The prop guys have completed including big, chunky lifts to the black gown footwear that I purchased for my grandfather’s funeral. A crowd gathers round me as I attempt them on, and other people actually gasp once I get up. With these lifts on my footwear, I’m one thing like eight toes tall. A crowd of upturned faces hovers round my waist degree. I really feel like Dorothy in Munchkinland, besides I’m terrified. I’m imagined to stroll in this stuff? The assistant director tells me to get used to them, to stroll round, in order that’s what I do. I clomp throughout that set, and I really feel like an absolute freak, which is your entire thought. I’m right here as a result of I’m a freak. A freak is what the White Stripes want.
Just a few months earlier than this second, the White Stripes launched Get Behind Me Devil, the follow-up to their gigantic breakout album Elephant. (Proper now, in 2025, Get Behind Me Devil will flip 20 on Saturday.) The duo had tons of hype on their aspect earlier than Elephant, after which they made good on that hype. “Seven Nation Military” was an prompt riff-rock customary, a radio hit that grew to become a football-stadium chant. “The Hardest Button To Button” was a jittery freakout with a mesmerizing video. “Ball And Biscuit” was the prolonged guitar-hero onslaught that satisfied any remaining classic-rock skeptics that these younger children had the glow. The White Stripes had already executed their time within the underground, honing their singular aesthetic and their indirect and unearthly strategy to the blues-rock canon. By the point the world found them, they had been able to ship a traditional. That was Elephant. So how do you observe up the breakthrough? How do you go from lightning-in-a-bottle phenom to sustainable enterprise? These questions have damaged up tons of bands. Get Behind Me Devil was the White Stripes’ try to reply them.
Fame wasn’t a simple transition for the White Stripes. Meg White was intensely non-public, although she was good sufficient to bum me, a stranger, a number of cigarettes on the video set. Jack White was an excited however flamable presence. After rocketing to success, he saved moving into altercations along with his former buddies on the Detroit storage rock scene. Typically, these disagreements took authorized kind, as with Jim Diamond, who helped document the duo’s first two albums and who wished a chunk of the pie. Typically, they obtained bodily, as when White famously beat the shit out of Von Bondies chief Jason Stollsteimer in a barfight. Rock stardom clashed with the White Stripes’ centered and near-monastic sensibility and strategy. They’d by no means make one other “Seven Nation Military.” As a substitute, they went smallball, taking part in round with timpanis and marimbas and lots of, many pianos. Within the course of, they got here up with a set of sly, catchy tracks that weren’t made with world domination in thoughts.
However even if you happen to’re not attempting to take over the planet, you continue to have to promote information. The White Stripes bought information partially by the highly effective gimmick of an imaginative visible language that stood out on MTV — the charmingly easy Lego animation of “Fell In Love With A Woman,” the marching traces of drum units of “The Hardest Button To Button.” On each of these movies, the White Stripes’ director was Michel Gondry, the whimsical music video grasp whose creativeness paired so fantastically with the band’s simplicity.
“Blue Orchid” and “My Doorbell,” the primary two singles from Get Behind Me Devil, had been nice songs that obtained first rate play on alt-rock radio, however they didn’t have the identical form of immediately iconic visible illustration. “Blue Orchid,” the album’s opener, sounded nothing like “Seven Nation Military,” nevertheless it made sense because the lead single as a result of it was one of many few Get Behind Me Devil tracks that basically put Jack White’s strangulated electrical guitar to make use of. The video forged Jack and Meg White as gothy wastrels, and director Floria Sigismondi took the drastic step of introducing blue into the band’s coloration palette. Karen Elson, the mannequin who Jack White would marry later within the yr, is within the video, wriggling round in a tub. It’s not that thrilling.
If one monitor from Get Behind Me Devil was going to be successful, it most likely ought to’ve been “My Doorbell,” the pounding piano-banger that may be the album’s catchiest music. However like a number of tracks from that album, its catchiness isn’t the obvious sort. It’s obtained an odd old-school Broadway vitality. You need somebody to twirl a cane after they sing it. For the video, the White Stripes introduced within the Malloys, director of a few of the greatest Blink-182 movies. They made it appear to be an old-timey black-and-white brief, with the White Stripes taking part in for a crowd of cute little children at LA’s Magic Fortress. As soon as once more, MTV largely stayed away.
