White Blood Cells

Jack produced it, with Stuart Sikes engineering, after a week of rehearsal. The band recorded in shifts of 12 and 13 hours over three days and spent about $5,000. It was their first time in a 24-track studio, and Jack asked Sikes more than once not to make it sound too good. He sang next to Meg as she drummed, because the room was too big to record them separately. Meg was wary of the speed and thought the songs too new, but the rush was meant to keep the record as unorganized as possible and give it a tense feeling. Before release Jack said that it held no blues, slide work, bass, guitar solos or covers, only guitar, drums and piano. Several songs began in his earlier band Two-Star Tabernacle, among them Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground, Hotel Yorba, The Union Forever, The Same Boy You've Always Known, Offend in Every Way and Now Mary.

Jack said the title came from the idea of bacteria, foreign things, media or attention coming at the band. The cover shows Jack and Meg surrounded by silhouetted figures holding television and video cameras, photographed on a wall by the former Tiger Stadium. The album is dedicated to Loretta Lynn, and Jack later produced her 2004 album Van Lear Rose.

Sympathy released it on 3 July 2001 and V2 reissued it in 2002. It reached 61 on the Billboard 200 and 55 on the UK Albums Chart, and went platinum in both countries. Pitchfork's Dan Kilian and Ryan Schreiber called Fell in Love with a Girl the album's best song and We're Going to Be Friends the closest thing to a dud. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame placed the album at 178 on its list of 200 Definitive Albums, and Uncut ranked it first on its 2009 list of the 150 greatest albums of the 21st century so far. Third Man Records issued a 20th anniversary set, White Blood Cells XX, in April 2021, with home demos, alternate takes and a live show recorded on 6 September 2001 in Louisville, Kentucky.