The Black Keys Fan Lounge » News

The Black Keys’ Lonely Boy #2 on Triple J Radio’s Hottest 100 2011

brucini — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:19:21 +0000

Triple J radio in Australia conducts an annual listener poll, the Hottest 100, that attracts 1.3 million votes. It is one of the largest music polls in the world. The vote covers songs released in the previous calendar year.

The results for the 2011 poll have just been announced. Lonely Boy was voted the number 2 most popular song of 2011 in Australia.

For past results regarding The Black Keys in this poll see this post. The Black Keys’ previous best result was number 54 in 2004 for 10am Automatic.

It’s a significant result since The Black Keys cancelled their 2011 tour of Australia to concentrate their efforts on recording the new El Camino album, of which Lonely Boy was the first single. The decision to cancel the Australian tour cost the band $100,000 but the time off has created a hit record around the world. Clearly any resentment fans might have felt for the Australian tour cancellation was irrelevant to the result. Arguably, the band have now created a new fan base that wasn’t even aware of The Black Keys prior to the El Camino release.

The number 2 position is all the more significant since Lonely Boy was only released in early December 2011. It was therefore competing with songs that had been publicly available for alot longer. The result will surely fuel additional speculation regarding a tour of Australia in 2012. Current scheduling and comments by the band would suggest, however, that a tour is unlikely until early 2013.

The result shows again how important radio still is to breaking a band and popularising their music. Especially in a country where one radio station is as influential as Triple J is, since it can be listened to anywhere in Australia. In a brief audio interview with Pat Carney prior to the announcement of the number 2 position, he noted the support of Triple J in championing The Black Keys’ music in 2003 which created the band’s largest fanbase in Australia during their early years. The same phenomenon of radio support, of course, propelled Tighten Up to the top of the charts in the USA in 2010.

Interestingly, the artist who had a song at the number 3 in the countdown, Matt Corby, recently did a version of Lonely Boy live to air on Triple J. Pretty impressive it was too.

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The Black Keys unlock fans’ generosity

brucini — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:25:22 +0000

This is a press release
*******************

Presale concert sales to benefit mental health services, community foundation fund

AKRON, Ohio (Dec. 8, 2011) – Black Keys fans can now get first dibs on premium tour tickets while at the same time supporting mental health in the band’s hometown.

Tickets-for-Charity announced Wednesday that Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney selected Community Support Services, an Akron, Ohio-based mental health agency, to receive proceeds from Black Keys concert tickets purchased through the Tickets-For-Charity.com website.

The band has set aside floor and lower-level tickets for the face value plus an additional donation amount. These special charity tickets will be available for each show on the Black Keys’ 2012 North American tour, including appearances in Cleveland, Boston, New York, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Columbus. Fans can purchase these tickets prior to when public ticket sales begin Friday.

Two-thirds of the donations will support Community Support Services and its Black Keys Alfred McMoore Memorial Endowment Fund at Akron Community Foundation. The agency established this permanent funding source in 2010 to honor former client and outsider artist Alfred McMoore, whose oft-used phrase “black key” was adopted by Auerbach and Carney as the band’s name. The fund was begun with proceeds from the band’s benefit concert that honored McMoore, who suffered from schizophrenia and passed away in September 2009 at age 59.

Terry Dalton, executive director of Community Support Services, said he believes it is important to honor the band and McMoore by funding current programs as well as investing in the agency’s future. The permanent nature of the endowment fund ensures the agency will be around for years to come so it can help clients like McMoore live active and independent lives.

“Hidden beneath the mental illness, many of our clients have terrific talents, (including) artistic abilities,” Dalton said. “Through the Black Keys Alfred McMoore Memorial Endowment Fund, we hope to help clients embrace and cultivate these talents, not just today but for future generations.”

Tickets-for-Charity gives fans the opportunity to purchase premium seats while giving to causes they care about. Tickets for the Cleveland show on March 20 are $159.50.

Pre-sale charity tickets can be bought online at http://www.ticketsforcharity.com/pl/The-Black-Keys-Tickets-2012-Tour-Arctic-Monkeys. To learn more about the Black Keys Alfred McMoore Memorial Endowment Fund, contact Dr. Suzanne Allen, Akron Community Foundation’s vice president of development, at 330-376-8522.

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El Camino: Five New Songs By The Black Keys Streaming

brucini — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:48:02 +0000

Just because the Fan Lounge loves widgets and we love to appease the marketing boffins.

