The Black Keys’ played Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 July at Summer Stage in Central Park, NYC. On Wednesday night after the Summer Stage show they completed a double header playing after midnight at Terminal 5. To see all the shows was a privilege.

These then are some rambling notes on those shows. It’s not a review. More fumbled reflections in the days after the nights before.

Summer Stage is a festival site, without being at a festival. The stage area is crowned by over-hanging trees. Dragon flies and butterflies flit in the dimming light.

Dan Johnson, Dan Auerbach’s guitar tech, calmly walks the stage preparing the instruments.

Gawd bless the American sense of personal space. It’s easy to squeeze in relatively close to the front of the stage. Each fan likes to be at least another body width away from the next. Odd, but welcomed.

You can buy like 10 beers at once and they even give you a tray to carry them with. Should be enough to last the show, it is broiling hot after all. Too bad each beer costs $7 each.

The sample of GZA’s “Liquid Swords” used to herald The Black Keys’ arrival on stage is inspired. A good heads up before the cheers of the crowd start a surge of excitement that ripples through all.

A different set list is played for each show. The three shows build upon themselves in tempo and reaction to the crowds and venue.

Pat plays the first song of each set with his glasses on. From then on, glasses removed, he never again cares to look at the drums.

The Wednesday show at Summer Stage for some reason is more intense than the Tuesday. The crowd is much more demonstrative.

Tuesday the band break down the tempo and jam, groovin’ through the mid-tempo numbers, where as the Wednesday shows increase intensity and offer a harder/faster dynamic.

At times it looks like Pat is playing jazz licks on his symbols on the slower grooves, just pacing time waiting for the next moment to smash another stick.

The Black Keys are like a New York Hot Dog – they keep their schtick at street level; they don’t pretend to be what they aint; every now and then they change up with a little sauerkraut or extra sauce to keep things fresh.

The Black Keys’ have no groupies. All the fans are rounded up and shooed away at Summer Stage. No one tries to hang back. A Security guy says there were heaps of Groupies for The Flaming Lips the night before.

The Security guy also says the guy who sweeps up all the beer cans at the end of the shows a while back used to be real quick – so many cans, means good money for a dude with a crack habit.

The Summer Stage shows are probably the first/last Black Keys’ shows you’ll ever receive free Zinc pure coconut water with pomegranate berry as you leave the venue.

Jumping a cab to Terminal 5 and being dropped off on a freeway, because the cabbie has no idea where the venue is and doesn’t care, is a perfect NY kiss off. He must like us in a NYC kinda way.

Terminal 5 is a bunker, proper heavy concrete in contrast to the light green leaves of Central Park. Walk inside and it’s a cauldron. Fans hanging from the three levels. The floor-bound fans pressing forward – gone all principles of personal space.

The crowd is so ravenous at Terminal 5. The only way forward for The Black Keys is to seemingly meet the energy, draw from it and re-present it to the fans. They do so.

Dan Johnson still seems calm. Different drum kit set up. Any problem with any gear is dealt to with a fast-paced walk, never a run.

I’m not sure how Dan and Pat are feeling after coming off stage at Terminal 5, their bodies no doubt sapped but hearts’ aglow. 13,000 fans in 2 nights sated.

The band are in such a groove that every show has seemed so dialled in to the moment; it’s clinical but not by rote.

You know you are getting somewhere when the NY Times does a review and photo of your show for the Arts section the day after. Equally, Time Out had a double page spread the previous week.

It’s not all downhill from here, but it’s certainly not going to be as uphill for The Black Keys.

Related posts:

1. Review: The Black Keys @ 94.9 Independence Jam 2009 including Set List
2. Why Don't Girls Like The Black Keys?
3. Review: The Black Keys @ The Pyramid Rock Festival New Years Eve 2008

A thoughtful musician might better describe a style of music by saying there’s either good music or bad music. For years, or at least their early years, The Black Keys were commonly described as a “blues” band or a “blues rock” band.

It’s been the role of reviewers and journalists to describe or pigeon-hole The Black Keys’ music for their readers. Considering The Black Keys a blues rock band or a rock and roll band is surely an irrelevant and lazy debate to have. Indeed, hadn’t everyone moved on by now? Who really cares? Well, apparently The Black Keys care.

Two recent events have recently peaked The Black Keys Fan Lounge’s interest.

Firstly, Dan Auerbach recently commented in an interview:

“When I listen to our records, I don’t hear blues music,” he says. “It’s ridiculous to say we play blues music.”

It’s been some time since such a clear expression of how Dan perceives The Black Keys sound has been noted. Irrespective of your views on the merits of music classification, a fan could be excused for wondering what they had indeed been listening to all these years.

Secondly, upon scrolling through The Black Keys Facebook page at the bottom of Wall section it is noted, as at 15 July 2010, that:

This might otherwise seem insignificant if it wasn’t the case that the new Genre is now “Rock and Roll”. Unfortunately it’s not possible to note the exact date of this change. However, The Black Keys Fan Lounge did upload a screen grab of The Black Keys Facebook page on 15 November 2009 for a post which clearly shows the band’s Genre as stating “Blues Rock”.

