4/18/2008

How Low Can You Go?

As far back as we can remember, we’ve always been fond of a fat, well-rounded, bottom end. And the low-frequency sound of a bass, too. Ha! This is one of the main reasons we were never sold on The White StripesMeg White’s dismal drumming a VERYCLOSE second—and as much as we respect Stripes antecedent Flat Duo Jets, we liked them best with a bass player, too. (By the way, we’re down with Local H, in case you were wondering.) The Stripes’ immense popularity has brought quite a few similar acts out of the woodwork. So, as you can imagine, it has been, at the very least, with mild apprehension that we’ve listened to a series of bass-less duos and trios over the last few years, and have mostly avoided them whenever possible. This week was not one of those times.
On Wednesday and Thursday night, The Late Show with David Letterman, featured Gossip and The Black Keys, respectively. Not bad.

We’d never heard of Gossip, which features a very large front woman who’s not afraid to shake her booty to the primal but fun groove created by the guitarist and drummer that round out the trio. Nice, but nothing to write home about. On the other hand, we’d not been unimpressed by The Black Keys in the past, and last night, the raw, blues-informed vibe of the Ohio duo’s “I Got Mine” even got Dave and resident bandleader Paul Shaffer into it. (See video clip below.)

Good stuff. Still needs a bass player, though.