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The Black Keys

The Black Keys39 posts

The Black Keys is a Grammy-winning American rock duo consisting of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney. The band formed in 2001 in Akron, Ohio and recorded in basements before finding commercial success. The band’s songs have been widely licensed for use in television, film, and commercials.

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2 Jul, 2014

Launch Open’er Festival

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The band headlines the Open’er festival with a 90-minute set. Auerbach says the crowd has “ten times the energy” of Glastonbury and tells the audience:

…this is our first time here, we heard about you, they said you were wild.

This marks the first time the band has performed in Poland.

Mar 2014

Renew Orioles sponsorship

Dan AuerbachPatrick CarneySponsorship Deal0 Comments

The Black Keys continue their sponsorship of the West Akron Baseball League’s Orioles. They are also donating to the entire WABL through the sale of specially designed jerseys available at the band’s website. Carney says:

Dan [Auerbach, the Keys’ lead singer and guitarist] and I played little league when we were kids before we got into music. It was a really positive hobby that kept us from sitting around watching TV. We are proud to be sponsoring WABL to hopefully offset some of the league’s expenses and get more kids outside having fun.

2 Aug, 2013

TMZ leaks private emails

Jack White0 Comments

TMZ leaks White’s private emails after wife Elson submits them in the couple’s divorce proceedings. The emails include comments made about Auerbach of the Black Keys, whose children are attending the same school as White’s:

That’s a possible twelve f***ing years I’m going to have to be sitting in kids chairs next to that a**hole with other people trying to lump us in together. [Auerbach] gets yet another free reign to follow me around and copy me and push himself into my world.

10 Feb, 2013

Wins Grammy

Grammy0 Comments

The Black Keys wins Grammy for Best Rock Album for El Camino. Carney:

It’s a weird thing to happen 10 years into your career

14 Dec, 2011

Maxim Interview

Dan AuerbachMaximInterview0 Comments

Auerbach talks about the impact of The Black Keys’ album Brothers:

Absolutely. I mean, it was our seventh record, so to finally hear our songs on the radio was kind of crazy, and it opened up the door for other songs to get played. But we’d toured like crazy, and each record sold better than the last one, so we definitely laid the groundwork.

13 Feb, 2011

Wins Grammy

Grammy0 Comments

The Black Keys wins Grammys for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals for Tighten Up and Best Alternative Music Album for Brothers.

We never expected to get a Grammy-ever.

Black Keys interview at 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards - GRAMMY Live | GRAMMYs

Dec 2010

Move to Nashville

Dan AuerbachPatrick Carney0 Comments

Auerbach and Carney move to Nashville, TN., from Akron, OH. Nashville was one of several finalists under consideration before the bandmates bought homes there.

Honestly, if Miami had given Pat and I the amount of money they gave LeBron, we would be living in Miami right now.

27 May, 2009

9th Annual IMA judges

Dan AuerbachPatrick Carney0 Comments

Auerbach and Carney join the 9th Annual Independent Music Awards as artist judges. The international program honors independent artists who

who broaden the definition of commercial success and represent the diversity of the global Indie scene.

SSM LP 1
1 Jan, 2005

LP 1 (SSM)

Dan AuerbachSSM0 Comments

SSM LP 1The Detroit-based garage-punk supergroup releases its debut full-length album on Shmosz Records in a limited CD run of 500. The album is produced and engineered by Auerbach (whose band The Black Keys tours with SSM in the fall). Auerbach is a featured guitarist on track Dinosaur.

SSM "Dinosaur" ft. Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys - from "LP 1" disc (2005)

18 Dec, 2003

Third best album of 2003

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TIME chooses Thickfreakness as its third best album of 2003:

While the blues were being embalmed over on PBS, this twenty-something Akron white-boy duo released a great, contemporary blues album — to absolutely no acclaim. The Keys may pillage the occasional Stevie Ray Vaughn or Hendrix lick, but they’re not playing the blues to be precocious. They’re doing it because Dan Auerbach’s rusty holler is 100% pure ache.

The Big Come Up
14 May, 2002

The Big Come Up

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The duo releasesThe Big Come Up its first album, the “garage-ish” blues-rock The Big Come Up. The album features covers of Junior Kimbrough, the Beatles, and traditional blues in addition to 10 original tracks, ending with the 23:20 “240 Years Before Your Time”. On the decision to release the album on the Southern California indie label Alive, Auerbach says:

They released [albums by] Doctor Ross the Harmonica Boss as well as Stooges records. I figured they might understand what we were doing.

2002

Sign with Alive Records

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The Black Keys mails demos out to a number of record labels. Boissel signs the band and offers to release their first full-length. When asked Patrick Boissel at Alive Records response:

I received the demo in the mail. I think I later got an email from Dan mentioning Dr Ross, I thought it was cool. I called him and the rest is history as they say. That’s how I remember it.