Detroit, MI
Jack White didn’t just release a surprise album — he made a stand for rock mystique
Leave it to Jack White to score another victory for vinyl records — but even more important, for the magic of absorbing new music with mystique intact.
In an unannounced move, White’s latest album landed Friday, but only for unknowing customers who happened to be shopping at his Third Man Records stores in Detroit, Nashville and London. There, unobtrusively slipped into checkout bags with any purchase, was a plain-sleeved record package containing a 12-inch labeled simply “No Name.”
There were minimal clues on the first eyeballing of this white vinyl platter that resembled a test pressing. No artist, no title. Side A of the mystery record clearly featured seven tracks, with six on the flip side. If you scrutinized more closely, you could spot the inscriptions “Heaven and Hell” and “Black and Blue” etched into the run-out grooves. That was it.
All very cryptic … until you got yourself to a turntable, dropped the needle and heard the familiar singing voice of White, the Detroit-born rocker who has long championed the value of vinyl.
On a Friday when a devastating technological snafu brought computers around the globe to their knees, White smacked a homer with an old-fashioned analog swing.
We got our copy of “No Name” during a midafternoon visit to Third Man’s Cass Corridor shop in Detroit, and we’re not going to purport to offer an authoritative review from a few quick listens following a long day at the Concert of Colors festival happening nearby. There will be plenty of time to absorb the music this weekend.
But the album is raw and spare, dominated by guitars and drums — ripe for some White Stripes allusions — with the occasional organ and vocal effect the most to stray outside those lines.
There are bits of spiky punk, riff-stamped slabs of rock, a song driven by bluesy slide guitar blossoming into a colorful crescendo, a nod to ’70s glam with divebombing guitars. The last track on Side A features the only real elaborate production effort; the album closer is a dense and simmering drone.
Aside from White, immediately identifiable from his voice and guitar tones, we don’t know who else is featured here, although the count-in that launches Side B certainly sounds like White’s longtime touring drummer, Daru Jones.
Third Man officials were silent about the nature and context of Friday’s release. It’s not clear if the album will get a formal release or even a real title. No track listing has been revealed.
Whatever it is, we’re safe to call it White’s first new record since “Entering Heaven Alive,” which was released two years ago this weekend as part of a two-album salvo that included “Fear of the Dawn” that spring of 2022.
The digital world did play its role Friday: Online, word of the new White album began to circulate organically via Third Man shoppers who’d wound up with a copy of the mystery record. By late afternoon, it had turned into a full-fledged viral moment as record recipients figured out what was up and enthusiastically exchanged info about their lucky get. Music magazines aggregated those social media posts to hop on the buzz.
A segment on Detroit’s WDET-FM, where on-air personality Ryan Patrick Hooper played five of the album’s tracks in a real-time spin of his just-acquired record, quickly took on holy-grail status globally for White fans, who shared a link to the online archive of the public-radio program.
But ultimately, the Internet was a sideshow to the real magic of White’s Friday gambit.
The quiet album rollout wasn’t just a clever, headline-grabbing gimmick. It was a throwback to the days when mystique meant something as a music lover.
Heading to a turntable Friday with little information but tantalizing possibilities offered a pure and spontaneous experience harking back to a bygone era, before ubiquitous digital streaming and carefully calibrated marketing plans commodified the act. This was 1975 with a new Led Zeppelin LP in hand — but in this case minus even an album cover or liner notes to be pored over for meager tidbits of insight into the musical journey set to unfold.
Less-is-more has been White’s approach since his days with the White Stripes a quarter-century ago. Like other clued-in artists before him — from Oscar Wilde to Quentin Tarantino — he has long recognized that art is best created when boundaries and limitations are in place.
Perhaps we’ll learn more about Jack White’s new album in coming days and weeks. Those revelatory nuggets were once part of the enchantment, too. For now, we’ll happily take “No Name” just as it is: a new music offering with a healthy side of intrigue.
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
The playoff comeback of the ages is complete. The Detroit Pistons defeated the Orlando Magic 116-94 in Game 7 on Sunday in front of what was an energetic crowd at Little Caesars Arena, advancing in the NBA playoffs.
The Pistons are the second Eastern Conference team in this year’s NBA playoffs to come back from a 3-1 deficit and win the series. The Philadelphia 76ers also rallied from a 3-1 deficit to upset the Boston Celtics.
The Pistons’ first-round win over the Magic is their first playoff series win since the 2007-08 season, and now they’ll advance to the Eastern Conference Semifinals and look to reach one step closer to reaching their goal of winning their first NBA championship since 2004.
