The Black Keys - Lies
Like many couples embarking on their second decade together, the Black Keys decided they needed to spend some time apart. Once Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney wrapped their supporting tour for 2014's Turn Blue, the pair went their separate ways. During the next half-decade, neither musician laid low, busying themselves with production work and, in Auerbach's case, releasing two albums of new original material (Yours, Dreamily was the 2015 debut of his second band the Arcs, while 2017's Waiting on a Song was his second solo record). All of that extramarital wandering pays great dividends on Let's Rock, the duo's first album in five years. Lighter and leaner than Turn Blue -- and, ironically, considerably more colorful, too -- Let's Rock doesn't so much find the Black Keys trying new recipes as revisiting old favorites with fresh, elevated ingredients. Blues, garage, and old soul remain at the foundation of the group's sound, but they've swapped jammy excesses for over-saturated fuzz guitars and stacked vocal overdubs. Only two songs on Let's Rock threaten to break the four-minute mark: with its lava lamp psychedelic swirl, "Walk Across the Water" drifts for a luxurious length, while the brightly skipping "Get Yourself Together" gets there quicker. This concentrated brevity makes the album play a bit like a fantasy jukebox, spinning out hooks and harmonies with abandon. Sometimes, the Black Keys accentuate this pop undercurrent -- "Tell Me Lies" feels as if it's flirting with Fleetwood Mac's "Little Lies," "Sit Around and Miss You" glides down a gilded highway -- which helps give the album a dreamy weightlessness even if it's doused in layers of electric guitars. Scratch the production gloss a bit, and it's apparent those six strings are balanced by clever drum loops and other digital flair that give the album a modern vibrancy, even if its sensibility is unabashedly retro. Perhaps all these glowing, percolating sounds don't rock as hard and heavy as the earliest Black Keys album, but Let's Rock has an appealing ease to its execution. It's a good-time record designed for daylight and, after the murky Turn Blue and its ensuing hiatus, it's refreshing to hear the Black Keys step out of the dark and into the sunshine.
The Black Keys - Lies
If you're not hooked by the time Dan Auerbach finger-picks his way into the whining guitar groove of opener Busted, then the delivery of his sandpaper vocal drawl - ably assisted by Patrick Carney's whiplash drumming and "medium fidelity" production - will assure you that, in the US Midwest, they still keep their blues traditionally bottled. And therein lies the key to The Black Keys' brilliance - the ability to make exciting new tunes sound raw and well-travelled, without falling into lame pastiche or parody. - Ross Bennett / MOJO
The Black Keys is a two-man blues-rock group from Akron, Ohio, United States which formed in 2001, consisting of singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney. The band name was inspired by a schizophrenic artist and friend in Akron, who used the term "black keys" to describe things he disliked or people he did not trust. The Black Keys have roots in traditional blues and psychedelic rock stylings.
The Black Keys have achieved increasing critical acclaim and recognition since their debut album, which itself received praise from Rolling Stone magazine. Time magazine named them one of the "10 Best Acts of 2003" (behind OutKast and The White Stripes). They have supported a number of bands: they toured with Sleater-Kinney in 2003, had a short stint opening for Beck, have recently opened for Radiohead on the American leg of their brief 2006 tour, and performed at Lollapalooza in 2005 and 2007. In addition to this, they were also well-liked by influential British radio DJ John Peel and appeared on both Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Late Show with David Letterman. Famous followers of the band include Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, and Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammet. Matt Helders, drummer for the Arctic Monkeys, can be seen in a Black Keys T-Shirt in an interview on MTV's RAW.
If a drunk driver crashed his speeding rental car crashed into your house and killed your spouse, you would be outraged if law enforcers took bribes and refused to give the driver a blood test. If the judge then gave the killer a small fine and ordered you to pay the fine and pay for all the damages, you'd be outraged. If the government then handed the drunk-driver keys to a bigger faster rental car, handed the drunk driver an even bigger bottle of whiskey and then gave you the rental bill, you'd storm Washington and blizzard elected officials with protests and organize friends and associates to vote these malefactors, the elected officials that betrayed your trust, out of office.
I've also been vocal about shootings, mob wildings, and muggings in Chicago and the fact that our officials are lying to our population about the causes. It's true that most of shootings are black-on-black or brown-on-brown and that violence in our poorer neighborhoods is branching out into middle class neighborhoods. In instances where perpetrators are black or brown and the victims are white, it is tempting to say it is all about race, but as I pointed out, this is much bigger than our racial issue:
If criminals didn't have guns, they would use knives. The killings in our African American communities have nothing to do with racism. These are black-on-black crimes perpetrated by criminals with no respect for authority and no self-respect. They victimize and terrorize decent members of the black community struggling to survive a devastating economic crisis. The Chicago Police Superintendent's pandering and misinformation doesn't make it easy for anyone to respect authority.
Father Pfleger has something to answer for as well. What happened to separation of Church and State? Why does the Catholic Church deserve tax-exempt status if it allows a priest to use the Church pulpit for political rallies? 041b061a72