Chulahoma

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ALBUM INFORMATION

Total Tracks: 7   Total Length: 28:19

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Amelia Raitt

eMusic Contributor

Amelia Raitt is a former writer for the television program Mr. Belvedere and has been writing about pop music of all colors and stripes for eMusic since 2005. S...more »

04.22.11
The Black Keys, Chulahoma
2006 | Label: Fat Possum Records

Few bands do greasy new blues better than Ohio's Black Keys. On Chulahoma, they expand on their sound without straying too far from their time-tested sonic template. The record opens low and quiet, a slow grimy strum and Dan Auerbach's high, lonesome vocal riding over a simple, thumping backbeat. "Meet Me in the City" has a slow, edgy thump moving out of blues territory and approaching the measured ache of classic soul. Black Keys move across genres with ease, and Chulahoma is another fine testament to their wounded beauty.

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Hypnotic

Jack67

I think I'm still in a trance, this is a bad mammajamma!

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Bad Ass

theenddecay

This is a bad ass cover album. The Black Keys pay homage to the blues, and they do it well. If you want gritty music to put on the background while playing some cards or drinking with friends, this is a great album to put on. Good times will ensue.

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My New Favorite Band

EMUSIC-0214107F

From the first raunchy guitar solo I was hooked. The Black Keys are now my new favorite band. Something about their style gets me hot and bothered like no music I've ever heard. This is blues at its best!

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Feel the Heat

EMUSIC-00D69391

I am using this one to keep the house warm this winter.

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Nothing but goodness

shawnbrass

You can't go wrong with their version of Meet Me in the City.

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Booyeah!

ConroyMike

These tracks are the mutt's nuts!

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Great sound

dondejuan

There is no such thing as a bad Black Keys album. If you like one track, you like them all.

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Hands down best Black Keys

IndySucks

I am an avid Black Keys fan, and I find this to be their best effort to date. While the group's LPs generally showcase their uptempo, garage-blues-rock style, this album is nothing but chilled-back, soulful jams that really showcase Auerbach's rich tone (both on vocals and guitar).

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Cranking Delta Grunge...

Streetblues

Does that make any sense? The Black Keys cover other blues (mostly Junior Kimbrough)and bring a Hendrix/Grunge mix to it... and bring it in a most excellent way. My favorite release by the Keys and serving the material in great form. You hear the music speak to, and through, them.

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Instant Music History

elgaberino

The Black Keys opened 2006 with a tracklist of slower, grittier grooves, covers of late label-mate Junior Kimbrough. Chulahoma passed under the radar; a full Keys album was already anticipated later in the year, and this is an EP, guaranteeing it less hype and fewer sales. But it's the work of a great 20th century blues man, covered by possibly the best blues rock band of this decade, and deserves to be important. It's not like the Keys' own work, but it's good in its own right; Kimbrough was a Burnsides collaborator, revered by the North Mississippi All Stars, Iggy & the Stooges, and Rolling Stone magazine. The disc plays smoothly, being more atmospheric and bucolic than the Keys' usual grease. Auerbach and Carney are extolled at the end of the record by Kimbrough's widow, affirming that they're the "only ones" capable of a tribute to her husband. (Accordingly, purism aside, you might want to skip the last track.) Chulahoma is no ordinary EP. It's unique American music history. 88%

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They Say All Media Guide

Chulahoma is a stopgap EP from the Black Keys, a collection of six covers of songs by cult bluesman Junior Kimbrough, whose “Do the Rump” they covered on their 2002 debut, Big Come Up. Considering that this is the first time the blues-rock guitar-n-drums duo has devoted an album to nothing but straight-ahead blues songs, it wound seem logical that Chulahoma would be the bluesiest recording in their catalog, but the Black Keys aren’t that simple. The six songs on this 28-minute EP are hardly replications of Kimbrough’s gritty originals, nor do they have the dirty, punch-to-the-gut feel of any of the duo’s three proper albums. Instead, this is the weirdest set of music the band has done to date, a trippy, murky excursion into territory that floats somewhere between the primal urgency of the duo’s best work and the dark, moody psychedelia of late-’60s blues-rock. Take “Have Mercy on Me” — its winding, narcotic blues groove settles into a bed of droning organ and bongos, but the interplay between guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney prevents it from sounding as affected as psychedelia, while infusing it with a real sense of danger. That unsettling undercurrent flows throughout this brief EP, and it makes Chulahoma an album that’s ideal for pitch-black nights, where the music can worm its way into your imagination and then run wild. That alone would make it a unique, noteworthy detour for the Black Keys, but when this is compared to Kimbrough’s original recordings, it becomes an instructive listen since a side-by-side listen reveals how Auerbach drew inspiration from Kimbrough’s stripped-down, idiosyncratic grooves and took it into some place entirely different. And while that might mean that Chulahoma doesn’t necessarily sound like a kissing cousin to Kimbrough’s originals, it does make it a greater, richer tribute than most cover albums, and it certainly proves that Auerbach’s testimonial in the liner notes about how Junior Kimbrough changed his life is no lie. – Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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  • 02.09.12 Vote for The Black Keys for 2012 @mtvU "Woodie of the Year" now - http://t.co/frF4s2fe
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  • 12.16.11 The Black Keys session on NPR's @WorldCafe with host David Dye airs today at 2pm ET. http://t.co/yvUxUA6o
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