The Black Keys Get Spacey and Shakin' at Lollapalooza

"I only came for the Black Keys," shouted a heavily bearded man to nobody in particular. He was not alone in his enthusiasm, as a large crowd gathered to see the pair of Ohioans shake and sweat with their special brand of garage blues. Singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach plucked out fuzzy jams in between heavy tracks from their latest album Attack & Release. Those songs — rooted heavily in melody and produced by Danger Mouse on record — sometimes got lost in the sludge, but luckily drummer Patrick Carney is an absolute machine, pounding out rugged rimshots that kept the people twitching. The Black Keys hit their stride on "Strange Times," which had an Iron Butterfly-level heaviness that the crowd treated as dance music. That one bearded guy was surely not disappointed.

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Song Stories

“Too Close”

Next | 1998

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'" 

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