The two-man duo comprising the Black Keys, singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, were in their early twenties when their debut, The Big Come Up, was issued in 2002. From Akron, OH, they play close-to-the-bone, raw blues-rock, the only instrumentation being Auerbach's guitar, Carney's drums, and the occasional organ. (named in honor of a schizophrenic Akron artist, who called the boys “black keys”, his phrase for people who weren’t quite right). Dan, quiet and wry, plays fuzzed-out guitar, howls sweetly and growls soulfully when he’s on stage, like a man whose only friends in the world are his songs of suffering and true romance and the guitar he plays them on. Patrick attacks his drums like they stole his mother’s purse. The combination sparks. Some folks actually show up at their debut shows, and The Big Come Up gets a four-star rave in Rolling Stone. Dan and Patrick figure that if they spend almost every waking hour on their music practicing, playing, touring, writing, and so on they can make this enterprise work. So the boys get busy. They rehearse non-stop in Patrick’s rat-infested basement. They undertake a punishing tour schedule, and in 2003, they record their colossal-sounding sophomore album, Thickfreakness, in Patrick’s basement studio for their new record label, Fat Possum, in one furious twelve-hour session. Cut to early 2006?The Black Keys return to the basement (Patrick’s new, rat-free studio, Audio Eagle) to record Magic Potion, their fourth full-length album for new label Nonesuch. Despite its title, Magic Potion is ironically the sound of The Black Keys getting their signature sound down to a science?it’s the band at their heaviest, grittiest and most powerfully stripped down. From the nasty, sweaty strut of the album’s first single, “Your Touch,” to the to the sublimely narcotic devotional ballad “You’re the One” on down to the stomping, house-rocking call to arms “Modern Times,” The Black Keys have made the finest recording of their career.
