MUSIC: White Denim to rock Whelan’s

IN HIS 1942 essay ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’, Camus wrote that “all great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning”.

Fifteen years later, Richard Wayne Penniman wrote ‘Wop bop a loo bop a wop bam boom’ and now, 10 years into their career, White Denim are still in the relentless pursuit of their own ridiculousness.

The American four-piece rock band from Austin, Texas, have carefully studied the greatest records ever made, but they write songs just dumb enough to drink, dance, and fight to.

Theirs is a simple music that aims for the whole body, while equally satisfying the mind. While it has morphed, expanded, and even burst apart, White Denim’s sincere and human drive and ability to spark exhilaration have been unerring constants of the band’s existence. Now, two years on from their comeback album, ‘Stiff’, singer-guitarist James Petralli and bassist Steve Terebecki have changed tack again for their seventh full-length recording, ‘Performance’.

If the album’s title seems meaningful in its dead pan simplicity, it is. There is, of course, the meaning of ‘performance’ that applies to anyone for whom the live arena is the proving ground.

“There is something absurd and isolating in continuing this pursuit for personal connection on such a wide scale,” Petralli says. “When writing an album, I essentially leave my actual life, retreat deeper into myself and as it nears completion, I evaluate my work based on my own extremely skewed notion of what is widely relatable and still legitimately cool.”

The band’s new studio in downtown Austin is called Radio Milk. Once an old general store, constructed in 1902, it is now respectfully restored and sandwiched in between bars and modern condominiums

‘Performance’ was mainly recorded over eight weeks. Two new players were key in what Petralli describes as “a super-collaborative record” – keyboardist Michael Hunter, a “young, humble genius with endless potential” and Conrad Choucroun, a “ridiculously solid” drum-mer.

 White Denim are still impossible to narrowly pin down. There’s the glam-rock strut of ‘Magazin’ and ‘It Might Get Dark’; the duelling guitars on the low-slung blues prog of ‘Moves On’; and the sideways jazz of ‘Sky Beaming’.

There are plenty of pleasingly unexpected ear snags on the title track and the easy-rolling closer, ‘Good News’. In the title track, ‘Performance’, Petralli sings: ‘Flashing light in a tunnel, you’re indicating a change’…and in many ways, White Denim is a flashing light in a dark and crowded tunnel of showbiz glop.

Catch White Denim live in Whelan’s on Sunday, February 10.