She Want You To Hold Her at Night When She's Lonely and Blue

I'm not quite sure what a smoking Volkswagen bug has to do with the next band in our Decade's Best, but it just seemed like it fit very well... onward and upward...

NUMBER 6:

The Black Keys - The Big Come Up/thickfreakness

Again, too hard to pick one of these two albums. They have to be taken together, and listened to as a whole. By this point, most music fans in the know are aware of The Black Keys and their brand of swampy, Delta blues. I can clearly recall the exact first moment that I heard The Big Come Up. Mrs. Cuddle and I had gone to visit a close friend of ours and he insisted that we check out this new band that he had heard. In fact, the Keys had opened for a local band in Buffalo (the legendary Dai Atlas... they rocked hard, and faded quickly) at the legendary Mohawk Place. They wouldn't open for small change local bands for long...

The sound coming out of the speakers clearly said old-school, elderly, southern, grizzled bluesmen... but the liner notes said twenty-something white kids from Akron, Ohio. Huh? You sure about that?

Could 2 white guys from the Midwest really create this much beautiful noise? Oh yes, they could. The Big Come Up is clearly the rawer and less polished of the two records. Warts and all are present, and the record wouldn't sound the same without them. "Heavy Soul", "Leavin' Trunk", and "Do The Rump" would have sounded right in the hands of Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Taj Mahal (an Ideological Cuddle favorite), or Lightning Hopkins. Their cover of "She Said, She Said" is (and yes, I'm about to commit blasphemy here) better than the Beatles version (there, I said it).

thickfreakness doesn't widen the Keys' sound much from The Big Come Up, but the songwriting is clearly sharper. "Midnight In Her Eyes", "No Trust", and "Hold Me In Your Arms" are beautiful snapshots of the new blues movement. Dan Auerbach's guitar playing is unparalleled, Patrick Carney's drumming is savage and primal.

A blues band unlike any other, the way to catch The Black Keys is live in concert. Mrs. Cuddle and I have caught this band about 3-4 times (mostly in Toronto - maybe they haven't forgiven Dai Atlas for resigning them to an opening slot in the B-lo). Each time, the performance improves, the guitar solos are hotter, the drumming harder, the tempos more break-neck. As the decade progressed, Mrs. Cuddle and I listened to The Black Keys together more than any other band. We purchased each of their records and stuck with them through their changes in sound - widening the scope on Rubber Factory, returning to heavy rock riff roots with Magic Potion, and getting Danger Mouse involved for Attack & Release. Each album shines on its own, but can't compare to the 1-2 punch of their first two recorded classics. By all means, catch the Keys live in concert, and you won't be disappointed.

The Big Come Up - "She Said, She Said"

The Big Come Up - "Leavin' Trunk"

We've finally reached the Top 5 of the Decade's Best. I promise not to wait another 2 weeks to post the rest, as I have a bunch of other great posts planned for the rest of this month.

While you're surfing the interweb (as MMJ would call it), check out one of the Ideological Cuddle's favorite new blogs - it's brought to you by one of our dearest friends, Julie - julesandremi.blogspot.com - as she cooks with her beautiful daughter, Ada, OH, Wait! She's in the kitchen... don't dream of calling her anything other than Remi.

Until next time, enjoy, listen, and love...