The Voice Behind Jack White’s Other Other Band

The last time Alison Mosshart stopped in Seattle, she came with her band the Kills, pitched a new record, Midnight Boom, and performed for a roomful of people who showed up to see Jack White.

Chris Kornelis

Exorcising the ghost of Meg White.

Details

The Dead Weather With Tyvek. The Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St., 1-877-STG-4TIX, theparamount.com. $30 adv./$33 DOS. 8 p.m. Thurs., Aug. 20.

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• Alison Mosshart
• Jack White
• The Dead Weather
• The Kills (Band)
• Celebrity News

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Thursday, when Mosshart returns—this time with the Dead Weather—she'll be pitching another new record, Horehound, again in front of a roomful of people who showed up to see Jack White.

That she's working in a band that draws almost entirely on fans' curiosity about the band's drummer—the brain behind the White Stripes and the Raconteurs—is a reality Mosshart claims she's only conscious of during the light of day.

"I'm aware of (this) in the daytime when there's loads of kids outside trying to get a glimpse of him," the vocalist said from her London home. "That just always comes with the territory of knowing Jack, you know?"

Having a ready-made following is just one of the luxuries of working in a band with one of the most bankable figures in rock today. But having only two weeks to record Horehound was another: "I suddenly felt like I had to work faster than I'd ever written, and just write as I'm hearing things," she says of the Nashville recording sessions. "And sometimes not write, and just start making stuff up and sing it through the microphone. Because that's how I had to keep up."

The resulting time capsule finds White's and Mosshart's vocals often taking a backseat to the former's drums, reverb, distortion, and ambient distractions. It's indie rock, sure, but veers off course toward a barrage of sounds and possibilities whenever appropriate.

The Dead Weather broke ground in January, introduced themselves in March, and released their record in July. Mosshart says that's what happens when all the band members have a pulse, and don't make audiences wait for the final product. "It's a totally, completely different process," she says—one the band's approaching again.

"We've already kind of started writing quite a few songs for something else," Mosshart says. "I just spent three days in Nashville and we wrote tons of songs. We're kind of on a roll, I think."

ckornelis@seattleweekly.com