The Black Keys: lasers and banjos

Extra sauce: the Black Keys' Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach

Over the course of their first four albums, the Black Keys developed a reputation for being purists. The Akron, Ohio, duo’s stripped-down version of classic garage-rock—featuring Dan Auerbach’s scrappy guitar and vocals, Patrick Carney’s propulsive drums and very little else—drew lots of comparisons to other guitar-and-drums duos like the White Stripes, as well as to venerable blues-based rockers like Bad Company and Led Zeppelin. In many ways, they seemed like a band from another era.

So when the Keys announced that they were working on a new album with producer and Gnarls Barkley mastermind Brian Burton, a.k.a. Danger Mouse, all the pre-release buzz centered on the group’s “new sound.” Word that the duo had recorded some tracks with Burton for an Ike Turner album—which was shelved following Turner’s death last year—only added fuel to the “radical departure” rumors.

But the big news is that, despite Burton’s obvious influence and the presence of several guest musicians (most notably jazz-rock guitarist Marc Ribot and multi-instrumentalist Ralph Carney, Patrick’s uncle), “Attack & Release” is still very much a Black Keys record—lean, muscular and filled with echoes of classic rock, blues and soul.

From the Keys’ tour van somewhere between Tucson and Phoenix, Auerbach checked in with us to talk about the new record, Akron’s place in music history and the inspiration for the old-school video game (“it’s very bluesy,” Auerbach deadpans) currently gracing the band’s Web site.

Up until this record, you guys were pretty much a two-man operation. What was it like opening that up to an outside producer and guest musicians?
I was really cool with it, because you know, with Brian [Danger Mouse] especially, we’d been working with him for a few months on this Ike Turner project. So it wasn’t like we didn’t know what to expect, really. But with people like [Marc] Ribot and Ralph [Carney] and Jessica [Lea Mayfield]—it was just people that we admired, and we thought that their contributions would make sense.

Some of Danger Mouse’s production work can get pretty out there. Was there anything on this record where you guys were like, “What’s he doing? What the hell is this?”
No, not really. You know, he likes things to be pretty organic. I don’t know. I listen to his music and it doesn’t seem all that crazy to me. It just sounds really good. I think people are surprised these days when they hear good music on the radio. [Laughs] “What is this? Oh…instruments? I don’t get it. Real voices? I don’t understand. They’re not even pitch-corrected.”

I do think it’s interesting that, even though people have made a pretty big deal out of your collaboration with Danger Mouse, ultimately “Attack & Release” still sounds like a Black Keys record. It’s not that much of a departure.
No, not at all. It’s us; we brought all those instruments from our house, ‘cause we wanted to use them. I think the misconception that people are having is that any time they hear anything on the record that’s not drums, vocals or guitars, it’s Brian. [Laughs]

So the flute, the organ, the banjo—all of that came from you guys?
Yeah, I brought the banjo and I really wanted to play it. I think actually Brian wasn’t into the idea until he heard how I played it—because I don’t really play it like a banjo player. I just have it in open tuning and play it like it’s a guitar. And the flute was all Ralph. Me and Pat were kind of going over songs with Ralph, and he was pulling instruments out of this duffel bag he had. And he just pulls out the flute and starts playing and we’re like, “Oh, yeah—that’s awesome. We gotta record that.”

Yeah, almost everything I’ve read about this record mentions the flute. People really seem to be blown away that there’s a flute on a Black Keys record.
We love soul music. We love all that kind of stuff that has flute in it—that kind of blaxploitation, Curtis Mayfield thing. I mean, we spend hours and hours listening to that stuff while we’re driving on tour. It doesn’t really seem that weird to us at all.

How much of your music is rooted in the blues?
It’s hard to say. I mean, I think most popular music is rooted in the blues. It’s never anything we’ve thought about. But I was telling Pat: if, for our next record, we just recorded rocks being thrown into a river, people would still mention blues music. [Laughs] It’s just gonna be like that.

Can you tell us something about Akron that most people don’t know?
Colonel Sanders is originally from Akron. He was born there, but he moved to…wherever the hell he went to in Kentucky.

And you mentioned Devo earlier. They’re from Akron, too?
Yeah. So is Chrissie Hynde and so is Lux Interior from the Cramps. And Rachel Sweet—I don’t know if you remember her.

So Cleveland up the road gets all the attention, with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and all, but it sounds like you guys have just as strong of a music history down in Akron.
Yeah, there’s definitely a good weirdo music scene down in Akron.

Where did the idea for the “TBK Laserz” game on your Web site come from? It’s like playing one of those old arcade games from the ‘80s.
Well, yeah, we’re fans of classic arcade games…and we’re also fans of laser tag. That’s what our new music video is, too.

Yeah, I’m noticing a strong laser theme here.
Yeah. We’re big into lasers for 2008.

Does that mean the live show is going to feature some lasers this time out?
You know what? That’s the only place we’re not gonna have lasers.