Founded in 2001 by Jack White, Third Man Records is the prolific musician’s very own, ever-expanding record label located in Nashville, Tennessee.
Most recently holding a series of intimate music concerts, featuring the likes of The Shins and The Kills – which had ticket holders able to see the show being recorded, mixed and mastered live to an acetate disc via the viewing window and a two camera monitor system.
The concerts were held to celebrate Third Man Records’ renovations, that have introduced a live venue, recording studio and retail store onto the premises.
However, White hasn’t stopped there, with Antiquiet reporting the opening, on Record Store Day’s Black Friday 23rd November, of the Third Man Novelties Lounge.
In lieu of a fairgrounds setting, the new Novelties Lounge is just that, adjoined to the retail store of the premises and showcasing a number of mechanized attractions and gizmos located inside, and completing the fairground attraction feel by being operated on official Third Man Records novelty tokens.
The Novelty Lounge features such attractions as the world’s only working Scopitone playing modern music videos where you can watch 36 different Third Man Records music videos on 16mm film, a Mold-A-Rama machine building a miniature replica of White’s 1964 Montgomery Wards Airline guitar, and an analogue colour photobooth.
A video has been released as a sort of introduction to the new Third Man Record site, followed by a mini tour of the lounge (which you can view in the banner).“…completing the fairground attraction feel by being operated on official Third Man Records novelty tokens.”
The video starts off with a deliberately facetious notion that White has the key to furthering the free world, if he tears down the ‘detested’ wall between the novelty lounge and the current record store. “There’s one sign Third Man Records could make that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace,” goes the narration, “General Secretary Jack White: if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity, if you seek liberalisation… Come here and open this gate,” exclaims a character to a cheering audience and a suspicious White standing at the back (Maybe just watch the video).
Though if the idea of the novelty lounge doesn’t cause any excitement, there’s still something for those more musically inclined.
In collaboration with the opening of the Third Man Novelty Lounge will be the release of new collectors vinyl records, including the 7″ for White’s most recent Blunderbuss single, “I’m Shakin'”, and the reissue of such iconic White Stripes singles such as “Hotel Yorba” on limited edition opaque and red vinyl.
Though there are no plans as yet to release White’s recent B-side track in which he’s heard rapping on the exclusive vinyl, and we’re still keeping an ear out for that potential collaboration with Radiohead, the Third Man Novelties Lounge may be enough to convince you of a trip to the US.
