The Black Keys - The Big Come Up

If we talk about the blues and how they are doing nowadays, with the White Stripes gone (here’s hoping the Jack White album is awesome!), there really is not much left in terms of new breed other than the Black Keys. Their latest album, El Camino, saw them reach KLAQ status with huge songs and their first arena tour. But there used to be a time, long ago. when both the Stripes and Black Keys were releasing hit after hit – back in the early 2000s. It was always a big deal to get either band’s vinyl stuff because it sounded VASTLY better for some reason (the bluesy riffs deeper and the awesome fidelity very lush and yes, high) and for the Keys it all began with The Big Come Up. Flashing their vintage, raw, blues sound, this is where the Akron duo developed their underground fanbase; releasing stellar album after stellar album before finally getting some recognition when they signed with Nonesuch and had Danger Mouse producing some stuff. Now, on this album everything sounds much more raw and much more grounded in tight production than anything else.

On “Them Eyes” the duo take a lonely opening lick before chugging along with driving force. He’s done her wrong and as sad as she is, he can’t bear to know how much he’s affected her. “If you don’t bring me back this time, I swear I’m gonna lose my mind,” he declares. Very basic and fundamental, it’s obviously where the roots for songs like “Tighten Up” were invested; here the guitar rides the blues scale with tender care as he sings about tearing up, every time he looks into ‘them eyes.’
But while basic and fundamental is musical jargon, it doesn’t mean that the music is without emotion. Like any solid blues act, the Keys pay homage with covers that directly draw a blues style, along with traditional values. Here, The Beatles' “She Said, She Said” (which was actually a single off this album) is rendered into a sweet cover that keeps the original melody and vibes for a fuzzy rendition. Their raw energy was focused onto production that could mask their instruments with muffled style and they immediately possessed massive chops.
 

And here, on “The Breaks,” the guitar cries in the background as it’s both shredded and yearning for escape. These breaks seem to be the downright blues of losing your loved one, “I know you’re gone, gone for sure” and damn it, realizing it. It’s what people like Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf made blues for back during their time and in 2002 the Keys were just playing the natural blues they learned growing up. Recorded all in one of their basements, it’s still their purest album to date, perhaps a blues standard for the 00s. – Bryan
 

The Black Keys – Thickfreakness

Long before The Black Keys were huge mega-stars, they were always an outstanding blues-rock duo that was always very awesome. Their second album, Thickfreakness, was where I first started to notice just how massively huge their sound was. And it was on this album that I found out just how great they were because of how they could weave the best emotional stories through gritty, stunningly special rock music. They’re definitely a band to listen to loud on vinyl because it sounds that much better.

On “Hurt Like Mine,” the guitar travels through a grinding bluesy riff that always bites while the words focus the hurt on a guy that’s gotten his heart broken by a girl that just wants to be friends. “How you hurt me, oh how you cause me pain” is what he first asks but she simply doesn’t understand because, well, she doesn’t feel the same. And in the end, since she wants to be friends, he can lay his crying head on her shoulder? Yeah right. I love how it’s almost like what The White Stripes were doing at the same time but with more of a lonely, down-on-his-luck kind of sad blues. I’m still not sure why it took 8 years later for them to ‘take off.’

The album’s got two covers on it and still, it’s “I Cry Alone”’s old vibes that sound the most traditionally blues out of all of them. It’s about crying alone after letting go of a girl that had such a hold on you “so tight, so tight that I [you] could not see.” The guitar’s basic riff is accompanied only by a soft tap and it’s solely Dan Auerbach’s voice as he laments his sad story to the listener. He never says why he had to let her go but that “At night, I cry alone, I weap all night, til the early morn'.” It’s a beautiful way to end the album really, in the most basic sense of blues possible. – Bryan

The Blues Post

I was talking to someone the other day about my personal musical taste and it got me thinking. Why is it I love what I love so much and where did it all start? During the conversation I realized that the very first genre of music I got into on my own was The Blues. Early on I can remember investing my meager allowance on Blues cassettes from Sam Goody. One that sticks out in my mind that was on constant rewind on a particular yellow Sony Walkman everyone seemed to have back in the day was Eric Clapton's "Unplugged". Why an 8 year old Mexican kid became infatuated with the blues is still kinda unknown to me, but it definitely shaped my musical taste from that point on. From the Blues I naturally gained interest in Jazz music and more popular forms of "Black" music like R&B and hip-hop. My youthful exploration into rap and hip-hop turned me onto the "sample based" culture of the time. I started reading linear notes of rap artist to figure out what amazing soul singer unknown to me that was being sampled. From there I was introduced to the funky and soulful hooks of Soul and Funk music. Till this day I attribute my love for all these musical genres and everything they have to offer because first and foremost fell for the Blues. Here are a few classics I'll always love and some new stuff, which is proof that the Blues ain't dead and never will be, because people will always have the blues and will always need to express them musically.
The Classics
From what was touted as the Black Woodstock, Albert King, a blues legend plays at "Wattstax" a concert at the LA Coliseum in the summer of 1972 that brought together some of the biggest names in Black popular music. "I'll Play the Blues for You" (I love his intro, he speaks to exactly what I just expressed earlier, saying, "This is for all the Blues lovers and to those that ain't hip to the Blues. We gonna learn them to you, or rather teach them, cause we'll be around for a while".


