The Black Keys are sitting on top of the world after the release of their latest album El Camino firmly planted them a place as modren rock n roll royalty. We would be remis if we didn’t mention that we fucking love that record. No doubt receiving invite after invite to attend a-list parties around the world after the chart success of El Camino, drummer Patrick Carney and guitarist Dan Auerbach have remained remarkably grounded.
Last month the band took the unusual step of banning the record from streaming services such as Spotify to reward their fans who actual went out and bought the record. “I think for unknown bands and smaller bands, it’s a really good thing to kind of get yourself out there… for a band that makes a living selling music, it’s not at a point to be feasible for us.” Carney said at the time.
But despite their assent towards the throne of rock n roll, many are quick to point out that are but one shining light in a genre that many believe has been dying a slow death for some time now. In an interview from the cover story of the January 19th, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone, Carney offered his views on why the genre has struggled to remain cutting edge and relevant in many minds.
“Rock & roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world,” he tells the magazine. “So they became OK with the idea that the biggest rock band in the world is always going to be shit – therefore you should never try to be the biggest rock band in the world. Fuck that!”
“Rock & roll is the music I feel the most passionately about,” he continues, “and I don’t like to see it fucking ruined and spoon-fed down our throats in this watered-down, post-grunge crap, horrendous shit. When people start lumping us into that kind of shit, it’s like, ‘Fuck you,’ honestly.”
Black Key’s El Camino reached number seven on the ARIA Charts and has gone gold in Canada, whereas Nickelback’s latest effort Here and Now peaked at number two and has gone platinum in Australia, gold in the UK, and 2x platinum in Canada.
But there is one field we’re sure the Black Keys are happy for Nickelback to take the lead on. A study last year showed that if you ever want to have sex again you should probably stop listening to Nickelback. Did we really need a study to figure that one out?
