SUPERSEDED

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2000 // The White Stripes, De Stijl // “Hello Operator”

Reviews: Rolling Stone // Pitchfork (2002 repress) // Popmatters // Stylus (2002 repress)

Ok, so where were you, exactly, the first time you heard The White Stripes? Think about it for a minute, because this is important.

Did you first hear The White Stripes on an mp3 blog? YouTube? A streaming audio site?

Did you first hear The White Stripes on a college radio station? On a mix CD one of your ultra-cool friends made for you? At the record store? Or was it on MTV?

When was the last time you heard raves because an album was intentionally recorded (mostly out of monetary necessity) on a 4-track in someone’s living room? When was the last time a band had such an impermeable, teasing backstory from day one? When was the last time you knew a band’s (former) home address ‘cause it was printed on the inside of the liner notes?

Remember when the hype level (especially from the British press) swirling around The White Stripes was impossibly deafening and kind of unprecedented? Isn’t it amazing that we deal with that kind of thing practically on a weekly basis these days? The story of The White Stripes’ ascent to fame and fortune and notoriety is almost laughably quaint now.

But to the music. I would not call myself a White Stripes fan (nor a fan of Jack White’s later projects The Raconteurs or Dead Weather, for that matter). I’ve never seen them live, even! And I missed their legendary-ish appearance at SXSW 2001 at the miniscule Room 710, on before The Bellrays — because I was in a wedding that weekend.

However, I am a fan of the artistic impetus behind and general existence of The White Stripes. And the fact that they were one of the best parts of Jim Jarmusch’s Cigarettes & Coffee. And this record.

I think I remember where I first heard The White Stripes — it was probably in a record store. Or the radio. Or at a party. It doesn’t really matter, actually — except that it most definitely wasn’t on the Internet. De Stijl (or more accurately, the 7” single of “Hello Operator” b/w a cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”) was my entree to their work; I didn’t know much about their first album, just all the rumors and whispered hype, but I figured a record dedicated to both Blind Willie McTell AND Gerrit Rietveld couldn’t be terrible. I guess I was (am still?) a little naive, because I didn’t (and still don’t) find that pretentious. Because it was a perfect indicator of what I was going to hear: stylish, minimal, blues-tinged rock’n’roll.

I might even posit that this album was one of those ringers of the class of 2000 that set the bar so incredibly high that it seemed almost impossible that there could possibly ever be anything better in store for the band. And though it’s true that they somehow, amazingly managed to conquer MTV and become a household name without losing a shred of that rough-and-tumble unpretentiousness and recorded a bunch of pretty great blockbuster singles, none of their future albums would set together quite so cohesively and flow so effortlessly. De Stijl is yet another example of the theory that the album before the album that makes a band famous is really their best one. Think on that for a bit — you’ll see I’m (mostly) right.

Posted September 1, 2009 at 3:51am in the white stripes de stijl 2000 || home

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