In celebration of the release of The Black Keys’ new album Ohio Players, Nonesuch Records sent us a vinyl test pressing to give away to one lucky customer!
To enter the drawing, send an email* with the subject “Black Keys” HERE by midnight Thursday, April 18. We will randomly draw a name and notify the winner on Friday, April 19.
Ohio Players is The Black Keys’ fourth album in five years, a momentum with a simple explanation, Dan Auerbach says: “We never stopped recording.” There was his and Patrick Carney’s reunion, after a five-year hiatus, on 2019’s Let’s Rock, then the 2021 blast of Mississippi-hill-country covers, Delta Kream. A rapid-fire follow-up of new originals, 2022’s Dropout Boogie, featured the duo working with outside writers for the first time: Greg Cartwright of Memphis rockers Reigning Sound and Angelo Petraglia, who has worked with Kings of Leon and the teenage Taylor Swift. (Cartwright and Petraglia are back for Ohio Players, too.)
“We’d never worked harder to make a record,” Dan Auerbach says. “It’s never taken us this long to make an album. We took our time and did it right.”
“What we wanted to accomplish with this record was make something that was fun,” Patrick Carney says. “And something that most bands 20 years into their career don’t make, which is an approachable, fun record that is also cool.”
While making Ohio Players, a title inspired by the legendary Dayton, Ohio, funk band of the same name, The Black Keys were also DJing dance parties in cities around the world that they called “record hangs,” spinning 45s from their own eclectic and growing collections. Mojo reports, “The spirit of those parties infused the album’s DNA. ‘That’s been the fun of it,’ [says] Auerbach. ‘Letting go a little bit.’”
Ohio Players is available at The Record Exchange on indie exclusive vinyl and CD!
* One entry per person per title, NOT per email address. If you have 16 email addresses and you enter with each address, we’ll just delete 15 of them. We have the technology. To be eligible to win, you must live in the Treasure Valley/Boise metro area and be able to pick up your prize at the store.
I would very berry much like a spot in the black keys contest please 😀