Pages tagged “the black keys”

Following an Ice-Cream-Man-provided breakfast on Saturday morning, we reached the Ranch Arena, where Dead Confederate took the stage for an early-bird batch of haunted, shoegazing southern rock tunes. “Thanks for coming,” mumbled frontman Hardy Morris to the scattered audience. “We’re Vampire Weekend.”

Five-year-old duo looks forward by writing for 76-year-old R&B legend

Ghosts—sonic and spectral—cruise Attack & Release, the fifth album by Akron indie-blues mainstays The Black Keys. The sonic come warbling like Theremins—at least partially at the behest of producer Brian Burton (Danger Mouse)—on songs like “Strange Times” and “Lies.” The spectral arrive from the late Ike Turner, for whom the duo originally conceived the 11 songs before Turner’s cocaine overdose in December. Wonderful as they are, imagining the 76-year-old “Rocket 88” creator singing the weary gospel of “Remember When (Side A)” or the reflective “Things Ain’t Like They Used To Be” makes Dan Auerbach’s vocals sound tragically demo-like. Burton’s presence is more authentic than a moonlighting hip-hop producer might suggest, expanding the Keys’ minimalist leanings on subtly lush arrangements like “Oceans & Streams.” Contributions from avant-garde specialists Marc Ribot and Ralph Carney (drummer Patrick Carney’s uncle) grace Attack & Release with a full spectrum of haunt.

No foolin': this April began with great news as The Black Keys released their second album on Nonesuch Records, Attack & Release (produced by none other than one half of this month’s cover story, Danger Mouse). But before you get all, "Yeah, yeah, Paste, I know. I read your review too, so don't even try to point me toward it," have you seen the first video from the album? Have you?!? It's for "Strange Times," and frankly, we think it's pretty neat.

The clip features the duo going special-ops on what should have been a kid friendly game of laser tag (a G.I. Joe-loving male’s fantasy if ever we saw one). Check it out the below as well as Paste’s coverage of the band's already in progress North American tour.

Related links:
TheBlackKeys.com
The Black Keys on MySpace
Nonesuch.com

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.

When Ike Turker passed on just under a month ago, some of you, after guffawing at this New York Post headline and subsequently hating yourself for it, may have wondered what would happen to the pending collaboration between the rock ‘n’ roll pioneer and contemporary Akron-based genre practitioners The Black Keys. The man and the duo were set to record an album produced by Danger Mouse, so anticipation was a’bubblin like magic potion.

However, many months before emphysema claimed Turner's life, guitarist-vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney said they already realized the record would be their own. Titled Attack & Release and set to hit shelves April Fool's Day on Nonesuch Records, the LP is still distinct from their four previous efforts in two ways. One, Danger Mouse is still twisting the nobs on the record, and two, the duo recorded in an actual studio (Suma Studio outside sunny Cleveland, in fact) instead of Carney’s reputedly gross-ass, likely carcinogenic basement. Will the result be less gritty and stripped-down? Certainly. Will the boys suffer permanent lung and brain damage from exposure to toxic-black mold? Less likely!

Carney added in a statement: "The place is covered with dust, it smells like a moldy cabin, and it looks like a haunted house. I think Dan and I were intrigued to work with somebody as a producer, and with an engineer like Paul [Hamann], because we both realized we couldn’t teach ourselves anything more and it was best to start learning from other people."

Some guests (who Aeurbach and Carney might have otherwise been too embarrassed to let into their basement) show up on the record, including guitarist Marc Ribot and Carney’s uncle Ralph, both of whom have backed Tom Waits. Meanwhile, eighteen-year-old bluegrass singer Jessica Lea Mayfield lends her pipes to the final track, "Things Ain’t Like they Used to Be."

