Artbook: Bleach All Colour, But The Black

Intense Akron, Ohio blues-soaked duo that began by overwhelming indie rock critics and quickly moved to arena audiences.
It's too facile to call the Black Keys counterparts of the White Stripes: they share several surface similarities - their names are color-coded, they hail from the Midwest, they're guitar-and-drum blues-rock duos - but the Black Keys are their own distinct thing, a tougher, rougher rock band with a purist streak that never surfaced in the Stripes. But that's not to say that the Black Keys are blues traditionalists: even on their 2002 debut, The Big Come Up, they covered the Beatles' psychedelic classic "She Said She Said"…

The Black Crowes' debut album, Shake Your Money Maker, may borrow heavily from the bluesy hard rock grooves of the Rolling Stones and Faces (plus a bit of classic soul), but the band gets away with it due to sharp songwriting and an ear for strong riffs and chorus melodies, not to mention the gritty, muscular rhythm guitar of Rich Robinson and brother Chris' appropriate vocal swagger. Unlike their later records, the Crowes don't really stretch out and jam that much on Money Maker, but that helps distill their virtues into a handful of memorable singles ("Jealous Again," "She Talks to Angels," a cover of Otis Redding's "Hard to Handle"), and most of the album tracks maintain an equally high standard. Shake Your Money Maker may not be stunningly original, but it doesn't need to be; it's the most concise demonstration of the fact that the Black Crowes are a great, classic rock & roll band.

The Black Crowes were dogged with comparisons to the Rolling Stones and the Faces throughout the first decade of their career, so it came as a mild surprise that they teamed with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in late 1999 for a couple of concerts. Zeppelin had a mystique and majesty about them that the Crowes never attempted to emulate. They were an earthy, bluesy rock band and while they found a number of different ways to rework their influences, they never tried the stately grandeur that was Zeppelin's second nature. So, some observers were curious to see how these two approaches worked. Well, it worked very, very well indeed. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that it was a good, comfortable fit since Page always demonstrated a true love of blues and early rock & roll, even on Led Zep's heaviest moments…

In many ways this is one of the most diverse albums that TBNP have come up with yet. There are still the Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree influences but the guys have also turned it up a little more so that the intensity and guitars have that little bit more edginess than usual. There may be some who think that this is going to be an ethereal and delicate album as suggested by the album artwork, and indeed there are some numbers that are in that vein, but this is again an album that brings the term 'rock' crunching back in at the right moment. Undoubtedly the biggest change is the in the confidence of all those involved, and this in itself allows the band to spread their wings without going too far. The band do not try to hide their influences, but they are the starting point and not the end product. They have matured and the result is yet again an extremely solid accessible album that all progheads will enjoy.

It’s country music but not as we know it which begs the question: Have these Bad Kids of 21st Century rock ’n’ roll finally grown up on their ninth studio album? Are they at peace with themselves? Have they made a record their parents could listen to? The Black Lips new album Sing In A World That’s Falling Apart continues to flick the middle finger to one and all. This ain’t another gaggle of bearded southern sons fleeing their collective suburban upbringings and collegiate music education. There aren’t the usual clichés about drinking, honkytonks, and heartbreak. These are, after all, the same Black Lips who rescued the waning garage punk subgenre by not sounding or dressing their musical predecessors.