Third Man Records has announced Vault Package #55 as The White Stripes – Elephant XX, the 20th anniversary expanded accompaniment to the band’s seminal 2003 album. In addition to a new Mono remix of the entire album on red and white LPs, this package includes a red glitter 7″ with Jack White’s original solo demos of “Hypnotize,” a DVD with never-before-seen footage from the era, and a 28-page booklet of previously-unshared photos, all housed in a custom slipcase. Sign up is open through January 31, 2023 at midnight CST.
The centerpiece of this set is really the all new, direct-from-the-original multitrack tapes mono remix of the entire Elephant album. Mixed by Jack White and Bill Skibbe at Third Man Studio in Nashville, the work was executed on the same Calrec board used to complete the original stereo mix of Elephant at Toe Rag Studios in London back in 2002.
The tapes revealed an extra four bars at the end of “Seven Nation Army”, completely forgotten by all involved until now, as well as a lost lyric edited out of “Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine” now restored, and other relics.
The goal for the package is to hearken back to other similar experiments, like their first-ever Vault package, Icky Thump mono. Elephant mono is pressed on opaque white and opaque red discs.
Jack White’s original solo demo of “Hypnotize” in two different mixes, the original, first take version of “You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket” done seemingly as a mic check, is paired here on the flipside of “Hypnotize”, complete with additional flourish and fingerpicking. All three of these songs are shared together on a 7-inch single pressed on glitter red vinyl.
The 20th anniversary DVD that’s been assembled is known as Elephant-Era Video Artifacts is a “simulacrum” of the dubbed and traded VHS mixtape compilations that were pivotal to sharing of information in the day.
Tying it all together is a 28-page 12″ x 12″ booklet of previously unshared photos from the Elephant album cover shoot, candid backstage pics and all sorts of handwritten lyrics, concert posters, proposed/abandoned tracklists, shopping lists, and scraps of paper.
THE WHITE STRIPES – ELEPHANT XX TRACKLISTING
2 x LP
1. Seven Nation Army
2. Black Math
3. There’s No Home For You Here
4. I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself
5. In The Cold, Cold Night
6. I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother’s Heart
7. You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket
8. Ball And Biscuit
9. The Hardest Button To Button
10. Little Acorns
11. Hypnotize
12. The Air Near My Fingers
13. Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine
14. It’s True That We Love One Another
all songs newly mixed in MONO by Jack White and Bill Skibbe
7-inch
1. Hypnotize (solo demo mix 1)
2. Hypnotize (solo demo mix 3)
3. You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket (take one)
Elephant Era Video Artifacts DVD:
– “It’s True That We Love One Another” Toe Rag Studio recording footage
– Live @ Shibuya Ax, Tokyo 10/21/03
Black Math
Dead Leaves and The Dirty Ground
I Think I Smell A Rat/Take A Whiff On Me
– Jack and Meg Interview 10/22/03
– Live @ Shibuya Ax, Tokyo 10/22/03
I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges)
Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground
Black Math
Cannon/John The Revelator
Ball And Biscuit
In The Cold, Cold Night
“The Hardest Button To Button” 8mm film reel
