Now I know and love many of the modern day traditional blues artists like Shemekia Copeland, Jonny Lang, Shannon Curfman, and Susan Tedeschi and wouldn’t dare knock them for their traditional approach, but there’s just something about the blues perpetrated by The White Stripes, The Kills, and today’s reviewed band, The Black Keys that arguably sonically upstages the traditionalists. When blues bands come along that blues purists either worship or despise, we blues snobs must pay attention. Whether it is the manically psychotic blues of The White Stripes, the electronically trashy blues of The Kills, or the explosively rhythmic distorted blues of The Black Keys, the blues in its perfected simplicity is back with a vengeance and upstaging everything in its path. When blues duos are louder and exponentially more rock & roll than a 4-piece modern rock band, it kind of has an impact, so much so that my father, a more traditional blues aficionado, said of The Black Keys after hearing them on the radio, “How are there only two guys in that band?! They’re incredible.” Like I said, they upstage – helps add a new perspective on what rock music can sound like.

Zweng’s new album, “Silent Scream of Gulls,” is a bold experimentation in the geography of sound.  Always eclectic, the forthcoming Zweng album does not dissapoint.  More to come once we get a full copy…check out the pre-release single at XMASisaCrime.com.

Rock Yer Face Off has 3 free guest passes for those coming to the Dirty Dave and the Deviants show this Saturday.  Be the in the first three to comment on this post and we’ll have you in the show gratis.  See you there!

The Hi-Nobles are opening tomorrow night at Annie’s. If you haven’t heard of them, they are indigenous to San Francisco and offer a booty-shakin’ soul-screamin’ brand of garage-style rock-yer-face-off soul. Hit the scene and support them tomorrow night, usually worth it and see if you can get your feet moving.

Headlining the show is the Love Me Nots from Phoenix, AZ. They’ve got a unique surf/rockabilly sound and for some reason scream to be the child of a bizarre and likely marriage between Nancy Sinatra and Audrey Hepburn. They’ve got a great groove and Michael Johnny Walker has got some hot licks, just howlin’ Brian Setzer on the guitar.

I guess if you’ve been on Terry Gross’s Fresh Air, you’ve kind of “made it” but that doesn’t mean you have to play venues like the Concord Sleeptrain Pavilion. I was hoping to catch the Black Keys at a venue with a little more character, so regretfully I’ll be missing them when they kick off their fall tour in Concord next weekend. Not sure what they were thinking because they have a ton of great venues lined up, including the famous Stubb’s restaurant in Austin (try the brisket). The show should be good (definitely crowded as the venue holds 12,000+) and the band has a decent new album, Attack and Release, their fifth studio release. The record is a little more melodic than past work and has less of that beer-drinkers and hell-raisers feel too it—it even has, gasp, what sounds like a flute on the song “Same Old Thing.”