Thursday, January 5th 2012
News: The Black Keys
Black Keys’ Patrick Carney Shoots Nickelback Fish In A Barrel
Enjoying the laurels from their commercially and critically successful 7th LP El Camino, The Black Keys were just featured on the cover of Rolling Stone for the very first time – and the magazine’s feature piece on the band contains one of best quotes we’ve seen in a while.
In an interview excerpt published online, drummer Patrick Carney shed some wisdom on how “dead” rock music became in the past decade – or how much some people wanted to believe so: ”Rock & roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world. 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, 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.”
Hating Nickelback as much as any reasonable music fan can, we were very pleased to read Mr. Carney’s words. While that band’s popularity isn’t as overbearing as it used to be, and they’re pretty much the easiest target still technically qualified as “Rock,” Nickelback’s damage to the airwaves left a mark in music history, and it’s good to see a talented, honest musician calling them out for it.
In two months, The Black Keys commence their US arena tour, with Arctic Monkeys as the support act. The dates are as follows:
March 2 – Cincinnati, OH @ U.S. Bank Arena
March 3 – Detroit, MI @ Joe Louis Arena
March 4 – Columbus, OH @ Jerome Schottenstein Center
March 6 – Portland, ME @ Cumberland Co. Civic Center
March 7 – Boston, MA @ TD Garden
March 9 – Washington, DC @ Verizon Center
March 10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
March 12 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
March 13 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
March 14 – Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
March 16 – Indianapolis, IN @ Conesco Fieldhouse
March 18 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena
March 19 – Chicago, IL @ United Center
March 20 – Cleveland, OH @ Quicken Loans Arena
March 23 – Norfolk, VA @ Constant Convocation Center
And if you still think Rock is dead, we direct you to this editorial. And this one.
So let me get this straight: You say (in the first editorial linked above) that rock and roll isn’t dead and those who think it is are misguided and clinging to a dying idea of how music should be promoted and consumed.
But when Patrick Carney says that rock and roll is dying and that it’s the fault of everyone’s favorite musical whipping boy (I have my problems with Nickelback, but there’s plenty of blame to go around, and the Black Keys aren’t blameless), you salute him for his statement.
Not trying to antagonize, just curious as to what drives the apparent double-standard.
No double-standard. Patrick said that Rock can only “die” for people who actually believe and are ok with shitty bands being the biggest out there. For people who know better (like him, like you, like me), Rock is alive and well.
I honestly don’t see what the hate is for Nickelback. Maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, but hey, I assume that’s the same for all bands and all tastes. I’m Canadian, so maybe I’m biased a bit, but I pride myself in liking all kinds of music, especially Rock and like most bands, some stuff is good and some is just ok. Anyways, for me, Patrick’s comment isn’t about Nback so much as it is a slag on today’s rock. Maybe not all bands pass his standards, but R&R is dying? I beg to differ….just hit a Foo Fighters concert.
I am no Nickelback fan, love the Black Keys, in fact I’ve seen them live twice. However, that was the most pretentious shit I’ve read in a while. Sounds like a shot of humility is in order for Patrick. The Black Keys are in no way innovating to keep rock alive, they play the blues and nothing but, maybe with a touch of pop on these last few albums. You wanna keep rock alive? Skip the bullshit and shut your fucking mouth until you’re better at your instrument and you think you’ve improved your art. Nickelback is a result of industry, but they play what a lot of people want to hear obviously. Everyone knows by now that musical elitism annoying as hell, so lets be done with it.
/rant
so right man i agree with you totally. i am so sick and tired of all these artists complaining about how ‘real’ musicians bleed from the ‘soul’, and everyone else just isnt good enough. honestly, get over yourselves. im not shitting on the black keys, i like some of their songs, and they obviously have a good point about rock n roll being alive and well to those who are aware of it. but their pretentiousness (displayed here) has become a staple these days in many of these new age indie bands and its horseshit. its not like these so called real musicians are even good at there instruments anyway, so get off each others dicks and just play your songs. no one wants to listen to your douchebaggery!!
SO BRAVE
He needs to stop wasting his energy bitching about other bands and rest up so he doesn’t have to cancel shows on this next tour due to “exhaustion.” What a whiny bitch. Everything else that needs to be said already has been by Zach above.
I dont have a problem with what he said because its true. We have all had this rant before. I know I have to my friends so who’s the elitist? because the lot of you are saying because he is who he is he doesn’t have the right to say it. Bullshit, just bull…
Black Keys are putting out some pretty bland stuff these days. Patrick better watch what he says and pull out Thickfreakness and be reminded of what it was like to be inspired cause the new shit is meh…
The negative comments here are truly mystifying. Personal preference and everything else aside, there’s nothing pretentious about calling out something that is obviously music as commerce, not art. All he’s saying is that because of the fact that every big rock band (or any act) over the last decade (or more) has been commerce first, art second, that being a famous musician now has a connotation as being a shitty artist. It’s really not fair and Black Keys seem to aim to change that. Why the fuck would anyone argue against that?
The black keys are changing todays music and their music is consistantly great so fuck you guys for saying patrick is pretentious, he’s just telling the truth and nickleback sucks big donkey dick. Music sucks today and here is a perfect reason why http://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_artists00s.html
Since when did half this shit become rock? Outkast, Eminem, fucking Jay Z? What the fuck? This is a sad, sad fucking compilation of shit. It’s amazing to see this is actually what some people think is real rock. Mainstream, whiny bullshit. Not saying mainstream is bad, but it gives the wrong illusion about rock music. The Black Keys are real rock. it goes back to the roots. Granted, the newest albums aren’t amazing like the others, but I’d rather listen to Brothers or El Camino before I would listen to one riff of Nickelback.
Also, that list is a perfect example look at where the keys rank, not even in the top 100 are you fucking kidding me? Am i in the twilight zone right now?