The Black Keys Fan Lounge » brucini

The Black Keys Remove Their Fan Forum Message Board

brucini — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:24:16 +0000

Update: Come and visit and add to new Black Keys Fan Lounge Fan Forum here: http://theblackkeysfanlounge.com/forum/.

Read about the new forum set up and how you can be involved in this post announcing the forum launch.

******

The Black Keys (or rather their website administrator) have removed the band’s fan forum message boards. This single line statement, on the page where the fan message board was hosted on the BlackKeys.com website, gives notification of the removal – http://www.theblackkeys.com/forum/index.php:

We have removed the message board, but encourage fans to create their own elsewhere. Thank you, The Black Keys

For the last few months many fans had noticed the lack of admin involvement on the boards and the lack of removal of spam and random porn posts. Perhaps this prompted the removal of the boards? Maybe it all just got too hard and unwieldy, yet long term forum members could have been asked to moderate.

My latest theory is simply this was an advance move before the site was flipped to a new look for the new album coming out in April 2010.

Comment is being sort from The Black Keys management.

It’s a real shame since the forum boards were a good resource and place for fans to interact. Some fans had posted more than 1000+ times.

Clearly the band are hoping the message boards will be re-created by a fan(s) external to their site. They clearly have no future desire to administrate or host the boards and it is a final decision. Kind of a strange thing to do since it brings so many fans regularly to their site and by default makes it easy for the band to communicate with fans at short notice.

Share Post With Other Fans:

'Strange Rhymes' Black Keys Mash Up for Blakroc Volume 2?

brucini — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:00:15 +0000

Listen to Strange Rhymes by Faimkills here

Listen to it here, a wicked mashup of The Black Keys’ Strange Times track aka Strange Rhymes by rapper Faimkills.

What do you think: Wack or Rocks?

The Black Keys Fan Lounge is lovin’ it. It probably wont make Blakroc Vol. 2 but, hey, it’s worth a shot. Maybe someone out there wants to put together an album of Black Keys inspired mash ups?

Since all the hoopla blew up about The Black Keys Blakroc project the spotlight has turned back to the mash up sound of blues and hip hop. It’s nothing really new, just hopefully something worth listening to and doesn’t evolve into something Limp Bizkit might produce.

For those who haven’t heard it check out this previous mash up of Jay Z vs The Black Keys previously reported on by The Black Keys Fan Lounge. The possibilities are endless.

Faimkills is a fan of The Black Keys and he notes is looking forward to the new Blakroc release:

With all of the terrible genre-bending many artists try to do nowadays this is something that is very sonically cohesive and I will be excited to pick up on Black Friday.

I embrace lo-fi quality recordings, that is one of the things that drew me to the Black Keys to begin with, their gritty raw, garagey sound. And as a rapper, it’s hard for people to grasp tho idea of lo-fi music in a hip hop setting because everything in rap tends to be overproduced.

If you want to connect up with Faimkills, here’s how:

collective/makeshift label: Steal Mantra
from: Inland Empire, Southern California
sites: myspace.com/faimkills , twitter.com/faimkills
upcoming projects: A Hot Ghetto Messtape free download Oct 1, 2009 (“Strange Rhymes” will be on it.)

Share Post With Other Fans:

Patrick Carney from The Black Keys on Twitter

brucini — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:00:59 +0000

Almost as exciting as hearing about the The Black Keys’ new Blakroc project, is realising that Patrick Carney from The Black Keys is on Twitter. Here’s his address – @patrickcarney

How pleasing to see Pat on there since this site reported on hope for a Black Keys Twitter page.

There have been people hijacking other people’s names including a false Black Keys address. The Black Keys Fan Lounge therefore contacted Pat to verify the authenticity of the account and he confirmed the address it is indeed his. The comments certainly are uniquely his you’d have to say.

Pat’s Twitter stream are now rss fed down the right hand side of this site’s home page.

Share Post With Other Fans:

Blakroc: The Black Keys and Blakroc

brucini — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 04:44:19 +0000

Well, the rumours have been confirmed. The Black Keys’ collaborations with notable hip hop artists including the RZA, Jim Jones, Mos Def, Pharoah Monch, Q-Tip, Ludacris, ODB, Billy Danze of M.O.P., Noe and Nicole Wray are being released in an album on November 27, 2009.

