The White Stripes are one of my favorite bands of all time; Jack White is an inspiration on guitar because the bulk of his riffs are really minimalistic and mostly comprise of power-chords and simple non-arrpeggiated chords... It has a real punk rock intensity to it that is just so simplistic. Yet, when he solos, he does some of the best solos I've ever heard that require an immense amount of talent to play or mimic. And I love Meg's drumming for it's simplicity and child-like quality. She may not be John Bonham, but she lays it down like a mad-woman.

Funny, I heard someone compare Jack to John Mayer the other day, as they seem to be two of the only directly blues-influenced guitarists in pop music currently. But the thing is, John Mayer is decent. His early work is radio-friendly little-girl pop, and is absolutely horrid. But his last album and his new band, The John Mayer Trio, seem to be genuine children of serious musicianship. But here is the thing; John Mayer is like the equivalent to the white man's bastardization of the blues. Jack White, despite his skin color, is the real deal. He throws it down like an African American man with a slide guitar sitting on his porch in 1935. Jack takes an Airline guitar--a guitar made out of hollow PLASTIC that was originally sold in Sears in the 60s for about $15--makes it his number-one live guitar, plugs it into a whammy pedal (pitch shifter for those who aren't guitar-savvy) and he makes the most soulful blues I've heard since the 60s. He's a genius, the way he keeps his music so pure.

Anyways, I rank their work like this:
1.) The White Stripes (1999)
2.) Elephant (2003)
3.) De Stijl (2000)
4.) Icky Thump (2007)
5.) White Blood Cells (2001)
6.) Get Behind Me Satan (2005)

Hey, Blibble, if you dig the stripes, check out The Greenhornes. They're probably the second best band to come out of the same Mid-West Garage-Rock revival scene as the Stripes. They have a really cool 60s acid-blues sound to them. They actually sound exactly like they wrote, performed, and recorded all of their work about thirty years ahead of their time.