EASE DOWN THE ROAD

Change and controversy go hand in hand in creative fields, just ask The Black Keys or Bob Dylan. Before said Great One’s famous genre sidestep from purist folk to folk-rock was etched in stone as a career- and genre-defining move, it was - believe it or not - at first considered to be the gesture of a sell-out. And, really, just about any roots-minded artist who has chosen to expand on or definitively alter their sound has been greeted with a similar jumpy response. The Black Keys, an Akron, Ohio-based duo initially known for their minimalist garage-blues sound, recently sold out - historically speaking - by taking their raw sound into a legit studio to work with a hotshot producer Danger Mouse on what would become Attack & Release, a sonically stuffed rock n’ roll album far from the lo-fi blues-rock the band made their name with.

Six years ago the Keys’ name began popping up seemingly everywhere, usually mentioned in the same breath as the many other emerging duos of the time, including The White Stripes, The Kills and The Raveonettes. The duo, comprised of powerhouse combo Dan Auerbach (vocals, guitar) and Patrick Carney (drums), were defined as the most brutally lo-fi and purist-minded of the pack, cooking up raw rock n’ roll with a defining Mississippi-meets-Delta blues backbone. Their sound was (and still usually is) rough, thick, loud and soulful - a set of attributes made for purist-loving audiophiles if ever there was one. Though the modest duo, then known for recording on tape in their own studio, have developed their sound a little more with each successive release, only since the recent release of the classic rock-frienly Attack & Release, the band’s second for major label subsidiary Nonesuch, have the media sirens started ringing.

This, naturally, means that the band has seen more attention - both good and bad - as of late than they have since their hyped second album, Thickfreakness, a universal critic’s favorite in 2003. Longtime fans scream words like “travesty” while foolproof rock critics and fans perk with delight and surprise at the band’s unexpected new dimension. Not dissimilar from Wilco’s genre-bending Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, U2’s pseudo-electronic Pop or even Dylan’s Bringing It All back Home, Attack & Release is the kind of name making record that can cement a band’s artistic value - a feat nearly impossible to accomplish for two twentysomething white dudes playing blues-based rock. Now with a solid, diverse catalog to match their solid, hard-working touring reputation (not to mention a whole lot of curious-minded buzz), the Keys have hit the road, planning at stop at Indianapolis’ own Vogue Theatre on Sunday, April 13.

To rock or not to rock? Come on out to the Vogue and take The Black Keys’ Post-Blues Challenge.