“Neither of us knew what we were doing,” Auerbach laughs. We realised that we’d been producing ourselves all along.” We didn’t even know what producing was until we worked with a producer.
“I think at the time we didn’t really know what the terminology was. “I mean, I would say technically I didn’t produce those records,” Carney stresses. Both members of the Black Keys are now individually renowned as producers of other artists (of which more later) and say that the drummer’s producer status on their initial albums was the result more of youthful innocence than any grand scheme. “And that became our demo and that’s when the band started, ’cause we just had so much fun recording.”įor The Big Come Up and its 2003 successor Thickfreakness, Carney took a producer credit. “I just set up the mics and we recorded a bunch of songs,” Carney remembers. Instead, Carney and Auerbach began playing together, instigating the formation of the Black Keys. Fatefully for the two, the other members of Auerbach’s group didn’t turn up. The pair first starting working together when Carney, already a recording enthusiast, invited singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach down to his home studio to record the latter’s rock covers band on his Korg D12 digital workstation. Their commercial progress has been mirrored by their recording history, which began with the two jamming in 2001 in the basement of drummer Patrick Carney’s house to create their 2002 debut The Big Come Up and which this year saw them complete their eighth album Turn Blue at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles. The Black Keys have built a career on a shared love of studio experimentation.įrom their high–school beginnings in Akron, Ohio, to their current standing as one of the most successful rock bands in the world, the Black Keys’ career has been a long, slow climb. I hope that the Keys continue to innovate and evolve as they have on “Turn Blue”, yet still maintain that libidinous edge that their fans have come to know and love.The Black Keys: Dan Auerbach (left) and Patrick Carney at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Studio in Nashville. And yes, it has been softened over the years, to its creative apex on “Brothers”, where they threaded the needle perfectly between mainstream success and their trademark bluesy sound. Is this the doing of Danger Mouse? Has he carefully been smoothing out The Black Keys’ edges over the last couple of albums? One common thread in all the albums, going back to “The Big Come Up”, is the rawness of The Black Keys’ sound. It simply doesn’t pulse with the same energy as the stronger tracks. The last track, “Gotta Get Away”, is so forgettable.
The not-so-great half of the album are throwaways, and make me wonder if this is really the best that Patrick and Dan had to offer. The song “Turn Blue”, with its whisper of “I really don’t think you know/There could be hell/Below”, is a standout for me. But to hear Dan Auerbach wail “My heart’s on fire/With a strange desire”, on “Strange Desire” conveys sexual desire better than most. I have little patience for nasty rap songs that describe the mechanics in detail. One of the things I love the most about The Black Keys is the sexuality of their music. So the title track “Turn Blue” is a highlight for me, with its lilting surf rock grooves, and those plaintive lyrics. The Black Keys have always done slow tunes quite well: one of my all-time favorites is “Keep your hands off her” from Chulahoma, the album of Junior Kimbrough covers. I’ve listened to it a few times already, and I would say half of the songs are inspired, either solid rock ballads or lovely slower songs. “El Camino” for me was mostly a disappointment, anchored by that bland nothing of a single, “Lonely Boy”. Black Keys fans tend to like the band because they reassure us that rock and roll is not dead, that with each driving guitar riff and pounding drumbeat the anarchic spirit of rock and roll lives on. The predominant sound on the song is the keyboard, rather than the guitar or the drums. The first single from “Turn Blue”, a song called “Fever”, was dissappointing the first time I heard it. Nervousness because their previous album, “El Camino”, had fewer good songs than bad songs. Excitement to finally hear the new material by a band that I love. As each song was downloaded I felt a sense of both excitement and nervousness.
On Wednesday, the day after “Turn Blue” came out, I downloaded the new album by The Black Keys, my favorite band.
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