A few interesting links for you candy-cane children out there:
Jack White Weds Model Karen Elson, and White Stripes: Get Behind Me Satan album review. (Both from Pitchfork Media, clearly the only news I ever read). Finally, a good interview with Jack White from the LA Times.

Yeah, what the deuce? Album is released, Jack White gets married (with Meg as a bridesmaid) and www.WhiteStripes.com says it’s the first marriage for both newlyweds. I love Jack’s oddly-crafted public persona as much as the next guy, but this coupled with Get Behind Me, Satan‘s “departure” from the Stripes’ norm, I can’t help but feel that this all lies on the edge of a precipice.

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I’ve been listening to an advance version of Get Behind Me, Satan for a couple weeks now, and while there are some great songs on it, this album falls far from their prior Elephant. Whereas Elephant managed to hit both qualifiers for seminality — expanding musically and not leaving the fanbase behind, Get Behind Me, Satan might have not hit the latter on many of the tracks. Granted, had they had made something better than Elephant, my mind would have caved in and my chest would have exploded, leaving me a weeping, broken man for the beauty of it. However, Satan left me wondering if Jack has spread himself too thin with his other engagements and left this album rushed. Not to completely heap beratement on the album, though! Many tracks on the album do rank as some of my favorites — lead-off track “Blue Orchid”, “Little Ghost”, “Doorbell”, “The Denial Twist” and “Red Rain” all showcase Jack’s dangerously beautiful songwriting skills. The album itself — including the album art and video for “Blue Orchid” also show a growth of the White Stripes — at least in a character sense. The Spanish/Victorian/goth influences as well as the increasing introduction of the color black (beginning with White Blood Cells) into the whole Stripes “scheme” seem to indicate progressive change of some sort — and I’m very interested in seeing where they’re headed, both musically and aesthetically.

So then what is to become of our beloved Jack and Meg? Who am I to question someone’s marriage, but giving Jack’s anti-publicity/pro-image-crafting penchant one is left to wonder what all is going on in his head. Speculation has whirled since Elephant that there might be one or two albums left until the peppermint drumkit is put into storage for good. On all things art-borne, I am of the school-of-thought that dynamic art (a category which I think the White Stripes certainly fall into) should come to an end at some point before it can begin the mouldering process in the public view. Few music acts can continue in their same form and keep it up –a nd those acts don’t have to keep up the bizarrely concocted public personas. Even KISS took off their makeup… and then promptly started sucking.