i have said all along I have had a hard time becoming a fan of the white stripes for the reasons jw so eloquently pointed out...and again, i am going to make the leap to Jack White as my reasoning...he tries too hard to do something different each time. By all accounts and from my uninformed opinion, he is uber-talented and i think he is trying to make rock & roll relevant. But I have a hard time with him as the cheshire cat, stick with something, then move on...don't move on constantly. I am trying to listen to them and get past this feeling and i really do enjoy their/his music, i just have a hard time looking past my image.
That said, DBT are really a treasure to american rock and roll music and I enjoy just about everything they do, and their live shows are so frigging dynamic. Patterson Hood is doing a fabulous job, too bad we couldn't see Hood & Jason Isbell co-exist for longer than they did, but it seems to be working out for both as Isbell conquers his demons his already incredible musicianship is now taking on a whole new feeling...