The date was 17 September 2002, a night "etched in my memory" as the debut gig of Razorlight (I googled it). I was at Dingwalls in Camden, watching them get introduced simply as "Johnny Borrell and the somethings." At London venues back then you kind of stood at least two meters back from the stage for the earlier bands (you'd basically paid good money to pretend you weren't interested). So I was "at the front".

However, this is about The Greenhornes. Hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio, the garage-rock outfit was heavily championed by Jack White (who would later go on to form The Dead Weather with their bassist, Jack Lawrence).

As The Greenhornes took the stage, the crowd grew, and suddenly I found myself shoulder-to-shoulder with Jack White himself, alongside his then-girlfriend, Marcie Bolen of The Von Bondies. Over by the side of the stage, Meg White stood quietly, facing out toward the crowd, soaking in the atmosphere.

Once The Greenhornes got going me and my illustrious company were just enjoying the gig. I was already heavily invested in their 2002 album Dual Mono, so to see it live was brilliant. It is well worth a listen if you have any affection for gritty, blues-rock revivalism. The first four tracks alone are great.

For today's pick, however, I have to go with their collaboration with British singer-songwriter Holly Golightly. The track later found wider fame on the soundtrack for Jim Jarmusch’s film Broken Flowers, giving it a well-deserved cultural longevity. Beyond being a brilliant tune, it serves as a perfect time capsule of an era when bands would seamlessly cross-pollinate, casually name-drop each other, and still retain an aura of untouchable mystique.

So, here it is:

There is an End by The Greenhorns