Video: The Raconteurs featuring Rick Skaggs and Ashley Monroe

Saw this on ME last night and thought it was quite impressive. 

Last Night: Adele at La Zona Rosa

Adele is one of the most talented singers I have seen in years. Usually you see a singer killing themselves to have the range that she does vocally but when she performed tonight it all came across so effortlessly. She spoke about choosing to play before SXSW rather than during it because she wanted her true fans to be able to enjoy the show instead of industry types. Talk about an artist having a great relationship with her fans.  The set was filled with fun covers and she playfully conversed with the crowd the entire set all while being truly surprised when they applauded her. 

The highlight of the night came when she covered The Raconteurs "Many Shades Of Black". We managed to get a video of it (Excuse the first 10 seconds, I ran over once she started).

Bonnaroo 365 debuts with Raconteurs performance

Bonnaroo is very excited to introduce BONNAROO 365, a program by which fans can relive the festival experience year round.   Select performances will be streamed at no charge on bonnaroo.com periodically throughout the year.  All performance footage will be taken directly from the festival's exclusive master tapes while the audio will be remixed from the festival's pristine soundboard recordings.

The debut installment of the program will begin on January 11, 2009 with The Raconteurs, whose furious and blistering Friday afternoon set is viewed as among the best of the 2008 event.  Four of the songs will be available as free audio downloads - one will be available to everyone, while the other three can be downloaded by Bonnaroo Community members only (membership sign-up is free). The songs that will be available are: "Consoler Of The Lonely," "Old Enough," "Blue Veins" and "Top Yourself."

An audio track from the Raconteurs performance can now be streamed at  http://bonnaroo.com/news/2009/01/07/bonnaroo-introduces-bonnaroo-365.aspx

The full set list is below:

Consoler of the Lonely
Hold Up
The Switch and the Spur
You Don't Understand Me
Top Yourself
Old Enough
Store Bought Bones
Steady, As She Goes
Rich Kid Blues
Blue Veins
------------
Many Shades of Black
Level
Salute Your Solution
Broken Boy Soldier
Carolina Drama 

The Raconteurs: "Old Enough" Video

The Raconteurs went with a familiar face to shoot their new video for third single, "Old Enough" off their sophomore album, Consolers of the Lonely. Autumn de Wilde has photographed the band several times, and even directed the video for their single "Salute Your Solution".

Consolers of the Lonely was released earlier this year in March. Interesting fact, the title of the record appears on an inscription on the south west corner of Washington, D.C.'s main post office written by American writer and educator Charles William Elliot, which reads in full:

Messenger of sympathy and love, servant of parted friends, consoler of the lonely, bond of the scattered family, enlarger of the common life.

[Buy Consolers of the Lonely]

[The Raconteurs Myspace]
[The Raconteurs Official Site]

The Raconteurs on Jools Holland

Check out The Raconteurs performing "Consoler of The Lonely" on Later with Jools Holland.

See Also:
Last Night: The Raconteurs at Stubb's BBQ (Live From Austin)
The Raconteurs "Salute Your Solution" Video

Last Night: The Raconteurs at Stubbs BBQ

Easily the best performance of the week and if you scroll further down and see what shows I was fortunate to see this week you will appreciate that statement. The band was in full form last night. Of course Jack White was amazing and we were treated to some of the most amazing guitar playing I'm sure I will ever see. But I have to say that fellow Raconteur Brendan Benson really impressed. An amazing voice and extremely talented songwriter he almost stole the show. Check out this video of Jack White doing a guitar solo during "Blue Veins" and enjoy the pics. Another video of the band performing "Steady As She Goes" is up on the Ultra8201 Imeem page as well as video from all the other shows we attend.

The Raconteurs - Live at Stubbs 5/3/08 (Jack White Solo)

The Raconteurs - "Salute Your Solution"

The Raconteurs released a video for their first single off of Consolers of The Lonely. Enjoy "Salute Your Solution".

Related post:
The Raconteurs Announce 2nd Album Plans / Tour

The Raconteurs Announce 2nd Album Release Plans / Tour

The Raconteurs are happy to announce that in one week’s time their second album, entitled "Consolers Of The Lonely", will be available EVERYWHERE Tuesday, March 25th.