Clearly The Black Keys, or their Management, have:

• deemed it important enough to re-position the band’s classification on such an important fan platform as Facebook
• the incongruity of recent and past comments about not being a blues band was pointed out in relation to their Facebook Genre
• someone  just made an error in the classification of the band’s Facebook page and didn’t get round to changing it for a few years.
• the band’s sound has now evolved so far, especially in relation to Brothers, that Rock and Roll is now certainly the best description

The Black Keys Facebook Genre – 15 July 2010:

The Black Keys Facebook Genre – as at 15 November 2009:

Related posts:

1. Review: The Black Keys @ The Pyramid Rock Festival New Years Eve 2008
2. The Black Keys Facebook
3. TheBlackKeys.com New Website Look

It’s only recently happened with the release of the Brothers album and subsequent events following. Enough evidence has already assembled itself to suggest the band has crossed over into mainstream, popular consciousness. From here they can only get better and bigger.

It’s only taken six albums and eight years of recording and touring to happen. For any long term fan, it’s great to have seen and enjoy.

What signs have been missed? Maybe you think the tipping point is yet to happen?

The signs:

1. The Black Keys’ album Brothers debuted at #3 on the Billboard charts in the USA. The stats don’t lie.
2. The band are playing the main stages of all the biggest festivals in the world – Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Glastonbury, to name a few
3. They are touring with Kings of Leon for 3 weeks and supported Pearl Jam at Madison Square Garden in the USA. They are not only deemed worthy but The Black Keys seem to have finally embraced the opportunity to be as popular as possible.
4. The band has sold out three shows in New York on 27 & 28 July – two at the Summer Stage, Central Park, (5000 capacity) and one at Terminal 5 (3000 capacity) where they will come on stage at 11pm. New York has always been the arbiter of popularity in US music. The band’s early promotion for Brothers focussed heavily on New York where media influencers are based. It’s paid off. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere…
5. It may seem trite but when American Idol contestants cover your songs you know you are popular (Kelly Clarkson covered ‘Lies’, Casey James covered ‘I Got Mine’. You also know it when the most popular movie franchises (Twilight feat. Chop and Change) want a taste of your music on their soundtracks – you are ticking boxes and being exposed to an ever increasing audience.
6. The Black Keys are presently in the top 10 of the most popular songs on the We Are Hunted website. This is significant because this site looks at popularity of songs and therefore artists based on a range of criteria, semantic sentiment if you will. Basically, more people than ever before are ‘talking’ about The Black Keys than ever before. As any marketer knows you can’t buy word of mouth, and nothing sells better than word of mouth. We Are Hunted explains their chart thus:

We listen to what people are saying about artists and their music on blogs, social networks like Facebook and MySpace, message boards and forums, Twitter and P2P networks to chart the top songs online everyday.

In the physical world, charts are built on shipped albums. Online charts have been a simple count of digital downloads. We Are Hunted is different. We discover new music from around the web and detect sentiment, expression and advocacy to understand what people like and dislike.

We Are Hunted website homepage (my big red arrow noting The Black Keys in #7):

Related posts:

1. The Black Squeeze – A Black Keys Tribute/Cover Band
2. Alfred McMoore: The Inspiration For The Black Keys Band Name
3. The Black Keys’ Slower, Down Tempo Songs

There are now more sources, not necessarily better sources. The fragmentation now means many sources often have parts of a story rather than one source being accepted as having told the full story.

Before the rise of social media and its influence on music distribution, hype, and information flows, a music fan would wait for a hard copy magazine interview or their local radio DJ (if the band’s music was even played regularly or at all) to inform them of news about their favourite band. A fan would usually only see the band live when they toured through their town. The fan could maybe hope to view the band on a DVD or video release. News or releases were shared by word of mouth and a fan had to actively seek out new information.

Times have definitely changed.

If the numbers are anything to go by, most fans are happy to have their news delivered to them via Facebook. You don’t need to do anything except click a ‘like’ button and band updates are delivered to you. The News Feed on Facebook is an effective aggregator of news/updates from friends and pages you like. For the active fan, however, there are many more ways to stay in touch with and seek out many differing views and sources of information about the band.

The Black Keys Fan Lounge aims to share multiple views of the band – not just to regurgitate or re-publish news from The Black Keys own website, MySpace, Twitter or Facebook sites. Those sites do a good job doing what they aim to do – creating a controlled, regular flow of inflormation by representing a particular persona, attitude, and in time understanding of the band. There’s nothing wrong with that nor is there any suggestion that it is not a true account of the band.

What those “official” sites don’t speak of is a fan-based point of view. They don’t report on the nuggets the record label, the band, management, the PR company and other interested parties don’t think are important or would rather not promote further. They simply don’t have time to re-publish and hold up points of interest for further discussion to audiences.

