The Black Keys: Tighten Up

Today’s post was totally unplanned. As I was beginning to write the post for today last night, I saw the new Subaru commercial and it had an infectious tune by The Black Keys that was synchronized to the video. The Black Keys from Akron, Ohio are garage-rock duo of Dan Auerbach (guitars, keyboards, and vocals) and Patrick Carney (drums and percussion).

“Tighten Up,” not to be confused with the Archie Bell and the Drells song of the same name, was released in May as the single. It was the only tune on their sixth LP “Brothers” that was produced by Danger Mouse who produced their former album “Attack & Release” from 2008.

The “Brothers” album was released on Nonesuch Records, which had formerly been dedicated as Elektra Records’ classical music label. This is far from the classical and baroque recordings that Nonesuch had released in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Well, you know what I say – “If it ain’t baroque, don’t fix it.”

Live on Leno

To do the song live, The Black Keys must hire musicians to approximate the recorded versions of their tunes. A keyboardist and bassist join Auerbach and Carney on stage for the Leno show on July 20, 2010. That crazy looking guitar played by Auerbach is a Supro Martinique that was made by Valco.

Valco was partly founded by Louis Dopyera who, along with his brothers, started the Dobro company in 1928 to compete with their former employer the National Guitar Company. Valco later acquired the National brand name and was producing guitars and amps under the Valco, National, and Supro brand names.

Music Video

Here is a humorous clip that replaced the original music video that had a dinosaur hand puppet mouthing the words.

Subaru Commercial