The Dead Weather

Formed around a potent fusion of garage, blues, punk, and rock & roll drawn from the players’ outside endeavors, the Dead Weather includes Jack White, Alison Mosshart of the Kills, Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Dean Fertita, and “Little Jack” Lawrence from the Raconteurs. The quartet originated in 2008 once the Raconteurs wrapped their U.S. run alongside the Kills. Bronchitis limited White’s vocal capacity near the tour’s close, prompting the recruitment of Mosshart for several of his numbers. The onstage rapport between Mosshart and the others prompted White, Mosshart, Lawrence, and Fertita—then staying at White’s house—to cut a version of Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric?” The newly assembled unit convened at White’s Third Man Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, where White handled drums for the first time since his Goober & the Peas period. Within weeks the Dead Weather completed its debut album and stepped onto a stage for the first time in March 2009, delivering a brief performance before 150 guests at Third Man’s offices to mark the issuance of the single Hang You from the Heavens/Are Friends Electric?. Horehound reached listeners that summer. Throughout the remainder of 2009 the band sustained touring and studio work; Mosshart reported in October that a second album stood halfway finished. Die by the Drop surfaced as a single in March 2010. Sea of Cowards followed in May, displaying a denser and more cohesive sonic character than its predecessor. Later that year the group supplied “Rolling in on a Burning Tire” to the Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack. White disclosed in 2013 that fresh material was underway, and the 7" Open Up (That’s Enough)/Rough Detective appeared toward year’s end as part of a shipment from Third Man Records’ subscription service The Vault. Additional singles preceded the September 2015 arrival of the band’s third album, Dodge and Burn, which paired remastered editions of earlier tracks with newly recorded songs.