The Black Keys

Sometimes when you’re listening to music it just doesn’t matter what the singer is saying. The music is just so incredibly cool that all you can think of is absolutely nothing. Nothing but how insanely perfect this music matches the rhythm in your soul. The Black Keys sound something like that.

Imagine that brother of yours who for as long as you can remember has locked himself in his room with his electric guitar everyday in an attempt to be the next Jimi Hendrix. You curse the day your Dad bought him that guitar. Then one day, you come home, the amplifier is up full blast with his door open because he doesn’t think anybodies home, and you hear him. You really hear him play for the first time and he’s just going to town on that god damn devil instrument. No inhibitions, just solid minor pentatonic scales and blues, blues, blues. Take that, add a voice that sounds as if it is being channeled through a Crate amp and add a drummer. This is the Black Keys. They will rock you like a black George Thorogood (only they are actually white).

Also, these dudes have played with The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. And if you don’t already know who they are, well, I just have nothing to say to you.

Right now they are signed with Fat Possum Records. New album is called Thickfreakness.

The Black Keys are a two-piece band from Akron, Ohio. They have been categorized as blues, blues rock, indie rock, garage rock, and probably much more. But, to put it simply, they play rock and roll. Dan Auerbach plays the electric guitar and lends his vocals, and Patrick Carney plays the drums. They formed in 2001.

Their sound and production of their music has been noted as unique. The band has done most of the recording and mixing themselves. Their second release, Thickfreakness, was recorded in twelve hours in drummer Patrick Carney's basement. Attack & Release, their most recent to date, is the only album that was recorded in an actual studio, and is also the only album that they have worked with an outside producer. The band usually records with a fuzzy low-fidelity, distorted sound, which is especially evident with their first three or four records. They have in the past left in background noises in their recordings.

Their sound and approach to creating music is simple but it is some of the best rock and roll around today. Early on Dan Auerbach was largely influenced by the blues, including Junior Kimbrough, Son House, Robert Johnson, Robert Nighthawk, and more. This is especially evident in Auerbach's style and approach playing guitar. Carney, on the other hand, has stated he never really got into the blues much. As one-half of The Black Keys, one may assume the style he brings to the band is what truly makes them unique. Since their debut album, The Big Come Up, the band has developed unique sounds to each and every album while sticking to their foundations.

An amazing show they put on, The Black Keys in every way play real, original, simplistic rock and roll.

Albums:

Current Label: Nonesuch Records