Tvad,
The 'Stripes reflect, for me a completely original amalgam of styles that is utterly authentic, and derivative of noone. In performance their extraordinary level of songcraft becomes very obvious. BTW, if you are basing your impressions of their musicality on what you've heard from CD, I humbly suggest that you hear them on LP. I have "Elephant" on LP and CD and the LP appears to be a completely different, and superior mix. The CD greatly obscures the dynamic touches that are essential to communicating the intentions of the musicians when there are only two of them at work.
P.S. "Ball and a Biscuit" live was astounding!