The Black Keys Fan Lounge Forum

The Black Keys are my favorite band, hands down and I like Gnarls Barkley a lot even though I'm not all that into hip hop. When I first heard TBK were working with Dangermouse and Ike Turner I really dug the idea. When Ike died, and they decided to do their next record with Dangermouse producing I was into it. Then Attack and Release came out and it was good but... to me it didn't quite live up to their earlier efforts. One of the things I truelly love about TBK is their sparse production. To me, Attack was over produced. Still it was a good record, just not a great record. fast forward to 2010. For the past few months I've been reading everything on this site about the new album TBK recorded down in Muscle Shoals. And I was eagerly awaiting tne new release, and then... up pops the anouncement that there is a Dangermouse produced single on the new album. great. Does somebody at Nonesuch honestly think TBK need Dangermouse to sell a record? Because that's the kind of thinking Record Executives get at major labels. Or is this one of those situations where a lawyer decided to coerce the band into putting their clients name on the new album? Is there anybody out there besides me that doesn't think Dangermouse is the best thing to happen to the Black Keys? Bottom line- I'm still planning on buying the new record, but I'm alot less enthusiastic about it and probably won't be buying it when it first comes out. I may even wait til I can find it used.

i hear a lot of people with this same opinion and personally i really enjoy both sides of their music. I definitely don't think they should drift away from their roots but they can't just do the same thing over and over. I wasn't at all disappointed by Attack and Release and I immediately liked Tighten Up. Plus its only one song off their new album that is produced by Dangermouse so I expect the rest will have a lower production level like their earlier stuff. Don't you think its possible that they just like working with Dangermouse considering the success they had working together and it isnt some scheme to sell more records? Its their music and their creativity and i'm not gunna be dissapointed just cus they arent doing exactly what i want. instead i am going to enjoy every second of it because all of their music is so great. I am very excited for the new album and will be buying it on May 18 and wouldnt call myself a fan if i didnt.

as ive said before, they are also gettin older and growin up... bluesin out to fat rock n roll riffs is a young mans game... these two new songs ive heard r defo a more mature sound. i would love to hear some fat dirty riffs n im sure there will be some on the album but i also love soul n 70s n gospel n folk n americana n those two songs ive heard jst have that old school american sound n as i said before they are soundin almost like a different band, but i have no doubt that when it comes down to it live they will be the old black keys. honestly listenin to those two songs although initially i was a lil disappointed at the "lighteness" of them, the songs still appeal to me more than most other things im hearing at the moment. im a singer songwriter n so i can appreciate that writin rock n roll as i did with the hokes is ace, but i also love writin full on stories n acoustic rambles chilled out, so a band with such a wide varying taste in music and now in a position wer they can probably dictate a lil more of what they wanna do they are of course going to want to experiment a bit. oh btw... i no its self advertising, but ive put a new song up on youtube, theres a few problems with it timing issues etc but we ran out of time in the studio lol let me no wot yas think....

good point stingy, there was an interview on here that somebody linked to where pat said that they already had two more albums ready to go. so if we think this is different then what are they like?

i suppose promotion or lawyer pushiness or anything like that creative control and whatever. If pat and dan didnt enjoy themselves making the music then they wouldnt get anywhere surely? and they did go after dangermouse, so i guess thats that. i agree that a smaller label would give them more freedom but less promotion in the end.

If they did an album with dangermouse in the basement would that be better?

well i suppose its an influences thing? i love the blues and the old blues guys and i'm really into that style so i love all the old stuff including magic potion. everything up to attack and release was an instant fav in my eyes or ears maybe? no doubt straight up, just one listen and yep thats the best shit there is. A+R took more adjusting as it was more elaborate but i still loved it, had it in my cd player everywhere for i think about a month and a half near on exclusively. and i always go back to it. i tend to see A+R as a less rocky album though. I'll be rocking the shit out of the old stuff on a long trip and then need to chill a bit and i can cruise to A+R then.

Only the thing is then that the A+R tracks are some of my big time fav's of the live show.
Same old thing, i got mine, strange times, oceans and streams when its on the organ on the DVD, even the DVD (crystal ballroom i'm talking about both times) version of all i ever wanted is killer.

so i ranted away just now got lost and in the process discovered something that maybe dangermouse wasnt the best thing? i seriously enjoyed the album it was very good. Tighten Up is by far my favourite "studio" song produced by dangermouse. But the live versions of all the A+R songs are 20 million times better when its dan and pat just belting the absolute F**K out of them!

do i have a hell yeah with that? interesting to see who prefers A+R studio versions to live versions?

what i was originally getting at is Mike above^ do you like old blues stuff and all that sort of gear? what are your other influences?

TBK has 100% control over what they play and what they record.

They have opened for big acts before. If you;ve watched the video they have opened for Radiohead and Beck amoung others