The mechanics of writing a blog post is easy, having something relevant, original, or well researched is not necessarily as easy. While many fans might consider what follows in this post to be a very basic lesson in Social Media Agreggation 101, the point is to hopefully get more fans using these available techniques to bring more happenings about The Black Keys to light. Those fans can then either use the info for their own use, or they could choose to share their information with other fans by posting it to a fan forum, tweeting it or by writing a blog post themselves.

The common denominator of these tools and techniques is that they save you time looking. What’s published on the internet comes to you rather than you having to go out and constantly look for it.

What other techniques or tools do you use to keep track of The Black Keys?

Some common social media sites/techniques/tools to help the modern fan:

Facebook

• ‘Like’ The Black Keys official page to receive updates into your News Feed
• ‘Like’ other fan pages following The Black Keys
• ‘Like’ other artists you know are associated with The Black Keys – anything from those supporting, engineers, promotors etc. You never know when of them will discuss the band. It’s important to add these ‘likes’ to content into your News Feed because Google cannot index the content within the closed Facebook network and therefore Google Alerts will note pick up mentions

Twitter

• Use a Twitter client like Tweetdeck to conduct Searches and Follow multiple subjects and conversations. You can search conversations via the common hash tags ie #theblack keys or by keyword “the black keys”
• Group magazines or people you know are likely to perhaps have contact with the band within your Twitter client. It’s easier to sift through and find the nuggets from likely sources this way
• People make random observations or reveal scoops without knowing it. You can always reply to them and ask an additional question
• Fans love posting pictures via Twitter so you can get a good sense of an event through the real time images posted.

Youtube

• Subscribe via the YouTube interface to people who have posted good Black Keys video content previously. You can then stay updated to their new uploads.
• There’s a good program called www.video-alerts.com that scours the net for new videos tagged with, say, “the black keys” or any subject you are after. You’ll get a daily email with video links to videos meeting your search criteria

Google Alerts

• One of the easiest things any fan can do to find out what people are saying about The Black Keys anywhere at anytime is to set up a Google Alert. The alert basically is defined by a search parameter you set. For example, you set up an alert for Google to search for content where the keywords “the black keys” appear. You will then be alerted by an email or you can subscribe to an rss feed of this content for viewing in your ‘reader’.
• The Black Keys have been in recent times been one of the most blogged about bands leading up to and post the release of the ‘Brothers’ album. You can search for blog posts only or related topics ie Muscle Shoals Sound Studio to help broaden your interest in a band. You can find alot of content very easily, there’s probably no way you’d be able to find out about other fans views without this tool

RSS feeds

• RSS (Real Simple Syndication) allows a feed of the latest blog posts added to a website to be collated in a reader. Google Reader and Feedburner are popular readers. You simply click on the common rss icon on most blogs and subscribe to the feed. Sites that have content you like is then all ordered within the reader. You don’t need to go looking to see if a site has published anything new.
• You can rss feed more than just blog posts. Forum posts, twitter feeds are other common options.
• The best thing about rss feeds is that you can literally follow as many websites/blog as you are interested in. You can then page through the content very quickly within your reader – it saves you so much time.

MySpace

• Most bands now simply update Facebook since MySpace is less influential. MySpace seems to dominate in terms of best presenting new tour dates, however, in one place.
• Alike Facebook, MySpace content is in a closed system so can’t be indexed by Google, therefore you need to have access to activity streams of artists/bands to pick up their posts that might reference The Black Keys
• Bands also often release rarities, stream their album before release dates or present alternate song versions via their MySpace mp3 player

Forums

• Rss feeding is an easy way to see what’s been posted on a forum that discusses your band. Or you could rss feed a topic in a forum you have commented on to see who else replies to a point you’ve made or a question you’ve posed
• Follow other music related forums especially those interested in music recording techniques. The quality of those posting is usually really high on these type of forums and borders on the music-geeky which is great because you have a much better chance of getting true musical insights directly from those that often helped make the music
• Better than reading is contributing to forums. Asking questions increases your knowledge and prompts you to seek out other links to more content. Forums invariably have a much richer flow of content, though it may take much reading to find the true nuggets.
• Many forums require you to sign up (free) in order to access the content and discussions. They are the perfect place to find other engaged active seekers of information about the band you like.

Photos

• Photo sharing websites like Flickr are easy to search for images about your favourite band. Bands don’t annouce they are using a new guitar prior to the show but it’s easy to pick up changes in style or sound by regularly scanning images for changes in equipment

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Keep in touch with The Black Keys Fan Lounge:

• @blackkeysfans – Twitter
• The Black Keys Fan Lounge- MySpace
• Connect with other fans on this site’s Forum
• The Black Keys Fan Lounge – Facebook

Related posts:

1. Why Don't The Black Keys Use RSS?
2. The Black Keys Facebook
3. TheBlackKeys.com New Website Look

The early Black Keys records are heavy in fuzzed guitar and heavy beat. Latterly they involve multiple instruments and soul stylings.

