Following last week’s performance on Letterman, a break in the Dead Weather begins as Alison Mosshart preps a new album with Kills partner Jamie “Hotel” Hince, LJ joins the Greenhornes for their first LP in 5 years, Dean Fertita hits the road with Josh Homme’s QOTSA, and Jack White plots his next 50 or so Third Man Records releases. As I pondered imminent new music from members of our favorite supergroup of the past 16 months, however, it occurred that Mosshart’s evolution from leader of Floridian pop-punk outfit Discount (she “didn’t make up the name”) to co-conspirator in a London art-rock duo to stealing Jack White’s spotlight has gone woefully underappreciated around here.
Though the one-sheet narrative of Mosshart moving from Gainesville, FL to London for an unknown Hince collaboration has been making the rounds since the Kills’ 2003 debut, Keep on Your Mean Side, little has been noted about her first group, Discount, including their 3 LPs and countless EP/7″ releases. Let’s get the ball rolling with a few early pop-punk covers of Billy Bragg and R.E.M., 2 originals, and a live video from Mosshart and Discount below:
“Accident Waiting to Happen” (Billy Bragg Cover) from Love, Billy (1998)
“It’s the End of the World As We Know It” from Ataxia’s Alright Tonight (1996)
“Math Won’t Miss You” from Crash Diagnostic (2000)
“Apostrophe” from Crash Diagnostic (2000)
Live in Hamburg, Germany (1999)