White Stripes, Gray Day...

I have said this before and I will say it again: I love Jack White.

Jack white, for the past fourteen years has been the lead guitarist and singer for the band the White Stripes. The band was formed by him and his wife in 1997, and they split sometime after, but kept the band together. They have released six studio albums, one live album, a documentary, a box set (complete with White Stripes record player), and several bits of memorabilia over the years. But on February 2nd, 2011, they shocked the world forever, or at least shocked my world forever.

On their website, they released a statement that said that their band was going to discontinue their coalition and that they we not going to make music together as the White Stripes.

For years the White stripes has been one of my favorite bands. They were the first band I saw in concert. Jack was so talented up on stage. When I saw him, he played guitar of course, but also piano, marimbas, mandolin, bass guitar, and sang. He amazed me. He was one of the best guitarists I had ever heard. Since the White Stripes, Jack has joined a few other bands, The Raconteurs and the Dead Weather, where he played guitar and drums respectively. He was also hired to write and perform the new James Bond theme song with Alicia Keys.

I knew that the band would break up eventually, but not yet. My most recent post about the White Stripes has a compelling argument to make one to believe that they were recording another album. How could I have been so wrong? February 2nd was definitely a sad day in history.

Jack, shown above, is shredding. He loves playing guitars that don't necessarily sound great, or are sort of broken, so that when he gets the guitar to play what he is thinking, he, in a way, conquers the guitar. He is wearing all red (one of the band's trademarks, to only wear the colors red, white, and black) and is playing a guitar that he got as payment for helping a friend move in a refrigerator to a thrift store. His black, gross hair is falling over his face as he is wincing and peering down at his wondrous instrument. The microphone has red and white cables covering it like a candy cane.

You know you can always depend on your heroes, that's why Jack White isn't, and Drew Harris IS my hero.

-B