In the video below David Byrne, of Talking Heads fame, elucidates an interesting theory that the architecture of the venues where music is predominantly performed live is an unconscious influence upon the composer. Simply, the artist starts with a passion and forms their style and then slowly they start writing  music for the spaces where the music will be performed.

It’s an interesting thesis that a fan might apply to The Black Keys.

It could be argued early compositions are less polished alike the small venues where they first played, where the gritty fuzz would over rule peoples talking and movement. Over time the music has mellowed, there are more medium tempo tracks, big chords of the ‘I Got Mine’ variety that work better in the larger rooms and on festival stages.

I would say other factors are perhaps more consciously responsible. Factors that could be considered to have affected The Black Keys evolution might include:

• Early imitation of admired artists
• Recording equipment limitations
• Time to record
• Musical ability
• State of mind/influences at time of recording
• Age of the musicians
• Confidence to indulge influences/vision

Neverthless,  here we’re discussing the un-conscious influence of the architecture of the venues the band predominantly find themselves playing in.

Part of David Byrne’s thesis is that certain music is better suited to certain venues. I’m not sure what the best sort of venue to hear The Black Keys is, but the band have found themselves playing larger venues every year. In 2010 they will be performing at all the major festivals (Lollapalooza, Glastonbury) and touring stadiums with Kings Of Leon. If The Black Keys were to closely ascribe to Byrne’s theory, they should/would only play certain sets in certain venues. These would include those songs which best compliment and are complimented by the accoustics of the environment.

Conversely, what’s interesting about The Black Keys is as they have grown in popularity and started playing larger venues, most of the Brothers record is, arguably, best suited in a smaller room. Part of the challenge no doubt is how they change up newer and slower sounds for a stadium/large venue context. Part of the enjoyment of following The Black Keys or any band is seeing how they re-contextualise their recorded music for all types of live environment.

Record companies are, of course, most interested in the style of music on each record because they are most interested in getting the most people to hear the music. Bands are too, some more so than others. Performing live is the most obvious source of revenue since record music sales have been wedged by music sharing. The Black Keys’ have, however, stated time and again that they consciously define their musical sound. Maybe un-consciously though the architecture has changed The Black Keys’ sound, to a degree.

What do you think?

Related posts:

1. The Black Keys New Album Recorded At Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
2. Secret Black Keys Byron Bay Warm Up Show
3. The Black Keys’ Slower, Down Tempo Songs

Patrick Boissel recently explained to The Black Keys Fan Lounge, “I received the demo in the mail. I think I later got an email from Dan mentioning Dr Ross, I thought it was cool. I called him and the rest is history as they say. That’s how I remember it.”

The Big Come Up was the start of The Black Keys’ career which has now spanned six albums. Only one of those was ever released by Alive Records. The album was a visceral statement, recorded in an Akron basement on a 16 track digi recorder by drummer Pat Carney. Many fans have ascribed an almost mythological value to this album. The Big Come Up has elements of all their future releases – hip hop (samples), blues, pop, heavy fuzz and soul – for which they will become popularly known to represent.

Rumor has it that Alive Records simply edited the original recording down, which featured many more samples, to create a releasable version. Patrick Boissel explains it wasn’t quite like this, “No, it was only a demo. I dont think it was meant to be released. They went back to their basement and recorded the album including new versions of the demo. I havent listened to it in years but I think they experimented a little more with electronic stuff. I think they were just trying different things. It’s kinda far away, I may be wrong.”

Patrick points there are no plans to release a re-mastered version of the original demo with bonus tracks although he admits it’s a good idea. Fans will have to be content with The Big Come Up Bundle presently available via the Alive Records website which features The Big Come Up  album with the band’s first tour poster – 17 x 11 inches in black and white.

Fans might also be disappointed to know that there are no more recorded nuggets waiting to be released from the Alive Records vaults. The Black Keys track ‘Can’t Find My Mind’  has, however, been re-released on the Alive Records compilation Never Give Up On Your Hallucinations late last year. The vinyl version of the Big Come Up has four tracks not on the CD. It has alternative versions of  songs She Said, Heavy Soul, Yearnin’, and a vinyl release only version of the Iggy Pop cover No Fun.

Alive Records released ‘The Moan’ EP after The Black Keys had already switched to Fat Possum Records to record the ‘Thickfreakness’ album. The Moan featured the cover ‘Have Love Will Travel’ which was, of course, featured on the ‘Thickfreakness’ album. You don’t often hear of tracks being released on one label before it is released on another as part of an album. Patrick Boissel clarifies, “We were just trying to bring attention to the Big Come Up, that’s all. Plus CD Digipak is a cool format.”

A significant aspect of the popularity of  The Big Come Up was the way it was marketed. The album was not only released on CD, but also on vinyl but not on plain old black vinyl. The album was released in no less than 10 vinyl colours: white, clear, green, pink, purple, red, orange, blue, yellow and black. Patrick Boissel laughs at the rumors that vinyl sales of The Big Come Up allowed Alive Records to survive. “That’s funny, I wish. No, vinyl only counts for a small part of the sales. Some collectors may have various colors of the same album though. We always do color vinyl. I’m not a collector myself but a lot of my friends are. I think people who make the effort to buy the vinyl should get a little something more.”

