Sooner or later, we're gonna' make it - Fat Possum.

Rubber Factory!

Listen to 10 A.M. Automatic | Order now Rubber Factory out September 7th

From Mojo Magazine: "Short, sharp, loud and proud, the Keys' set is an exhilarating reminder of the continued vitality of primal blues and rock: not back to basics but forward."

From Spin Magazine: "Two dudes from Akron, Ohio, with Beatles to burn and blues to spare, the Keys are six inches away from absolutely awesome."

Rubber Factory, the follow-up to one of 2003's most successful albums, thickfreakness, features more of Patrick and Dan's mix of rough rock n' roll and blues straight out of Akron, Ohio. Rubber Factory is the second Black Key's album out on Fat Possum, and continues the raw, ragged, and loud sound, and this time, with handclaps.

See the Black Keys live:

9/04/04 (Sat) Seattle, WA Bumpershoot - Mural Stage
9/05/04 (Sun) Vancouver BC Canada The Drink
9/07/04 (Tue) Portland, OR Aladdin Theater
9/09/04 (Thu) San Francisco, CA Fillmore
9/10/04 (Fri) Hollywood, CA Avalon
9/11/04 (Sat) San Diego, CA Brick by Brick
9/12/04 (Sun) Phoenix, AZ Mason Jar
9/14/04 (Tue) Santa Fe, NM Paramount
9/15/04 (Wed) Denver, CO Gothic Theatre
9/16/04 (Thu) Omaha, NE Sokol Underground
9/17/04 (Fri) Lawrence, KS Granada
9/18/04 (Sat) Columbia, MO Mojo's
9/19/04 (Sun) Iowa City, IA Gabes's Oasis
9/21/04 (Tue) Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
9/22/04 (Wed) Madison, WI High Noon Saloon
9/23/04 (Thu) Milwaukee, WI Mad Planet
9/24/04 (Fri) Chicago, IL Metro
9/25/04 (Sat) Newport, KY Southgate House
9/26/04 (Sun) Detroit, MI St. Andrews Hall
9/28/04 (Tue) Toronto Canada Lee's Palace
10/01/04 (Fri) Boston, MA Paradise
10/02/04 (Sat) New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
10/03/04 (Sun) New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
10/07/04 (Thu) Pittsburgh, PA The World
10/08/04 (Fri) Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall
10/09/04 (Sat) Cleveland, OH Beachland Ballroom
10/10/04 (Sun) Cleveland, OH Beachland Ballroom

R. L. Burnside.

Listen to Goin' Down South | Buy A Bothered Mind out today

From Brian McCollum of the Detriot Free Press:
Four stars (out of four)

The musical link between Detroit and Dixie is long and rich, a connection that stretches back to the days when the blues and hillbilly music of Southern migrants met the clang of bustling auto factories. In a day when Uncle Kracker scores country hits and Kid Rock hangs in Nashville, the pipeline is still flowing strong. But perhaps nothing else this year brings it all together like Mississippi bluesman R.L. Burnside's latest album, a remix record loaded with contributions from some of the Motor City's finest.

"A Bothered Mind" is helmed by veteran Tino Gross, known best as front man for the Howling Diablos and the guy who helped push rapper Rock into the rock 'n' roll world. At his Royal Oak studio, Gross took older Burnside work, dressed it up with squalling guitars and laid-back hip-hop beats, transforming it into something fresh and captivating.

Burnside, a farmer who spent most of his 77 years unknown to the outside world, has been a hipster's fave since his embrace by rocker Jon Spencer in the mid-'90s. At first blush, the new record recalls Burnside's 1998 "Come On In," which stuck the bluesman's bawdy work onto a bed of electronica in a Delta-meets-the-dance-floor stew. But where that record often came off as a novelty, a gimmick that seemed to chuckle at the aged Burnside as much as it laughed with him, "Bothered Mind" feels like a cohesive and meaningful piece of work.

It's a carnival of sound -- funky licks going head-to-head with turntable scratches and metal riffage -- but Gross is careful to keep the attention on Burnside, whose craggy voice remains afront the mix. Even on the album's most rocked-up cuts, high-wire tracks like "See What My Buddy Done" and "Stole My Check," the production is coolly unobtrusive. For all the twists and turns concocted by Gross, Burnside and his band are rarely buried by the noise; the raw crackle of their juke-joint blues just gets an added electric jolt.

That trick is especially tough to pull off when you've got potentially overbearing guests like Kid Rock ("My Name is Robert Too") and the sublime L.A. rapper Lyrics Born, who tacks sly rhymes onto a pair of cuts. A bevy of Detroit players help flesh things out: Jimmie Bones, Kenny Olson, Mike Smith, Mike E. Clark.

The album is versatile enough to let a bare-bones lament like "Bird Without a Feather" fit comfortably between a raw chunk of fire ("Go to Jail") and a slice of slinky funk ("Glory Be"). By the time all is done, the album confirms the common ground between Delta heat and hot Detroit rock.