"Lets have a ball baby..."

Allow me to prove to you how my ipod and I are mentally linked. This morning whilst I was shaving I thought to myself "it would be great if today the shuffle played a White Stripes song". Well my ipod must have heard my head thoughts over at it's docking station where it was getting charged. So when I got in the car, hooked it up, and hit shuffle it thanked me for refueling it's batteries by playing the White Stripes. Ask and you shall receive folks (Is your mind blown? Yeah I thought so.)

I'm going to be honest, there is a bit of trepidation everytime I hit shuffle on my ipod. I'm sure it's a feeling that will pass but I guess I just want good songs for the first week or so before it starts playing some of my guilty pleasures (no I'm not going to reveal them... well not until their selected). But it definitely worked out in my favor today, from the opening chords of Ball and Biscuit I know today was going to be a good day.

Some of you non White Stripes fans might recognize the opening guitar rift but might not be sure from where. Well allow me to help a little. They did use the song (without lyrics) for the opening of The Social Network (which in my opinion should have won Best Picture. I get it, the King's Speech was excellent and brilliantly acted, but come on! The Social Network spoke to a generation and movies like that don't come around every year. The Academy had a chance to do something different, something daring and shit the bed and picked exactly what we thought it would pick. Sorry. Rant over).

Honestly this is hands down one of my favorite White Stripes songs. It comes off my favorite album of theirs, Elephant, and is the anchor of the whole record. Yeah I know people will argue that Seven Nation Army is what holds that album together but I would disagree. It's the opening track and it jump kicks the album into action wonderfully, but Ball and Biscuit is track number eight (I looked) and keeps the whole album together. Every song before it builds up to it and every song that follows it comes down from it. In my opinion best song on the album. Also has anyone noticed that this album sounds really British? If I hadn't known that Jack White was from Detroit I would have guessed he was another British dude who knows how to play guitar real well (just for those interested this album was recorded in England).

Ball and Biscuit is just a filthy song. Dirty even. Jack White is a man possessed and just carries this song to a whole other level. Nothing against Meg White here but listen to the whole song through. The entire time she is doing a simple 1...2...1-2-3 drum beat (even while Jack is shredding the drum beat never really changes). Listen to the song around the 4:30 mark where it starts to slow down and you think that it might go into another verse... you almost hear the guitar thinking and speaking to Jack as it kicks back up at the five minute mark into a sick solo. By the end of it you're exhausted and can't wait to play it again. This is the meat and potatoes of the White Stripes catalogue.

Ball and Biscuit just makes me realizes how much I love guitar solos, not just clean studio orchestrated guitar solos (those are good too though). I'm talking in the heat of the moment, dirty-filthy guitar solos that leave you sweaty and begging for more. See that's why I've always preferred Hendrix over  Stevie Ray Vaughan. Saying this always gets me in trouble but it's the truth. Don't get me wrong I think Stevie Ray is one of the all time greats (like most of the free world) but there was just something fresh and inspired when Jimi let loose. It was gritty improve, he just let the guitar talk for him, just look at his version of Voodoo Child, that's just raw. My problem with Stevie Ray is it sounds too smooth, especially his version of Voodoo Child. I don't want my guitar solos to be smooth. I want them to pour out of the finger tips and out of the amps. That's what you're getting here on Ball and Biscuit.

I think Jack White is a genius personally. Do I like everything that the White Stripes have done? No, but I appreciate what they were trying to do. That's what was so great about them. They were willing to try new sounds and new styles. Jack White + the blues + distortion= awesome. .I tend to find myself drawn to projects that he's working on, most recently with Danger Mouse's Rome project (download Two Against One it's excellent). He's a unique personality in a music scene that is lacking unique personalities (no Ke$ha doesn't count).

As a matter a fact I'm going to play this song again, close my eyes, turn it up, and allow that solo to pour over me. Then I'm going to download the theme to the X-Files because for reasons unknown it's not on my ipod.