Artist

The Raconteurs

in Australia known as The Saboteurs

Detroit, United States • Formed 2005

The Raconteurs is a music group from Detroit, United States, active since 2005. Their discography on Gatefold includes 14 records.

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Albums tracked

266

In collections

2005

Since

Biography

The Raconteurs is an alternative rock band, formed in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in 2005. The band consists of Jack White (vocals, guitar), Brendan Benson (vocals, guitar), Jack Lawrence (bass) and Patrick Keeler (drums). The band considers themselves to be a "new band made up of old friends" and the members are also members of other rock groups: White was a member of The White Stripes (and, along with Lawrence, is also a member of The Dead Weather)

The Arc of The Raconteurs

The pivots — what forced The Raconteurs to reinvent.

The Attic Porch Blueprints
What started as a casual writing session between Benson and White in 2005 exploded when they brought in Keeler and Lawrence to cut "Steady, As She Goes" at Benson's home studio. The result was *Broken Boy Soldiers*, an album recorded quickly with a raw, immediate garage-pop energy. You hear the friction between Benson's clean, McCartney-esque hooks and White's shrieking, unstable guitar solos. It was a massive hit that almost felt accidental, forcing a temporary side-project into a full-time touring machine.
The Ten-Day Blitz
By 2008, the band wanted to shed the "side-project" label and prove they could play heavier than anyone else. They booked Blackbird Studios in Nashville, wrote on the fly, and tracked, mixed, and mastered *Consolers of the Lonely* in a frantic ten-day sprint. They bypassed the traditional three-month promo cycle entirely, releasing the album to physical stores only days after finishing it. The record is a dense, southern-fried assault, packed with furious twin-guitar attacks and Patrick Keeler's most explosive drum performances.
The Third Man Reunion
After an eleven-year freeze, the band regrouped at Third Man Studios in Nashville to record *Help Us Stranger* in 2019. The analog gear was older, the budget was bigger, and the band members had spent a decade producing other artists. They used old-school techniques like tape flanging and live-in-the-room tracking to capture a mature, heavy-rock sound. The record proved they could still write massive riffs without relying on the frantic, youthful panic of their debut.

Influences

The Who — Jack White has repeatedly cited Pete Townshend as his absolute blueprint for rhythm guitar playing. You can hear this influence in the massive, acoustic-driven power chords that open "Steady, As She Goes" and the theatrical, heavy-handed dynamic shifts throughout their catalog. They even covered "A Quick One, While He's Away" during their 2006 tour.
Led Zeppelin — The band's heavy blues-rock swagger is directly modeled on the Jimmy Page and John Bonham dynamic. You hear it in Patrick Keeler's thunderous, triplet-heavy drum intro on "Consoler of the Lonely," which sounds like a direct homage to "Moby Dick." White's screeching, octave-pedal guitar solos frequently mirror Page's chaotic live style.
Cheap Trick — Brendan Benson's power-pop DNA is heavily indebted to the tight harmonies and massive guitar hooks of Robin Zander and Rick Nielsen. This influence is all over the soaring choruses of "Hands" and "Many Shades of Black," where the grit of garage rock meets radio-ready pop precision. They eventually covered Cheap Trick's "He's a Whore" live.
The Stooges — The raw, unhinged garage-punk energy of Iggy Pop's crew is a cornerstone of the Detroit scene that birthed both White and Benson. The dirty, overdriven bassline of "Store Bought Bones" is a direct descendant of Ron Asheton's fuzz-heavy work on *Fun House*. The band has frequently covered "I Wanna Be Your Dog" during their live sets.
Terry Reid — The Raconteurs covered Reid's classic "Rich Kid Blues" on *Consolers of the Lonely*. You hear Reid's gritty, blue-eyed soul influence in the vocal trade-offs between White and Benson, particularly on their more acoustic, folk-leaning tracks. They took Reid's blueprint of heavy acoustic blues and cranked the volume to ten.