Jack White, last seen in Australia this year for Splendour In The Grass – and played a couple of well-received side shows of his own – continues his solo world tour in the UK, meanwhile his personal record label-come-studio, Third Man Records, just finished hosting a series of live shows in commemoration of recent renovations to the Nashville complex.
The Shins, fellow Dead Weather vocalist Alison Mosshart’s The Kills, and Seasick Steve all played live for the celebrations, before releasing live albums of all three performances.
As if that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, Jack White continues to prove his prolific nature in the music industry as he shifts his focus yet again in releasing a B-side to new single, “I’m Shakin'”, called “Blues On Two Trees”.
At just under 3 minutes, the supremely weird yet addictive track is perhaps a bit closer to his Dead Weather material rather than his current solo work for Blunderbuss, but is worth noting for that fact that it sees White trying his hand at rapping. Well, sort of.
The new B-side kicks off with a typically garage-blues beginning by White, before the former frontman of The White Stripes throws down a few rhymes in a deliberately paced old-school hip hop fashion.“Hip hop artists] get to say that a lot of people maybe more from my environment don’t get to say.”
“Three trees lying on the side of the road/One tree barks, ‘Where the hell do we go’?”, the enigmatic musician deadpans.
Apart from the awkward timing of this release, considering the entire East Coast of America looks like this at the moment, this brief foray into hip hop shouldn’t come as any surprise to fans.
White collaborated with hip hop duo Insane Clown Posse last year, producing the single “Leck Mich Im Arsch” which Third Man Records stated “marries Mozart’s melody (and lyrics sung in operatic German) with ICP’s poignant lyrical addition in English and Jeff the Brotherhood’s monster-riffs, letting the whole thing tie together in the most beautiful of ways.”
In terms of delving into the hip hop world, White has even spoke of a similar influence by this genre on the rock n’ blues heavy Blunderbuss during his recent appearance in Australia for Splendour in the Grass 2012:
“I think that character [from single “Weep Themselves To Sleep”] was sort of like about, maybe the sort of jealousy that hip hop artists, the things that they get to say that a lot of people maybe more from my environment don’t get to say,” White told Triple M in July.
As for first reactions to the new B-side, Rolling Stone have already gushed over “Blues On Two Trees”, calling the track, “the meanest, most riotously fucked-up thing” of White’s career before going on to describe it as, “a goth-blues funeral processional shambling through a banshee forest of cackle and drone.”
Take a listen to the full track in the banner and see for yourself if Jack White should become an MC for his next release of music.