Leave your deets and listen. Would have been ace if those creating the embed widget could have added a cookie to avoid you having to add your email address everytime to listen. Note to users, add a bogus email unless you want to get signed up to the mailing list multiple times to the same email.

What do you think about the new album? Join other fans over here in this Black Keys Fan Forum.

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The Black Keys’ El Camino Trek Promotion Australia

brucini — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:42:25 +0000

It seems the marketing boffins have been working overtime in planning the release of The Black Keys’ new El Camino album. Warner Music Australia has teamed up with street press Australia and The Black Keys for a special promotion.

In Australia, an El Camino-type vehicle is being driven from the city of Cairns down the east coast to Melbourne. That’s a freakin’ long way over nine days in a van. Um, kind of like going on tour in a van, get it?

They’ll be stopping at record stores along the way to promote the El Camino record release on Dec 6. Apparently they’ll be “previewing tracks from the album you won’t be able to hear anywhere else, in the world!”

Surely something is happening in other places? Keep a look out.

You can read their blog here or follow them on Twitter here.

Times are as follows:

Saturday 26 November
10.00am – Sanity Cairns (Shop 96, Cairns Central Shopping Centre, Cnr Spence & Mcleod Streets, Cairns QLD)
4.00pm – Sanity Townsville (Shop 129, Castletown Shopping World, Cnr Woolcock Street & Kings Road, Hyde Park, Townsville QLD)

Sunday 27 November
4.00pm – Sanity Rockhampton (Shop 46, City Centre Plaza Cnr Fitzroy & Bolsover Street, Rockhampton QLD)

Monday 28 November
3.00pm – Rockinghorse Records (245 Albert Street, Brisbane, QLD)

Tuesday 29 November
4.00pm – Park Beach Music & Hifi (Shop 57, Park Beach Plaza, Coffs Harbour, NSW)

Wednesday 30 November
12.00pm – Sanity Port Macquarie (Shop 9. Settlement City Cnr Bay & Park Streets Port Macquarie, NSW)

Wednesday 30 November
5.00pm – Sanity Newcastle (Shop 101, Market Square Hunter Street Mall, Newcastle NSW)

Thursday 1 December
12.00pm – Hum On King (271 King Street, Newtown, Sydney, NSW)

Thursday 1 December
5.00pm – Redback Music Wollongong (133 Crown Street, Wollongong, NSW)

Friday 2 December
5.00pm – Sanity Goulburn (270 Auburn Street, Goulburn, NSW)

Saturday 3 December
10.00am – Landspeed Records (30 Garema Place, Canberra)
4.00pm – Sanity Albury Wodonga (Shop 30, West End Plaza 487 Kiewa Street, Albury, NSW)

Sunday 4 December
1.00pm – Polyester Records (1a, 288 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, VIC)

Australian El Camino trek vehicle:

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The Black Keys’ Record Store Day Surprise 2011

brucini — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:39:29 +0000

Update 1 Dec 20111: So when the counter hit the zero hour at theblackkeyselcamino.com, here’s what was revealed, this solitary video. Looks like there’s more to come:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM-2p3sUML4

***

For those of you who bought the 12″ Lonely Boy / Run Right Back vinyl today on Black Friday, Record Store Day, this post will come as no surprise.

Written in reverse on the record run out, which plays inside out, is the url for http//www.theblackkeyselcamino.com. It is also on the reverse of the record sleeve.

At this url is simply a link to iTunes to pre-order the album and a big clock timer ticking down (as seen below).

Alike The Black Keys did last year for Record Store Day with the dead wax etching on the Howling For You / Tighten Up 12″ this quirky move peaks further fan interest.

You guess is as good as anyone else’s with regard to what will happen when the countdown clicker runs right down. It won’t run out on Dec 6, the album release date, rather 1 Dec. Start your rumors now.

For those of you yet to buy it, this nifty video shows the making of the record, in reverse of course.

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Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney added to the Firestone High School Wall Of Fame

brucini — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:22:19 +0000

Over the years, whenever The Black Keys have been mentioned in Akron-based media reports they are invariably referred to as “Firestone High School graduates”. As proud as the town was of the band, their old High School hadn’t elevated them to the school’s alumni wall of fame. This will now change. It was announced last week at a school assembly that Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach will shortly be added to the wall of fame.

For years Dan and Pat had represented Akron in one way or another via lyrics, artwork or just by the fact they continued to live there for so long. Arguably, they were its best known export, at the time of their Grammy awards, in the post-Lebron years. Even that event, however, hadn’t changed the school’s acknowledgement and limited official wall of fame alumni.