How the album, recorded over 11 days with 11 artists, pans out is going to be very interesting. There’s only a brief snippet of the recordings over at blakroc.com (and below).

Listen to the Blakroc track 'Aint Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo)' here featuring Mos Def, Jim Jones and The Black Keys here

The album is not such a surprising development considering The Black Keys long held love all things hip hop previously documented here on The Black Keys Fan Lounge. How interesting to see the respect is mutual considering the ‘Keys were on a primarily hip hop line up at The Roots Picnic.

How very cool it is to see The RZA on there, who this website has long hoped would work with the band. He’s a veritable music svengali, alike Dan ready to branch out and take educated risks. For Dan and Pat, who are such big Wu-Tang fans from their high school days, it must have been like their musical lives had turned full circle. He mentions as much in this interview:

AS: A lot of the music world was kind of taken by surprise by the “Blakroc” announcement. How did that collaboration come about?

Dan Auerbach: Well, we got a call from Damon, out of the blue, and he said basically “I want to work with ya’ll. Whatever you want to do, I want to do it. Let me know.” So we booked some studio time in Brooklyn, we were in for like two days, we went in totally blind and got eight songs recorded. You know how me and Pat are — we were work quick. We had lyricists and rappers coming through and it just came together so fast. It was kind of a whirlwind. It was natural and super-creative and unlike most modern hip-hop I think. It was communal. These guys didn’t have time to listen to a beat for months or a week and write their rhymes. They had to come in face to face with us and deliver. It was all spontaneous. It felt very natural, nothing felt contrived or forced, and that was the beauty of the whole thing.

AS: The project could be viewed as a strange direction for a garage rock combo like the Black Keys — why did it make sense for you?

DA: We started as the Black Keys because we loved the sound of RZA’s production. We’ve been saying that from day one, that when we started we wanted our demo to sound like a Wu-Tang record. We wanted that kind of grimy, dirty thing, that’s what we wanted. So it was basically like, as I told Damon, we sort of had been preparing for this “Blakroc” record since we were 16.

Consider also what prompted Damon Dash, the Blakroc producer, to call up The Black Keys:

My assistants, who are now actually A&Rs, were going to a Black Keys concert for their birthday and I wasn’t invited,” he explained. “Usually on their birthdays we all do it together and the reason why I wasn’t invited was because the concert was sold out . And I had never heard of The Black Keys and I was like y’all still gonna go without me. And they was like ‘Yo it’s The Black Keys.” So I was like, lemme hear this group. So I start listening to them and they actually became my favorite group. They were on heavy rotation so we just reached out and we kicked it with them and I was like, ‘I wonder what would happen if we got Jim Jones and the Keys in the studio’ and Jim came in and all of a sudden Mos came in and then [it] just built from there.

Make sure you sign up to Blakroc.com and check out the full length trailer. With such slick production values on the video, and emotive black and white photography of all the artists, clearly this whole project will surely end up as either a stand alone documentary or deluxe cd edition filler.

Every week (friday) there is going to be a new webisode released onto the site. Dam tasty behind the scenes action.

Webisode 11: feat. Raekwon

Webisode 10: feat. Nikki Wray

Webisode 9: feat. Pharoahe Monch

Webisode 8: feat. Billy Danze

Websisode 7: feat. Q-Tip

Webisode 6: feat. NOE

Websiode 5: feat. Nikki Wray and Jim Jones

Webisode 4: feat. RZA

Webisode 3: feat. Jim Jones

Webisode 2: feat. Mos Def

Webisode 1: feat. Damon Dash and Mos Def

Blakroc short trailer:

Share Post With Other Fans:

The Black Keys Leavin Trunk vs Keep It Hid Song Lyrics

brucini — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:00:58 +0000

I was listening to The Black Keys’ 2002 album The Big Come Up album today and I heard the lyric “…Gotta keep it hid” in the song ‘Leavin Trunk’. This caught my attention. It’s not the most common lyric or phrasing. I obviously picked up on it in light of Dan Auerbach’s recent 2009 ‘Keep It Hid’ song and album of the same name which also uses the line “…Gotta keep it hid”.

I needed to do some further investigation. The appearance of the ‘keep it hid’ lyric seemed to be more than coincidence.

