The Bad Penny (beta)

“I don’t think I’ve ever played a solo drum show.”
-Jim White, one of the most revered indie-rock drummers ever

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Jim White, he of the Dirty Three, and Nick Cave and Cat Power collaborative note, is perhaps the most quintessential music mensch in the last 30 years. (An extremely critical point: White was never a member of the Bad Seeds, despite his affiliations with Cave.) To say that the drummer and percussionist is well respected is to say that PJ Harvey, another icon who has tapped White, can be a bit shy or antisocial at times. Other White collaborators include Mark Kozelek, Courtney Barnett, Kurt Vile, Smog, Bonnie Prince Billy, Nina Nastasia … we could easily use up the word count for this article if we were to list all the musicians with whom White has rubbed elbows in studios and on stages.

But here’s what’s even more remarkable than all the facts spelled out above: During his impressively long career, White has never released an album of his own material until now. We went into our interview with him thinking that masochism or a complete and utter lack of self-respect and self-worth must be at the root of that bizarre wrinkle in White’s resume. But what we found instead was something that lessened our cynicism and upped our hope for humankind, if only just a little, and if only for a temporary period of time: Jim White is, simply put, a really good guy who appears to have determined that his purpose in life is to help others and serve where he believes he can be most useful.