It’s common in scientific study to do a forensic review of literature already written about a subject. Certain articles best present the core themes, motivations, influences and attitude of a subject that others will take their lead from. Examining them in turn enhances our understanding of the subject.
If someone was to do a review of articles written about The Black Keys these two articles written about events in 2003, I think, would stand out. Both reflect the raw touring band experience which is quintessentially what The Black Keys are all about.
1. Tour Of Duty by Denise Grollmus (Cleveland Scene, February 23 2005)
2. On The Road With The Black Keys and Sleater Kinney 2004 by Peter Relic (Arthur Mag, May 2003)
‘Tour of Duty‘ was written by Patrick Carney’s then girlfriend, later to be his wife, Denise Grollmus. She happens also to be a journalist with the Cleveland Scene. Irrespective of her close connection to Pat and insiders view on The Black Keys, it’s so honestly written, concise and slightly dark in tone.
The article is Denise’s account of going on a three month tour with The Black Keys to Europe, Australia and the USA in 2003.
Some highlights from the article:
On meeting Pat in High School…
Pat looked like a ’70s basketball player — a slender torso attached to long, skinny legs ending in high-top Chuck Taylors. His long face was exaggerated with Mick Jagger lips and thick black-framed glasses. A Sonic Youth T-shirt hung from his coat-hanger shoulders. He was exactly my type.
On being offered drugs…
After some small talk, the two [Har Mar Superstar and Conor Oberst] politely invited us to do drugs in Oberst’s room. We declined. As they tucked in their chairs, Pat asked what kind they were doing.
“Blow,” answered Har Mar.
“Nobody does cocaine,” I said. “It’s so ’80s.”
“That’s why I like it,” he said.
On The Black Keys burgeoning fame in Australia – their first tour there and the first country outside the USA to really embrace the band…
The Black Keys are to Australia what David Hasselhoff is to Germany. The band’s rock-star status granted comforts we could never afford back home. We even had real laminated backstage passes and spiral notebooks mapping out a busy itinerary of radio appearances.
On the not so glamourous life on the road…
“I’m sick of bars,” Tarrah [Dan Auerbach’s girlfriend] said. “I’m sick of music.”
When we reunited with the boys in Iowa City, everyone was irritable and anxious. That night, Pat and I ate at Subway. His skin was leathery in the neon light, and he had big bags under his eyes. He was stressed and jet-lagged. On top of it, he was also worried about me.
I told him taking the girlfriends on tour was a bad idea. “This isn’t ‘Take Your Girlfriend to Work Day,'” I said. “This is a job. This isn’t vacation.”
‘On The Road With The Black Keys‘ is a really lengthy article written at a time when The Black Keys were rising in popular music consciousness. The story behind the article is best told by this excerpt of an interview The Black Keys later did with ‘Sup Magazine:
Marisa: The first thing I read about you guys was the tour diary article that Peter Relic wrote for Arthur when you were on tour with Sleater Kinney. Now he’s your manager? How did you hook up with him?
Pat: There was a local paper in Cleveland called The Free Times that got shut down. Before it got shut down, Pete got assigned to do a story on us. Actually he didn’t get assigned, he found our record and wanted to interview us. He came down to Akron and wrote the first feature on us. We became friends and started hanging out. He’s like family now. He knows my girlfriend. He’s friends with our dads. He became a friend. We didn’t know he wrote for Rolling Stone, but he sent the record [Thickfreakness] to the new editor over there and they wanted him to review it. One day we discovered it all. It was really weird. One of our friends called and was like, “Dude, have you seen the new Rolling Stone? You’re in it.” Apparently Janet Weiss [from Sleater Kinney] talked it up to the editors at Rolling Stone and the next week Pete was like, “Hey, I have this new band to review.” And they were like, “Oh yeah, we’ve heard of them.”
The fact that Peter went on to be the band’s manager shows his ongoing guidance to their career.
It’s hard to find articles written in this style and depth in (any) publications in recent memory. Certainly the rapport Peter had comes across in the conversational style spread over many days of The Black Keys tour supporting Sleater Kinney.
Like any band exposed to increasing public adoration, pressure and expectation band members slowly retract to those they can trust and don’t so freely express themselves. The article breathes with the innate possibility of the moment when the The Black Keys were finding their own fans.
Ahh those fans…
“I saw these guys play at the Ale House in Upland last year,” he screams. “They’re awwwwesome!” DA [Dan Auerbach] has told me repeatedly that the Upland show was the worst Black Keys show ever. The lesson being that awesome is in the ear of the beholder.
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