Last summer, during a Raconteurs tour with the Kills, Jack White contracted bronchitis and had the Kills’ vocalist Alison Mosshart step in and sing several of his songs for the remainder of the tour. Afterward, Mosshart and White tapped Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs and Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age for an impromptu jam session at White’s Nashville studio, where they first recorded an eerily catchy cover of Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric?” The group’s full-length, Horehound, is bluesy, psychedelic and so hip it hurts. Here, White plays drums, leaving Mosshart’s crackling, sultry vocals to top off the band’s crunching guitars and rambling synthesizers. The results are brilliant – the Dead Weather is ten times sexier than the White Stripes or the Raconteurs ever have been. Just check out the video for the single “Hang You from the Heavens.” It’s shot in a gritty black and white and has each band member wearing, naturally, black leather jackets. My God, this band is cool.

Thu., Aug. 20, 8 p.m., 2009