The Black Keys

I like them, PP. There are not many on ILM who do.

Read this: Black Keys

Both albums are great, if you like that sort of thing, and I do. Buy The Big Come Up first.

Here's my review of their album, Thickfreakness:

Thickfreakness
the Black Keys
Fat Possum/Epitaph
4 stars

Forget the White Stripes. Okay, don’t forget them, but they are in neither the first nor last word in guitar-and-drums-only punked-out blues. But that’s more or less where the similarities end between the high-concept ‘Stripes and the medium-fidelity Black Keys.
On their follow-up to last year’s stunning debut The Big Come Up, the Akron, OH duo of Dan Auerbach (guitar, vocals) and Patrick Carney (drums) serve up a no-frills fuzz-fest of chunky licks, hoary moans and whalloping of soul. Thickfreakness gets right to the point and stays there for all 11 songs. There isn’t a single dull moment. Though the Black Keys are very much in the tradition of 60s and 70s blues-rock outfits like Cream or even early ZZ Top, they never waste time on the sort of excessive noodling that mires groups of that era, and continues to ruin a lot of otherwise good blues-rock today.
Like Them Wranch’s overlooked garage classic Medium Rare, or even Richard Meltzer’s novel The Night (Alone), Thickfreakness unflinchingly concerns itself with the seemy underbelly of human emotion. Songs like “Set You Free”, “Midnight in Her Eyes” and “Hurt Like Mine” are raw insinuations of chronic heartache, acute loneliness and bad decisions.
Even when they’re trafficking in the most clichéd idioms of the blues, the Black Keys sound unfailingly fresh and invigorating.

No I never stop talking about Meltzer. Actually, I had pulled out TN(A) that week. Last week I opened my review of the new New Pornographers with a quote from The Count of Monte Cristo, so the Black Keys got lucky.
This week I'm reviewing LiveOnRelease (sub-Avril Lavignes) and am reading Coyote v. Acme so, we'll see where I go with that in about 4 hours.

but best of luck to them.

if a british band did it though they would be roundly slagged for beign way too retro.

although in blues terms, incest is a pay off gimmick.

the band makes really horrible sounding records, like the actual recording quality. dude should be banned from producing. he almost ruined a really good jessica lea mayfield record and the shit i've heard off the dr. john thing has those same terrible thin sounds. he's no jack white.

I saw them appear on a "top 10 worst hipster bands" recently

lol @ this band

watching their shitty drummer struggle to play the most basic rock and roll beat possibly imaginable is one of contemporary rock music's many delights

these guys are such clowns

how did they get popular? genuine question

The "five rock records a year", Rolling Stone subscribing crowd loves the shit out of them.

they made a serious leap at some point though, like i saw them in '03 and they were so scuzzy and unfashionable and at some point they just flipped a switch and were like "we're going to play arenas now"

do not do not do not understand these guys at all. people love them though!

I'm not sure I can explain the "why", I think they just sorta became the default "real" rock band for the RS crowd that hates folkie stuff and can't stand keyboards.

i never understood these dudes and their terrible music until i read this: http://www.thelmagazine.com/TheMeasure/archives/2011/03/07/the-black-keys-dan-auerbach-allegedly-loves-dave-matthews-calls-indie-pop-gay

I actually don't think their music is "terrible" (with the possible exception of Danger Mouse's shitty production job), I just think it's even worse because they manage to make ostensibly garage rock completely bland and lifeless.

i think they were able to ride the strokes, hives, vines, white stripes, etc. movement of "real rock music", and then found success w/ the first few danger mouse collaboration albums. also licensing the shit out of their music might have helped too.

yeah but the hives & stokes & white stripes are all pretty good! and put out some good-to-great records imo. i saw black keys play one incredibly packed club back in '06 or so. ditched my party after less than an hour so i could go catch Jack Oblivian. the talent/fame contrast between the two shows was kind of striking.

