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PACK A.D.
Tintype
(Mint)

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Twenty years from now, Jack White will be remembered for many things: his retina-searing fashion choices, his formidable fistic prowess, and his, um, disturbing relationship with his "sister." His greatest legacy, though, will be how he made it credible for the most Pillsbury Doughboy-pallored of white hipsters to play the blues. Parts of Tintype -- the feedback-splattered "Gold Rush" and the crash-and-stomp "Paper Bag" -- suggest Vancouver's the Pack A.D. cribbed everything they know from the White Stripes. And that's only partly because drummer Maya Miller comes on like Meg White channeling the Shaggs' Helen Wiggin. What sets the two-piece apart from the post-Stripes hordes is that singer-guitarist Becky Beck seriously sounds like she mainlines unrefined Mississippi Delta mud. Whether howling like the spawn of Screamin' Jay Hawkins on the thumping "Snow" or showcasing her formidable slide chops on the 3 a.m. comedown "Got Up", Beck has a bad case of the blues. Little Jackie White isn't the only one who should be impressed.

-- MIKE USINGER
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Mike Usinger.