Songfacts®:

• After The Kills opened some Raconteurs shows in the US during the summer of 2008, their vocalist Alison Mosshart cut a cover of Gary Numan's "Are 'Friends' Electric?" with The Raconteurs' Jack Lawrence and Jack White. The trio added Queens Of The Stone Age multi-intstrumentalist Dean Fertita before quickly recording the Horehound album at White's Third Man studio-label complex in Nashville. White described to Rolling Stone The Dead Weather songs such as this one as "very dark, very dangerous. There are synthesizers and acoustic instruments treated so they don't sound like themselves anymore."
• "Hang You From The Heavens" was released as the band's debut single on March 11, 2009, which also served as the launch party for Jack White's Third Man Studios Nashville location. The band made their live debut performing the song at the complex that day along with a few other tracks from the Horehound album, which was released in July. White also has a Third Man location in Detroit.
• The Dead Weather's cover of "Are 'Friends' Electric?" ended up going on the B-side of this single. It didn't make the cut for the Horehound album.
• Jack White had three different groups going at the time. Along with The Dead Weather, he was still active in The Raconteurs and The White Stripes, although The White Stripes were winding down and didn't release any more material. This wasn't unusual for White, who always had lots of projects going on simultaneously. He released his first solo album in 2012.