Black Keys The Big Come Up CD

Debut;Trio From Akron

The Black Keys: Dan Auerbach (vocals, guitar); Gabe Fulvimar (Moog synthesizer, keyboards); Patrick Carney (drums).
Recorded Synth Etiquette Analog Sound, Akron, Ohio between January and February 2002.
Personnel: Dan Auerbach (vocals, guitar); Patrick Carney (drums).
Recording information: Synth Etiquette Analog Sound, Akron, OH (01/2002-02/2002).
Photographer: Michael Carney.
On paper, two Ohio white guys forming a drum-and-guitar blues duo seemed like the last thing the world needed in 2002. Fortunately, the guys revisiting the tried and true were guitarist-vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney a.k.a. the Black Keys. With the former's blown-cone distortion and slinky riffs, and the latter's positively Bonham-esque way of inhabiting each change with a loose power, they smacked judgment out of one's brain before anyone could call it cliche. Taking cues from Fat Possum-centric blues legends like Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside (both covered here on the first two tracks) and garage fetishists like Billy Childish and Jack White alike, the Akron duo arrived with swagger on these 13 tracks. Tackling covers traditional (like Sleepy John Estes's "Leavin' Trunk") and non (the Beatles's "She Said, She Said") and their own workouts (the aptly titled "Heavy Soul"), THE BIG COME UP wins on the strength of Auerbach's ravagedly expressive vocals--which match the egdes in his guitar tone crag for crag.
As minimal two-man blues-rock bands go, this has to be near the top of the heap. The problem with minimal two-man blues-rock outfits (and there have been more of them than you think) is that they're, well, usually too minimal, with thin garage sound and a shortage of variety. The Black Keys' sound, impressively, is not too thin (though it is garage-ish), and there's enough deft incorporation of funk, soul, and hard rock into the harsh juke joint-ish core to avoid monotony. Most importantly, Dan Auerbach has a genuinely fine, powerful blues voice, sometimes approximating a white, slightly smoother Howlin' Wolf (particularly on the opener, "Busted"). Auerbach's a good guitarist, too, conjuring suitably harsh and busy (and sometimes heavily reverbed) riffs out of what sounds like a cheap but effectively harsh amp. Patrick Carney's drums might be the cruder component of this two-man band, but they keep the sound earthy without sounding sloppily punkish for the hell of it, as too many such groups searching for the blues-punk fusion do. The very occasional insertion of hip-hop snippets seems neither here nor there, and the cover of the Beatles' "She Said, She Said" seems like an odd choice. But overall it's quite cool raunchy electric blues with more vigor and imagination than similarly raw, elderly Southern juke joint artists who came into vogue starting in the 1990s. And it's way fresher than the standard bar band blues-rockers with slicker execution and more reverence for blues clichés. ~ Richie Unterberger

Rolling Stone (10/02, p.69) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...A righteous choice for rock debut of the year..."
Spin (p.116) - "This Ohio duo indulges in Gories-style minimalism, with a heavier dose of the blues."
Magnet (10/02, p.80) - "...A genuine by-product of their situation....[The band has] an intimate understanding and reverential respect for the music..."
Mojo (Publisher) (1/03, p.75) - Ranked #25 in Mojo's "Best Albums of 2002"