The Raconteurs

80 ’08 (and Heartbreak): Announcing Idolator’s Year-End Extravaganza

Michaelangelo Matos | December 31, 2008 12:45 pm
Michaelangelo Matos | December 31, 2008 12:45 pm

What were the 80 most important musical recordings, artists, trends, events, and performances of 2008? What were the eight things this year that broke our hearts—or, at least, our ears? We’re happy to announce 80 ’08 (and Heartbreak), Idolator’s year-end overview. The list is below the jump.

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No. 46: Gnarls Barkley And The Raconteurs Race Each Other To The Record Store

noah | December 17, 2008 1:00 am
noah | December 17, 2008 1:00 am

Radiohead’s “gotcha!” release of In Rainbows last year had something of a ripple effect on artists who also appeal to that band’s tech-savvy, sorta-into-paying-for-music fanbase. Jack White’s other band, The Raconteurs, played with the idea of bringing back the “event record” by shortening the period between announcement and release first, when they announced that their second album Consolers Of The Lonely would be available a week following its announcement. “We wanted to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding it’s availability, reception or perception,” the [sic]-ly release said. Of course, this didn’t stop the damn thing from leaking anyway. (And it was all iTunes’ fault!)

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Jack White Writes A Love Poem To The Detroit Of His Mind

anthonyjmiccio | July 7, 2008 1:00 am
anthonyjmiccio | July 7, 2008 1:00 am

AP080613029448.jpgJack White may have been a little down on his hometown in interviews lately, but don’t think he doesn’t have love for the Motor City. The Raconteur may have said that Detroit’s “super-negative” music scene was part of what drove him to move to Nashville in 2006, but “those expressions of mine have never been a representation of my feelings about Detroit the city, a town that I have strong feelings about … nor were they expressions about its citizens.” To prove his devotion to the city that gave us Ted Nugent, General Motors, and some of the most successful white rappers in American history, he has crafted a poem. A series of stanzas that includes references to “malt from Stroh’s and Sanders,” “frescoed families strife fractured,” and “The water letter carrier, bringing prose to lonely sailors.” Surely the fear of another lyrical waxing of this kind will keep locals from ever daring to question his spiritual solidarity again.

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Coldplay Can’t Be As Cool As Other Major-Label Acts Because They’re On A Major Label

anthonyjmiccio | May 14, 2008 1:00 am
anthonyjmiccio | May 14, 2008 1:00 am

AP050509016049.jpgChris Martin would love for Coldplay to be one of those maverick bands revolutionizing the world of music through independent online retail and eliminating the time between the creation of an album and it’s release, but he feels faithful to EMI, much as you would to an elderly grandparent. “We have absolute respect for the Radioheads and Raconteurs and people who can do what they like. We’re in contract though, so we’re just going to make the most of it and enjoy the people we get to work with.” Actually, the Raconteurs are signed to Warner, Chris. Don’t pretend the major label connection is the only reason you can’t come up anything more novel than free concerts and recording in a church with Brian Eno.

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Active Rock Playlists Get Some Disturbing Shakeups

Al Shipley | April 17, 2008 10:00 am
Al Shipley | April 17, 2008 10:00 am

disturbeeeddddd.jpgSince many people find it hard to tell the great from the godawful when it comes to 21st-century mainstream rock, welcome to “Corporate Rock Still Sells,” where Al “GovernmentNames” Shipley examines what’s good, bad, and ugly in the world of Billboard‘s rock charts. This time around he looks at the return of nu-metal in the guises of Disturbed and oddly rap-free rap-metal.

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The Raconteurs’ Plans For A Sneak Attack Were Foiled By Retail

noah | March 25, 2008 1:30 am
noah | March 25, 2008 1:30 am

Poor Jack White. He wanted the latest album by the Raconteurs, Consolers Of The Lonely, to hit stores around the world today with no advance warning (and, presumably, no advance availablity), but his plans were foiled by the archaic structures of the world’s traditional music-retail outlets, which… More »



Songkick’s “Battle Of The Bands” Gives Internet-Beloved Artists A Chance To Shine

noah | March 24, 2008 11:30 am
noah | March 24, 2008 11:30 am

The new music-recommendation service Songkick–which sends out e-mail alerts to users when their favorite artists come to town, and uses a last.fm-like recommendation engine to tell its users about “similar artists” being out on tour–has developed a Battle Of The Bands application, which is sort of like Googlefight with the added nebulousness of using data from MySpace (like number of friends and number of song streams added per week) and Amazon. We put it to the test with three artists who have recently made headlines by using the Internet as part of their distribution strategy, and the results may surprise you:

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iTunes Leaks Raconteurs Album, Apple Switchboard Prepares For The Worst

noah | March 21, 2008 1:30 am
noah | March 21, 2008 1:30 am

Looks like the iTunes Store accidentally leaked the Raconteurs’ Consolers Of The Lonely a few days before its Tuesday release–reports are filtering in from people who successfully purchased the album on both the US and UK versions of the iTunes store, and it’s apparently popping up on the… More »


The “Raconteurs Model”: Is It Aimed At Preventing Leaks Or Muzzling Music Critics? (Or Both?)

noah | March 18, 2008 1:20 am
noah | March 18, 2008 1:20 am

racon.jpgIn the press release heralding the imminent street date of the Raconteurs’ Consolers Of The Lonely, the band explains part of the reason for rush-releasing the album as follows: “[We] are forgoing the usual months of lead time for press and radio set up, as well as forgoing the all important ‘first week sales’. We wanted to explore the idea of releasing an album everywhere at once and THEN marketing and promoting it thereafter. The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by it’s first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it.” Those last 11 words struck fear in the hearts of a lot of people who make their living by defining (or at least trying to sorta-explain) music for potential consumers, as evidenced by rumblings in our comments section and at still-allowed-to-write-at-length outlets like the Guardian. But is Jack White really trying to clamp down on music critics specifically, given that the combination of “leak culture” and the post-Yelp society has resulted in everyone being elevated to the reviewer’s platform?

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Gnarls Barkley To Raconteurs: Anything You Can Do We Can Do Better (Maybe)

Michaelangelo Matos | March 18, 2008 1:00 am
Michaelangelo Matos | March 18, 2008 1:00 am

theoddcouple.jpgLess than 24 hours after the Raconteurs announced the one-week gap between announcement and in-store date for the group’s second album, another hotly awaited follow-up, Gnarls Barkley’s The Odd Couple, has been bumped up to… any day now. Excerpted release from the duo’s publicists after the jump.

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