Tuesday, January 8, 2008

The Black Keys Reveal Danger Mouse-Produced Album






It seems like just yesterday when we were WTF-ing at rumors of a collaboration between the Black Keys, Danger Mouse, and the now late Ike Turner... until Keys drummer Patrick Carney confirmed it in an interview last year. Turner's passing seemingly put a damper on the project, but it turns out the songs the Keys were writing for him gave them the foundation for their own record, the follow-up to 2006's Magic Potion.

The result is the Danger Mouse-produced Attack & Release, the duo's fifth album-- but their first recorded in a proper studio. Alas, no Cee-Lo guest spot, but it does feature contributions from experimental guitarist Marc Ribot and multi-instrumentalist Ralph Carney (Patrick's uncle), both of whom have played in Tom Waits' band. There's also a pretty killer slow-burn duet between guitarist/singer Dan Auerbach and 18-year-old bluegrass/country singer Jessica Lea Mayfield on the closing track.

And while in theory, the thought of a Danger Mouse-produced Black Keys record brings to mind a bunch of electronic beats and sound pastiches slapped on stripped-down garage rawk, it's a credit to Danger Mouse as a producer that he manages mostly to stay out of the way of the jams, except for a few little flourishes here and there.

Nonesuch will release Release on April 1, no foolin', and the Black Keys will head out on tour in the spring in support of the album, starting with their appearance at South by Southwest.

2 comments:

Joe Torre said...

the song was aight but the video was as gay as your vagina. i hate hippies they and your vagina are all hippies.

v for life

dRchunkerton said...

i'm excited for real; the keys excel at what they do, but i do think there getting a little "more of the same" and maybe this could help.

btw if you didn't write this you need to cite it...it reads like you cut and pasted it from a press package, which is totally cool but you need to give credit.

example:

hey guys, news on mike v!

from cnn: "v in viola stands for vagina."

some people don't take kindly to you misrepresnting thier work as your own, even if you didn't mean to.