This video reflects the ambivalent relationship Dan and Pat have had with Akron and their High School as they poke fun at their lack of inclusion on the wall of fame:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxvj4A-8isU

Maybe it was just because another Firestone High graduate, Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders, was on the wall of fame and she had afterall famously turned her back on Akron?

Dan and Pat , of course, were attending Firestone High School when they first met. They weren’t necessarily friends there, however. Dan was apparently a soccer jock and Pat was more into Sonic Youth. This 2005 interview excerpt charts their school days:

Neither member of the Black Keys has returned to Firestone High School—a building that looks like it’s straight out of a John Hughes film—since graduating more than five years ago. Standing in the parking lot, Carney and Auerbach look slightly confused as they survey their old stomping grounds.

Carney admits he enjoyed high school and wishes he could go back. Auerbach says he hated classes and spent a lot of time in detention, listening to a well-concealed cassette player. He preferred to stay at home, playing his father’s Beatles records and, on occasion, watching his mother’s family perform folk and bluegrass music in the living room. Although both Black Keys were briefly in the Firestone marching band—Auerbach on trumpet, Carney on trombone—the two were a grade apart (Auerbach is older by a year) and rarely crossed paths despite living around the corner from one another.

The elevation to the wall of fame, prompted Fan Lounge Forum member, and recent Firestone High School graduate, Dothetrunk to express his feelings on the addition to the wall of fame:

I was recently informed that the administration of Firestone High School finally agreed to put up pictures of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney on the Wall of Fame, without a doubt two of the most famous graduates from the ‘Stone.

For me, the news was bittersweet. I was excited that the band finally received the honor, but a part of my adolescence is now locked in the vaults of years past. The Black Keys are no longer the band which I would use to prove my indie-cred. They are no longer the band that’s so underrated it’s overlooked by its Alma Mater for Professor Dr. Peter Chen (I Shit You Not!). The irony of their former underrated status is replaced by a new one: being the band that made a point to stay close to it’s roots that gets recognized only after leaving.

It should be no surprise to me that the ‘Keys finally get their picture on the Wall of Fame; the world seems to be paying 8 years worth of success all right now to the band. They are heard at least once a day just by watching commercials, big name artists want to work with them and they are acquiring dozens of new fans daily.

A brotha can be nostalgic and sentimental about the past all day, but change is the only constant. Even if you don’t like it.

In an age when schools and institutions are generally seeking to a present a diversity of role models to their youth, it’s strange that it’s taken this long for Dan and Pat have been officially acknowledged. Good to see this has finally changed, albeit only when others outside the area have already been feting them for many years.

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What Is The Black Keys’ Best Selling Album?

brucini — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:30:49 +0000

Selling records is not necessarily a true indication of the quality of an album. But sales will always get you fed.

Not surprisingly Brothers is The Black Keys top selling album.

Perhaps surprisingly this post title is a really common search term from fans. So it’s not just the artist who’s interested. Maybe numbers like these also prompt many to like an artist too?

The 2009 stats below have no doubt increased, especially on the back of the Brothers success. Nevertheless, if stats are a raw indicator, you get a sense of how times have changed for the band.

In this context it’s interesting to see how the fanbase takes to El Camino. Pat Carney is hopeful for sales of 500,000. The days of Magic Potion seem a long way away now.

The bottom line – albums sold:

Brothers 830,000 (Nov 2011)
Attack & Release 192,000 (Nov 2009)
Magic Potion 116,000 (Nov 2009)
Rubber Factory 147,000 (Nov 2009)

Source: Nielsen Sound Scan via Billboard Nov 2009, page 34

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The Black Keys and The Black Keys Fan Lounge on Google Plus

brucini — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 08:53:16 +0000

The Black Keys seem to be as ubiquitous as social media these days. Opt in or out, your call. The latest kid on the block is the Google+ social network. Pages on Google+ were enabled today.

If you’re opting in, you can connect with The Black Keys on Google+ here. At least the band has appropriated their page early, unlike when they lost their @theblackkeys Twitter handle for a few years (since re-taken). They’ve not posted anything to date. Perhaps will just concentrate efforts via Facebook for now.

You can connect with The Black Keys Fan Lounge on Google+ here.

You’ll see there are share buttons at the top of each Fan Lounge blog post so you can share content to Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon and Google+. Share what you like with other fans.

Of course, you can keep up to date with the Fan Lounge on Twitter and Facebook too. Same shizzle (most of the time), different platforms.

