The newest Weird Al parody video just dropped tonight and Jack White should be proud to learn that he is now in the company of Michael Jackson, Madonna, and dozens of the other top music stars in Yankovic’s musical comedy canon.

I’m not going to analyze the video too closely (analyzing any Weird Al news just feels dirty), but cartoon versions of Jack and Meg White make appearances and the music is basically identical to “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” from White Blood Cells.

Watch the video for “C.N.R.” below or here:

Radiohead’s manager is taking a more digital direction, but Jack White has no cell phone, hates Pro Tools, and has started his own analog revolution. While I was digging around at the new Third Man Records vinyl subscription service for Friday’s post, I noticed that Jack seems to be including the White Stripes in his new Nashville-based project. At first it seemed that contractual obligations could prevent him from taking free reign over the White Stripes catalogue, but then I remembered those extremely limited singles he put out in the early, pre-contract, days (“Lord, Send Me An Angel,” “Jolene,” “Let’s Shake Hands,” “Look Me Over Closely,” etc.). Well, my suspicions have been confirmed and we’ve got big news for fans of early White Stripes:

Jack White leaked more of his ambitious plans for Third Man Records to the Edmonton Sun’s Jane Stevenson over the weekend. “I’m re-releasing every record I’ve ever been a part of,” White said. “So I’m collecting all the old ones and getting them back on our shelf. If there’s [a] kid in Nunavut who wants that 45, I want him to be able to get it, if he wants it. I don’t like out-of-print records. I don’t think that’s fair.” I’m not sure if she is referring to the above statement, but Stevenson also specified that White’s effort would include “a massive reissue of The White Stripes’ catalogue on vinyl.”

All of the early White Stripes singles have been available on the Internet as low-quality bootleg MP3s, but original hand painted copies of Jack’s early vinyl are very rare and go for big bucks on eBay (The Go and The Upholsterers might enjoy a return to the spotlight as well). If Jack White can actually pull off this massive reissue project, the folks at the Marlene Dietrich estate might be getting some nice royalty checks and the Candy Cane Children of Nunavut will be very happy.

Most people think Jack White’s first turn as a feature film actor was in Cold Mountain, opposite then-girlfriend Renée Zellweger, but diehard White Stripes fans know that his first role was in The Rosary Murders, a 1987 Donald Sutherland starring drama, where a 12-year-old White (née John Gillis) played an altar boy. A fitting role, considering he was bound for a stint at a seminary in the future. Well, a much more interesting early John Gillis acting gig happened between those films and it’s set to appear at the Comic-Con International-Independent Film Festival later this month: Mutant Swinger from Mars.

The film, written and directed by Michael Kallio, was pieced together back in 1997/98 for a mere $22,000, according to this White Stripes fansite. Though White only has a minor role as Mikey in the sci-fi spoof, there’s a rumor floating around that he will be appearing in a videotaped introduction for the film’s Comic-Con showing.

I haven’t seen the picture yet, but the trailer is pretty funny and there’s definitely a late-90s Detroit vibe going on. Watch the trailer below (or jump to 1:05 for a brief clip of 22-year-old Jack and his bowl cut hairdo):

Everyone’s reporting today about the White Stripes’ upcoming Canadian tour documentary that I posted about a month ago and I’m feeling a little left out, so here’s a Jack White bit for the day’s festivities.

It’s well known that Jack’s a purist when it comes to retro recording techniques, but nowadays the Internet has become the bane of his artistic expression. Speaking to The Ampersand, the Dead Weather, Raconteurs, and White Stripes frontman sounded off on Pro Tools for the second time in as many weeks and added that though he can control his method of recording, but the release and promotion of his precious analog gems still requires that pesky series of tubes:

“Do I really need a MySpace page for this f—king music?” White asked. “Do I really need to do that? There’s a part of me, that just out of spite, says I don’t want to do it because it’s so antithetical to what I do. I just question what it all means. If a million people see your webpage, how many people actually buy something, buy a record or a song? Feels to me, if you give them a chance to fast forward, rewind, or click off to the next web page, they will do it.”

What’s more, the Internet also interfered with White’s Dead Weather unveiling. “If not for the Internet, we would have loved to have done six months of small clubs down south to really build up what we are and discover what we are,” White said.

Luckily, Jack’s just a little cranky about the digital revolution and not quite crotchety yet. By the way, one little bit about the upcoming film The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights which hasn’t made today’s reports is that it is slated to close the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

Okay, I feel better now.

I’m still under the weather (bleh) and a couple Jack White bits are piling up here, so let’s clear out the queue, kids.

Jack’s new “darker and more dangerous” pseudo supergroup The Dead Weather are scheduled to play on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien on Thursday, June 18. As you may recall, Jack and Meg White performed on Conan’s final Late Night episode, so it’s cool to see the Jack/Conan bromance has also made the move to L.A. Perhaps the pair should collaborate on their own brand of SPF 50.