Michel Gondry, in the meantime, had develop into a characteristic movie auteur. His Everlasting Sunshine Of The Spotless Thoughts got here out the earlier yr, and it satisfied people who he’s a genius — a viewpoint that was already widespread amongst music video obsessives like me. As we speak, Gondry is again within the combine with the White Stripes. Possibly he’ll be the one to determine the best way to promote this wacky, conspicuously non-rocking album from the group that was supposedly going to save lots of rock ‘n’ roll. I’m right here, too — not as a result of I’ve some nice thought to supply the band or the director, however as a result of I’m tall.
I simply arrived in New York just a few months prior, after Get Behind Me Devil was already out. My girlfriend and I moved into the Park Slope condo already occupied by my previous school buddy Andrew, who now edits an indie rock journal referred to as Satan In The Woods. We didn’t used to want roommates in Baltimore, however we’d like one right here as a result of New York is pricey. At some point, Andrew presents me some more money for a contract gig: Go to the foyer of the Soho Grand and conduct a panel dialogue amongst some all-time nice music video administrators. Palm Footage has a DVD collection referred to as Administrators Label, which collects music movies from brand-name administrators, and so they’ve simply put out units for Mark Romanek, Anton Corbijn, and Stéphane Sednaoui. (Future Oscar winner Jonathan Glazer has one, too, however he’s not in New York.) These three guys all meet me on the Soho Grand, and so does Michel Gondry, whose Administrators Label DVD got here out two years earlier. I’m so psyched to speak to those guys, and I’ve a good time with the panel dialogue. Just a few days later, I get a cellphone name from an unfamiliar quantity. The woman on the opposite finish says she works with Michel Gondry, and he needs to place me in a video. I can not consider my luck. I can not consider that is actual.
Quickly after that cellphone name, Michel Gondry finds me within the crowd at Throughout The Narrows, a music competition on the minor league ballpark in Coney Island. He’s like, “You will be in my veedeo?” I’m like, “Yeah, man!” I get to inform my girlfriend, “Hey boo, that is Michel Gondry.” Then Beck dedicates “Everyone’s Obtained To Be taught Someday,” his music from the Everlasting Sunshine soundtrack, to Gondry whereas Gondry is proper subsequent to me. My head is spinning. Is that this what New York is like? Issues like this simply occur? After I arrive on the set in a Greenpoint warehouse, Gondry tells me that his thought for the video solidified whereas he was speaking to me and the opposite administrators. He thought I seemed like a stretched-out model of Conan O’Brien, and he thought he might make a video out of that. Provided that Conan O’Brien is already tall — it’s one in every of his most blatant and hanging bodily options — that ought to provide you with some thought how tall I’m. Gondry needs me to be even taller, and that’s why I’ve these lifts on my footwear.
Quickly, I be taught Gondry’s idea for the video. The set is inbuilt a circle, arrange for one steady shot. When the White Stripes launched Elephant, they had been musical friends on Late Evening With Conan O’Brien for one week straight. This video will reenact that second, however Gondry will make it bizarre and psychedelic. On one aspect of the room, there’s a scrunched-up model of the Late Evening stage. Gondry has forged a bit of individual to play one model of Conan, and I hang around with him for some time whereas we’re ready to shoot. He’s a part-time comedian, and his largest appearing position to this point has been as a breakdancer in a Cingular advert. He’s extremely good, and I’ll maintain seeing him pop up on HBO exhibits within the years after this video shoot — on The Sopranos, on Recreation Of Thrones, on Boardwalk Empire. Subsequent to the scrunched-up stage, Gondry’s individuals have constructed an elongated, stretched-out model of Conan’s desk and sofa. That’s the place I’ll be.
