One extra-large helping of blues rock, extra crunchy, please
I spent a good portion of this past weekend just listening to my new musical discover, The Black Keys.
The band consists of two twentysomething dudes from Akron. Although comparison with The White Stripes are inevitable, there's not much similarity musically, though I suspect that, like me, fans of the Stripes will dig the Keys, and vice versa.
The Black Keys are straight-up blues rock. Singer/guitarist Dave Auerbach turns the fuzz dial to 11 and proceeds to pump out gritty licks that recall Cream-era Eric Clapton with a dash of Jimi Hendrix and pinch of Stevie Ray Vaughn. I swear, this kid has no business sounding so convincing, like not only has his woman done run off with his best friend, but he's three months down on the rent and is down to his last bottle of whiskey.
Patrick Carney pounds the skins with the energy of a John Bonham. And his 4-track production makes it feel like you're sitting in the shadows of a smoky dive bar.
My favorite line from a reviewer (I forget which publication): "They're not cool, they're just brilliant".
I'm just a little bummed that it took me until their 3rd album -- "Rubber Factory" -- to discover them, and then only after it popped up on an Amazon recommended list. I mean, crap, even "Time" has written about them.
Incidentally, I bought all three albums on MSN Music over the weekend. Songs are 99 cents a pop, but if you spring for the whole album it will cost you less than $9. The files are WMA encoded at about 160 kbps, and you have unlimited syncing and CD-burning rights. I've bought several from them now and I've been pretty satisfied with the whole experience, though I'm still a little nervous about not having a CD hard copy as backup.
The band consists of two twentysomething dudes from Akron. Although comparison with The White Stripes are inevitable, there's not much similarity musically, though I suspect that, like me, fans of the Stripes will dig the Keys, and vice versa.
The Black Keys are straight-up blues rock. Singer/guitarist Dave Auerbach turns the fuzz dial to 11 and proceeds to pump out gritty licks that recall Cream-era Eric Clapton with a dash of Jimi Hendrix and pinch of Stevie Ray Vaughn. I swear, this kid has no business sounding so convincing, like not only has his woman done run off with his best friend, but he's three months down on the rent and is down to his last bottle of whiskey.
Patrick Carney pounds the skins with the energy of a John Bonham. And his 4-track production makes it feel like you're sitting in the shadows of a smoky dive bar.
My favorite line from a reviewer (I forget which publication): "They're not cool, they're just brilliant".
I'm just a little bummed that it took me until their 3rd album -- "Rubber Factory" -- to discover them, and then only after it popped up on an Amazon recommended list. I mean, crap, even "Time" has written about them.
Incidentally, I bought all three albums on MSN Music over the weekend. Songs are 99 cents a pop, but if you spring for the whole album it will cost you less than $9. The files are WMA encoded at about 160 kbps, and you have unlimited syncing and CD-burning rights. I've bought several from them now and I've been pretty satisfied with the whole experience, though I'm still a little nervous about not having a CD hard copy as backup.
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