Jack White's Appearance On 'American Pickers' Not As Crazy As It Sounds

The White Stripes may have called it quits earlier this year, but we’ve seen and heard plenty from former frontman Jack White since their demise. Adding yet another eccentric appearance to the list is word that White will appear on the History Channel’s “American Pickers” next week.

The show is admittedly addictive, following two friends/business partners as they scour various barns, homes and junkyards across the country in search of hidden antiques. The episode is set to air at 9PM EST on January 9 and will feature pickers Mike Wolfe and Frank Fitz as they visit White’s Third Man Studios and label home in Nashville. The two will reportedly barter with the music icon over memorabilia, which will include the photo booth used in the music video for “Hang You From the Heavens” by one of White’s many musical projects, The Dead Weather.

White certainly has not used his newfound freedom to retire into hiding – quite the opposite actually – as the singer has managed to stay in the headlines with several studio collaborations. And, as always with Jack, you must expect the unexpected. From Insane Clown Posse to the Jigga Man, here are our five favorite random Jack White collabs, which all somehow make total sense.

Insane Clown Posse

Obviously, this is the biggest “WTF?” to get out of the way. White shocked bloggers everywhere when he teamed up with the freaky clown duo and dropped a German-titled single, “Leck Mich Im Arsch” (“Lick me in the arse,” get it?), in September of this year. Adding to the weird factor is that the song uses a classical melody dating back to Mozart. No word on if a full-blown album is in the works.

Jay-Z

Everyone was pretty excited about White working in the studio with Jay-Z when he mentioned the fact to GQduring an ’10 interview. However, here we are officially in 2012 and a joint track has yet to surface. A studio pic is all they have to show for it.

Stephen Colbert

For those unaware of Colbert’s musical history, his 1980s new wave band, Stephen and the Colberts, recorded a single in 2006, “Charlene (I’m Right Behind You).” Earlier this summer, Colbert dropped his follow-up single "Charlene II (I’m Over You)" with the help of Jack White and the Black Belles as his backing band. They even cruised NYC in White’s rolling record store selling copies of the single.

Popout

The Colbert Report

Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Danger Mouse’s Rome

When Danger Mouse, producer of the Black Keys newest hit record, was looking for vocalists to fill-out his Spaghetti Western-inspired project with Italian composer Daniele Luppi – Rome – he found one in Jack White (along with Norah Jones). White provided vocals on three songs for the project, which was five years in the making.

Conan O’Brien

Jack White and Conan sure seem to be pretty good chums. For starters, Conan is heavily featured in the zany White Stripes’ music video for “The Denial Twist,” directed by Michel Gondry. Next, the White Stripes played Conan’s somber, final “Late Night” episode. Finally, White released two singles featuring Conan in August 2010. The first was a duet of the two covering Eddie Cochran’s “20 Flight Rock,” while the other single “And They Call Me Mad?” was a spoken-word retelling of the Frankenstein legend from O’Brien.

Bands We Like: Ghostland Observatory

Too often I fall victim to the classic “judging a book by its cover” and miss out on a great band simply because of their name (Foster the People, anyone?). A few years ago, I recall seeing “Ghostland Observatory” emblazoned seemingly everywhere I looked: magazines, music news, festival lineups. What the heck does it even mean? To this day, I have no freakin’ clue, but I’ve been making up for lost time by catching their concerts – a digital light show extravaganza – at every opportunity and preaching their greatness to anyone within earshot.

Surprisingly, Ghostland is just a duo of best buds from a place where it’s cool to be weird: Austin, Texas. Thomas Ross Turner mans the drums/keys/synthesizers, providing most of the signature Ghostland digital bleeps and blurps that the band is famous for. He frequently, or pretty much always, dons a cape, which I can’t help but think Charlie Day (from “It’s Always Sunny”) would love to wear as his Nightman character.

Frontman Aaron Behrens is an instantaneous party-starter. He’s usually rockin’ some Native American-inspired braids and dark shades (likely to help keep the lasers from blinding him) and he’s known to strap on a guitar for a few songs at each show. One thing you’ll quickly notice about Behrens when performing is the man does not stop moving ever – his energy and dance moves would give the late James Brown a run for his money. Their concerts contain the same atmosphere of pure and utter joy that you’d find at a typical Flaming Lips gig – a cozy place to be indeed.

The group was first conceived in 2003 and they’ve been notorious road warriors ever since. They eventually dropped their debut delete.delete.i.eat.meat two years after their inception on a label created by Turner, Trashy Moped Recordings. For a band just starting out, it’s impressive that Ghostland found their sound right away asdelete is ten tacks of pure pop-synth awesomeness – there is no filler to be found. “Silver City” sounds like it was concocted among the stars in space with Behren singing some all-too-appropriate lyrics -- “I think that I have found myself out on the floor / And I think that we have lost ourselves forever more” – because yeah, their tunes will inspire you to spend eternity on the dance floor.

Popout

Sad Sad City 3D from andrew giugno on Vimeo.

Wasting no time, Ghostland released their sophomore album, Paparazzi Lightning, just a year later in 2006. The album contains several strong tracks: “Move With Your Lover” will make you want to do just that; “Vibrate” has one catchiest song openings ever (“I said vibrate!”); while “Sad Sad City” is a pure Ghostland dance frenzy. Their third effort, Robotique Majestique once again dropped ten hard-hitting dance pop tracks. The low-end crunchy bass found on “Freeheart Lover” will crawl all over your skin in the best way imaginable, while “Club Soda” is the go-to track for cruisin’ the highway at midnight.

Last year’s Codename: Rondo brought forth one of the catchiest songs of their career: “Freeze.” The track opens with a piping synth beat that sounds like something out of an old NES game. The song’s title becomes apparent when Behrens mimics a police officer, saying in a faux police voice, “Freeze, it’s the police / Put your hands where I can see ‘em / Get down,” which is when the beat truly drops.

Without the push of a major label and little-to-no advertising, Ghostland has managed to appear on late night television and perform at damn near every festival that exists in the states. Like ‘em or not, their music will light a fire under your feet and force you to groove. Just look at the pic I took – you can’t even see the band, but you can most certainly see thousands of people having the time of their life with a glow stick of solidarity being held high among a sea of lasers. Do yourselves a favor: listen, see, and fall in love.