The Raconteurs: Who Are the Raconteurs?
The Raconteurs are a rock and roll super group. Although by their definition they are not a supergroup because their being a group was not planned. It was just a bunch of friends getting together for a jam session. In an attic on a hot summer day Jack White and Brendan Benson got together and wrote ” steady, as she goes”.
This one song led to the formation of the band and the addition of Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler. The band come together in 2005 and recorded whenever they had a chance. The band decided to go with a retro theme wearing plaid and using brown, yellow and khaki colors in there stage sets.
“Steady, as she goes” was released on April 24, 2006 with the B-side being “Bane Rendition”. Although number four already on the UK singles charts only 1000 copies were released . Also to be released on April 24, 2006 will be ” Call It a Day”. If your looking for a taste of what The Raconteurs have to offer I tunes is offering an acoustic version of the song on May 2 for free. There full length album will be released on May 15, 2006 and is called the Broken Boy Soldiers.
Like every band they have had there hard times. In order to release their album in Australia they had to rename themselves ” The Saboteurs” because a Queensland band already used the name The Raconteurs. When offered money the Queensland band refused to give up the name and even tried to get a higher price from the recording company.
If your looking for this band to play in the US you might be looking for awhile as there is only one concert scheduled for the US. On August 4-6 at Lollapalooza in Chicago they will be playing. Scheduled to join the band for the performance are keyboardist and guitarist Dean Fertita and the Detroit band Waxwings.
Jack White is not just a musician he is also an actor. He appeared in three different movies in 2003. Cold Mountain, Coffee and Cigarettes , and Mutant Swinger from Mars are the three movies, they may not all have been hits but he was in them. But acting is not what Jack White is known for. He’s known for being the vocalist and lead guitarist for The White Stripes.
Controversy has followed Jack White throughout his career from his odd relationship to sister/ex wife Meg White to his arrest in December 2003 for aggravated assault.
Where as Jack White is rock and roll Brendan Benson is considered by some to be power pop. His first album “One Mississippi” debuted in 1996 but because is did not sell he was dropped by Virgin Records and it took six years before he released another album. “Lapalco” was more commercially received than his previous album.
The last two members of the group are Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler both from the group The Greenhornes. Jack Lawrence plays bass for The Greenhornes while Patrick Keeler plays drums. The Raconteurs are not Lawrence and Keeler’s first trips away from The Greenhornes. In 2004 they formed the Do Whaters for Loretta Lynn’s album Van Lear Rose. Lawrence also plays autoharp and banjo for another Detroit group called Blanche.
Anyone into rock and roll will be interested in seeing how these guys throw their diverse background into an album.
