The Black Keys release their new single ‘Dead And Gone’ on Nonesuch Records on May 21. ‘Dead And Gone’ is the third single to be taken from their critically acclaimed new album El Camino.
Released to widespread critical acclaim in December, El Camino debuted at # 2 on the Billboard Top 200 and has already been certified Platinum in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and Gold in France, Ireland, the UK and US. Produced by Danger Mouse and The Black Keys, the 11-track album was recorded in the band’s new hometown of Nashville during the spring of 2011.
El Camino also includes the hit single ‘Lonely Boy’, the video for which has been viewed over 12 million times on YouTube, as well as ‘Gold On The Ceiling’. The band will return to Europe in August for a series of festival dates, including Reading (August 26) and Leeds (August 24).
Describing the sound of the album, drummer Patrick Carney tells Rolling Stone, 'Every record, we figure out the mood and stick with that. With Brothers, we were listening to a lot of hip-hop and old R&B and drawing from that. This is the first record we’ve made where it’s all rock & roll.'
And in an interview with Spin singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach says, 'I’ve never been into guitar solos. I really like when every instrument in the band is a rhythm instrument. This record has a lot of that going on - guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards all working together as a rhythm instrument. But unlike Brothers, which has more of these slower songs with an open feeling, [the new LP] is definitely fast.'
‘Sometimes, a CD scratches an itch you didn’t even know you had, and El Camino is that record,’ proclaimed the Los Angeles Times. ‘It’s a summer record released in the winter, a dance record that just happens to rock.
It’s a party record, a driving down the highway, ‘I’m in love with rock and roll, and I’ll be out all night’ record. Really, the only question is whether, this late in the year, this constitutes the best rock album of 2011 or 2012. It’ll probably be both.’ While the Independent hailed, ‘Tremendous, hook-laden, all-killer-no-filler, by some distance the most powerful, compelling rock album of the year.’
El Camino follows the most successful two years in The Black Keys’ career. In May 2010 they released their breakthrough album, Brothers. It won three Grammy Awards and an MTV Video Music Award, and topped numerous year-end lists.
Brothers, which included the hit singles ‘Tighten Up’ and ‘Howlin’ for You’, has been certified Gold in the UK, and Platinum in Canada and the US. Worldwide sales are now over one million and counting. As the NME wrote of the band’s recent UK tour, ‘The Black Keys have slowly but surely become one of the biggest bands in the world - and going by this wonderfully charged performance, it’s not difficult to understand why.’
The Black Keys, Akron, OH natives Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, released their debut album, The Big Come Up, in 2002, followed by Thickfreakness (2003) and Rubber Factory (2004).
In 2006 they signed to Nonesuch Records in the US and released their fourth album, Magic Potion, which was followed by the Danger Mouse-produced Attack & Release in 2008. El Camino is the first Black Keys album Nonesuch released worldwide.
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