Jack White is well-known for having plenty of musical ventures outside of his solo career and work with The White Stripes, The Dead Weather, and The Saboteurs.
This year alone he’s single-handedly saved his hometown’s most historic live music venue from financial ruin, become the public face and voice of the National Recording Preservation Foundation (NRPF) while donating US$200,000, and been named 2013’s Record Store Day Ambassador. No wonder he’s getting a tribute album made in his honour from the very same rock legends who inspired him.
On top of all that, White is also famous for founding his own personal label, record store and tourist attraction: Third Man Records.
This year has seen Third Man Records offering ‘do-it-yourself’ vinyl to add to the ‘Novelties’ part of its full namesake, continuing to gift historians and collectors alike with re-issues of rare and important recordings, and just last Friday became the first ever label (probably) to release their own effects pedal in the Bumblebuzz guitar pedal, all making it “without doubt the Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory” of the music world, as The Vinyl Factory puts it.
With the help of video production company, The Vinyl Factory now offers the proverbial Golden Ticket inside Third Man Records and Novelties, with a behind-the-scenes documentary of the Nashville based headquarters.
The online doco looks inside the guts of the workshop through the lens of Third Man Records’ six most precious releases while taking a tour of its Novelties Lounge, which features all manner of music-related amusements and vintage mechanical curiosities.
Hosting the tour is Third Man Records executive and official White Stripes archivist, Jack White’s own nephew, Ben Blackwell, who talks through the Blues legends re-issues, the live “direct-to-vinyl” recordings of Third Man’s studios (focussing on forthcoming Meredith Festival highlights, Melvins), and much more besides.
The mini-documentary was produced as part of an ongoing series developed by The Vinyl Factory with Dust and Grooves that focuses on a US roadtrip to America’s most unique record collectors for an upcoming book. Entitled Dust And Grooves: Adventures In Record Collecting, Third Man Records features alongside a bevy of record stores – with interviews and images – for the new tome, which is touted for release on April 19th, 2014, which just so happens to be Record Store Day 2014.
In related news, a collection of vintage rock n’ roll and rockabilly icons covered Jack White’s prolific songbook for the suitably titled Rockin’ Legends Pay Tribute To Jack White, released last month by Cleopatra Records.
Meanwhile, White himself is reportedly working on new material with (one of his many side-projects) The Dead Weather, his first new music since releasing his debut solo album, Blunderbuss, last year.
News of the (semi)supergroup’s first new material since 2010’s Sea Of Cowards, arrived via a tweet from Third Man Records in September, noting The Dead Weather had been in the studio working on new material, while White told Rolling Stone earlier this year: “All the Raconteurs and all the Dead Weather live in Nashville now, so we often go on trips together, because we’re all just good pals. We’ve recorded some things, too.”