Ever since the Raconteurs were formed, the future of the White Stripes has come up in almost every Jack White interview. Speaking to Times Online’s Hardeep Phull, Jack tried to put those split rumors to rest once and for all, saying, “I’d like to do another five White Stripes albums in the next 10 years, but it’ll probably take a minute to get round to that. It’s okay, [Meg’s] used to me being busy. When we started the White Stripes, I was in three different bands.” Okay, the WS are officially not going anywhere.

Finally, remember that producer/engineer Jim Diamond who sued the White Stripes over royalties from their first two albums? He spoke to Phoenix New Times’ Martin Cizmar recently, saying that he lost the lawsuit due to the statute of limitations, but he then took a swipe at Jack’s leaving Detroit for Nashville: “I don’t think he had many friends left in Detroit. I think he alienated a lot of people,” Diamond said, adding later, “one thing about Detroit, most people are pretty genuine, I’ve found… When they’re not genuine, they move to Nashville.”

Okay, I’ve officially lost count on how many projects Jack White has in the works. Off the top of my head, we’ve got albums and/or 7” singles from The Dead Weather, Mildred and the Mice (his wife, Karen Elson), Dex Romweber Duo, Rachelle Garniez, and a White Stripes film of their Canadian tour. That’s just for this year, but it looks like we’ve got a big one coming next year.

In an interview with Music Connection White revealed a lot more about his Nashville-based musical revolution, including a denunciation of Pro Tools, talk of a rare mixing board from a South African television studio, and this surprising bit from the article’s author on the sidebar: “White hopes to start working on a solo album at the end of 2009.”

Jack’s projects are almost always billed as a collaboration, but he usually steals the spotlight and has actually done very little work completely solo. A few songs on the Cold Mountain soundtrack are the most notable examples to me, but there could be a few tracks here and there that I’m forgetting. Either way, it will be great to hear how Jack’s (sometimes frightening) amount of energy works without anyone else for it to bounce off.

Prince might want to second-guess his decision to reject big Guitar Hero bucks after he hears about their latest round of featured players. Even though it isn’t due out until after the summer, Guitar Hero 5 buzz has already begun and it’s only going to get louder once word gets out that the White Stripes, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash’s estate, Vampire Weekend, and Kings of Leon have signed along the dotted line.

USA Today Game Hunters’ Mike Snider reports that the new Guitar Hero features the bands listed above and more. “We have a lot of new indie artists as well and Iron Maiden as more classic rock or heavy metal,” Guitar Hero project director Brian Bright said. “We’ve been trying to get the White Stripes and they have finally come around.”

I think Jack White signing over “Blue Orchid” to Guitar Hero is a kind of tipping point for bands wanting to cash in, but keep their indie cred. It’s only a matter of time until we get Guitar Hero: Bon Iver Acoustic Edition.

The 18-city whirlwind White Stripes 2007 tour of Canada in which Meg and Jack White promoted their album Icky Thump will be documented in their forthcoming film, The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights.

Jack leaked the news about the project to Mojo magazine (the interview isn’t online) this month and pointed out that the film’s title lines up well with their last DVD effort, saying, “our last concert film we made was The White Stripes Under Blackpool Lights.”

The fact that the film features their Canadian tour is particularly interesting because we just found out that Meg’s exhaustion, which caused the cancellation of much of the American leg of the tour, began amid the Canadian jaunt.

Also worth noting, in Self-Titled’s interview with The Dead Weather recently where Jack first revealed that he was working on a movie, he added that it could possibly be released in theaters.

Dexter Romweber, of the Flat Duo Jets and Dexter Romweber Duo, has been cited over and over by Jack White as one of The White Stripes’ greatest influences. Just take one look at his image or listen to his music and it’s amazing how similar Romweber’s duo with his biological sister is to White’s duo with his imaginary sister.

Now Jack is a very wealthy protégé and has taken his former master under his wing, performing, producing, and releasing a forthcoming Dexter Romweber Duo vinyl 7”. In an interview with Nashville’s Metromix, Romweber reveals lots of behind the scenes bits about the sessions, including Jack’s role on his song “The Wind Did Move.”

“Sara [Romweber] drums and plays tambourine,” Romweber said. “Jack played bass and sang and then I played electric guitar, sang and played organ. And then Jack put a saw sound on it—it’s him sawing on a board to get a sound the song needed.”

It looks like Jack’s new Third Man Records studio/store/stage is a hotbed of creativity, with its custom James Bond drum kit and some kind of musical saw. There’s more to come too. He told Music Radar recently that he has worked on roughly ten more albums coming out this year.

For more on Jack’s collaboration with the Romweber siblings go here, or here.