"Album" meaning: full length vinyl, CD and digital formats; and "everywhere" meaning: local mom and pop Indie retailers, corporate superstores, supermarkets, iTunes, Amazon, the band’s own website and any other location that could get the record up and going this quickly (some places couldn’t move this fast, so they will join in as soon as they can).

It contains 14 new recordings and is being released globally on Third Man Records in conjunction with our marketing/distribution partners, XL Recordings and Warner Brothers Records.

The album was mastered and completed in the first week of March. It was then taken immediately to a vinyl pressing plant. Then to a CD pressing plant. Then preparations to sell it digitally began. March 25th became the soonest date to have it available in EVERY FORMAT AT ONCE. The band have done no interviews or advertisements for this record before this announcement.

The purpose: to get the album to the fans as soon as possible and as we promised. We wanted to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding it’s availability, reception or perception.

With this release, The Raconteurs are forgoing the usual months of lead time for press and radio set up, as well as forgoing the all important "first week sales". We wanted to explore the idea of releasing an album everywhere at once and THEN marketing and promoting it thereafter. The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by it’s first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it.

Another purpose was to also allow people to have their own choice as to exactly which format they would like to hear the album in IMMEDIATELY, rather than having to wait for their favorite format to become available. The band are also not releasing any version of this record that contains bonus tracks. Musically this album will be the same as the band created it no matter what format it is purchased in (The sound quality of each format however, is a different story. The Raconteurs recommend hearing it on vinyl, but the choice is of course up to the listener).

The band also prefer that fans buy the album as a whole instead of breaking up the tracks, but until iTunes and other digital services allows bands to release their albums with the option of NOT breaking it up, it will be sold in that fashion on those particular sites. On the band’s website however, the album will be sold in its entirety as an mp3 at 320kb bit rate. Also in Japan, fans will be able to download the record via their mobile phones, as that is how a majority of recorded music is consumed there.

The reason we are announcing this release one week ahead of time is because of retail pre-ordering and stocking, information about this album’s imminent release was bound to come to light and could be confusing to fans. Also in the event that the record leaks, we didn’t want this method of release to be seen as a REACTION to such a leak. It’s not. The actual worst thing about a leak is the usual poor sound quality, akin to watching a movie on a wristwatch instead of in a theater. Which for the album’s creators is a bit of a letdown, but again, it is completely up to the listener.

There will be a video up on the internet for the first single, "Salute Your Solution", on the 25th as well, provided it gets edited in time. We just filmed it the other day!

We hope not to confuse anyone with too many options, or deny them the formats that they like best. The Raconteurs feel very strongly that music has worth and should be treated as such. Thank you to all those who respect music in this fashion, and thank you to our label partners for working with us to get this album to fans in as many formats as possible all at once.

Thank you, and we hope that you enjoy "Consolers Of The Lonely".

Sincerely,
The Raconteurs [via their Myspace]

Pitchfork has the tracklisting here.

The Raconteurs-Steady As She Goes(mp3)

The Raconteurs Tourdates:

04/20 - Vancouver, British Columbia @ Commodore Ballroom *
04/21 - Seattle, Washington @ Neumo's *
04/22 - Portland, Oregon @ Wonder Ballroom *
04/23 - San Francisco, California @ Bimbo's 365 Club *
04/25 - Indio, California @ Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
04/26 - Las Vegas @ The Joint *
04/28 - Denver, Colorado @ The Fillmore Auditorium *
04/29 - Kansas City, Missouri @ Uptown Theatre *
05/01 - Dallas, Texas @ House of Blues *
05/02 - Austin, Texas @ Stubb's Barbeque *
05/03 - Austin, Texas @ Stubb's Barbeque *
05/04 - New Orleans, Louisiana @ New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
06/13 - Manchester, Tennessee @ Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival
06/26 - Arendal, Norway @ Hove Festival
07/12 - Kinross, Scotland @ T In The Park
07/13 - Naas, Ireland @ Oxegen Festival

*with Birds Of Avalon

Tickets for the Austin show at Stubb's go onsale this Saturday (3/22) at 10am.