Music Monday with PLC is a weekly feature written by my husband, Pat.
Find out the back story + check out the full archives HERE .
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The Black Keys
[photo by jennifer; review by pat]
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I went to college in New York City, and many times went down to the East Village to see new bands with friends. I had a roommate who listened to the Steve Winwood Back in the High Life album. A lot. He would scoff at us, why we would go to these small clubs to see these obscure bands? “At least the first time I see a band is not in an arena...”, one of my friends shot back to him. Apparently arena rock has changed.
The Black Keys is a band that you may not have heard of, unless you frequent such obscure establishments as Starbucks, watch fringe programming like Saturday Night Live, read magazines (if anyone still does that) like Rolling Stone, or visit intimate rock clubs such as Madison Square Garden. The rock promotion locomotive is full steam ahead, and this duo out of Akron, Ohio is shoveling coal into the furnace like the devil is one step behind. On their new release “El Camino” (Nonesuch Records), The Black Keys are swinging for the fences and have connected with a solid rock and roll album - not an easy feat in 2012.
Check out the great first single “Lonely Boy”, complete with awesome video.
If Billy Preston was the fifth Beatle, then surely Danger Mouse is the third Black Key. Make no mistake, all the radio candy comes from Danger Mouse, but it is the combination of his head and The Black Keys' heart that make this a great album. Their collaboration gives us some of the most accessible swamp boogie since John Fogerty was chooglin‘ through the jungle. Will people remember The Black Keys twenty years from now - I’ll let the music critic illuminati debate that one. As for me, I’m just gonna crank up the El Camino and enjoy rocking out to it.
- PLC
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MORE:
- last week - Smoking Popes
- full archive of Music Monday with PLC - HERE
Besides, you never know how time will treat music. Truth be told, every time I hear “Lonely Boy”, a little part of me still thinks of Andrew Gold.
