The Black Keys - Attack & Release

After I finished the entire catalogue of The Rolling Stones, I blazed through that of The Black Keys. Way back when in musooklub v1, Kari had reviewed their 2010 album, Brothers, which was also the first album of theirs with which I was familiar.

Why the current obsession with the Keys?  Not that I'm at all putting myself on their level, but perhaps because my own latest video, I AM OHIOAN, closed out with their song, “Ohio.”  The Black Keys are a duo (Dan & Patrick, not to be confused with Dan Patrick) hailing from Akron, Ohio.  They’re known for their edgy, gritty bluesy rock.  Indeed, if Led Zeppelin were still around today, I believe it’d be in the form of The Black Keys (yes, Raman, even more so than Wolfmother).  

Some of us within Musooklub just had a discussion about focusing on newer albums but I haven’t yet attacked the Keys’ 2014 release, Turn Blue.  So, I’m going with 2008’s Attack & Release, since it's "new to me."  

Why not their other six albums?  This one is my favorite of the remaining half dozen.  And the Keys historically have focused on making an entire album instead of just a collection of tracks.  You don’t listen to the Keys for hits; it’s for their mood, their sound.  Indeed, when I went to go pick my favorite Keys songs, the Spotify playlist was only 11 songs long - and eight of those are on Brothers.  (Damn you, Kari.)  Q.E.D.  

Only a few weeks ago, my friend, Jane, moved from Hollywood to my neighborhood of Studio City.  I went over to her new place to hang out with her and her boyfriend, Shawn, also from Ohio.  For some reason, I got this weird feeling that he was going to play an album by the BKs and that’s exactly what he did:  we sat, drank whiskey, and listened to Attack & Release on vinyl.  WHISKEY + THE BLACK KEYS + WALKING HOME IN LA?   

My favorite track on here is “I Got Mine.”  There are only two genres of music rock my very soul (the other being certain strains of Punjabi music, such as this).  This track is one I feel in my bones.  

It’s nice to feel this level of kinship with a band.  When I first downloaded 2011’s El Camino, “Mind Eraser” played.  I thought to myself, “This sounds like they’d close with this song, not open with it.”  It turns out that somehow the tracks came in backwards.  It’s hard to describe but I feel like I just “get” these guys.  I think my own personal journey as an artist has (d)evolved into just wanting to be best friends with Dan and Patrick.

The way I see it, MusooKlub, to some extent, is getting to know Raman’s friends through their music. So, a bit about me:  

I’m a standup comic in the middle of a ten-city tour.  In Cleveland this month, I did my bit about how I didn’t think it was that big of a deal to steal music because 
a) most stuff that comes out is crap, anyway... “it’s not like all these bands are The Black Keys,” and
b) you’re not really stealing it. 

Stealing is when you walk out of Target with a CD because now you have the CD and Target doesn’t.  Copying files isn’t really stealing.  It’s cheating.  A friend of mine heard me make that argument once and said, “Cheating’s still wrong, though,” to which I gave him the sensible response:  “Shut up, dude.”  (In reality, I don’t steal music.  It’s a bit.)  The crazy part is I did this joke at the Grog Shop, a venue that does about 10% standup comedy and 90% music.  So... maybe a bad place to do it.  Still, though, at the end, the sound guy played about ten Black Keys songs in a row so he appreciated it.  

And hopefully, you’ll appreciate Attack & Release*

https://app.box.com/s/joj01dmbwej11mq13r0ww3ew9fn19uih

*(which Rajiv had to get Raman to pick up from a local NY library)