The Third Men Podcast

I was walking with a ghost, but then I just realized it was a cover song this whole time! What a twist! Over and over and over the many iterations of Jack White's career, one thing remains a constant: cover songs. This week we take a look at some of these different tunes performed both on stage and in the studio over the past 20+ years, and explore what those choices contributed to his musical statement in the moment. From Bowie to Beefheart to the Brothers Louvin, Jack always chooses interesting material to add his distinct flavor to - sometimes injecting energy while other times soothing to a whisper. Given the material already covered, this week we also add to the list our dream picks of songs we'd love to see get the Jack-treatment, and we've enlisted some of you, our faithful listeners, to contribute to the list! And speaking of our faithful listeners, former Junior Booking Agent for the White Stripes, Raconteurs and Dead Weather, Marc Bauer, is back in a Q&A style segment where he answers some of your questions! Lots to cover this week on the Third Men Podcast, so cover up, won't you?

The Third Men Podcast is proud to present an all-new exclusive extended interview with Detroit music legend Pat Pantano! Patrick's sound and imagery can be felt across countless projects from a variety of musical acts - including friends Jack and Meg White as they began their journey as The White Stripes! After cutting his drumming teeth with bands such as The Colors, Steel Miners and Cathouse, Patrick linked up with Deanne Iovan to form the groove-rock powerhouse The Come Ons. Of course, juggling multiple bands is by no means uncommon in the Detroit music world -- when Mick Collins needed a drummer for his new band project, The Dirtbombs, it was Patrick who answered the call and helped establish the scrappy, powerful sound the group would soon become known for. In addition to his musical work, Patrick holds the unique honor of photographing not one, but TWO White Stripes album covers (White Blood Cells and Elephant) during his time as the band's photographer. Join us this week as we uncover the many amazing stories of Pat Pantano - we’re thrilled to have had him on the show and hope you all enjoy this interview as much as we did!

He's Brendan, what's your name? This week we deep-dive into the secret origin of everyone's favorite half boy/half man hybrid and Raconteur Brendan Benson! Long before he was conquering the charts alongside buddy and bandmate Jack White, Brendan Benson was paying his dues in the music industry from Detroit to Los Angeles and back again, hailed as the next big thing for 90's rock and roll. But fame would be a sparring partner for this well-fed boy over the years, and in this episode we'll look into the different battles, triumphs and tragedies that made Brendan so good to us over his 20+ year career in music. From solo success to the Raconteurs to managing his very own label, Readymade Records, we cover it all! Also this week we're proud to present an interview with former Readymade Records recording artist Jared Green, who details his own musical journey in a band of Americana craftsmen known as The Howlin' Brothers. All right, all right, enough from me - we'll spit it out now!

It's The Jack White Trivia Challenge! Live from all across the country, it's time for your favorite podcast game show, and this Third Man family feud features two teams of candy cane children as they battlecry it out for Jack White trivia supremacy. Joining us on the stage are six lucky contestants each hoping to bring home Third Man gold for their respective teams - but to do so they're going to have to answer some tough questions, race against the clock, and smell some serious facts along the way! In one corner it's Team Red, Blonde and Brunette: Kali Durga, Kate McCoy and Yvette Wilkins! In the next corner its Team Over-Under Achievers: Ben Karns, Rob Janos and Vito Hicks! There are 4 difficulty levels for questions with escalating point values for each: Never Take it Easy (Easy), Look Me Over Closely (Medium), I Just Don’t Know What To Do (Hard) and Impossible Winner (Really hard). Whichever team can gather the most points in all three rounds wins the game, and eternal bragging rights as Jack White trivia masters to a relatively narrow margin of incredible enthusiastic people! All right, you ready? Let's play!

You're cordially invited to join the Third Men podcast for a special look back at the incredible year that was 2018! After years without an album of new material, the infamous Jack-drought saw its end this past year and the age of Boarding House Reach was upon us. Jack White fans got a world tour, a new album, a fever-pitched press circuit, a documentary film and enough vault content to shake a dynamite blast at! Not to mention new music from a host of Third Man Records recording artists such as the Grammy Award-nominated Margo Price, honky tonk legend Joshua Hedley and many more. Of course the icing on the 2018 cake came in the form of the triumphant return of The Raconteurs, reunited to release their first new music in a decade. It was quite a year, and the third men deep-dive into all 365 days in a manner totally absurd! Plus we welcome very special guests this week, Tobias and Julia from After the Money is Gone (ATMIG) who are set to debut their full length album "Wishes", which will be pressed at the Third Man Records Pressing Plant. We've got a lot to get to, so let all those old acquaintances be forgot and never brought to the mind-shaft - for auld lang syne! Or whatever those lyrics are!