The first coloured pressing of album was in white. “You can recognize the pressing because the cover was printed on a different stock than the following pressings, the black is not as sharp and contrasted, ” advises Patrick. There were many different colours and batches pressed which makes it hard for fans to know what they are buying. Hard but not impossible, Patrick gives these tips for the collector:

“It’s hard to keep track, but I think the pink, yellow, green, and red were 500 run. Clear, orange and blue were 1,000 each. There’s a sticker on the cover telling which you which color you’re getting. If it doesnt specify the quantity it means the pressing is limited to 1,000, otherwise it’s 500. Once the color is gone we dont repress it. We are now moving towards swirl vinyl territory.”

Back cover of The Big Come Up vinyl album sleeve

The Big Come Up vinyl release had those classic yesteryear stylings and and an excellent article by Denise Grollmus, Pat Carney’s future and now ex-wife about the band on it – see below. The look and packaging was typical of Alive Records’ releases but Patrick Boissel doesn’t think it necessarily contributed to the success of The Big Come Up. “It’s a fun concept and it probably helped bring attention to the album. In the end you’re buying music, not a cover.”

Alive Records recently published via YouTube an early Black Keys promo film trailer for The Big Come Up. It was an unexpected gem to see after so many years. Patrick adds that “it dates from the Keys first gig in LA. Probably the only footage that exists from that period.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_sT8NrZGGI

Even though The Black Keys’ left Alive Records to record with Fat Possum Records in 2003, Dan Auerbach retains a close personal and working relationship with Alive Records and Patrick Boissel. “We’re very good friends and we have a lot of respect for each other. He brought us Hacienda, Radio Moscow and Brimstone Howl. Dan seems to enjoy producing new bands and I love what he does. I think he still has an independent point of view about music regardless of his success.”

Not a lot of people know that Dan contributed guitar on Nathaniel Mayer’s ‘Why Don’t You Give It To Me’ album released on Alive Records. It’s an excellent album and interesting to listen to in relation to The Black Keys recent Brothers release.

From his involvement with Dan and Pat, Patrick Boissel could see The Black Keys’ sound and career waiting to happen when they were recording on Alive Records. “I always felt they were going places, loved their music from day one, but it’s a weird business and failure is usually the name of the game.” However, “I had no idea they would go that far. Their new album is great. Serious stuff.”

The Big Come Up vinyl Denise Grollmus article – re-printed from Cleveland Free Times – Summer 2002

“For the past twenty years we’ve been living in a world of irony that has made it hard to access the true soul and grit of trembling guitar lines, aching voices, and heart pounding beats. We tens to think that the only “real” rock is siphoned off to the earlier half of the 20th century, a place that we can only be nostalgic for, not one that we can truly experience. With the exception of a few rare talents, one of America’s richest musical genres has been sucked dry off its vibrancy. And with the greatest purveyors slowly dying off, we realize that something is missing.

However, when you place this record on your turntable you’ll suddenly realize that – somewhere, somehow – there are people who are rekindling the life of truly soulful music. At first, the quality of the recording may force you into nostalgic distance. You may be thinking to yourself that it is impossible for two young white men in 2002 to have made such a recording. Think again.

Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney are fortunate people. Unlike a lot of us, they never stopped knowing how to make music feel like something real, something accessible, something indescribable. Having grown up in a dead city that offers little more than a sense of loss, these Akron kids have had to find life in something other than what has been given to them. From an early age, both Auerbach and Carney found themselves in the life of sound.

Recorded by Carney in a steamy Midwestern basement, the density of the Akron air is perfectly translated through each and every pore of this album. Likewise, Auerbach’s voice astounds and inspires as it speaks of nothing more than his modest experiences, ones that we can all identify with. The songs are humble, like the players themselves, and in no way do these tunes illicit anything less than magnificence inside our souls.

Though heavily influenced by Jr. Kimbrough, Fred McDowell, as well as other Delta blues greats, The Black Keys are anything but an imitation. Their appropriation of the Mississippi greats is entrenched with a sound that is distinctly tied to their surroundings, calling upon Akron New Wave and Captain Beefheart for a sprinkle of eclecticism and the avant-garde.

Hailed by many as one of the best albums of 2002, The Big Come Up has managed to revitalize the indescribable energy that rock music is meant to deliver. Enjoy.”

The Black Keys still recording in the basement circa 2006

Related posts:

1. Interview with Patrick Carney from The Black Keys – Part 2
2. Maybe Why Patrick Talks About Fast Food A Lot In Interviews?
3. Interview with Patrick Carney from The Black Keys – Part 1

In paying tribute, a band might take a riff and build upon it; they might treat a hook with their own equipment in turn changing the sound; they might take a lyric and re-write it whilst retaining a song’s musicality. The Rolling Stones effectively built a career on it, but they also added much to that tradition and to particular songs. A good example of this by The Black Keys would be Thickfreakness vs I Cried Last Night by Junior Kimbrough.

