The Black Keys

Ahhh yes The Black Keys. For you individuals with the refined taste of music, you may have heard of the Black Keys. You may have also heard that they also won a Grammy. Crazy. Crazy as in crazy awesome, seeing as they were completely deserving of it. What they were not deserving of was no air time on the Grammys. Subsequently many have not yet heard the music of The Black Keys. This could just be my multitude of lame friends who are too lame, and haven't listened to them. Regardless, this is a travesty. Thus I take it upon myself the burden of spreading the good word.

Where to begin with The Black Keys? Don't answer that. It's rhetorical, its my post, of course I know where Im going to start. With that I segue into their members: Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney. Allow me to succintly describe the two in analogy format. Dan Auerbach:No Glasses :: Patrick Carney:Glasses. Thats about all you need to know. I apologize if my description was a little bit wordy, but I felt I really needed the detail. With all tihs unfulfilled space, maybe I'll go into some extraneous details about them. Dan Auerbach is the guitarist, and Patrick Carney is the drummer, pretty simple at that. Now if you did quick Google search you may find their newest album, Brothers. An excellent album, but do not be confused they are not in fact brothers, simply bandmates. I'm not a sure a single human womb could hold their dual awesomeness over any space of time.

Now, I may have built up the two quite a bit, and maybe gone a little overboard, and you may be wondering my warrants for why their music is so good. Their music is great, because they took the simple concept of blues, and reinvigorated it, not to denigrate the whole genre of blues by calling it "simple." For blues, its the structure itself that is very simple, the very structured pattern and rhythmic music that makes it easy to learn and easy to follow, however its what people can do within that structure that makes Blues such an enduring genre. You see a lot of that with the Black Keys, the heavy blues structure, heavy deep rhythms, but reinvigorated with distorted guitar, drums pumped to 11, and whatnot. Basically the formula for the Black Keys is thus: You take Blues, add some heavy guitar, great drumming, Dan's vocals, you slap on a sweet beard (a beard that Dan has shaved much to my dismay), and you've got the Black Keys.
The music they play is so vastly different from what we hear on the radio today, and it's not just shades different from other music. Its out there. Even in the all inclusive umbrella of "indie music." Its a refreshing taste of excellent music, and all jokes aside you ought give thema lookthrough.

Plus the Black Keys have some of the most subtlely hilarious videos ever.




Awesome fake movie trailer/song




And the same song without the awesome fake movie

Gonzolandia Records

Gonzolandia Records supports a couple up-and-coming bands typically based out of Austin, Texas. These bands include: Deadman, Amplified Heat, David Hidalgo & Louie Perez, and Trey Brown & Mission Dorado. These bands provide a very hearty, southern rock feel that digs deep into the emotions of the listener.
Gonzolandia Records' website is http://gonzolandia.com/ . Be sure to check out their merchandise and other music! All of the artists websites are embeded with their music so it is easy to play and listen to!

Deadman
Deadman is a band of six men creating a very distinguishable sound by incorporating southern, country rock with gospel style music. They are currently working on an album but their live album and vinyl record is available on their website. Their music consists largely of gospel style singing and music, which tugs at the heart strings of many. If you get the chance, they play a lot of Austin, Texas and are definitely worth seeing live.
You can find their merchandise and other music on http://deadmanonline.com/ . Here is a little clip for you guys!



Amplified Heat
Amplified Heat was started and consists of the Ortiz brothers who all got together to form this almost country (and much quieter) version of Black Sabbath. They have a southern rock feel with a touch of punk and some hard rock. They are out promoting their new album call On The Hunt. They are playing throughout Texas so, if the opportunity arises, this band is notorious for playing great shows. Being that they like to play some blues tunes yet try to keep a "garage band"-like feel, they aim to please the crowd and make the show exciting.
Their website is http://www.amplifiedheat.com/ and here is a clip of theirs. Enjoy!



David Hidalgo & Louie Perez
David Hidalgo & Louie Perez, aka Latin Playboys, have been playing together for a long time and play their interesting, yet distinguishable music intricately and smoothly. They play a mix of Latin music incorporated with some southern rock. The smooth guitar work creates a very interesting vibe that sucks the listener into the music. The music the progresses into a kind of gospel style. They are not currently promoting an album but still have the albums Dose and Latin Playboys available.
Here is their website and a clip of them on The Conan O'Brien Show! http://www.latinplayboys.org/



Trey Brown & Mission Dorado
Trey Brown & Mission Dorado are a very mellow southern gospel rock. This acoustic music creates an ambience that can relax even the most ecstatic of things. They are providing a vinyl on their website and are working on more material.
Here is their website which includes recording of their songs!
http://treybrown.net/