A little taste of what little Nico was jamming to on his Walkman back in '93. (A white man from England who knows how to play some mean blues guitar, a testament to the power of the Blues)


The New School
The undisputed kings of the Blues for this generation in my book, The Black Keys have been doing it with class and doing it for some time now. Amazing Lyrics and blues licks that rate up there with the best. (I love how this little studio session shows the inceprion of an amazing track,,, and lyrics like, "I wish loneliness would leave me, but I think it's here to stay" really help to love this song.


Crystal Antlers, a band I have had the amazing opportunity to meet on a few occasions as well as have play in a friends basement, these dudes, and chick from Long Beach California know how to rock! A great example of how the Blues ideal has married post punk sensibilities and transformed into an exciting hybrid that holds to a bluesy standard that I hope will never leave music, actually I know it won't.

So the next time your lover leaves you and you feel the Blues a coming on, don't get worried there will be a plethora of music to drown your sorrows in, All Thanks to the Blues.
-Nick

ACL 2010: The Black Keys

The first band we made sure to get up and close for was The Black Keys. It was pretty startling to get to the park at 3PM and already see so many people there but as you've probably already heard, this year's Austin City Limits Festival was ridiculously packed. Still, it made for amazing moments where the bands fed off the audience's energy and delivered awesome performances.
The Black Keys were certainly no exception as they rocked the crowd with intense energy. They played a few songs as a duo and then brought out a bassist and pianist to flesh out songs like "Tighten Up." I dug the smooth chug of "Everlasting Light" the most but it was also pretty great to hear older songs. Their sequencing was especially remarkable, as if they were improvising the entire set.
In the end, I don't remember being that blown away with my first performance in the three years I've been to ACL. It definitely made me forget that I was sacrificing Beach House to catch these rocking brothers. Maybe it was the fact that they're one of the trendiest bands right now, maybe it was that their new album is pretty spectacular or maybe just the fact that they're a tremendous band, did me in. - Bryan

The Black Keys live from Austin City Limits Music Fest 2010

We're really happy to be sharing the sights and sounds of Austin City Limits 2010 here at Odd Gila.

The first concert we got the chance to check out was The Black Keys at the AMD stage. And For the first thing to lay our ears on this year at the festival, the "Brothers" from Akron, Ohio did not disappoint. Here is a recording of their set from Friday. Try and forgive the sometimes sketchy quality, however when its good, you can hear how talented this duo really is. Enjoi! -nick

Black Keys Live from ACl 2010 by nico43

Hermanos

This Tuesday the 8th studio album by Akron, Ohio natives THE BLACK KEYS will drop, and I'll be waiting. In an era where you download the new album as opposed to picking up the hard copy at your local record store, it's refreshing to have guys making music that you just gotta go out and pick up. The album is entitled "Brothers" and sounds like it's gonna be another memorable journey through the Bluesy, Southern Rock world of THE BLACK KEYS. The 2 big singles so far have been on repeat all day, no joke. Both tracks speak to complicated relationship issues, something another artist i featured earlier in the year did with her entire album. And who doesn't love some complicated LOVE issues. Isn't that what most music is about??
"Next Girl"--- Not your typical "ex" song. THE BLACK KEYS channel a little more Hendrix then usual on this tune. The guitars are dripping wet in reverb and I swear i hear "Foxy Lady" somewhere in there at the end. Instead of moaning about the past, this song is about the next chapter in someone's "relationship" life, you know, the next girl. Sure, we're still torn up about that last reltionshit we were in, with lyrics like "Oh, a beautiful face, And a wicked way. And I'm paying for her beautiful face Everyday. All that work Over so much time If I think too hard I might lose my mind". But the Blues don't last forever, and someone's come along so, "Oh my next girl Will be nothing like my ex-girl I made mistakes back then I'll never do it again With my next girl She'll be nothing like my ex-girl It was a painful dance And I got a second chance Oh my next girl My next girl!"
"Tighten Up" ---The complicated love song. A very poppy sound the boys make on this one, very reminiscent to some Peter Bjorn and John with the whistling at the beginning. The song gets grittier though as situations complicate.
"Take my badge, but my heart remains Loving you, baby child..Tighten up on your reigns, you're running wild..Running wild, it's true." The beat breaks down, tension builds and the guitar starts to moan louder; and our statement goes a little like this, "When I was young, and moving fast, Nothing slowed me down, ooh slowed me down. Now I let the others pass I've come around, oh come around. Cause I found." -nick