My little brother is right here, too. He’s a particular ed instructor’s assistant in Baltimore, and he’s taken the Chinatown bus up for the day as a result of the White Stripes are his favourite band. After I inform him that I’m going to be on this video, he’s like, “Ask them in the event that they want another tall individuals!” They do want different tall individuals, it seems. They want individuals taller than him. My brother is about 6’5″ — very tall by normal-people requirements however considerably shorter than me. When he meets my brother, Michel Gondry says, “Emmm, try to be taller.” My brother doesn’t know the best way to be taller, so somebody finds an apple crate for him to face on. He’s imagined to play the hulking bodyguard that the White Stripes had throughout that week on Conan. The bodyguard was Black. My brother is just not Black. Looking back, it’s fairly fucked up. Within the second, it doesn’t matter as a result of he’s going to have a large piece of cardboard masking his face.
I’ve a large piece of cardboard masking my face, too. My piece of cardboard seems like Conan O’Brien’s face. It doesn’t have eyeholes. In my few seconds onscreen, I’m imagined to shake fingers with Jack White, settle for the sculpture of Conan’s face that they’ve given me as a present, and stroll throughout the stage. I’m supposed to do that, with these huge lifts on my toes, whereas wanting on the digital camera. I can’t do it. I can barely stroll in these fucking issues whereas wanting straight forward. We run by a bunch of rehearsal takes, and I’m the fuckup who can’t do it proper. There’s an entire group of movie professionals right here, individuals who stayed up all night time constructing the set, and I allow them to down every time I look down on the bigass blocks on my bigass toes. I’m letting Michel Gondry and the White Stripes down, too. I simply can’t do it.
The true Conan O’Brien exhibits up whereas all this preparation is underway. He’s dressed like a rockabilly man, which is bizarre to see. He’s so good and so humorous. When he sees me stomping round in my big shoe lifts, he’s like, “That’s really how I stroll.” He loves the White Stripes, and the White Stripes love him. Jack excitedly tells Conan about how he and Meg simply recorded their guest-voice position for The Simpsons, the place they’ll do an animated model of the video for “The Hardest Button To Button.” Conan is the one who wrote the best Simpsons episode of all time, and he tells them how excited he’s for them. Just a few years from now, the White Stripes will give their closing efficiency on the ultimate episode of Late Evening With Conan O’Brien. Now, I’m letting down Conan, too.
Gondry tries a few takes with Conan taking part in himself and me because the safety guard, which feels unsuitable in all types of how. We do the one lengthy, unbroken shot again and again, after which Gondry lastly decides that we obtained it. Everybody cheers. Lastly, inevitably, I step unsuitable in my shoe lifts and twist my ankle, however solely after the shoot is finished. Karen Elson, Jack White’s future ex-wife, runs over to verify if I’m OK. She’s so good. Everybody right here is so good. I get my image taken with the White Stripes and Michel Gondry and Conan O’Brien, and I don’t have any of these pictures anymore. When the video lastly comes out, Gondry makes use of one of many takes of me as Conan, however he superimposes an unmoving Conan face over my cardboard masks.
The video is for “The Denial Twist,” which is much from the catchiest remaining music on Get Behind Me Devil. It’s one other piano-rocker like “My Doorbell,” one other cane-twirler, and Jack White really does twirl a cane within the video. I hear the music so many occasions in the course of the video shoot, and I by no means actually come round to considering it’s greater than fairly good. Like the opposite two singles, it will get some alt-rock radio play however doesn’t go away an enormous impression. This is sensible. I see the video perhaps a couple of times on Fuse, by no means on MTV.
It’s not that nice of a video. I’m a bit of bummed that I’m within the worst of the Michel Gondry White Stripes movies, however I’m nonetheless in a Michel Gondry White Stripes video. The walking-on-air feeling lasts a day or two, till I write concerning the expertise on my Village Voice weblog, which is my precise job and which no one has advised me not to do. Reps for the band name me up and yell at me. In a while, Jack White will use me for example of every part that’s unsuitable with the web when he’s speaking to NME. From Jack White’s perspective, I pierced the thriller and gave issues away after they weren’t able to be given away — as if this video has some plot twist that I simply spoiled.
