There's a good reason to listen to The Black Keys' new album, Ohio players, it's like spending time with a well-curated collection of old vinyl singles. Dan Auerbach and Pat Carney spent part of 2023 performing their DJ gig. The Black Keys album hangsin North America and Europe, playing 7” vinyl singles in small clubs until the early hours of the morning.
The discerning taste necessary to keep the audience engaged proved valuable as the band worked on the songs that would eventually form the Ohio-born, Nashville-based band's twelfth studio album. “I think we started to be very picky about the records and we started doing the same thing when we were in the studio,” Auerbach says. Billboard's Behind the Setlist Podcast. “We didn't want to make songs that sounded like old 45s, but we wanted to have the same spirit.”
The setlists that span genres and eras at those Record Hang events, documented by the attendees in Spotify playlistsincluded songs such as 1967's “Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)” by Memphis garage band The Hombres, 1969's “Love Buzz” by Dutch psychedelic rockers Shocking Blue (later covered by Nirvana for their debut album from 1989, Bleach) and 1970's “Chocolate” by San Antonio funk band Mickey & The Soul Generation.
Gauging the public's reaction to those 45s turned out to be valuable market research and helped Auerbach and Carney improve their songwriting. From the debut single, Top Adult Alternative Airplay No. 1 “Beautiful People (Stay High)” or “I Forgot to Be Your Lover,” a cover of William Bell's 1968 recording, Ohio players It has the efficiency of two-and-a-half-minute Motown standards or radio-ready classic rock tracks.
“The way those classic 45s are,” Carney says, “it's like there's no wasted space.”
Auerbach and Carney had little room to spare when they wrote “On the Game” with Noel Gallagher (Oasis, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds) in a London studio barely big enough for a drum set and a few people. “We were in a circle in this little room,” Auerbach says. “That's the sound you hear on the album. It was amazing to watch Noel go through the writing process and go through all the chords on the neck until he finds the one he hears in his mind is the right one. We were just sitting patiently, you know, letting him do his thing. “It was really cool to see him go through his process.”
Listen to the full interview with The Black Keys in the Spotify player below or go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iheart either Amazon Music.
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