White Stripes still laying low

By Mike Householder
Associated Press

The White Stripes have captured the Holy Grail of rock: indie credibility plus mainstream success.

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"It's like, 'Let's all have a round of applause and a toast.' But you can't live for those things," said the Stripes' lead vocalist, songwriter and guitar player.

"Elephant," the fourth album in five years for the Detroit-based duo, with drummer Meg White, was recorded in two weeks on ancient equipment for what the industry considers pocket change. Now it's been certified gold, with more than 500,000 sales and a

No. 6 spot on the Billboard chart.

"If 'Elephant' had not sold any copies, it wouldn't have upset me and Meg," Jack White said in a recent interview. "We've really tuned ourselves to not caring that much about it."

Their focus always has been on the music.

The formula: Jack's ferocious guitar and Meg's pulsating beats, some blues, a dash of country and a few Led Zeppelin-esque riffs. The lack of a bass only adds to the raw sound beneath Jack's emotionally charged vocals.

"Their sound is so enormous," said Sia Michel, Spin magazine's editor in chief, "you can't believe that there are only two people on stage."

Jack White grew up in Detroit listening to the Who, Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan and playing drums with his friend Dominic Suchyta on bass. They later got into blues artists like Howlin' Wolf and Detroit area rock acts the Stooges and the MC5.

"I was obsessed with blues music and trying to really find a way a white boy like me from Detroit who was born in the '70s could play it, because it felt so right to me in my bedroom," White said.

The pair rode their bicycles to record stores in nearby Dearborn and recorded Dylan covers at White's house, where they used a four-track machine left by his older brothers.

When White was still a student at Cass Tech, he met Meg. They claim to be siblings, but interviews and court records suggest they were married for four years before divorcing in 2000.

Regardless, they formed the White Stripes in 1997 and started playing live shows at clubs for as few as 20 people. And they stood out, said Willy Wilson, a disc jockey at Detroit radio station WDET.

"The two-piece was sort of novel — not a lot of bands were doing that," he said. "It seemed like the songwriting was creative. Jack was a very good guitar player. There was something there."

Their first two albums, "White Stripes" and "De Stijl," met with little fanfare. That all changed after the band recorded its breakthrough disc, 2001's "White Blood Cells," in Memphis.

The White Stripes became a phenomenon in Great Britain that summer. They appeared at awards shows, graced magazine covers, picked up accolades for the Lego-inspired video for "Fell In Love With a Girl" and rocked out at gigs across the globe.

"When we first went over there, we had no manager, no press agent, no record label — nothing," Jack White said. "We just thought, 'We're going to get to play a few shows and get a vacation to England.' And it just exploded."

With the exposure came questions about the Whites' relationship — and about the kitschy red and white color scheme to which they strictly adhere in public.

While they have been less than forthcoming about personal history and style, there is little dispute about their buzz.

In its five-star review of "Elephant," Rolling Stone called it "a work of pulverizing perfection ... It is a glorious thing to hear. It will be one of the best things you hear all year."

Blender magazine called them "the greatest rock & roll band in the world."

"Elephant" was recorded at London's Toe Rag studio using no equipment dating past 1963. "It's interesting to show that an album can be made for $8,000 and go gold in a couple of weeks with only a two-piece rock 'n' roll band," said Jack White. "That's pretty insane. I never would have thought anything other than selling one hundred 45s, you know?

"All that stuff that's been thrown upon us, we never really could figure it out. I still don't really know. I don't know what the appeal is at all."