The Dead Weather

Crafting a darkly potent mix of garage, blues, punk, and rock & roll informed by the members’ other projects, the Dead Weather features Jack White, the Kills’ Alison Mosshart, Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Dean Fertita, and the Raconteurs’ "Little Jack" Lawrence. The group began in 2008 after the Raconteurs’ U.S. tour with the Kills: Toward the end of the tour, bronchitis made it difficult for White to sing as much as usual, so Mosshart was drafted to sing several of his songs. Her on-stage chemistry with the band led White, Mosshart, Lawrence, and White’s house guest Fertita to record a cover of Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric?” The newly formed band began working on a full album at White’s Third Man Studios in Nashville Tennessee, with White on drums for the first time since his days with Goober & the Peas. The Dead Weather finished recording their album in a matter of weeks and made its live debut in March 2009, performing a short set for 150 friends at Third Man’s offices to celebrate the release of the single Hang You from the Heavens/Are Friends Electric?. Horehound, the Dead Weather’s debut album, arrived that summer. The band continued to tour and record through 2009, and Mosshart announced that their second album was halfway done that October. In March 2010, the single Die by the Drop arrived. Sea of Cowards, which boasted a heavier and more integrated sound than the band’s debut, appeared that May. That year, the Dead Weather contributed the song “Rolling in on a Burning Tire” to the Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack. In 2013, White announced that the band was working on new material, and the 7” Open Up (That’s Enough)/Rough Detective arrived late that year as a part of a package from Third Man Records subscription service The Vault. Further singles heralded the release of the Dead Weather’s third album Dodge and Burn — which featured remastered versions of the previously issued songs along with new material — in September 2015. ~ Heather Phares