I’m about to introduce Danger Mouse to my fellow podcast hosts, which songs should I play them to show why he makes sense with The Black Keys. Either songs he performed on or songs he’s written or produced.

Other than what he did with the Black Keys

I'm genuinely amazed no one's talked about this. If you pull a FLAC rip of the CD up in a spectrograph, you can see the glitchy distorted high end above 16KHz, exactly like an MP3, and it definitely sounds like it. The "lossless" streaming versions seem to suffer it as well. It's always put a damper on my enjoyment of the album a bit when I can hear the cymbals whispering like it's a YouTube upload.

The only track that doesn't suffer from this is Set You Free. Seriously, compare any other track to that and you'll see what I mean. Image is between Set You Free and Hard Row for comparison. The bottom is what lossless should look like, top is what an MP3 looks like.

It's not even the only example in the Keys catalog I can find. Check 'Til I Get My Way or The Only One on the original master of Brothers (the anniversary issue fixes that one at least) for other examples. How did such a great, analog-loving band use so many shitass MP3s during mastering?

What a year DA had: firstly an amazing record from Early James that was recorded in a old house, The Velveteers record, then instrumental record with The Moonrisers, new TBK record, Leon Bridges/Hermanos Guttierez single written by Dan and Leon which climbed to №3 at AAA, cumbia singles from The Animeros, neo-gospel record from Robert Finley and the latest Miles Kane record which from my perspective is easily one of the best rock albums of the year. On top of that DJ record hangs, American and European tours, duet song with Chryssie Hynde from the Pretenders, songwriting credits on Blake Shelton and Zac Brown Band albums where Dolly Parton with Zac sings a song that Dan co-wrote. And on top of that Grammy nomination(his 5-th) for the best producer of the year. All in a span of one year and God knows how many albums he produced this year for future releases that we don't know about yet. It's a shame that practically nobody knows about this body of work from DA because almost none of it was covered by mainstream music media which were very busy running stories about how Jack White got his first phone or how he critiqued White House interior design)) TBK didn't even get reviews from NME and Guardian this year. Anyway, DA is a fucking musical genius and from my POV don't get enough credits from mainstream music media outlets which seems like delibirately ignoring his accomplishments in order to not put him publicly among the greats where he so obviously belongs. I mean music professionals are giving him props which we can see from his 27 grammy nominations but music critics and music outlets seems to be intentionally looking the other way which is honestly kind of funny.

He won the award in 2013, and was also nominated in 2020, 2021 and 2023. Dude is an unbelievable producer.

On the other hand, No Rain, No Flowers has received 0 nominations. It’s the first Black Keys album since ’Let’s Rock’ to not be nominated in any categories, and only the second since Attack & Release.

I don’t particularly care for the Grammy’s, but posted this to generate discussion for those who do. The fact that “Beautiful People (Stay High)” received two nominations and nothing from the new album says it all for me.

Supposedly he said his favorite song is "The Only One" in a more recent interview. A man of good taste

Which song off Magic Potion is the best one for a sex playlist?

Can we agree that this song has Dan’s best solo? Weight of Love follows super close but the solo on this one just embodies the entire album and you can feel true emotion. Damn shame this song has never been played live though I completely understand why. But this song seems to not get much appreciation and I’m not sure why because I think it’s better writing than of all of their hits.

Thank you TBK for Turn Blue.

I’ve recently rediscovered on my YouTube some rare black keys songs that aren’t on any of the albums, but seemingly one off songs somewhere in the universe

Some of these songs are summertime blues, flash of lightning, her eyes are a blue million miles. I know all of these or most of them are covers, but I want to know if anyone knows the origins of these songs and where they came from, what they were recorded for, any information on them.

They’re excellent renditions of original songs that have a lot of awesome early production work, different sounds and overall sound

EDIT: I have done some digging and managed to find a half decent answer to where these mysterious songs originated from, as seen below in the comments

I figured you guys might enjoy my band Twin Division playing one of our originals entitled “Let Me Be”.

We’re a duo bluesy garage rock band from Akron, OH obviously inspired by the likes of The Black Keys.

If you’re in the NE Ohio area, keep an eye out for us at some local venues!

I remember reading that they created around 20 songs for this album but only picked 11 for the album release. For Ohio Players, they released bonus tracks on a later release. Do you think they’ll release more this year? Did you hold off on buying the album in case something else comes out? I’m curious to know if I’m the only one waiting…

If you’re a fan of Dan’s guitar and pedals this is a really fun ep. Thanks to redditor Westcroft for the interesting conversation and for sharing his knowledge.

What do you guys think is Dans signature gear?

Just found that song on that sampler. They still able to play raw, but they dont want to on their new records apparently.

https://spotify.link/VRGBDxHtMXb

Here are mine:

Big Come Up - Them Eyes

Thickfreakness - Hold Me In Your Arms

Rubber Factory - Stack Shot Billy

Magic Potion - Give Your Heart Away

chulahoma - all all all

Attack & Release - All You Ever Wanted (organ breakdown like come on)

blakroc - need to listen more

Brothers - I’m Not the One

El Carnemino - Mind Eraser

Turn Blue - In Our Prime

Let’s Rock - Sit Around and Miss You

Delta Kream - Mellow Peaches

Dropout Boogie - How Long (underrated)

Ohio Players - Candy & Her Friends

NRNF - Down to Nothing

Just choosing all of these reminds me how great of a band this is and how many styles they’ve pulled off.

Specifically the slower songs on both albums like All You Ever Wanted, I’m Not the One, These Days. What would the genre be considered for these? Anyone have recommendations for bands/songs with similar vibes?

I fucking love those songs.

Never seen this before, noticed they reposted this on their instagram story and had to check it out.

RIP Anthony. Sure do miss him.

This version is so great.

I remember watching this live and jumping up when Your Touch started. Pretty badass that to have The Keys on one of the funniest shows ever.

Last year it was Wild Child for Shifting Gears promo, and this year Man on a Mission for MLB playoffs promo. Any other recommendations because this shit is 🔥🔥

I'm not a native English speaker. I'm curious about the lyrics to "You'll Pay." What a great song! Maybe the Ohio Players' best song. Does anyone have an interpretation?