The Black Keys

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The Black Keys

The Black Keys

It’s hard not to compare the Black Keys to the White Stripes… both are a powerful duo, guitar and drums combo, out of the Midwest. But they could not be more different. For one- Pat is a boy not a girl like Meg! One is Black… the other White. So no: I shall not compare the two… but it’s hard not to. Let’s take it back to the beginning: It all started with their debut album, The BigCome-Up, which introduced the best version of The Black Keys: a combination of the garage-grime and "white Hendrix" croon of The Sonics to the unholy strut of some of B.B. King’s legendary guitar lines, fusing them into a spitting, spewing, 40-ton monster. Winners like "Heavy Soul" evoke an image of Godzilla dancing around, crushing unmanned Buicks. Soul cuts like "I'll Be Your Man" make you want to get in said Buicks and ride around town. With their second album, Thickfreakness, the once-massive guitar is exponentially weightier, thicker, and juicier, swelling to Earth-shaking proportions, at the unfortunate loss of a little subtlety. But that's just the way it is sometimes; there's no room for luxuries like nuanced variations in tone, or shifting rhythms when you're fleeing from a fire-breathing behemoth. Then came their third album, Rubber Factory; The third full-length from these garage-blues tag-teamers exhibits a newfound confidence that results in their first truly ambitious and carefully planned release. This would be their last album on indie label Fat Possum before switching to Warner Music Group owned Nonesuch Records. 2006 brought Magic Potion. Listen: true blues is done by Robert Johnson and Lead Belly, but if two white guys from Ohio are going to keep the legacy of true-blues goin' it might as well be these two guys. Magic Potion proved that this classic rock-loving blues-rock duo were able to follow the warm Rubber Factory- and make its Nonesuch introduction with their more austere collection. 2008’s Danger Mouse-produced fifth album Attack and Release proved to be their most adventurous album to date. They had back to back smashes with 2010's Brothers and 2011's El Camino with smashes like "Tighten Up" and "Lonely Boy", respectively.  Brothers and El Camino were the Black Keys' peak. It's interesting too: Before they stared on Brothers the band was hardly in a safe creative space: the band has said how they both had drifted apart personally and drummer Patrick Carney had endured an ugly divorce. El Camino saw Danger Mouse's strongest production for the band.The Black Keys' seventh album features Danger Mouse's strongest production work for the group and a mood that's frivolous, fun, and unabashedly corny. No matter what- they take it back to the basics- where it all started. Anytime Carney and guitarist-singer Dan Auerbach  jam together, it reminds you of their days as Ohio teens, bonding over music. The Black Keys may just be a couple of white dudes from Akron, but they seem closer in spirit to something that Muddy Waters himself might've considered "the blues" than to any midwestern bar-band's approximation of it. The only Stripes link of any importance, in fact, is that the Keys' output is slowly but surely showing to be better than the Stripes' discography (that's right- I said it!). Let's get you all caught up to speed with the Keys: 2014 brought us Turn Blue, working once again with Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton, the Black Keys try for a moodier, more atmospheric record. It sounds distant and subdued, a murky-sounding collection of '70s stoner-rock facsimiles and swirling gray tones. Finally, last year they gave us “Let’s Rock” (with the excellent video for "Go") and that’s exactly what they do… Can't you see? You need to listen to...

The Black Keys