When I looked at the lyrics of the respective songs I was again surprised. The songs are relatively similar in their subject matter – a man on the run wanting to impress his sweetheart. ‘Keep It Hid’ almost reads like ‘Leavin Trunk – Part 2′.

Many of Dan’s lyrics revolve around this lurking dark side which we’ve previously covered on The Black Keys Fan Lounge.

The original lyrics to Leavin Trunk were written as ‘Milk Cow Blues’ by blues singer Sleepy John Estes (1899 – 1977). The song became a bit of a blues standard when it was adapted and recorded as Leavin Trunk by Taj Mahal amongst many others. The Leavin Trunk lyrics were then shortened and recorded by The Black Keys.

I find this all very interesting.

Dan has always been very up front about his influences and style. Clearly he continues to mine a rich vein of inspiration through these influences, musical styles and themes from his first album lyrics through to his most recent. In so doing he places himself into the blues musical lineage of those he admires.

When you listen to the respective songs performed the musical similarities are also quite notable. Not only do the lyrics in ‘Keep It Hid’ seem derived from the theme in ‘Leavin Trunk’, so does the musical composition.

What do you think?

Listen to Leavin Trunk by The Black Keys here

Listen to Keep It Hid by Dan Auerbach here

Leavin Trunk Lyrics by The Black Keys

Goin’ upstairs to pack my leavin’ trunk
I ain’t seen no whiskey
woman make me sloppy
Ain’t seen no whisky
woman made me drunk
Goin’ back home where I had much better luck
Look here darling
want me to be your king
Said you’re kiddin’ darling
gotta keep it hid
Don’t let your main man
your husband catch me here
Don’t let your main man
your husband catch me here

Keep It Hid Lyrics by Dan Auerbach

Lock the door and close the blinds
They’re coming for me girl and I ain’t got time
If they ask you, darlin’, oh about what I did
Baby you gotta keep it hid
I’m heading south, and I can’t say where
But I’ll phone you baby soon as I get there
They’re not gonna seal my coffin lid’
Cause you’re gonna keep it hid
(Bridge)
Well Big Sue knew but she don’t no more
If you know what I mean
They’ll never find what they’re looking for’
Cause you’re my tight-lipped queen
I’ll buy you a dress, a nice handmade piece
And send your Mom on a vacation to Greece
If you’re an auction, oh I’m the highest bid
Oh baby, ’cause you’re gonna keep it hid

Share Post With Other Fans:

The Black Keys Publicity Photos

brucini — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:00:09 +0000

Have you ever seen a random interview with The Black Keys and noticed the photo used to accompany the story is the same one that was used on another article you’ve read?

It’s obviously easier and cheaper for magazines and newspapers to use a stock PR photo than commission a new one. In any case, bands like using the same images to build up an identifiable attitude or profile.

I’ve assembled the commonly seen publicity images that have come to define the look and story of The Black Keys (in no particular order).

From the look of this lot, I guess there’s only so many band photo faces you can pull.

They are interesting in that they each capture a moment in the band’s life, a piece of it’s history, from the early days to recent days. None of them portray a self-satisfied or smug attitude, rather the modesty and irony of Dan and Pat’s personality comes across.

In a recent comment on this post, Black Keys fan Dan mentioned the first image below of Dan and Pat in the basement would make a great poster. I’d have to agree.

I look forward to seeing some new images for the new Black Keys album being released. With a bit of luck they’ll be done by James Quine who took all of Dan Auerbach’s recent solo press images.

Share Post With Other Fans:

The Black Keys: Rarities, Un-Released, B-Sides

brucini — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:00:21 +0000

Recently this site posted about songs covered by The Black Keys. For good measure I thought it would be good to document other Black Keys songs that are otherwise known as rarities, un-released tracks or b sides.

Some of these are also cover songs.

I’ve used uploaded versions of the songs to YouTube since they are accessible and fans can listen to them at least. Obviously the original tracks are in some cases rare or difficult to purchase legally, so I’m not interested in promoting illegal download versions. There’s only a couple of tracks listed here you can’t listen to.

For anyone interested in the full Black Keys discography check out Eil.com.

