bowie's "It Ain't Easy" which is awesome. The video is right around D+ quality though, so it is fortunate that better quality MP3s of another show have also turned up, and are posted at Tea With Tufty. After listening to just the Bowie cover and the set opener, I have far more faith in the band. In fact, I even feel bad for doubting that Jack White would participate in something non-awesome. Below is a video for "Steady As She Goes", the single which made me uneasy.
Lastly is a Charlie Rose interview with Jack and Meg, where he discusses Hipsters in candid terms. I always think it is silly to see the term "hipster" used in a legitimate context, such as a PBS interview or a New York Times article, and this is no exception. What Jack White says, that had not crossed my mind before, is that the the fickle "looking for the next big thing" nature of hipsters moving from band to band at breakneck pace does not simply cause there to be fewer "classic" bands that stand the test of time, but that this is more of an intentional maneuver, because hipsters don't want to be associated with anything that is old and uncool. It's not that they got former forgotten buzz bands wrong, it's that they never wanted to be right: just cool. It's always strange to hear bonafide wealthy rock stars talking about things like this, but you have to figure he has more experience with it than most other people, so as before, I'm inclined to agree with the man.
As a final note, if you are ever looking for MP3s or reviews of recently played concerts, try using blog search engines such as Technorati. Whereas the big dogs such as Google and Yahoo can be unpredictable with their update schedules, sometimes taking days, blogs tell Technorati when they update, allowing them to be right on top of the latest postings. That's how I found these MP3s, a process which would have been more difficult and frustrating at Google.
