Listen! Listen...etc.!!! : Just Deux It.-Pt. 3

Just Deux It.-This week's examination of musical pairings that may have slipped beneath your radar.




The Black Keys: The Big Come Up

It must have been kind of difficult for the guys in The Black Keys when The White Stripes became popular. On paper, one could run down the checklist and call them a rip-off. Look at the stats: Two people in the band, check. Midwesterners, check. Garage-y blues influenced sound, check. Name which uses the complete lack of color and its inverse, check. One could see how frustrating this situation might have been for Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, and perhaps enough to make them hang up the fuzz pedal and turn out the lights in the garage, but instead they continue to put out some of the best Amps-to-Eleven, balls to the wall, juke joint shaking blues you've most likely never heard.

Hailing from the small town of Akron, Ohio, this pair plays it raw and raucous, emulating the shack shaking Southern bluesmen whom they seem to idolize. Men like T-Model Ford and R. L. Burnside, whose Fat Possum record label has exported to the rest of the world the slinky electric style that has been setting dancefloors aflame all over the great state of Mississippi for decades. The most notable attribute that Auerbach seems to have nailed after studying his more "authentic" counterparts, is his deep gravelly bark. He is able to command, cajole and seduce, and to go from weary growl to exuberant howl in a matter of breaths. The grit in his vocal style is well met by the extra-crunchy fuzz and wah effects he chokes from his guitar that chug, quake and sometimes stomp across each of the songs. For his part Carney is an excellent match. The beats are loose, without being inconsistent or buck wild, which some bands with stripped down sounds try to excuse away as being "authentic". The pair seem to fare best with songs that have a more defined structure, such as the near perfect "The Breaks", which balances the wounded animal wail of Auerbach's guitar during the verse with the head snapping throwdown between he and Carney during the chorus. While they sometimes bring a definite bit of rock to the proceedings, their take on the blues definitely bows more deeply to the old school.

After listening to The Big Come Up, it's damn clear these guys are no White Stripes. They don't have a dynamic twist on blues sounds like them, they certainly don't look like them, and it's almost a sure thing they'll never be as popular as them.

But they're cool with that.

And so am I.

Key Tracks: Busted, Countdown, The Breaks, Heavy Soul