Alison Mosshart (The Kills), Jack White (The White Stripes), Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age), and Jack Lawrence (The Greenhornes) are all accomplished musicians in their own right, responsible for their own brands of unadulterated rock. When they come together as The Dead Weather, they morph into a nightmarish blues-rock swamp creature. It could be described as voodoo rock, but to pigeonhole it would be silly as The Dead Weather are too wild to be tamed.
Dodge and Burn awakens this creature for the third time to delve further into unknown territories. They all bring a unique aspect to the lineup. Mosshart’s haunting vocals range from high pitched shrieks to seductive melodramatic tones; White kicks arse on the cans, his playing implicit of an underlying jazz philosophy; Fertita whips out oscillating screeches from his Electro-Harmonix Generator pedal; and Lawrence adds his signature fat and fuzzy bass riffs.
I Feel Love (Every Million Miles) and Cop and Go are what you’d expect from the Dead Weather, soft-loud contradictions, comprising grinding industrial guitars. Actually, the majority of songs on Dodge and Burn are like that; the guitars resemble chainsaws and concrete drills on Buzzkill(er), and warp like alien spaceship control boards on Three Dollar Hat.
There’s also a more playful side to The Dead Weather lurking just beneath the surface. Playful, but still terrifying, like Let Me Through with its pulsating bass, Rough Detective with its evil cheerleader chants, and Bond theme candidate Impossible Winner.
Dodge and Burn is the cursed cohort doing their thing, proving they haven’t lost any momentum during their five year hiatus. They fuck around just enough to keep it surprising, but not enough to lose their satanic vibe.
BY LEE SPENCER-MICHAELSEN