Robert Quine, guitar legend, once said to his cousin Dan Auerbach, “Everything I do is just a variation on Chuck Berry.” He was, of course, joking. But Dan might say the same thing about Junior Kimbrough, Howlin Wolf, Mississippi Fred McDowell, T-Model Ford and Muddy Waters to name a few.

Pat and Dan have always been very upfront about their musical influences from their earliest interviews. The influences are there so there’s no point in denying them for the band, it’s, in a sense, a matter of paying respect to markers on a journey:

Auerbach’s musical taste leaned more toward the blues than rock ’n’ roll. “I would raid my father’s record collection,” Auerbach says. “He had a lot of old blues albums — like Son House, Robert Nighthawk, Junior Kimbrough, and T-Model Ford — so I was into that stripped-down blues thing. I really got into it,” he adds. “I was just in my own little world with this blues music. And that’s pretty much what I got obsessed with. But my dad also had a lot of Motown, like Otis Redding, shit like that that definitely influenced me. Definitely.”

The Junior Kimbrough influence has been well documented elsewhere. Dan has consistently acknowledged the  influence that soul singers like Curtis Mayfield had on the recording of Brothers. Less well known is Muddy Waters influence on the band. Yet if you were to re-listen to Muddy Waters’ Electric Mud album you understand how the idea of taking traditional sounds and letting the influence of technology distort and re-invent a sound can be so appealing to a band like The Black Keys’. Electric Mud’s electrified psych-blues sound was radical for its time: it re-created a blues sound and artist into something recognisable but different. You could perhaps say the same thing about aspects of Brothers and how The Black keys’ have transformed many of the songs they have been influenced by.

If anything it’s important to remember that what in turn makes The Black Keys identifiably their own band and sound is that they take their influences, tip their hat to them, and then sound like something that is essentially themselves. It’s a point Mark Neill, Brothers sound engineer, has previously pointed out on this site, regarding the Mambo Sun vs Everlasting Light tracks, which bears repeating since it could be said about any of the songs noted below:

It’s in the tradition of the late-Sixties feeling. It reminds me of the best things that you would ever like about a T-Rex record – over three records worth you would pick all these little aspects you liked. But it doesn’t sound like any one song. It doesn’t really have a time stamp on it, it’s pretty timeless.

Listen to these earlier releases by artists who have influenced The Black Keys’ and The Black Keys’ own recordings. What other songs have been missed?

Mambo Sun vs Everlasting Light

Listen to The Black Keys' Everlasting Light here

She’s Long Gone vs She’s Alright

Busted vs Skinny Woman

Listen to The Black Keys' Busted here

Thickfreakness vs I Cried Last Night

Hold Me In Your Arms vs I’m In Jail Again

The Moan vs Poor Boy

Listen to RL Burnside's Poor Boy here

Listen to The Black Keys' The Moan here

If You See Me vs Sugar Farm

Hat tip to forum members mdevans and Delta King for drawing attention to these songs.

Related posts:

1. The Black Keys: Rarities, Un-Released, B-Sides
2. Blakroc: Instrumental Versions
3. The Black Keys and Blakroc Mash Ups

Every tour has brought a new set of stage props. For those seeing them live here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect to see.

A large banner with a graphic showing two hands firmly embraced dominates. It’s a clear reference to the Brothers album name and personal bond between Dan and Pat.

The clenched hands are framed within a large tyre image. Other banner graphics include rubber tyre tread patterns. These are, of course, symbolic of the band’s hometown, rubber city Akron, Ohio, USA.

Photos from the recent Crossroads, Kansas City, MO, show on from pink_fish13′s flickr set.

Related posts:

1. Black Keys tour dates I've been to
2. Black Keys Tour Poster
3. The Black Keys Tour Dates 2009

‘Chop and Change’ appears to be recorded during the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio sessions in August 2009. The Nicole Wray backing vocals are a give away.

No doubt it is one of those tracks that wasn’t quite ‘finished up’ or worthy to make the cut with the other 15 on the Brothers album. At 2 minutes 26 seconds it’s not exactly a slow burner, more a work in progress from the sound of it. It’s nevertheless expressive of the time and place; another song about a hard done by girl.

‘Chop and Change’ has a delicious piano line flowing through it . More interestingly, as has been pointed out by forum member Kepnerb, the original guitar riff appears to have been developed during recordings for the Blakroc album. You can hear Dan playing the riff on bass during the NOE webisode 6 (see below).

The Black Keys  never seem to be too sentimental about their music – it’s recorded, released, move on. This one just happened to be moved on to a Twilight Soundtrack for release.

Blakroc Webisode 6

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sah8u32Q3E

No related posts.

Photo: Mos Def and Jonah Schwartz in the background with camera

Jonah has been a busy man shooting various creativecontrol.tv projects, videos for rapper Curren$y amongst others, and additional video production of The Black Keys at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and their various promotional activities.

