Sea of Cowards - The Dead Weather (2010)

Supergroups!  They either work or they don't.  I've talked about them enough from the great, The Dirty Mac. To the not bad at all, Audioslave.  To the downright horrible, After Bridge,  (Seriously, what the actual fuck guys?)  The thought is that if you take the best parts of the whole, that you get a bigger and better whole.  Thankfully, it works more often than it doesn't, however when it fails, it fails hard.  If it works really well, it's much more prone to catastrophic failure and all those involved learn real quick why they may have been in the situation to be available to create a supergroup in the first place.  (Looking at you Velvet Revolver.)

Let's look at today's pick.  Take Jack White and the Kills.  Separately, they're outfuckingstanding.  Jack White more so with Meg when they're doing The White Stripes thing, but I digress.  The Kills were easily one of the greatest OG's of modern Indie rock back in 2000.  Slam them together and you get some serious syrupy rock.  Jack White's blues and the Kills command of garage rock and metal made 2 albums that just drove the garage scene into the mainstream.  Sea of Cowards, their 2nd release in 2010 was simply a filthy aggressive album worthy that ended just a hair short being metal.  They had to settle for legit blues rock instead.

The Difference Between Us

The cool thing about this album overall was the fact that it was released just under a year after their first album, Horehound, as a group was released.  Because of the nature of indie music, it's almost impossible to chart, but when you're good it's real easy to stay on top.  In a time that the Kills were essentially not creating music for distribution, and The White Stripes were kinda gone, having a(nother) Jack White side project was more than worth paying attention to.  So how did Jack White manage to find a reformed punk singer and a group full of electro blues rockers in the first place?  Easy, he lost his voice on tour and she was there.  The Kills were on tour with The Raconteurs, Jack, performing his ass off as usual, lost his voice and asked Alison Mosshart to fill in on a few songs.  Turns out they're a lot better together than they are apart.  Well except for this...  

Old Mary

There were two singles from this album, Die By The Drop, and Blue Blood Blues.  The former was released about 2 months before the albums was and is the first song on the album.  Kinda grabs you quick.

Die By The Drop

That video alone kinda reminded people how serious this group was.  Unfortunately this was the lasst album the group released....  Till September that is.  Their 3rd studio album coming up in about a month now.  You would be kinda silly to not jump on this.  Maybe not the Third Man Records version, but the vinyl none the less.  Jack White has consistently put out some quality vinyl.  It's one of the many perks of owning your own label outright.  If you all remember Lazaretto from last year, there were all kinds of awesome "easter eggs" literally on the record.  This particular vinyl spinning above was no different, even 5 years ago.  If you drop the needle of your turntable on the right spot of the label on both sides, you'll get 2 bonus tracks.  That's stuff you can't won't get from the .mp3 or CD album folks.  

I Really Need a New Turntable Though...

One last cool thing about this album, it was originally recorded to analog tape then pressed onto the 180grm vinyl.  As are most releases from Third Man Records.  That means, and this should come as a shock to none of you, that when you play this on a quality record player, you're hearing this album the way it was meant to be heard.  Studio quality all the way.  This particular piece of was was found on the way out of Mystic Disc in Mystic Connecticut.  Awesome shop along the water just past the bridge.

Side note, I saw these guys perform live almost exactly 5 years ago in Brooklyn.  The biggest takeaway from that was the chemistry between Jack and Alison.  Those two performed a duet that felt like it should have been X-Rated.  No they didn't strip each other or anything sexual, but they just performed the fuck out of Rocking Horse, from their first album, Horehound.  It made you think they were cheating on someone.  Ever seen someone light a cigarette with a blowtorch?  Easily one of the best concerts I've ever been to in my life.

Can't promise "Vinyl Monday's" anymore, but I can promise you updates when I'm spinning.  Be on the lookout for those.  Maybe I'll be in a Depeche Mode mood soon...  Just sayin.