Happy Holidays from the Third Men Podcast! This week we present to you a real stocking-stuffer of an episode, featuring old bits, new interviews, and enough holiday cheer to shake a Warstic at! From the archives, we re-gifting to you in depth discussions of Candy Cane Children (the one and only White Stripes Christmas song), Christmastime Will Soon Be Over (and other holiday-themed connections to the Cold Mountain project) and more! Plus we've wrapped up an all-new interview with Marc Bauer, Junior Booking Agent for The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather and dozens more Third Man-related artists from over the past 15+ years! It's a fascinating interview that we just couldn't let the year go by without bringing to you along with some much-needed holiday cheer. We hope you enjoy this festive episode and spread the spirit around to your fellow TMR family members!

The Third Men Podcast is proud to welcome back one of our absolute all-time favorite special guests, Detroit music legend Ko Melina! Ko is back with us again for an new extended interview that goes way deeper, and way WILDER than any extended interview has gone before! When last on the show, we discussed her musical origins and place among the musical Illuminati of the Detroit rock boom at the turn of millennium. This episode we take a deep dive into loads of new topics, including tons of awesome stories about her tenure in the raucous, melodic and always-entertaining Dirtbombs. As a special treat, Ko was kind enough to give us some fascinating insight into her time working for The White Stripes, and what the early stage presence of Jack and Meg felt like from both on and off the stage. Plus we're joined by frequent Third Woman Kate McCoy to go deep into Dirtbombs trivia, and find out for us why exactly Mick Collins might not be allowed onto TV On The Radio's tour bus anymore! It's a wild and crazy ride and we'd like to again thank Ko for joining us once more on an awesome tour of all her amazing stories!

Batter up! Take your base with the Third Men Podcast this week as we slide into all things Baseball as they pertain to Jack White. From an early age, Jack and his buddies were captivated by America's pastime, and his love for the sport has evolved over the years into not just a hobby, but a business for Jack. When he's not busy being a meme at a Cubs game, Jack White is investing in the preservation of childhood ball fields, attending World Series games, throwing out pitches, writing walk-on music for players and even licensing his music to Major League Baseball! The Lazaretto tour brought him to as many different stadiums in the USA as was possible, and shortly thereafter Jack went into business alongside MLB pro Ian Kinsler and founder Ben Jenkins in the baseball bat company Warstic. We were fortunate enough to chat with Ben last year, but so much has happened since then that we just had to check back in with Mr. Jenkins to discuss all the awesome new Warstic happenings! So take a swing with us this week as we cover our bases and go for one big grand slam of an episode! Puns!

This is not a drill! The Third Men Podcast is proud to present an all-new exclusive extended interview with Third Man Records co-founder Ben Blackwell! Listeners to the show know Ben for his many roles and talents from throughout the world of Third Man and beyond, and this week he stops by the Third Men Podcast to school us on just about everything! Nephew of Jack White but only 7 years his junior, Ben found himself at the ground floor of the Detroit Rock explosion lead by The White Stripes and their contemporaries at the turn of the millennium. Still a teenager at the time, Blackwell played drums with Jack White and Bricks alongside Brendan Benson and Kevin Peyok before signing on as drummer for Mick Collins' powerhouse rock collective The Dirtbombs. While music propelled him forward, Ben was also keen to keep one eye on the past in his role as archivist for The White Stripes, preserving performances and historical documentation for the band that had changed so much of the face of popular music. Ben's solo LP I Remember When All This Was Trees, released on his very own Cass Records, stands tall on its own - pushing boundaries and digging deep for unforgettable Detroit-inspired grooves. We're beyond thrilled to have Ben on the show and hope you all enjoy this interview as much as we did! We know -- we can't believe it, either!

Sometimes we podcast a little, sometimes we 'cast in two parts (sometimes we 'cast in two parts) -- welcome to pt2 of our deep dive into the Sea of Cowards! When the Dead Weather released a second LP a mere ten months after their debut album Horehound, the reaction was a healthy mix of praise and confusion. Just the way Jack White likes things, we imagine! In this final chapter in our two part exploration, we go through the record track by track for a detailed look at the sum of this sea's parts. While tracks like Die By The Drop offered the band some respectable mainstream breakthrough success, it's really the the more off-beat cuts such as Invisible Man and I'm Mad that give the record an unforgettable flavor. We check out the critical response to the album at the time, rate the record ourselves, and offer some final thoughts about the band from the members themselves. All this, plus we're joined by resident hardcore music fan and third man Matthew Porcelli for an entirely new perspective on The Dead Weather's music!So don't miss this episode, and enjoy it now until the moment of your last breath! (Huh, that sounded a little creepy out of context...)