I hate to subscribe to the ‘different’-music-must-be-exceptional-music camp of reviews. But I love The Black Keys, straight outta Akron, Ohio, for their refreshing, simple blues-rock. Turn up ‘Set You Free,’ on the duo’s 2003 disc Thickfreakness, and guitarist Dan Auerbach’s mangy, howling vocals hoarse from dragging on Delta staples Junior Kimbrough and T-Model Ford will lure you away to liquor-laden Mississippi.
The Keys are often compared to the White Stripes (both have a color in the name, you see) but whereas Jack and Meg do the dirty bass-and-drum thing in the garage, Auerbach, 24, and drummer Patrick Carney, 23, sound straight from the back porch, staying true to blues.
‘Blues today is so generic,’ Auerbach said sleepily over the phone, noting he was weaned on his dad’s raw 1960s Funhouse albums. ‘Some days when people talk about it, I try to shy away from the association I’m kind of a snob about it.’
So much of a snob in fact, that at age 18 he drove to Greenville, Miss., and hung out with T-Model, then 80, for a few days, playing and rapping about their roots. To truly absorb the down-and-out demeanor, Auerbach camped on T-Model’s roach-encrusted floor each night.
Such dedication may shed some light on the Black Keys’ music trajectory. Not so long ago, in the oddly fertile music grounds of Akron (which spawned Chrissie Hynde and Devo), Auerbach and Carney, who grew up around the corner from each other, were introduced through a mutual friend as potential jam partners. Auerbach was learning blues guitar at the time and Carney loved prog rock outfits both also had a thing for hip-hop. The two started writing and recording in Carney’s basement on dated, rusty equipment.
‘We never intended to perform for people,’ Auerbach said. ‘We just wanted to make music, make tapes.’
When college didn’t pan out for either musician, they reunited in 2001 and recorded eight original songs eventually whittling it down to a six-song that they sent to 10 labels. The tiny label Alive noticed and released the demo as 2002’s The Big Come Up, a debut that garnered serious attention in the Village Voice, Spin and Rolling Stone. Soon, the band scored coveted opening slots on the Sleater-Kinney 2003 summer tour as well as Beck’s Sea Change tour.
‘It’s all about luck and timing,’ Auerbach added. ‘The blues has been around forever. Lo-fi, high-fi, it’s all been around. We had the precedence of The Strokes and The White Stripes, and we were in the right place at the right time.’
‘But we never heard The White Stripes when we first started. And, I think they are more pop-y than we are.’
Interestingly enough, It wasn’t until they designed the Come Up cover that the boys decided on a name. According to the band, a schizophrenic Akron artist named Alfred used to call the duo Black Keys.
‘He used to call something Black Keys if he thought it was shady or out of place,’ Auerbach laughed shadily.
Schizophrenic artists aside, the duo rejected many major label propositions and landed at well-known blues label, Fat Possum, for their sophomore effort, Thickfreakness. The label’s hands-off, laid-back credo suited the boys and they again returned to the depths of Carney’s den to lay down the entire album in 14 hours.
‘Signing a major label contract is a kiss of death, I think,’ Auerbach mused. ‘When a label is all about money, it sucks the energy and talent out of bands.’
The Black Keys value their creative control too much to sign into the big leagues. And that seems okay with the aw-shucks Auerbach, who is currently infatuated with playing live shows.
‘Our first live show was a little over a year ago in Cleveland,’ he remembered. ‘We were so nervous. Afterwards, we just ran backstage and blacked out.’
And now they’ve got a world tour under their trendy belt buckles and two more months left on this current go-around. After that, it’s on to their next album, no doubt another slice of swamp, swamp music.
The blues never felt oh-so-good.