I’ve advised this story so many occasions. Possibly you’ve learn me writing some model of this story. You’d inform it, too, if it occurred to you. A short while earlier than the video shoot, somebody from the manufacturing firm referred to as me up and says that it was a low-budget video and so they couldn’t pay me something. I used to be a bit of miffed, however what was I going to do? Not be in a White Stripes video? I do it for the story, and I do it as a result of I like the White Stripes and Michel Gondry and Conan O’Brien. After I get to the set, it’s clear that the finances isn’t that low and that everybody else is paid to be right here. My brother and I are the one volunteers. I’m not even mad about it! I get to be a part of this factor! After I write about it and the reps yell at me, one in every of them says, “The place did you get the concept you weren’t getting paid?” Just a few weeks later, I get a verify within the mail for a pair thousand {dollars}, at a time once I really want it.
If Get Behind Me Devil feels like a do-it-yourself artwork object, that’s as a result of it actually is. The White Stripes recorded the LP at Jack White’s home in Detroit’s Indian Village neighborhood, utilizing all types of outmoded analog tape gear. It’s obtained virtually no guitar-hero motion. As a substitute, it’s Jack White futzing round along with his concepts about people and soul and traditional pop songwriting. There’s a number of stuff about falling in love with ghosts, individuals who aren’t actually there. Rita Hayworth makes a number of lyrical appearances, serving as an avatar for the glamor that common individuals can’t strategy or perceive. “Take, Take, Take” is a traditional fame-freakout music, a parable sung from the viewpoint of an obsessed fan who merely can’t be happy along with his interactions with Hayworth. He can’t be happy with a hiya, an autograph, an image. He all the time need one thing extra. The general public all the time needs one thing extra.
It’s a sneaky-great album, Get Behind Me Devil. The hooks worm their manner in. Nothing instantly declares itself as an instant-class music, however “The Nurse” and “Without end For Her (Is Over For Me)” and “As Ugly As I Appear” stay a few of the duo’s most compulsively listenable tracks, at the least for me. It’s not a blockbuster. It’s the factor that you just make after the blockbuster, to indicate that you just’re in it for the lengthy haul. It’s a big-room’s profitable try to reconnect with their little-room selves. However the White Stripes had been not in it for the lengthy haul, and they’re going to solely make another album earlier than going away eternally.
Get Behind Me Devil is a knowingly minor work, and it was largely acquired that manner in 2005. Critics beloved it, although not fairly as a lot as they beloved Elephant. On the Pazz & Jop ballot, America’s critics named Get Behind Me Devil the #6 album of 2005 — proper behind Fiona Apple’s Extraordinary Machine, proper forward of ANOHNI And The Johnons’ I Am A Chicken Now. (I used to be planning to see ANOHNI at Carnegie Corridor the identical night time that we shot the “Denial Twist” video, however I didn’t understand {that a} music video shoot takes like 14 hours.) That was an excellent exhibiting for the White Stripes, nevertheless it was nonetheless just a few spots behind both of their final two albums.
Get Behind Me Devil finally didn’t promote in addition to the earlier two White Stripes albums or the one which got here after. It nonetheless went gold. This yr, the White Stripes are heading into the Rock And Roll Corridor Of Fame, and I get the sensation that they wouldn’t be so well-remembered in the event that they didn’t make these final two albums after the preliminary explosion. As we speak, the bizarre, off-center late White Stripes albums sound simply as nice as those that put them on prime of the world.
Get Behind Me Devil is a good looking little work of low-budget weirdo outsider artwork. The 2 individuals who made it nonetheless felt like outsiders, even when that’s not how the world regarded them. The White Stripes recorded Get Behind Me Devil in lower than per week, and so they reportedly spent lower than $10,000 within the course of. Meaning I obtained paid a major proportion of the album’s finances to clomp throughout their video set. Within the second, I used to be blissful to get that verify, even when I used to be like, “Rattling, me and the White Stripes obtained beef now.” As we speak, I form of want that the band by no means despatched me that verify, that they spent it on making just a few extra songs as a substitute.