Evil – appeared on the ‘Set You Free’ Australian 3 track single (1993)

Listen to Evil here

Here I Am I Always Am – Captain Beefheart cover from the 7 inch vinyl US release of the ‘I Got Mine’ single

Listen to Here I Am I Always Am here

The Way I Feel When I’m With You – B side for the ‘You’re The One’ single

Listen to The Way I Feel When I'm With You here

Summertime Blues – B side for the ’10am Automatic’ single

Listen to Summertime Blues here

Funk 49 – James Gang cover, live track version

Listen to Funk 49 here

Something On Your Mind - appeared on the 7 inch vinyl US release of ‘Attack and Release’

Listen to Something On Your Mind here

Goin’ Down South – RL Burnside cover, live track version

Listen to Goin' Down South here

Flash Of Silver – B side for the ‘Till I get My Way’ single

Listen to Flash Of Silver here

Stay All Night – track from the Chulahoma sessions on the ‘Causes1′ compilation for Darfur

Listen to Stay All Night here

Listen to Junior's Instrumental here from the Chulahoma sessions

Can’t Find My Mind – The Cramps cover from the He Put The Bomp compilation or search for the Alive Records compilation “Never Give Up On Your Hallucinations” on iTunes.

Listen to Can't Find My Mind here

If You Ever Slip – The Hottest State soundtrack

Share Post With Other Fans:

The Black Keys Akron, Ohio, Google Map

brucini — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:00:36 +0000

If you’re heading to Akron, Ohio, and you are a fan of The Black Keys make your trip even more memorable by seeing some significant points of interest related to the band there.

Use this Google Map I’ve created which has venues, sites, and notable places related to The Black Keys plotted on it. These places were either referenced by Dan and Pat in interviews or are on the public record as being connected to the band.

Akron is, of course, where Dan and Pat were born and grew up. Along with Robert Quine, Chrissie Hynde and Devo, The Black Keys are notable Akron musical exports. Dan and Pat have always been staunch supporters of the town and continue to live and work there.

As Pat explained in an interview about why he identifies with and is proud to say he’s from Akron:

Well, Akron is our home. It’s where all of our friends are. We do that because places like Akron get written off. I don’t think you can’t truly appreciate Akron until you have either lived here or at least been here. It’s not one of those cities where people are waiting in line to come visit. That’s why we like Akron. It’s not flashy. There are lots of cool things, but you just need to know where to go. Because of that, nothing ever changes, which is cool.

The map is a work in progress so if you have suggestions or alterations to places marked on the map I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment on this post or on the map

The map is freely accessible so it should in time become a resource for all Black Keys fans as more points of interest are added.

Click on the markers on the map to reveal the Black Keys link:
View The Black Keys Points Of Interest, Akron, Ohio in a larger map

Share Post With Other Fans:

What's The Most Played Black Keys Song Of All Time?

brucini — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:00:45 +0000

I was looking for some reason or another at The Black Keys MySpace page yesterday and I was surprised to see ‘Psychotic Girl’ has had 1,478,056 plays and counting.

That’s quite astounding since the song was released with the Attack and Release album in early 2008.

I’m surprised this track has so captivated the fan base. It’s been played nearly 400,000 times more than ‘Strange Times’.

It would be interesting to know (if there was a way of knowing) across MySpace and commercial radio which Black Keys song had been played most over the life of the band.

Anyone have any ideas how to access such a stat? I guess if I had access to Nielsen SoundScan I’d have a better idea.

Not really what I’m looking for but vaguely related:

“The Black Keys have sold 671,000 records, between five LPs and one EP. The Keys’ recent live DVD has sold another 14,000 copies. Last year’s Danger Mouse-produced Attack and Release continues moving briskly, and is on track to break 174,000 by next week, according to figures Nielsen SoundScan provided Wednesday, May 27 2009.” Source: Rolling Stone

Share Post With Other Fans:

Two Key Historical Articles About The Black Keys

brucini — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:00:33 +0000

It’s common in scientific study to do a forensic review of literature already written about a subject. Certain articles best present the core themes, motivations, influences and attitude of a subject that others will take their lead from. Examining them in turn enhances our understanding of the subject.

If someone was to do a review of articles written about The Black Keys these two articles written about events in 2003, I think, would stand out. Both reflect the raw touring band experience which is quintessentially what The Black Keys are all about.