they're cut from the same cloth and appeal to the same people in some ways as kings of leon or some other bullshit. they're so boring and so dumb. i mean the drummer is engaged in an ongoing twitter beef with justin bieber, which is just the most pathetic thing.

these guys fuckin suck

I like the album cover with the reservation that cool op-art covers are in vogue with the most loathsome bands right now

yeah but the hives & stokes & white stripes are all pretty good!

fuck all these bands imo, ESPECIALLY the hives. vines were the shittiest though

tmz follows them around. it's crazy

i liked rubber factory in 2005 but have no idea why they still play music

$$$

i feel such a loyalty though to the black keys even though i don't really listen to them. we're all from northeast ohio - i'm from cleveland, they're from akron, and it's such a underdog of a region that i'm happy that they are so huge, i can't help but root for them. i remember when my brother-in-law went to their first show in cleveland like 12 years ago or something.

though i'd rather a cleveland band like mr. gnome get world famous instead:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm_N27v38_Y

i don't think i'm forceful enough to really make my point in the midst of a bunch of hate but this band was important to my life when i was much more musically naive and opened my eyes to a lot of cool stuff, and i still have a soft spot for the Big Come Up and Rubber Factory. alright thanks everybody

yea i have no animosity towards them.

just blew 20 minutes reading about the drummer's divorce, yeesh

xp tbf re: auerbach "loving" dave matthews, that quote is about auerbach in high school. 99% of my friends fucking loved dave matthews in high school. i won't bedrudge anyone for their high school tastes.

my old band played a show w/mr. gnome once! they were really good & seemed nice

rad! i've heard they are good folks.

i can't quite place "fever" but every time they've played it on the radio today i've gotten some deja entendu. any idea what it might be reminding me of?

i think it's some arctic monkeys song. they sound like, exactly the same.

Basically, "Tighten Up" became a big hit due to it's ctachy whistling and being used in a bunch of commercials. This was also around the time that Jack White announced that The White Stripes had broken up, and were thus they were able to pick up a fanbase of people still craving bluesy modern rock.

Or at least, that's what I gathered.

yeah that's kind of otm - i think they basically became what people wanted the white stripes to be.

basing that entirely on the beard and the dead eyes

not looking forward to his "Tears In Heaven"...

...after he murders Jack White's child

johnny winter and eric clapton vs jack white and dan auerbach

mostly i feel relief that the whole "guitar hero" meme doesn't have nearly as much currency these days than it used to.

think it has more currency than ever. there just aren't many new guitar gyros.

really? on what basis would you say that?

When a crowd hears a good solo, they cheer?

Brad Paisley a current guitar hero. St
Vincent too.

When a crowd hears a good solo, they cheer?

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, May 15, 2014 4:58 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

now that's just uncivilized

probably smash hit video game Guitar Hero

bloodthirsty hordes always cheer when a good solo is executed

they hang out at guitar center every weekend, sipping their vitamin spiked mondos while arguing the superiority of the phrygian and mixolydian modes

richard bishop is kind of a marginal gtr hero

The mags are trying to make Gary Clark Jr. happen, although bets are hedged on his album by emphasizing him as a neo soul/lite hip hop dude as much as being a guitar god.

this stuff works retroactively. If a band with guitars gets popular and embraces any part of the identifiable canonical rock gtr lineage, then they get the "guitar god" treatment. Cases in point: neither Cobain nor White were not particularly showy about their chops on their career-defining stuff, but as they became gargantuan and their connections to previous hard rock stuff became more apparent, then they were in.

someone like Greenwood, however, is always going to be less idolized cuz his stylistic reference points are largely outside the canon of Hendrix/Page/Van Halen whatever

and anyway who cares what Guitar Player and their readers think, really

i have a Guitar Player-like Gods of Guitar book and Jonny Greenwood is in it along with tom verlaine and andy summers

kurt cobain is not

is rivers cuomo a guitar god?

god i fucking hope not

http://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mKK44eS2faDav6Q9ia6fZ1A.jpg

holding that guitar don't make you eddie

The mags are trying to make Gary Clark Jr. happen, although bets are hedged on his album by emphasizing him as a neo soul/lite hip hop dude as much as being a guitar god.