The weekly Blakroc webisodes featured a different MC and song snippet each week; they brought the hype week in, week out. The visuals gave a rare insight into The Black Keys and leading MCs at work – a fly on the wall perspective enhanced by slick editing and rich colour tones.

The Black Keys Fan Lounge has been trying to interview Jonah ever since the Blakroc project dropped back in November 2009. Finally we get to speak to him. Jonah is a fan with an acute appreciation for the creativity of the artists he was able to observe. He’s humble about his contribution, proud of it nevertheless and above all relieved that his efforts turned out so well and are appreciated by so many.

The Black Keys Fan Lounge: Tell us about the full length Blakroc documentary?

Jonah Schwartz: A documentary was my original plan from the start. Once we had all the footage, we were like ‘what do we do with it all now?’. You know the webisodes were a given, My idea was that the webisodes would be a teaser, showing a little bit of the song in each one and the makinbg of each song, but for me the websiodes were always a trailer for the documentary. What ended up was, they ended up being so cool and so much fun, I fleshed them out. The documentary is similar to the webisodes but it’s just a whole lot more.

Most people would have thought this was really planned out with the weekly webisodes building up the hype, but sounds like it’s the other way around It was planned out a bit, but not while I was shooting it. The whole project was so organic, everything you did was organic. The first day we went in the studio no one knew what was going to happen – no one knew Mos Def was going to be there, no one knew Jim Jones was going to be there, no one knew they were going to make a song together. For them they were going to have a talk to see what would happen, for me it was like show up with the camera and my style is just to shoot everything I see.

Once we had that first day we were like ‘wow, this is really good.’ It just turned into that [doco], it was a natural progression of – what do I do next? As far as the editing goes, I didn’t plan on it being in the form that it was – it just ended up working that way. It was just the most natural way to assemble that footage and everything that happened – the music, the people, the video. Everything was just totally organic.

Just to be there in the presence of so many talented individuals that I’ve look up to for a very long time, I was just trying to hide in the corner and not get in anybody’s way.

Sounds like you were left to your own devices?

Yeah, there was no other crew, it was just me and the camera. I did all the editing, all the shooting, all of the everything.

Do you think that’s why you got that really relaxed style?

Oh definitely, I don’t think it could have been done any other way. If there were two of me, it would have been too much. It was such a small studio. It depends on the different people, you could tell some people were borderline and iffy about having the camera around, other people didn’t really care. It’s got a kind of intimacy to it.

I didn’t realise at the time I was doing it but if you look at alot of the shots the camera is being held kind of low. I hold the camera kind of at waist level because that way when I’m talking to people I’m not sticking the camera in their face. If you don’t think about it, it’s very easy to ignore it – you just don’t notice it because it’s not being pointed in your face. I would always keep it at waist level, being on the other side of the room was cool [to have it higher], but when I was next to someone I was trying to make it seem like it just wasn’t there. I remember the part where Raekwon is writing his lyrics and it’s just me and him sitting there when he locked the door. I just happened to be sitting there and I’m like ‘OK, awesome I’m in the room with Raekwon writing some gems’ [laughs].

If I had a sound guy there or a director it never would have worked that way. The music would have been made, but you wouldn’t have got the same feel on tape.

I wasn’t shooting to make it look beautiful, alot of the footage is grainy or dark and the sound is rough but I wanted it to be that way ’cause that’s the only I think you can get the reality of the situation.

While some people didn’t like the camera, do you think the camera also enhanced some of the performances?

I think the camera being there upped the pressure on everyone. Some of the artists weren’t used to working to the time pressure, like Pharoahe [Monche] was saying he’s never written a rhyme in one day before because he works so hard to make the perfect song. There’s pressure from all sides, but I’m sure having a camera recording everything that you’re doing kind of makes you wanna bring your A-Game. I’m sure it had some sort of influence. Even without it there it would have been as good.

Was it a conscious decision to not make Dan and Pat the focus of the webisodes?

They are present, but they are never really the centre of attention.

I would say that was more just the way it came together. It wasn’t a conscious decision. There’s definitely more of them in the documentary. Each episode was different because it was a different MC, The Black keys it was a given they would be in the webisode. For the webisode promoting the different song and artists coming in to collaborate, I might have been focusing more on the artist. That’s what made each webisode, was seeing each artist and personality and how it clicked with what Dan and Pat were doing.

You have a background in documentary making. Can you talk about this background and how you came to be involved in the Blakroc project?

I’ve been film making on an independent level for a very long time, since I was in high school. I started making hip hop music videos maybe three years ago in Japan. I used to live in Japan for three years. I ended up through people I knew in Japan I ended up working on this documentary for about a year and a half.It’s about a rapper from Kyoto, Japan, and his whole life story showing a side of life there people may or may not know exists – that people in Japan may or may not know exists. I spent probably a year editing that, I didn’t direct it, I was one of the main shooters.