1. Tour Of Duty by Denise Grollmus (Cleveland Scene, February 23 2005)

2. On The Road With The Black Keys and Sleater Kinney 2004 by Peter Relic (Arthur Mag, May 2003)

‘Tour of Duty‘ was written by Patrick Carney’s then girlfriend, later to be his wife, Denise Grollmus. She happens also to be a journalist with the Cleveland Scene. Irrespective of her close connection to Pat and insiders view on The Black Keys, it’s so honestly written, concise and slightly dark in tone.

The article is Denise’s account of going on a three month tour with The Black Keys to Europe, Australia and the USA in 2003.

Some highlights from the article:

On meeting Pat in High School…

Pat looked like a ’70s basketball player — a slender torso attached to long, skinny legs ending in high-top Chuck Taylors. His long face was exaggerated with Mick Jagger lips and thick black-framed glasses. A Sonic Youth T-shirt hung from his coat-hanger shoulders. He was exactly my type.

On being offered drugs…

After some small talk, the two [Har Mar Superstar and Conor Oberst] politely invited us to do drugs in Oberst’s room. We declined. As they tucked in their chairs, Pat asked what kind they were doing.

“Blow,” answered Har Mar.

“Nobody does cocaine,” I said. “It’s so ’80s.”

“That’s why I like it,” he said.

On The Black Keys burgeoning fame in Australia – their first tour there and the first country outside the USA to really embrace the band…

The Black Keys are to Australia what David Hasselhoff is to Germany. The band’s rock-star status granted comforts we could never afford back home. We even had real laminated backstage passes and spiral notebooks mapping out a busy itinerary of radio appearances.

On the not so glamourous life on the road…

“I’m sick of bars,” Tarrah [Dan Auerbach's girlfriend] said. “I’m sick of music.”

When we reunited with the boys in Iowa City, everyone was irritable and anxious. That night, Pat and I ate at Subway. His skin was leathery in the neon light, and he had big bags under his eyes. He was stressed and jet-lagged. On top of it, he was also worried about me.

I told him taking the girlfriends on tour was a bad idea. “This isn’t ‘Take Your Girlfriend to Work Day,’” I said. “This is a job. This isn’t vacation.”

In a postscript of sorts to this article, after Denise later married and divorced from Patrick Carney she wrote this article for Salon in 2011 that picks up some of the themes in this Tour of Duty piece.

‘On The Road With The Black Keys‘ is a really lengthy article written at a time when The Black Keys were rising in popular music consciousness. The story behind the article is best told by this excerpt of an interview The Black Keys later did with ‘Sup Magazine:

Marisa: The first thing I read about you guys was the tour diary article that Peter Relic wrote for Arthur when you were on tour with Sleater Kinney. Now he’s your manager? How did you hook up with him?
Pat: There was a local paper in Cleveland called The Free Times that got shut down. Before it got shut down, Pete got assigned to do a story on us. Actually he didn’t get assigned, he found our record and wanted to interview us. He came down to Akron and wrote the first feature on us. We became friends and started hanging out. He’s like family now. He knows my girlfriend. He’s friends with our dads. He became a friend. We didn’t know he wrote for Rolling Stone, but he sent the record [Thickfreakness] to the new editor over there and they wanted him to review it. One day we discovered it all. It was really weird. One of our friends called and was like, “Dude, have you seen the new Rolling Stone? You’re in it.” Apparently Janet Weiss [from Sleater Kinney] talked it up to the editors at Rolling Stone and the next week Pete was like, “Hey, I have this new band to review.” And they were like, “Oh yeah, we’ve heard of them.”

The fact that Peter went on to be the band’s manager shows his ongoing guidance to their career.

It’s hard to find articles written in this style and depth in (any) publications in recent memory. Certainly the rapport Peter had comes across in the conversational style spread over many days of The Black Keys tour supporting Sleater Kinney.

Like any band exposed to increasing public adoration, pressure and expectation band members slowly retract to those they can trust and don’t so freely express themselves. The article breathes with the innate possibility of the moment when the The Black Keys were finding their own fans.

Ahh those fans…

“I saw these guys play at the Ale House in Upland last year,” he screams. “They’re awwwwesome!” DA [Dan Auerbach] has told me repeatedly that the Upland show was the worst Black Keys show ever. The lesson being that awesome is in the ear of the beholder.

Share Post With Other Fans: