Earning her film stripes

MEG WHITE may be the most unfairly maligned drummer since Ringo Starr. But a couple of fans are giving her a chance to show what she can do -- without her White Stripes partner, Jack White.

“People have fun saying negative stuff about Meg,” says comedy writer-director-actor Bob Odenkirk. “If you don’t get why she’s great, crank up the Toto.”

Odenkirk’s appreciation of White’s drumming came to mind when he was looking for a sound to accompany the swaggering nature of a character in the upcoming movie “You Are Going to Prison,” which he directed. So he and score composer Alan Elliott flew to Detroit in early October to record White in what was a completely new context for her.

“She gets into her zone and she’s like a train, just starts rolling,” says Elliott. “There was a time Bob came into the room and tried to get her to do something and couldn’t get her attention. She was in a trance, and it’s really powerful stuff when you’re sitting right next to it -- Jack or no Jack.”

Meg White, who rarely utters a word in public, declined to be interviewed about the project.

Plans are for White’s unaccompanied drumming to serve as the theme music for a character played by Dax Shepard. The movie also stars Will Arnett (“Arrested Development”) and Chi McBride (“Boston Public”).

Odenkirk and Elliott could perhaps have stayed in Hollywood and gotten a studio musician to play in the style of Meg White. But Elliott says it would not have been the same. And his concept for the score was to hark back to the glory days of Henry Mancini or Quincy Jones: not simply to have musicians play in appropriate styles, but to get the actual musicians known for the styles. To that end, he also wrote some pieces evoking the sound of Queens of the Stone Age -- and got the Queens to play it.

“Quincy Jones or Henry Mancini would get the popular players of the time, great jazz and pop musicians, to play the score,” Elliott says. “The modern-day equivalent would be having rock stars come in and play part of the score. With the Queens, I wrote a thing and they loved it and played it, and it will be the main titles music now. For Meg we thought of the character. He’s got a certain swagger, and Bob and I were talking about it and he said, ‘It’s kind of a White Stripe, Meg White kind of thing. So we went after Meg, and she said yes.”

For other parts of the score, they’re assembling players to evoke a funk/R&B; mood akin to the “blaxploitation” films of the ‘70s. Among those who will be in the sessions are keyboard player Billy Preston, drummer James Gadson and bassist Carole Kaye -- all veterans of many pop and film recordings starting in the ‘60s. If it seems a lot to go through for a small, independent production, Odenkirk says it is key to the presentation.

“I can’t stand most scores now -- so antiseptic,” says the former “Mr. Show” partner. “I want to feel that there’s a human being watching the movie with me. I want to hear someone breathing on the score.”

‘Quadrophenia’ reigns onstage

THE Who’s “Quadrophenia” has been Bill Schultz’s favorite album from the time it came out in 1973, when he was in high school in St. Paul, Minn. So when he met Pete Townshend at a function five years ago, he asked the man behind the album why the band had never done a full stage presentation of the concept piece as it had with “Tommy,” the rock opera that preceded it. Townshend told him he’d never really gotten clear in his mind what he would have wanted to do with it.

Now, though, Schultz has it clear what he would want it to be. He’s the writer and producer of “The Quad Tribute.” It’s not a Broadway-style musical, as was done with “Tommy,” but a full staging of Townshend’s tale of teenage angst and split personalities, which also was made into a 1979 movie.

The venture, featuring music by the L.A. tribute band the Who Show, with 23 actors and singers and elaborate sets and effects, makes its world premiere with shows Nov. 18 and 19 at the Grove Theatre in Anaheim. It’s being done with the blessing of the Who’s licensing management.

Schultz was an aspiring screenwriter 25 years ago when he got sidetracked into the field of orthopedics, in which he has done very well as the owner of a distribution company. That has allowed him to finance this show, but he firmly believes it is not merely a fan’s indulgence or vanity project.

“I think I’m building something good enough to survive,” says Schultz, who hopes this could arouse interest in a tour or a Las Vegas engagement. “I believe I can hold the rock edge and still tell a story that a 17-year-old would like and a 50-year-old mother of four would like.”

Where the Rockrgrls are

THIS year’s Rockrgrl Music Conference in Seattle will mark a milestone for the magazine that launched it. Founder-editor Carla DeSantis is terminating the publication that for 11 years has covered and promoted women in rock music.

While the three-day conference, to be held Nov. 10-12, is thriving (Patti Smith is the keynote speaker, and other participants include Bonnie Raitt, Ann Wilson and Concrete Blonde’s Johnette Napolitano, plus more than 200 performers), the magazine has been struggling. Frustrated with rising costs, declining sales and the fact that women are still barely a presence on rock radio, DeSantis is refocusing her efforts.

“I still think the message is critical,” she says. “You’re seeing fewer women on the rock charts than even when I started. The conference really fulfills the need I had with the magazine, but with just one deadline a year. To look around a room and see my heroines, like Patti Smith and Ann Wilson, and see up-and-comers at the same time, I can see a thread between the past and the future and try to help make a better future.”

The final issue, which comes out right before the conference begins, will feature L.A. band Rilo Kiley and its versatile singer Jenny Lewis as the cover story.