Even before The White Stripes broke wide, the alt-rock scene harbored a goodly number of loud, minimalist electric-blues acts steeped in echo, bash, and gothic misery. Jack White injected a necessary dose of wit and personality into the genre, laced with an understanding that while a bluesy sound is easy to replicate, a credible swagger takes a leap of imagination. White’s new supergroup, The Dead Weather—featuring The Kills’ Alison Mosshart on vocals, The Greenhornes’/Raconteurs’ Jack Lawrence on bass, Queens Of The Stone Age’s Dean Fertita on guitar, and White on drums—brings that swagger more than once on its debut album, Horehound, and when the band hits it, it hits hard. The singles “Hang You From The Heavens” and “Treat Me Like Your Mother”—with their disjointed grind and don’t-cross-me attitude—are wild and fun in the best White Stripes tradition, while the fiery stompers “Rocking Horse” and “New Pony” (the latter a Bob Dylan cover) have enough weird energy to overcome conventional structures.