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El Camino: The Black Keys’ Lonely Boy single released

brucini — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:17:31 +0000

Ahh, happy days, Lonely Boy, the new single from The Black Keys’ new album El Camino, has been released.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_426RiwST8

After the success of the Brothers album and the Tighten Up single, the pressure, if unsaid, was to produce something that carried the momentum of that release into the new. Hard to argue The Black Keys’ have not hit the mark on this one. This is certainly a radio-friendly, classic rock ‘n’ roll tune.

Discuss this song with other fans in the Forum here.

The art of writing a hit single is well documented. Lonely Boy seems to have all the key ingredients. Not everyone can mix them together like The Black Keys, however.

This song has:

the catchy riff you think you’ve heard before but with a twist
the big chorus to sing along with
the distinctive and strong vocals
lyrics with emotional resonance

Oh, and having a memorably simple video helps also.

The Black Keys – Lonely Boy Lyrics

Well I’m so above you, it is plain to see
But I came to love you anyway
So you pulled my heart out
And I don’t mind bleeding
Any old time you keep me waiting, waiting, waiting

Chorus:

oooohh I got a love that keeps me waiting
oooohh I got a love that keeps me waiting
I’m a lonely boy, I’m a lonely boy
oooohh I got a love that keeps me waiting

Well your mama kept you
But your daddy left you
And I should have done you just the same
But I came to love you
Am I born to bleed?
Any old time you keep me waiting, waiting, waiting

Chorus:

oooohh I got a love that keeps me waiting
oooohh I got a love that keeps me waiting
I’m a lonely boy, I’m a lonely boy
oooohh I got a love that keeps me waiting

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El Camino: The Black Keys’ New Album Cover, Track Listing, Livestream, Press Release, Fan Reaction

brucini — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 22:37:05 +0000

For the sake of those Black Keys fans who only come to this website and no other, here’s the latest news that’s fit to print about The Black Keys new album El Camino.

No doubt the drip feed of info and pr about the new album is going to be immense. The timing of the December 6 release clearly looks to take advantage of the Christmas retail season with big retail chains stocking the album.

For those who are keen you can pre-order the album via any format you like and with t-shirt.

Album cover:

Track listing:

Lonely Boy
Dead and Gone
Gold on the Ceiling
Little Black Submarines
Money Maker
Run Right Back
Sister
Hell of a Season
Stop Stop
Nova Baby
Mind Eraser

Official Press Release in full:

The Black Keys’ new album El Camino will be released December 6 on Nonesuch Records. Produced by Danger Mouse and The Black Keys, the 11-track album was recorded at singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in the band’s new hometown of Nashville during the spring of 2011.

In advance of the release, the album’s first single, “Lonely Boy,” will be released on October 26. The complete track list is below; further details will be announced shortly. Pre-orders of El Camino begin today at www.theblackkeys.com and www.nonesuch.com and include a download of the single, which will be delivered on October 26.

El Camino follows the most successful two years in The Black Keys’ career. In May 2010 they released their breakthrough album, Brothers, to widespread critical acclaim. Debuting at #2 in the U.S., it went on to win three Grammy Awards and an MTV Video Music Award, and topped numerous year-end lists, including iTunes, NPR, and Rolling Stone. Brothers, which included the hit singles “Tighten Up” and “Howlin’ for You,” has been certified Gold in the U.S. and U.K., and Platinum in Canada. Worldwide sales are now over one million and counting.

Drummer Patrick Carney said of the band’s recent success, “We’ve taken the long road to get where we are. It’s pretty cool to be in your early 30s making music with your best friend. We’ve experienced everything from driving a thousand miles to play for no one to winning Grammys.” Auerbach further describes the band’s dynamic, “We don’t talk before we play. We don’t practice before we record, we just fly by the seat of our pants.” He says of El Camino, “I think where this record is going to shine for me is playing the songs live. This record is more straight ahead rock and roll—raw, driving, and back to basics.”

The Black Keys—Akron, OH natives Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney—released their debut album, The Big Come Up, in 2002, followed by Thickfreakness (2003) and Rubber Factory (2004). In 2006 they signed to Nonesuch Records in the U.S. and released their fourth album, Magic Potion, which was followed by the Danger Mouse-produced Attack & Release in 2008. El Camino is the first Black Keys album Nonesuch will release worldwide.

Live Stream:

There will be a special live stream broadcast of The Black Keys via Facebook.

Fan Reaction:

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