The recent induction of the White Stripes into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has had me thinking back on the band and how important they were to me over their run. When I went digging for something to highlight, the first thing that jumped out was this August 2001 issue of NME. It dropped right around my 16th birthday, and I’m pretty sure it was the first issue of NME I ever got my hands on.
I’d heard plenty of mentions of NME on Rodney on the Roq and on some of the early blogs I was just starting to discover, so I was thrilled to learn that Tower Records in Anaheim imported a few copies of each issue. They were a bit pricey and came out weekly, so I had to be selective—but this one was too good to pass up. It marked the start of a brief period of renewed relevance for the magazine, aggressively hyping The Strokes, White Stripes, Vines, and Hives before most other print outlets caught on.
One angle of the coverage that really spoke to me was the “Detroit is the new Seattle” narrative. I’d been studying up on punk history and its various local scenes that had come and gone, so it was exciting to witness a new one take shape in real time. I snapped up quite a few CDs from the White Stripes’ scene-mates and contemporaries—The Dirtbombs’ Ultraglide in Black, The Detroit Cobras’ Life, Love and Leaving, The Go’s Whatcha Doin’, and my favorite, the Jack White–produced Lack of Communication from The Von Bondies. None of those bands could hold a candle to the White Stripes.
I’m not exactly sure how I first got tipped off to them (maybe LA Weekly hype for their 2000–2001 Silver Lake gigs?), but I was hooked right away. I picked up De Stijl in early 2001 from Bionic Records in Cypress, then grabbed a few singles before White Blood Cells was released. They just seemed like the coolest band on the planet—artsy but natural, childlike but incredibly skilled, and on top of it all, two of the most beautiful humans I’d ever seen. I was completely on board and soon got to see them shoot into the mainstream, from small TV appearances and Michel Gondry–directed videos to MTV Awards performances and alternative radio hits. A fantastic and inspiring career with loads to be proud of and not a bad album in the bunch. Great to see them honored—peace and love to Meg wherever she is, and Jack always seems to be fighting the good fight.