At the heart of our special rock issue is a look into the Black Keys’ evolution from neighborhood Akron kids to the elite class of rock bands that can sell out arenas in mere minutes.
The Keys’ scraggly-voiced vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach gets a few things straight about his genre, and any pointed accusations of “selling out”: “There’s this weird thing that happened with being a successful band, and it has to do with rich, private-college kids who rule the indie rock world - kids who never really have to worry about anything because they always have some sort of backup plan that they can safely fall into. We come from middle-class families. We’re both college dropouts. Driving around the country, paying for everything ourselves - this is the backup plan. The only plan, really.”
This week, and what ended up happening with my first cover story, has been an… experience. But the story landed, in its fully 2500-word, 11-source, Pitchfork-bashing glory. As in, the band bashes Pitchfork. And Spotify. And rich kids who control indie rock. For a couple’a boys from lil ole Akron, they sure be talking that talk these days. Good on them.
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