Here’s a schedule of Black Key affairs:

March
27 - Tucson, Ariz. @ Rialto Theatre *
28 - Tempe, Ariz. @ Marquee Theatre *
29 - San Diego, Calif. @ House of Blues *
30 - Pomona, Calif. @ Glasshouse *

April
1 - Los Angeles, Calif. @ Wiltern Theatre *
2 - San Francisco, Calif. @ Warfield Theatre *
4 - Portland, Ore. @ Crystal Ballroom *
5 - Seattle. Wash. @ Showbox SoDo *
6 - Vancouver, B.C. @ Commodore Ballroom *
9 - Denver, Colo. @ Ogden Theatre *
10 - Omaha, Neb. @ Slowdown
11 - Minneapolis, Minn. @ First Avenue *
12 - Chicago, Ill. @ Riviera Theatre *
13 - Indianapolis, Ind. @ The Vogue *
15 - Royal Oak, Mich, @ Royal Oak Music Theatre *

May
12 - Washington D.C. @ 9:30 Club
13 - Washington D.C.@ 9:30 Club
15 - New York, N.Y. @ Terminal 5
16 - Philadelphia, Pa. @ The Fillmore at Theater of Living Arts
17 - Boston, Mass. @ Orpheum Theatre

* with Jay Reatard

Related links:
TheBlackKeys.com
DangerMouseSite.com
NoneSuch.com

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

(Above: The Black Keys perform live.)

Arthur Magazine and Spaceland Productions have joined forces to produce ArthurFest on Sep. 4 and 5 at the historic Barnsdall Art Park in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles.

The lineup includes headliners Sonic Youth, Yoko Ono, Sleater-Kinney, Spoon, The Black Keys, Cat Power and The Olivia Tremor Control. The festival will have two stages and run for two days.

Two-day passes for the event are now on sale for $70 and one-day passes are $40 through ticketweb.com. In addition to live music, the festival will also feature rare avant-garde films; food stands from neighborhood eateries and a booth featuring 80-year old bluesman T-Model Ford who will dispense wisdom (and possibly kisses) for a small price.

FULL LINEUP

Sunday, Sept. 4

Sonic Youth, Sleater-Kinney, The Black Keys, Merzbow, T-Model Ford, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Wolfmother, Six Organs of Admittance, Magik Markers, Circle, Josephine Foster, Radar Bros., Brightblack Morning Light, Lavender Diamond, Viking Moses, Winter Flowers, Residual Echoes

Monday, Sept. 5

Yoko Ono, Spoon, Cat Power, The Juan Maclean, Comets On Fire?The Olivia Tremor Control, Dead Meadow, Sunn 0))), Vetiver, Growing, Earth, Marissa Nadler, Jack Rose, Brad Laner (Electric Company, Medicine), Future Pigeon, Nora Keyes (Centimeters), Modey Lemon, Fatso Jetson, Geronimo

When The Black Keys named their new record Rubber Factory, it was no joke. The guitar-and-drums duo’s third release was actually recorded in an abandoned General Tire factory in its hometown of Akron, Ohio.

“I think [the setting] had a lot to do with the sound, the feeling—you can hear the cavernous rooms,” says singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach, just back from the Fuji Rock Festival, where he and longtime drummer Patrick Carney blasted an attentive Japanese audience with their swampy, electrified brand of Delta blues. “There’s some bleak songs on the record, and the area where the factory’s located is the old industrial area in Akron where all the tire companies used to be—Firestone, BF Goodrich, General, Goodyear, all these places—and now they’re all disappeared … they closed decades ago, when they took business outside of the country to cheaper places. The only thing that’s left is all these giant, rundown buildings. It’s a weird side of town, but we were there [working on the record] every single day, all day long.”

Auerbach and Carney have been playing together as a duo since high school, and they’ve developed a deep musical chemistry over the years. In fact, they’ve always recorded without producers, engineers or guest musicians—just pure, unfiltered Black Keys voodoo—and Auerbach doesn’t see things changing anytime soon. (“We’re just really comfortable with it,” he says. “We have a lot of fun.”) But isn’t the two-man approach limiting at times?

