Dec 14

The Black Keys

THE BLACK KEYS

 
The Black Keys  is an American rock duo formed in Akron, Ohio in 2001. The group consists of Dan Auerbach (guitar, vocals) and Patrick Carney (drums).  After signing with indie label Alive, they released their debut album, The Big Come Up (2002), which earned them a new deal with Fat Possum Records.  The group’s commercial breakthrough came in 2010 with Brothers, which along with its popular single “Tighten Up”, won three Grammy Awards.  In 2014, they released their eighth album, Turn Blue, their first number-one record in the US and Australia.  (More from Wikipedia)

 
Hacienda caught the attention of Dan Auerbach of the acclaimed blues-rock band the Black Keys, who produced both of their albums.  One of Bomp! Records’ recent coups was releasing the first album by this band in 2002 called The Big Come-Up; the new Black Keys album, Brothers is one of the standout albums of 2010, landing a Grammy nomination and a #2 ranking on the 2010 Albums of the Year by Rolling Stone, and even making Time Magazine’s list of Best of 2010 in Music.
 
(January 2011)
 
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Of course, the other side of the complaint I mentioned above is that, sure enough, “they do still make ’em like they used to” from time to time.  I heard an ad on VH1 the other day that used a killer track by the Black Keys as the background music.  The success of this band – they’ve been going strong for more than a full decade now – proves that the Garage Rock Revival of the early 2000’s from bands like the White Stripes, the Hives, the Killers, Eagles of Death Metal, and Queens of the Stone Age still has some life in it.  So far, I only have the Black Keys’ first album, The Big Come-Up, but that won’t be true much longer:  For sure, I need their 2010 album Brothers, which won the Grammy for Best Alternative Album last year and also spawned a No. 1 Alternative hit song for them, “Tighten Up”.  Their most recent album El Camino seems to be every bit as good. 
 
(January 2012)
 
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The king of all of the new garage-y bands is probably the blues-rock duo the Black Keys (sometimes viewed as a sort of twin of the White Stripes) whose debut album, The Big Come-Up came out in 2002 and is the largest selling album that the Bomp! family of record labels has ever had – Alive Records in this case.  They have released several more albums since on other labels; like Sleater-Kinney, each Black Keys album seems to be better than the one that preceded it and has brought them greater fame and a wider audience.  The Black Keys won three Grammy Awards at the 2011 Grammy Awards from their album Brothers that also includes their hit single “Tighten Up” that made the top of the Alternative Rock Charts.  For the 2013 Grammy Awards next month, they have five nominations derived from their most recent album, El Camino. 
 
The Black Keys in fact have become so mainstream that I was astounded to see the band profiled last year on the CBS Sunday Morning show that is hosted by Charles Osgood.  During their interview, the bandmembers mentioned that their music has also been featured in numerous TV ads.  That used to be seen as the ultimate sell-out, but no longer. 
 
(January 2013)
 
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Pete Townshend has been quoted as saying:  “He is the king.  If it hadn’t been for Link Wray and ‘Rumble’, I would have never picked up a guitar.”  More recently, concerning another Link Wray classic, Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys said:  “I would listen to ‘Some Kinda Nut’, over and over. It sounded like he was strangling the guitar – like it was screaming for help.” 

 

(February 2013)

 
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Many of the seminal bands in these rock movements released albums on the Bomp!, Voxx, Alive or Total Energy labels; most of them are not household names by any means, but they are recognized by those in the know as being important bands that shaped the history of rock and roll.  Some of these better-known bands and artists are the Romantics, the Modern Lovers, the Dead Boys (and Stiv Bators individually), the Plimsouls (and Peter Case individually), the Beat (and Paul Collins individually), the Stooges (and Iggy Pop individually), Devo, Nikki Sudden, the Black Keys, and Soledad Brothers. 

 
(May 2013)
 
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Opposition to the unfair imprisonment of two women in Pussy Riot became a cause célèbre of many Western celebrities plus musicians from every genre imaginable:  Bryan Adams, Beastie Boys, the Black Keys, John Cale, Peter Gabriel, Green Day, Nina Hagen, Kathleen Hanna, Paul McCartney, Moby, Yoko Ono, Pet Shop Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Patti Smith, Sting, Pete Townshend, etc.  Pussy Riot was featured on 60 Minutes as well. 

 

For their part, the bandmembers in Pussy Riot that were not in prison distanced themselves from all of this attention and were quoted as saying:  “We’re flattered, of course, that Madonna and Björk have offered to perform with us.  But the only performances we’ll participate in are illegal ones.  We refuse to perform as part of the capitalist system, at concerts where they sell tickets.” 

 

(December 2013)

 
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The Cactus brand of American-style blues rock has been cited as an influence on many bands that followed; Wikipedia lists Aerosmith, Van Halen, .38 Special, Anvil, the Black Crowes, Montrose, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the Black Keys.  Cactus has been through a succession of line-ups over the years and is still active as of 2012. 

 

(April 2014)

 

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Brian Olive did as Mark Deming of Allmusic suggested; he was apparently already working on his second album, Two of Everything (2011) when the first one, Brian Olive came out.  Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys co-produced the album with Olive, and the two also share engineering duties on this venture.  Auerbach provides backing vocals along with five women. 

 

In June 2011 – the same week that his album Two of Everything came out – Brian Olive appeared on saxophone in the SuperJam at the massive Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee.  This time, the all-star jam was led by Dr. John and Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. 

 

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In July 2014, Brian Olive released a four-song EP called Move.  Speak into My Good Eye – which bills itself as the top independent music source in New Jersey – says of the new release:  “With Move, [Brian] Olive presents all the tricks he has in his solo songbook, especially those acquired while working with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys on a sophomore solo effort named Two of Everything (2011).  Compressed in this tightly knit four-song package is an alluring bit of beauty and craftsmanship that certainly make the listener want to hear more music in this vein, and with any luck this is merely a preview of a larger recording effort to come.” 

 

(February 2015)

 

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Not long after I put up my last post on (among others) punk icon Iggy Pop and his first band the Iguanas as the Under Appreciated Rock Band that month, CBS Sunday Morning had a profile of Iggy Pop in early January 2017, mentioning the Stooges and other career highlights.  I was surprised enough when the show had a piece on the Black Keys, but this really blew me away.  At one point, he was asked about how the Stooges became so popular decades after their music was recorded, and Iggy said with a big grin that he thinks the world finally caught up with him after all that time.
 
(March 2017)
 
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Anyway, here is what and who I talked about last year:
June 2017 – 1990’s-2010’s Sixties revival band THE LOONS; Story of the Month on “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!”; also, Green Day, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Karen O, Bomp! Records, the Black Keys, the Sloths.
 
(Year 8 Review)
Last edited: March 22, 2021