Really? Dude just sounds like Robin Trower to me.

i guess the "guitar hero" concept has taken a different direction since i last checked in, since kurt cobain is far, far from a "guitar hero" in the steve vai/jimmy page/eric clapton/etc. sense

Marnie Stern is a guitar hero.

adrian belew is a guitar hero

is there a thread for ppl that only readers of guitar magazines like? like a place where we can talk about joe satriani?

please make one! would love to talk some Silver Surfer!

is there a thread for ppl that only readers of guitar magazines like? like a place where we can talk about joe satriani?

― call all destroyer, Thursday, May 15, 2014 6:59 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://stores.guitarcenter.com/

be sure to pick up some of these on the way

thread for discussion of guitarists i have only heard of because i read guitar magazines in the late 90s

hahahaha. fantastic title and premise.

Enjoy: http://noisey.vice.com/guitar-moves/dan-auerbach

One of the weird things about these guys is that the guy who founded Earthquaker Devices used to be their tour manager, but they don't have any Earthquaker on their pedalboards.

Like, I respect Boss pedals. Plenty of people have made great music with them. But if you were connected to a guy who makes distinctive, acclaimed effects pedals, I don't see why you'd use a Boss Tremolo instead of an Earthquaker Hummingbird.

http://www.effectsbay.com/2012/04/rig-rundown-the-black-keys-dan-auerbach/

maybe they hate that guy

Or vice versa

http://youtu.be/Ss9Znucx4GM

Anyone have a feeling on the new one out today?

I lived in Columbus, hung out with Michael Carney, Patrick's brother who also did much of their artwork, at Magnolia Thunderpussy when I worked there, and saw the Black Keys play Little Brothers way before they were playing arenas. So I feel a little differently about them compared to most. I obligatorily like the earlier stuff better(TM) but I don't get the hate many have for them but I am incredibly biased.

Anyway, the new record is fine to these ears.

Because of they would...

https://www.stereogum.com/2284545/the-black-keys-announce-america-loves-crypto-concert/news/

As Brooklyn Vegan points out, the band announced on Instagram that next Friday, Oct. 25, they’ll play an America Loves Crypto event in their hometown of Akron at the Akron Civic Theatre. It appears to be an event geared around getting out the vote for cryptocurrency-friendly candidates? (UPDATE: I’m told the crypto movement is putting in work to unseat Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, a crypto critic, so this event might actually help deliver the Senate to the Republicans?) According to the page where you can RSVP to attend, “There will be complimentary food and drink for attendees. Doors open at 5PM and this event is on a first come first serve basis.” Comments are turned off on the band’s Instagram post announcing this gig.

Perennial bar music favorites the black keys

It looks like this is really backfiring on them, even their still-extant fanbase seems to be turning on them over this. The band's sub-reddit is filled with people RSVPing to claim a spot and then not show up.

the other acts who are also "standing with crypto"

Black Pumas
Chainsmokers
Jessie Murph
Big Sean
Lauv
070 Shake

their endorsed candidates are an absolute mercenary and unprincipled hodgepodge

https://www.standwithcrypto.org/races/

https://www.stereogum.com/2285565/the-black-keys-crypto-concert-was-even-sillier-than-expected/news/

These guys are lame, but they address some recent aspects of their lameness here:

https://archive.ph/pUN0v

Their excuses simultaneously make a lot of sense while still underscoring the fact that they are lame and that had they not magnified their lameness like they had last year, they would have found several other ways to demonstrate just how lame they are.

On first single “The Night Before” (written with Daniel Tashian, who co-wrote and co-produced Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour), the group leans into its upbeat pop-rock side. “It was very organically [done] in the studio together,” singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach tells Rolling Stone. “The three of us just came up with it together on the spot.”

currently the subject of a bidding war between Ford and Ram

Just three guys in a pickup truck

They should do a tour with no pickups.