The Black Keys performing at The Fillmore Detroit
I have seen the new face of the blues: The Black Keys.
Purists might scoff, but anyone who witnessed this Akron band light a fuse under a young sellout crowd of fist-pumping fans at The Fillmore Detroit recently couldn’t deny the full-throttle power of this genre-shaping, New Millennium duo.
No, this isn’t your grandfather’s blues. But don’t assume it ignores the seminal Delta blues influences of Robert Johnson, Son House or Junior Kimbrough either.
Just as Led Zeppelin thundered to prominence in the 1970s with its heavy, dramatic reinterpretation of American blues music, The Black Keys have changed the way a new generation of fans embraces a genre that helped spawn rock ‘n’ roll in the first place.
Bearded guitarist-singer Dan Auerbach, 31, and drummer Patrick Carney, 30, seem an unlikely vehicle for this movement until you see them rip into “Stack Shot Billy,” “Ten Cent Pistol” and “I Got Mine” with musical guns ablazing. Although joined part of the time by a bassist and keyboard player, it’s mostly just the two of them creating bone-jarring volumes, distortion and hook-filled, raw, modern blues that sounds unlike anything else, yet somehow swirls with familiar motifs and chord progressions.
“The duo puts their own style on blues rock music and I like how it’s classic and brand new all at once,” offers 29-year-old Nicole Leach of Grand Rapids, who’s seen the band five times.
Granted, so-called “blues-rock” bands seem to dominate the blues scene these days, as if they need to flaunt another genre to draw an audience. Almost all of the bands at last weekend’s Cowpie Blues Festival south of Grand Rapids incorporate “rock,” “funk” or “soul” into descriptions of their take on the blues.
Kevin Murphy calls it the “un-genre-ification of music” — an eclectic streak increasingly embraced by teens and 20-somethings.
“They don’t care what the CD is categorized as. If it’s good music — hip-hop or soul or blues — it’s good music,” says the station manager for WYCE-FM (88.1), which has traditional blues artist Otis Taylor and The Black Keys on its Top 20 most-played list.
The Black Keys’ garage-rock spin on the blues boasts its own ultra-authentic growl that sets the band apart. “They have a throwback quality,” suggests Murphy, who says the duo proves “blues music can be inventive, different, raw and cool.”
Over nine years and nine albums — including a Kimbrough tribute EP and a collaboration with hip-hop artists — the band has cultivated a rabid following, played the Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza festivals and had its songs used in films and TV ads. Its most recent CD, “Brothers,” has universally earned high marks.
Oh, I’m guessing a fair number of fans at that Detroit show had no clue they were grooving to reinterpreted blues and many probably won’t take the time to rediscover icons like Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker after getting inspired by The Black Keys.
Still, local blues authority Mark Smith, an attorney who writes for several blues publications, credits The Black Keys, JJ Grey & Mofro and other innovators for helping “keep the blues alive as a musical force” by taking the genre in new directions.
“The fact that they push boundaries may be a problem for the purists who think the blues should be preserved as a museum piece, but I believe that the first generation blues players would find this preservationists’ mentality to be laughable,” he argues.
Artists from T-Bone Walker to Roomful of Blues have added new elements, he says, creating rich “branches” of blues that incorporate swing, boogie-woogie, horns and other sounds.
So much for what Murphy terms the “persnickety elitism” of some blues devotees, perhaps the same contingent that once scorned Led Zeppelin, one of rock’s most influential powerhouses.
Enamored with American blues and roots strains, Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant told me in an interview eight years ago that the band loved to “reprocess” this music, hitting “the spot pretty much full-on” in songs packaged for rock audiences.
Just call it re-gifting the blues.
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Eels’ Mark ‘E’ Everett became an ice cream man of sorts today (August 22) at V Festival in Chelmsford, dishing out free cold treats to fans.
The heavily-bearded musician, leading his band on the V Stage, hurled out scores of the dairy snacks to delighted audience members during a rocking set that included a cover of The Lovin’ Spoon’s 1966 hit ‘Summer In The City’.
Donning a guitar and playing with two further guitarists in his set-up, Everett treated the Hylands Park crowd to a pumped-up set also featuring sped-up, rocky versions of ‘Mr E’s Beautiful Blues’, ‘My Beloved Monster’ and ‘I Like Birds’.
Eels’ new album ‘Tomorrow Morning’ is, fittingly, out tomorrow. The band previewed two songs from the record – ‘Spectacular Girl’ (listen by clicking on the video on the right) and ‘Looking Up’, which closed the set after ‘Summertime’ – during which Everett threw his ice creams to the crowd.
Eels played:
‘Prizefighter’
‘Summer In The City’
‘Tremendous Dynamite’
‘My Beloved monster’
‘Spectacular Girl’
‘Souljacker Pt 1’
‘That Look You Give That Guy’
‘Talkin ‘Bout Knuckles’
‘Mr E’s Beautiful Blues’
‘I Like Birds’
‘Summertime’
‘Looking Up’
nme.com
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Mentre il caro Cohen e’ abbastanza vicino a me, a Ghent in Belgio, per tre serate prima della pausa che lo portera’ a Firenze….!!!! Per non smentirsi 28 pezzi a serata, ieri con chiusura molto inusuale… Heart with no companion!
# Dance Me to The End of Love
# The Future
# Ain’t No Cure For Love
# Bird on a Wire
# Everybody Knows
# In My Secret Life
# Who By Fire
# The Darkness
# Born In Chains
# Chelsea Hotel #2
# The Anthem
# Encore:
# Tower Of Song
# Suzanne
# Sisters Of Mercy
# The Gypsy’s Wife
# Feel so good
# The Partisan
# Boogie Street
# Hallelujah
# I’m Your Man
# Take This Waltz
# Encore 2:
# So Long, Marianne
# First We Take Manhattan
# Famous Blue Raincoat
# If It Be Your Will
# Closing Time
# Encore 3:
# I Tried To Leave You
# Heart With No Companion
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