Not only did the Pistons repeat history from 2003 by rallying from a 3-1 deficit in the first round against the Orlando Magic as the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed, but the comeback showed their resolve as a team that could provide a huge confidence booster for the group heading into the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Tobias Harris’ Remarkable Game 7 Performance
While Cade Cunningham led the Pistons in scoring with 32 points, Tobias Harris put on arguably the best performance of his career in the playoffs. Throughout this series and in the Pistons’ three elimination games, Harris has been an unsung hero for Detroit. Without his contributions, the first-round comeback likely never would have happened for the Pistons.
In the Pistons’ win, Harris scored 30 points, nine rebounds, and two assists on 11-of-18 shooting from the field, including five three-pointers. It was a remarkable performance for a player who, in the past, faced criticism for his postseason contributions. Entering Sunday’s matchup, Harris was 0-2 in Game 7’s, and he ended that streak in a big way.
In addition to Cunningham and Harris 30-point playoff performances, Jalen Duren (15 points) and Duncan Robinson (10 points) also scored in double figures for the Pistons.
For the Magic, Paolo Banchero led Orlando in the loss, scoring 38 points, nine rebounds, and six assists. While not as efficient offensively as Banchero was in Game 7, Desmond Bane (16 points) and Wendell Carter Jr. (13 points) also scored in double figures for the Magic.
What’s Next For Pistons?
The Pistons currently await their opponent in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, as they’ll face either the Toronto Raptors or the Cleveland Cavaliers. Game 1 of the Pistons Eastern Conference Semifinals series is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday night at Little Caesars Arena, with the game broadcast on Peacock.
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Jaelen Reaves is well-prepared to study vocal music starting this fall at Oakland University.
And the reason why will be on display this week at Detroit’s Fox Theatre.
“An Evening of Fine Arts,” a free show taking place on Wednesday, May 6, is the Detroit Public Schools Community District’s 57th showcase of performing and visual arts. Some 760 students from 14 schools will take part in the presentation, which includes 27 stage performances and 26 works on display in the Fox’s Grand Lobby.
And for students such as Reaves, who attends the Detroit School of Arts, it’s a chance to take a step towards a career on a stage that’s hosted showbusiness legends they’ve looked up to.
“It’s like, wow, because I know people like Patti LaBelle and Chaka Khan and so many others have performed there,” says Reaves, 18, a vocal soprano who will perform with the DSA Lady Achievers and Concert Choir on Wednesday. “The fact that they sang on that stage and I’m about to sing on that stage is crazy. Just going to the Fox to see (a performance) is a privilege; for me to be performing on that stage is really an honor.
“The fact I have the opportunity to showcase my talent and what we represent here (at DSA). If I was in another school, I would never have had this opportunity. I definitely don’t take it for granted.”
Other performances during the night will come from the district’s harp and vocal ensemble, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary and is the oldest such program in the country, and a selection of choirs, jazz bands, orchestras and theater programs.
“(The evening) spotlights the voices of our students in the highest visual and performing arts programs, district-wide,” says Andrew McGuire, deputy executive director of fine and performing arts for DPSCD. “When our students are stepping on the stage, they’re not only stepping into a legacy, they’re also stepping into the future as performers — as actors, as singers and all of that.”
The evening also demonstrates DCSPD’s continuing commitment to arts education at a time when many districts nationwide have severely limited or completely curtailed similar curriculum.
“We have a whole-child commitment,” McGuire explains, “which has meant the rebuilding and revitalization of fine and performing arts (education) district-wide. And DSA is not the only space where artists exist. All 106 schools have fine and performing arts, with most schools having two or more (programs) in them. It’s really exciting that in an age when there’s so much talk about pulling back, restricting and cutting, that’s not in our narrative at DPSCD. We’re proud of that.”
Reaves is certainly emblematic of the district’s effectiveness. Raised in an artistic family, as well as singing in church, she became interested in classical singing, but plans to study a broad array of styles at Oakland. “I just want to be a solo performer who has every single (style) under my belt,” she says. “I don’t want to just sing one type of genre. I would love to go around the world singing all types of things
“I know that singing, for me, is not a hobby. It’s something that’s in my blood. I can’t do anything but sing every day. So I want to make the best of it.”
The Detroit Public Schools Community District’s “An Evening of Fine Arts” takes place at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 6, at the Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit. Admission is free, but tickets are required. 313-471-7000 or 313Presents.com.
The Paramore frontwoman appears to be mapping out tour dates behind her 2025 solo album, ‘Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party.’
Hayley Williams will soon have a date with Detroit.
The Paramore frontwoman’s website was updated Saturday with a list of cities underneath the header, “cu_soon.jpg.”
Detroit was one of 28 cities listed on the itinerary, along with Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Raleigh and Los Angeles, and a handful of South American cities.
Over the course of the last week, Williams, 37, has been slowly rolling out dates on her latest solo tour, which comes on the heels of her 2025 solo album “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party.” An earlier round of touring behind the project did not include a Detroit date.
The singer’s last local visit came when Paramore played Little Caesars Arena in June 2023.
agraham@detroitnews.com
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