Don’t ever let it be said that The Black Keys don’t know where they come from. The midwestern duo still have lots to say about their hometown, and the disrespect they feel it has been paid by artists native to the Ohio town that later “made it”.

In this months issue of Harp Magazine, there is an extensive article about Dan and Patrick and their upcoming new album, Attack and Release (the first Black Keys album to come out of a real studio, and the first to feature outside musicians), but they talk about Akron, where they still live, first.

“I always had a problem with people that talked shit on Akron and said they were going to move away the first chance they got,” says Patrick Carney, the duo’s lanky, powerhouse drummer. “That sounds like a nice adventure, but for me, I’m going to stay in this place where I was born, a place that defines us in a lot of ways. I think there’s a much more interesting life in trying to make people stay in a town where all of the cool people have left. Does Brooklyn really need to be made a cooler place?”

More from Patrick….

“I was listening to a local triple-A radio station and they were going on about Chrissie Hynde, sure, she was born here, but she also sold the fucking city out and talked shit on the place for years. Akron is so desperate for notoriety that they’ll get behind ‘their girl’…who lives in England!” says Carney. “Why play her when you can play some great bands from around here who are trying to figure things out in a town with no jobs?”

“Devo did the same thing. They were my favorite band all through high school, and I still love them, I got my first apartment solely because they used to live in that building, I was a fanatic, but the minute that Andy Warhol and others started paying attention, they went out to L.A. and talked shit on Akron. 30 years later, they’ve become what they were making fun of.”

“We both have routines. We’re not leaving. It’s one thing to move because you can’t get work; if you work in a factory and have to move in order to get work, I get it. But when you’re in a rock band, you go on tour and you go to the work and you come home.”

Read the entire article here….

Good to see some Ohio boys staying very true to their roots. I am really looking forward to the Danger Mouse produced album, Attack & Release, out April 1st on Nonesuch. Here is the first tune to surface from the album, “Strange Times.”

The Black Keys – Strange Times