Meeting all the rappers in Japan I got linked up with making a video for a group who’s pretty big out there, Nitro Microphone Underground. I didn’t direct it but the director who’s doing it is actually a photographer, and they needed a Director of Photography for the video side of it. The Director spoke English too, and I spoke Japanese, and he’s from New York and I am too, and I got hooked up with the job and it came out really good so when I came back to America i went I’m going to make hip hop videos. That’s how it all kind of started from there.

How did you meet Damon Dash then?

We know each other through people for a while. I’d been introduced to him. I just started filming events and I kind of helped him and he was doing stuff with Jim Jones. I had been shooting him and helping him promote his son who’s a DJ. I was shooting alot of events, kind of documenting what was going on with him and Jim Jones and whatever he was doing. I would always be out shooting with him.

Then the Blakroc thing came up and it was out of the blue. Damon just called me up and he was something like, ‘What are you doing tomorrow?’ and at the time I was doing editing work and he was like ‘What would you if you had a chance to film Jimi Hendrix in the studio with The Rolling Stones?’ [laughs] And I’m like, um, I’d like to shoot that and he’s like ‘Cool, cause tomorrow we’ve got like The Black Keys in the studio and Mos Def might be coming through and Jim Jones is coming through…’, so it was like that. He sold me pretty well. It’s safe to say I took off work and said I had to go shoot Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones [laughs].

I was definitely really nervous because that was my first time working with artists of that calibre where it was just me. It was all on me so there was a lot of pressure in the beginning, believe me. I think even for them they weren’t sure how I would perform. I think once everything started coming together, they started to feel better and I started to feel better and it naturally got better.

Was it hard being a fan of those artists and then having to put your professional hat on in those filming situations?

I think that’s one of the reasons why I was able to do it well. Being a fan I appreciate every little detail of everything that those guys do. When I see Mos Def writing down a lyric on a piece of paper, this is the golden moment for me. That’s what you see my camera focus on. I get nerdy on the little tiny details they do. When I see Raekwon coming up with a rhyme in his head I zoom that camera right in on his face ’cause I see him thinking. But at the same time when I have that camera it’s like I’m not even there. I can switch off the fan in me, it’s like zone out into my camera, so it’s all third person for me. I just pretend to myself I’m actually not there so it doesn’t distract me from the job at hand.

How has the use of the 5D camera influenced this project, it’s so small, and the visual style of this project?

I wouldn’t say it influences the visual style I think that is the visual style. I used that camera ’cause I had it at the time. When I started using it for that project it wasn’t being as widely used as it is right now. I had just picked it up about a month earlier when I did that video for NOE. I had gotten it specifically for that video because it was brand new at the time and I had started using it with someone else who I knew who had one.

I would say it gave me a lot more freedom to do what I wanted to do that wouldn’t have been possible to do before with any other camera. I did not need lights. I shot with two cameras, it’s not all with 5D. I only use the 5D for the performance shots because I thought it looked almost too good. I can’t shoot a documentary with this, it looks like a movie. I didn’t want it to look that good. Once you walk in that studio and you got that mic and it’s really dark in there, any other camera is too dark, you can’t see their face, but when I popped on that 5D it takes in light really well. If I brought in lights there and shined on their face it would ruin the concept of what I was doing – pretending not to be there, pretending to be invisible, and you can’t be invisible when you are shing a light in someone’s face.

Or if you’re even setting up lights. I’ve seen alot of studio videos and they make it a production with camera equipment and dollys and this and that, and they set up lights like a scene, and it looks cool on film but it’s not real. That’s the whole thing it’s made for the film, it’s contrived, it’s not reality, you’re creating that light, you’re creating that reality. That’s not what I wanted.

So that camera allowed me to capture alot more reality in a cool looking way. Also shooting with two different cameras, using that 5D camera specifically for the performances differentiated the performances from the other footage taken on a regular HD DV camera. It definitely has a different look to the 5D. Using that camera for the talking looked a little bit more raw, intimate, and then when you see the performances it really makes them stand out.

Is the documantary going to a DVD release?

We are still figuring it out [laughs]

Tell us about visiting Muscle Shoals Sound Studio to shoot The Black Keys making some of their new album Brothers?

I’m not sure how much I can say, what I can say is what an honour and privilege it was to be there to see them create their music. You could feel the history in the place. Apparently it was haunted, it had a real interesting vibe. It was in the country, it was way out there in the country. There’s nothing to do except be in the studio or be in the hotel. I wasn’t there for the entire recording, I was there for the last little bit of it. I just feel really privileged to have been able to see some of that happen.

Blakroc – Webisode 11 featuring Raekwon:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyFQt6PLu5o

Blakroc documentary World Premiere promo poster:

Related posts:

1. Blakroc: Interview with Joel Hamilton – Blakroc Co-Producer / Engineer
2. Blakroc: The Black Keys and Blakroc
3. Blakroc: Listen To A Very Cool Interview with The Black Keys on Sirius Satellite Radio