Over the weekend, I finally got around to picking up the Dead Weather’s debut album, Horehound, and it’s bloody fucking amazing stuff, sort of a blues-soaked version of The White Stripes² that just ate the bastard love child of Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan. Methinks that Jack White is the only mainstream musician who is even vaguely interested keeping rock and roll alive these days.

For the uninformed, the Dead Weather is an indie “supergroup” made up of the vituousity of Jack White (the White Stripes, the Raconteurs) and the growling, almost feral vocals of Alison Mosshart (the Kills), as well as Jack Lawrence (the Greenhornes, the Raconteurs) on bass and Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age, the Raconteurs) on guitar. Of course, the Dead Weather is just one of three projects that Jack White has managed to simultaneously juggle. Admittedly, I’m not terribly fond of The Raconteurs, but Alison Mosshart’s presence seems to make all the difference with The Dead Weather. As for White, the dude just can’t stop creating:

White produced “Horehound” in the Nashville studio he created and designed on his own, Third Man Studio, and will release it Tuesday on his own label, Third Man Records. (The record gets its name from a medicinal herb once prescribed to relieve fevers and malaria and as an antidote for snake bites and rabid dog bites:)

The music is blues — heavy, muscular, infernal, sometimes sludgy psychedelic rock blues that veers in its scope from Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath and points in between, including the White Stripes. Mosshart’s voice is gothic and eerie and powerful, adding to the music-s intensity, which can get overpowering at times. One of the album’s highlights is “Will There Be Enough Water,” a Mosshart/White duet that brings out the best in both voices.

This is, officially, a side project for all involved, and, contrary to the gossip mill, Mosshart has not abandoned the Kills (see here), so Kate Moss (girlfriend of The Kills Jamie Hince) isn’t going to fill Mosshart’s boots. (There seems to be a half-baked assumption that Moss wants to be a rock star when, clearly, the woman has no singing voice to speak of and has two lucrative fashion-based careers to keep herself busy.)

Find out more about the Dead Weatherat their official site.

Imagery: Promotional screencaps from the Dead Weather’s “Treat Me Like Your Mother” video.