“When we’ve played with other people, it’s been really awkward,” says Auerbach in his gravelly near-whisper. “I don’t know. Some nights it’s better than others when we play, but— when it’s on—I definitely don’t feel like we ever need anything else.”

And the duo does seem to be doing just fine on its own. After the success of 2003’s thickfreakness, Auerbach and Carney hit the road, playing all over the U.S. and the world. And they’ll be doing it all over again in support of Rubber Factory. But with such an overwhelming schedule, things can get a little crazy out there.

“It’s completely un-human to be in such close proximity with the same person for months at a time—it’s just not right,” Auerbach laughs. “I don’t think anybody would get along … I mean, we don’t really want to kill each other. Maybe at times we do, but that mainly involves me not having enough coffee or Pat not having enough cigarette breaks. The road gets to be grueling—mentally, more so even than physically.”

“But the best thing is being able to play music and see these places you’ve never seen before—you know, driving down the Pacific Coast highway. We did that for the first time last time we toured and it was amazing. We saw a bald eagle going through Northern California, and then we hit the Pacific highway, and we’d stop every half hour or so. It was totally amazing. And to think, ‘I’m working.’ It’s a pretty cool idea.”

Getting ready to spin Rubber Factory for the first time, it’s hard not to wonder what The Black Keys could possibly do next. Having shredded the electric two-man gutbucket envelope with their past two flat-out scorching platters, and well-nigh raised the dearly departed soul of John Lee in Dan Auerbach’s blue-eyed groan (who’da thunk the Delta swamps of Akron, Ohio, could produce such blues demonry?), seems like they’ve got the roadhouse romp tied up pretty tight, right? Yeah, and then some.

Rather than make the same admittedly great album for a third time, Rubber Factory finds The Black Keys struggling to claim new ground without losing the harrowing core of menace and soul that animated their best past efforts. From the outset, Auerbach riffs on their standard delivery, offering up some tasty greasified dobro and squealy slide licks on “When the Lights Go Out,” a song that would completely work were it not for the fact that drummer Patrick Carney seems to fall behind even the tepid beat he initially establishes as his drumheads seemingly thud out of tune (or echo about the bathtub in which he seems to have mic’d them). Recorded in an abandoned tire factory, there’s a frequently satisfying low-end rumble to the album’s sound, but in some cases it has the unfortunate effect of calling added attention to Carney’s surprisingly limited bag of beats and a technique that can’t quite keep pace with his obvious better instincts. It’s a motif that recurs throughout the album.

Auerbach throws in just about everything he can muster to fill the tracks’ empty spaces by his dazzling lonesome, be it the backmasked solo on “10 A.M. Automatic” or the bold and agile steel-guitar chirps on “Act Nice and Gentle.” Occasionally Carney convincingly conjures up a fill or two to lend a hand or he at least drives the beat a little. Sadly, though, Auerbach often comes off as a one-man band plagued by a particularly rustic and erratic metronome, a hampered star awaiting more equal and intuitive collaboration.

Perhaps some of the problem may be the intrinsic limits of the duo format—there’s so much room to fill and only so many ways to color it. But then again, even a single guitarist with a dobro and a slide can sometimes work that kind of magic without need for such walloping volume. On Rubber Factory, The Black Keys alternately seem to be not enough of a band or perhaps too much of one.

For those new to The Black Keys, the overall effect remains arresting nonetheless. The vocals still sound nearly ethereal in their bluesy timelessness, and the atmosphere remains raw and unapologetically classic in attitude and ethos. What was great about the band before remains great throughout Rubber Factory. The problem is that having conquered this particular corner of the musical landscape, it’s time for the Black Keys to let their talent flow freely from the genre-determined pigeonhole they otherwise risk floundering in. All over Rubber Factory, Auerbach indicates he’s ready to cut loose and take his place in the larger pantheon of American music. Which can’t help but lead one to the regrettable conclusion that maybe it’s The Black Keys as a roots-duo concept that threatens to hold him back.