Pitchfork

The Akron, Ohio-based blues-rock duo The Black Keys have jumped ship from the super-indie Alive/Bomp to sign with Epitaph subsidiary Fat Possum, and are gearing up to release their sophomore album, Thick Freakness, on April 8th. The group, which features guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, are wasting no time at all getting new product on the shelves-- the band's debut set, The Big Come Up, just came out last May.

"Wait, hold up," sez you. "What acclaim?" Well, Maxim spinoff Rolling Stone called the album "choogling," for one, and old fuddy-duddy The Village Voice was so dizzied by it that they managed to proclaim the band both more compelling and less interesting than The White Stripes. (Though it's pretty evident to us that these guys would still be absofuckinlutely nowhere if they didn't sound basically exactly like if the Stripes dug Hendrix instead of the Zep.) Even Playboy, that esteemed house of music criticism, has got their eye on these boys! Read it for the articles!

The Keys will probably get rich and very, very cranky due to their resemblance to the Stripes, but they may have already won all the respect they could want: their new label is also home to various grizzled, revered, and actual bluesmen such as James "T-Model" Ford, under whom Auerbach once apprenticed himself. He once played the Delta juke joints, so the legend goes, and now The Keys are opening for Sleater-Kinney in between headlining their own shows. Whether that's entirely good news, we can't say, but it's nice enough news for those of us who know damn well we're too timid to go juking. Tour dates:

01-24 Indianapolis, IN - The Patio
01-25 Louisville, KY - The Rudyard Kipling
02-01 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom*
02-03 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall*
02-04 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall*
02-05 Sacramento, CA - Colonial Theatre*
02-07 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre*
02-08 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre*
02-13 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street Nightclub*
02-14 Providence, RI - Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel*
02-15 New York, NY - Roseland Ballroom*
02-16 Los Angeles, CA - LA Shakedown - Hollywood Athletic Club
02-17 Toronto, ONT - The Opera House*
02-19 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick*
02-21 Cincinnati, OH - Southgate House*
02-22 Champaign, IL - The High Dive*
02-23 Chicago, IL - Metro*
02-27 Carrboro, NC - Room 4#
02-28 Atlanta, GA - Echo Lounge#
03-01 Knoxville, TN - Pilot Light#

* - With Sleater-Kinney
# - With The Soledad Brothers