Just caught Jack White’s newest pet project, The Dead Weather, put on a blinding show at La Cigale, Paris. Spot-on swamp blues fleshed out by Alison Mosshart (The Kills), Dean Fertita (Raconteurs, Queens Of Stone Age) and Jack Lawrence (Raconteurs). Their energy and chemistry are straight up awesome. Look out for their debut album, dropping in mid July.

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www.thedeadweather.com

Garageland, by Nicolas Ungemuth, covers the golden stretch of 1964 to 1968, when garage, in all its raw simplicity, reigned the airwaves. The impressive breadth of musicians featured include proto-punks like The Sonics and The Troggs, pop/folk stars like Sandie Shaw and Donovan, psychedelics like The Seeds, mod faces like Rod Stewart and odd ephemera like the Monks. Andrew Loog Oldham provides a preface, but since the whole book is in French, I wouldn’t know how good it is. But the pictures are lush and the paper smells good. Here are some of my highlights:

Royal Trux, American underground’s jagged little pill, don’t make nice. They make music that’s undefinable, unparalleled and unwittingly beautiful. If you listen carefully, you can just pick out the jazz notes, sloppy blues, trashy jams, Aerosmith riffs and miscellaneous avant noise, each lovingly put together to bring you to your senses. The band may be no more, but its spirit comes close to immortality. This track, for one, is excellent.

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Their stuff is being re-released on Drag City.
www.myspace.com/royaltrux

Have Love, Will Travel -- The Sonics