Tighten Up
by The Black Keys
JOHN PEETS; ALYSSE GAFKJEN; STAN BLAKE
A song that almost didn’t make the cut became the Keys’ breakthrough number. Recorded on a diet of beer and chicken wings
I
N 2009, the Black Keys were on the verge of something, but they weren’t sure exactly what. After years spent eking out a modest living on small labels and mid-level touring, they enjoyed a breakthrough thanks to a new label, Nonesuch, and a new producer, Danger Mouse. 2008’s Attack & Release reached No 14 in America and grazed the UK Top 40. Drummer Patrick Carney remembers that their goal had always been to play the Brixton Academy, but that, “We never felt that playing the O2 or somewhere like that was ever going to be attainable.”
Behind the scenes, Carney was about to turn 30 and had just got divorced. To compound his woes, he wasn’t happy that his partner in the Black Keys, singerguitarist Dan Auerbach, had just released a solo album without his knowledge. As a consequence, the pair went through what the drummer calls “some shit”. “I think that was more in Pat’s head than mine,” insists Auerbach today. “Pat was going through a really bad time. I was making music as I always had done. Communication wasn’t great and there was a lot going on. But we got through it.” Carney remembers approaching their
KEY PLAYERS
Dan Auerbach Vocals, guitar
Patrick Carney Drums
Tchad Blake Mixing engineer
Carney and Auerbach at Muscle Shoals Sound in Sheffield, Alabama, recording Brothers, 2009 78 • UNCUT • MARCH 2021
next record, 2010’s Brothers, thinking, ‘Not many bands make it to six albums, so we’d better put our best foot forward.’ They certainly did. A Top 5 hit globally, Brothers collected three Grammys and sold 850,000 copies in the States alone. Ironically, “Tighten Up”, the album’s instantly catchy lead single, almost didn’t get made at all. The majority of tracks were recorded in Muscle Shoals with engineer Mark Neill, before Auerbach and Carney returned to New York. With time on their hands, they headed back into the studio with Danger Mouse. “The feeling was, ‘Let’s try to write something that could possibly be played on the radio,’” Auerbach remembers. “That was the first time we’d tried that. At first I was so uneasy with it, but I’m so glad we put it out. That song opened the doors for everything that followed. It changed everything for us.” DAVE SIMPSON DAN AUERBACH: With the divorce happening, Pat wanted to get out of town. I was all for that. I wanted to go to Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis so bad. I’d been there and seen the room with the echo chamber. Then Mark talked us into going to Muscle Shoals. Not to Fame where Duane Allman recorded with Wilson Pickett, but to Muscle Shoals Sound – which was basically like returning to our basement. The shitty floors weren’t supported properly, so the bass response was terrible. There were all these hard surfaces, so sound bouncing everywhere… But we just let the music flow. We realised that the magic is just Pat and me and that can happen anywhere. Mark is an incredible engineer. We were playing his beautiful Gretsch
