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:

Earlier in the week, the official Dead Weather YouTube channel awoke from its 4-week slumber with a new music video featuring Los Angeles artist Max Neutra live-painting frontwoman Alison Mosshart in Third Man Records’ signature colors (yellow, white, black) to the tune of Jack White and co.’s new single “Gasoline” (one of my favorite songs of the year so far). It’s a fun clip, excellent painting, and Neutra’s talents are pretty much undeniable, but I thankfully held off on posting it as only 3 days later we’ve got another new Dead Weather video.

Team Third Man gave Team Coco the world premiere of their equally artsy new video for “Blue Blood Blues,” crafted by Tim Wheeler and Christopher Mills from footage of the band performing live at their Nashville headquarters. Needless to say, this Jack White/Conan O’Brien bromance is still awesome. Watch both videos below:

Jay-Z isn’t the only mainstream star inspiring Jack White as of late: According to WENN, the fearless White Stripes/Raconteurs leader has confessed to channeling Lady Gaga for one of the cuts off the Dead Weathers forthcoming second album, Sea of Cowards — specifically, “The Difference Between Us” (video below). The quote in question:

Lady Gaga - I was thinking of the type of song a contemporary musician would write so I started thinking about her. I started thinking of how she would write the music to this song and got quite into being Lady Gaga in an odd way.

The Dead Weather graciously let us watch their vicious performance at Coachella live via webcast and now Jack White, Alison Mosshart, Dean Fertita, and “Little” Jack Lawrence will perform live online once again.

Scheduled one week before the release of their latest album, Sea of Cowards, the band will perform the record in its entirety at Jack White’s Third Man Records store/recording studio/venue in Nashville. The concert will be streamed live on their MySpace page at 6 p.m. EST on Monday (5/3). The Third Man stage is notably the site of the band’s first performance ever almost exactly one year ago.

In other Dead Weather news of the day, the band are offering a free download of their new song “Hussle and Cuss,” as well as a chance to win a VIP package and airfare to Bonnaroo this summer. To download the song and enter the contest, simply click either the “Tweet this!” or “Post to Facebook!” button here (you can opt out of posting it to your FB wall).

With only one more week left to go on their spring tour (plus a few summer festival gigs), at least two members of the Dead Weather are gearing up to pivot their attention back to their respective pre-Jack White bands. We mentioned “Little” Jack Lawrence’s forthcoming album with Greenhornes  — the first record from the Cincinnati-based trio since drummer Patrick Keeler and LJ joined the Raconteurs in ‘05 — and now DW frontwoman Alison Mosshart has all but finished the next Kills record for a hopeful summer release.

Kills co-conspirator Jamie Hince and Mosshart are “three quarters of the way finished with the [fourth] record,” according to an interview with BBC 6Music. “I’m going to go back after this tour and finish it,” Mosshart explained.

As for the tentative release schedule, Mosshart elaborated in a separate Q&A with the Las Vegas Sun:

Hopefully by now you’ve heard about the Dead Weather’s face-melting live show (or witnessed one for yourself), so we’ll take a break from raving about our favorite new bona fide rock star, Alison Mosshart. In the meantime, I can’t think of a better showcase for the respective talents of all four Dead Weather members than this studio version of “Gasoline.”

Though a stream of the latest single from their new album, Sea of Cowards, first hit the Internets last week, we now have an official music video (sorta) for the tune, as well. Dean Fertita is the group’s unsung hero, I’d say, so take note of his skills behind the keys here. Also, White Stripes and Raconteurs fans should enjoy Jack White’s blistering, octave pedal-effected guitar solo, as it recalls some of the standout work from his electric guitar-strapped past (“Blue Veins,” “Broken Boy Soldiers,” “Seven Nation Army,” et al.).

I said “sorta” above because there isn’t much going on in this clip (“Die By the Drop” was more of a traditional music video), but if you’re as mesmerized by Mosshart as we are (wait, I said we’d stop raving!), then watching her exhale a perpetual stream of spooky smoke to the tune will be well-worth three minutes of your time. Check it out below:

After attending the Dead Weather’s brilliant show at the Fillmore in San Francisco Friday night, rock withdrawal ran high all weekend. Until late last night, that is, when Jack White, Alison Mosshart, and the boys performed almost the exact same set at Coachella, which was streamed live on the web.

I had a feeling someone would rip the live stream, as it is beautifully shot/recorded, and sure enough, the series of YouTubes is hosting a plethora of clips. Though I won’t say that you’re getting the full impact of the DW’s live low-end frequency assault here, this is a great way to check out some new tunes, covers, and rearranged songs from their debut, Horehound, save for driving out to a crowded desert.

Check out some of my favorite moments below:

Looks like most of our recent sleuthing/speculation proved to be true: The Dead Weather officially announced the release date, tracklist, and more in The Vault just moments ago…

Sea of Cowards will be released worldwide on May 10/11, preceded by the debut single, “Die By the Drop” (which leaked and was subsequently removed earlier this week), on April 6. That date will also mark the official premiere of the new Floria Sigismondi-directed video.

Ready for the tracklist?