Entries associated with the tag "Black Keys":

I hardly need to remind anyone that the Internet has demolished old career-building models in the music business. These days it's easier than ever for artists to come out of nowhere and attract a flood of attention (though of course getting attention isn't the same as developing an audience). Two acts playing in town tonight, both in support of recent debut albums, are already well-positioned thanks to a combination of label affiliations and friends in the biz. But if they really want to go somewhere, they're going to have make some things happen themselves now.

Jessica Lea Mayfield (pictured) from Kent, Ohio, who performs tonight at the Abbey Pub, released With Blasphemy, So Heartfelt (Polymer) last month; she's only 19. The record was produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys (on whose latest, Attack & Release, Mayfield appears as a guest vocalist), and his approach is minimal--in fact, almost everything about the album is minimal. Mayfield sings with a fragile beauty, but her range is narrow, both in terms of pitch and approach. She's been compared to Hope Sandoval, and the narcotic quality of the music does remind me a bit of Mazzy Star, but after a while the sameness of the songs--the uniformly slow tempos and lethargic guitar strumming, Mayfield's apparent inability to break from a wobbly, hypnotic chant--makes clear that she still needs to figure out what to do with her talent. I have to wonder how she'll go over in a midsize room like the Abbey--if she plays with the same numbing constancy onstage that she does on disc, I'm guessing half the audience will be asleep or gone within 20 minutes.

Japanese Motors, a quartet from Costa Mesa, California, play tonight at the Empty Bottle. Their publicity materials call them "the most exciting band to emerge from Orange Country since the heyday of Social Distortion and TSOL" (damning with faint praise if I've ever heard it) and make a big deal about singer Alex Knost being a professional surfer and the band's music supposedly reflecting their SoCal environment. To my ears, though, the Strokes are the most obvious point of reference on the band's self-titled debut for Vice--if it weren't for the slight Ventures vibe in the brief  "Pseudo Elitist Vagueness" and the record's rash of stupid song titles (along with that one, there's "Single Fins & Safety Pins" and "Coors Lite") I wouldn't be convinced that a surfer was involved at all. The music is amiable enough, but Japanese Motors are only semicompetent as musicians and even less convincing as songwriters. It still sounds like they need to figure out if they started a band for anything more than free beer.

Today's playlist:

Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs, Dirt Don't Hurt (Transdreamer)
Madonna, Hard Candy (Warner Brothers)
Lionel Loueke, Karibu (Blue Note)
Michael Bates, Clockwise (Greenleaf Music)
Gilberto Gil, Banda Larga Cordel (Warner Music Latina)

I've never been able to get too worked up one way or the other about Akron's Black Keys, who've been churning out stripped-down blues-rock for the past six or seven years. They've never offended me, but then again I haven't ever paid much attention to them either.

I had to suppress some knee-jerk cynicism after learning that their new album, Attack & Release (Nonesuch), was produced by Danger Mouse. I figured they were trying to hitch a ride on his coattails, but as it turns out he contacted them. He invited the duo to write some songs for an Ike Turner album he planned to produce, and though Turner's death late last year put an end to that project, the work they'd already done together led to DM's involvement with the Black Keys' own disc.

The band's primitive wallop--Dan Auerbach's grimy guitar and thin white-soul howl, Patrick Carney's post-Bonham thud--is still at the music's core, but Danger Mouse does a surprisingly good job fleshing out the arrangements without compromising their punch. There are a handful of guests--including former Tom Waits sidekicks like reedist Ralph Carney, the drummer's uncle--but DM's ghostly presence is the masterstroke, adding an aura of dread and lamentation without calling attention to his role. A few tunes shoot for more sophisticated old-school soul-rock feel, too: "Lies" sounds a bit like a Led Zep tribute band dabbling in the Stax songbook, with a dash of Otis Rush thrown in. A description like that would probably make me cringe if I hadn't written it myself, but I dig this record.

I have no idea whether the sound of Attack & Release will affect the Black Keys' live shows, but if you have tickets for the group's sold-out Riviera gig on Saturday night, you'll find out. The band will be back in town in August for Lollapalooza.

Today's playlist:

The Mars Volta, The Bedlam in Goliath (Universal)
Oakley Hall, I'll Follow You (Merge)
The Stoner, The New Pink (Hoob Jazz)
Pitbull, The Boatlift (TVT)
Kevin Parks and Joe Foster, Ipsi Sibi Somnia Fingunt