LOVE AND MARRIAGE: White on White

In the early 2000s, the big story in rock and roll was that people were making rock and roll again. The boy bands and metal-hop that had been dominating the music scene gave way to a new strain of garage music. But despite the critical hoopla, few of these bands actually sold many records, and now the initial excitement over the Strokes, the Vines, the Hives et al. seems overheated. But one band was worth every superlative, with both their commercial success and sustainable creativity. The White Stripes, it seems, are the true saviors of rock in the new century.

In 1997, Detroit's Jack Gillis, an upholsterer by day and rocker by night, married bartender/novice drummer Meg White. Taking your wife's surname might seem strange, but one look at this guy, and you realize why it seemed appropriate. Meg, also pasty, has the body of a grown woman and the head of an 8-year-old girl. Together, they make an adorable pair, if you're Tim Burton.

Jack and Meg divorced in 2000, two years before their commercial breakthrough. For simplicity (though it really simplified nothing) Jack started telling people Meg was his sister, a fiction they continue to perpetuate. Jack insists the sibling myth is so people are more interested in the duo's music than their personal soap opera.

Their music is interesting despite any distractions. A punchy mutant baby of heavy metal, punk, blues and folk, the sound of the White Stripes is as distinctive as their tri-colored costumes. "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground," "Seven Nation Army," and "Blue Orchid" are classics already, and there's reason to believe they have a few more in them. Jack even has enough energy for side projects (the Raconteurs, producing Loretta Lynn, film acting) and Meg's got sufficient indie hotness to work as a model.

Is it awkward being in a band with your ex? Probably, but not as awkward as being a Detroit upholsterer wearing a Nudie suit.

TODAY'S RECOMMENDATION: "The Air Near My Fingers" by the White Stripes
AVAILABLE ON: Elephant; iTunes