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Black Keys Busy With DVD, Tour, New EP
By Jonathan Cohen, N.Y. ( billboard.com )
Akron, Ohio-based rock duo the Black Keys will release their first DVD Oct. 4 via Fat Possum. The appropriately titled “The Black Keys Live” was taped in March at Sydney's Metro Theatre and also features videos for “10 A.M. Automatic” (directed by actor David Cross) and “Set You Free.”
“We filmed two shows with the idea that we were going to pick the best songs and then we just decided it was kind of fake to cut and paste the best ones,” Black Keys guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach tells Billboard.com. “We wound up picking the second show, and it's basically unedited.”
The Keys have long enjoyed success in Australia and when on the continent, typically play at the same size venues they would in major U.S. cities like New York and Los Angeles. “What really helps down there is that radio is not controlled by major labels,” Auerbach says. “We have a chance in Australia because people who like the music can play it on the radio.”
Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney are gearing up for a fall North American tour, which will run in two legs. The first kicks off Sept. 1 in Knoxville, Tenn., and will wrap Sept. 25 at the Austin City Limits Festival. Roadwork resumes Nov. 9 with the Keys' largest headlining show to date in New York at Irving Plaza and will conclude Nov. 19 in Toronto.
The group will be out in support of its 2004 Fat Possum album “Rubber Factory,” which has sold 69,300 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
In addition, the Keys have recorded a half-dozen Junior Kimbrough songs, including “Meet Me in the City,” “Nobody but You” and “Keep Your Hands Off Her,” for a covers EP to be released early next year via Fat Possum. “I'm such a huge fan [of Kimbrough] that it was really a treat to do,” Auerbach says of the sessions, which were taped at the Keys' downtown Akron studio.
Here are the Black Keys' tour dates:
Sept. 1: Knoxville, Tenn. (Blue Cats)
Sept. 2: Chattanooga, Tenn. (Nightfall Concert Series)
Sept. 4: Los Angeles (Arthurfest)
Sept. 14: Vancouver (Richard's on Richards)
Sept. 15: Bellingham, Wash. (Nightlight)
Sept. 16: Seattle (Neumo's)
Sept. 17: Portland, Ore. (Aladdin Theatre)
Sept. 20: San Francisco (Fillmore)
Sept. 21: Santa Ana, Calif. (Galaxy Concert Theatre)
Sept. 22: San Diego (Cane's)
Sept. 23: Austin, Texas (Stubb's BBQ)
Sept. 25: Austin, Texas (Austin City Limits)
Nov. 9: New York (Irving Plaza)
Nov. 10: Brooklyn, N.Y. (Warsaw)
Nov. 11: Philadelphia (Theatre of Living Arts)
Nov. 12: Washington, D.C. (9:30 Club)
Nov. 13: Baltimore (Rams Head)
Nov. 15: New Haven, Conn. (Toad's Place)
Nov. 16: Boston (Avalon)
Nov. 17: Monreal (Cabaret la Tulipe)
Nov. 18: Ottawa, Ontario (Barrymore's)
Nov. 19: Toronto (Opera House)
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