The White Stripes perform an energetic rendition of Captain Beefheart's "Party of Special Things to do" from Bluejeans and Moonbeams. Although it doesn't beat the original, it's a killer interpretation.
Whenever I discover a new band, one of the first things I google about them is their influences. It stands to reason that if I enjoy their work, I'll probably love the guys that inspired them. And if I do find sonic bliss within the chords of their influences, I repeat the process and fall deeper down the rabbit hole. After a while, the search becomes slightly predictable, as several bands share a coterie of auditory inspirations. Generally speaking, most rock bands are incestuous when it comes to influences and share more genetic material than cousins from Mississippi.
Even though seeing the same names appear in various rock bands proverbial 23andMe gets pretty tedious, there's one name that I'll always enjoy stumbling across. That name is Captain Beefheart. If you're a fellow music snob, you definitely know about Beefheart, if only for his famous album Trout Mask Replica. Captain Beefheart's influence is as far-reaching as his music polarizing, and one of the artists wooed by his discordant siren song was Jack White.
