Lyndsey Parker previews Adam's album For Your Entertainment

I hear that the music dude for the Houston Chron is disappointed in Time For Miracles. He was wanting something glammier from Adam. He shouldn't fret. TFM isn't representative of Adam's album For Your Entertainment, to be released Nov. 23. Lyndsey Parker from Yahoo Music got to preview part of the album. Her preview includes these phrases:

• extraterrestrial electro-opus
  
• freaky-deaky songs, in all their wondrously neon-lit, mirror-balled, future-shocked, robot-rockin' glory
  
• Rocky Horror-meets-Robbie Williams-style
  
• imagine if Mika, Sam Sparro, and Kevin Rudolf had a threesome that resulted in the conception of a glittery alien baby
  
• a giant whitechocolatespaceegg

I don't quite know what to make of that, but I do think the Chron guy is going to get what he's asking for.

H/t ontd_ai or hooplamagnet.  (I won't bother to link since the content is locked.)

Jack White is everywhere

As reported by NME, Jack White gave a surprise lecture to the Philosophical Society at Dublin's Trinity College last night. White discussed anxiety and authenticity. Stripes-mate (and either sister or ex-wife, speaking of authenticity) Meg White has reportedly suffered from anxiety severe enough to require them to cancel shows. On authenticity, he wondered whether Britney Spears might be more authentic than Bob Dylan. Also, he claims that he upholstered albums into furniture pieces he worked on in his pre-Stripes job.

"300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues" and "Rag and Bone"

Here's a little sample of the White Stripes. And another (though with very poor sound quality). Across the Icky Thump album you'll hear influences from punk, rap, blues (from primitive to rock), rock-a-billy, Celtic folk, Dick Dale/surf. His voice reminds me a bit of Andrew Stockdale from Wolfmother.

Jack White, It Might Get Loud, and More Than a Game

We saw a documentary double header last night: It Might Get Loud and More Than a Game. (Grrr. Why oh why do the studios not allow embedding of trailers?)

It Might Get Loud brings together three rock guitar players to talk about the guitar and their experiences with it. The three are Jimmy Page, Edge, and Jack White. I loved it. Jack White is a trip. I got interested in The White Stripes when Adam mentioned them somewhere. We then got the Icky Thump album and loved it, but I didn't know anything about Jack or the "band" (Jack and his sister* Meg) before this movie.

The movie opens with a scene in which you see Jack building a guitar with some scraps of wood, nails, wire and a Coke bottle. He plugs it into an amp, plays a few notes, takes a drag on a cigarette and concludes "Who needs to buy a guitar?" It's a good metaphor for the philosophy he purports to believe which is that simple is better, technology makes things easy, easy is bad, etc. (I generally love the philosophy, but it's one of those things that is tough to live consistently, and once you start sounding sanctimonious about it you invite people to look for your own inconsistencies. It's easy enough to see some of Jack's inconsistencies. Like, why is it OK to use an amplifier or to have a harmonica mic built into your guitar?) Still, I dare you not to fall in love with him and his music.

They tell the stories of their first guitars and their entry into music. Fate, as it turns out, is a crazy thing. They talk about music they love, their influences, and the sounds they're trying to emulate or create. Edge is all over the techno tricks and sound effects which makes him a great contrast to Jack.

More Than a Game is a documentary about the team that LaBron James played for in high school. It does a nice job of telling the stories of the other players and coaches, in addition to LaBron's story. (The score is so wrong, so weirdly old sounding, that it's distracting.)

Both movies are worth seeing in a theater.

*Update: I guess Meg might be Jack White's ex-wife rather than his sister. He has at times claimed she's his sister, but people have found marriage and divorce certificates, per Wikipedia. Who knows. K cries BS for EVERYTHING Jack said in the movie (or ever), but still loves his music.