Video Of The Week: The Black Keys

I was hesitating between featuring The Black Keys themselves or their hip-hop side project which I happen to listen to a whole lot more, BlakRoc. I opted for the real band, and then hesitated between the blues-rock of their beginnings or their recent, poppy sound. I went for the pop, no idea why.

This song has been overplayed everywhere from commercials (beer, trucks, cars) to bars to sporting events to douchebags' cars, but the video was funny enough to warrant inclusion in my weekly spots, I think.

The Black Keys have often been compared to The White Stripes for obvious reasons: a two-piece consisting mostly of drums and guitars with with added keys; blues-rock beginnings; both moved from their original  hometowns in the Northern U.S. (Akron, OH for BK, Detroit for WS) to Nashville as their sound(s) expanded, names based in the most extremes of (non-)colours... but they couldn't be any further apart: Jack White takes inspiration from music that is 50-100 years old, and draws every possible emotion from it while creating a sound delivery unheard until now in songs that may stand the test of time; Dan Auerbach draws inspiration from riffs our ears have been used to, and incorporates modern sounds into them to make them contemporary.