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The recording equipment was broken for five months! What happened to the Black Keys' recording journey?
The third studio album of the American rock duo Black Keys, Rubber Factory, was released on September 7, 2004 by Fat Possum Records. It attracted many musicians with its distinctive musical style and unique recording background. Fascinated eyes. The album was recorded in an abandoned tire factory in Akron, Ohio, but the challenges of the recording process made the journey extremely difficult.
“We were looking for a place to record and saw a for-rent sign. It was a huge building. The first floor was a large storage room, and we rented the space on the second floor.”
In the early days of The Black Keys, the band recorded mainly in the basement of drummer Patrick Carney, but when the landlord sold the house, they had to find a new recording location. Finally, they chose to set up a temporary recording studio in a factory called "Sentient Sound". Although this place was dilapidated, it became the cradle of their music creation.
Although the factory environment was not ideal, the lack of crowd distractions allowed the band to experiment freely with its musical style. Although Carney's description of the place is not subtle: "It's too far away, it's terribly hot on the second floor, the windows can't be opened, and the acoustics are terrible." It shows how difficult the challenge of recording is.
“The mixer we used was a second-hand unit purchased from eBay, which delayed our recording schedule by nearly five months.”
Their recording equipment frequently malfunctioned, causing the recording process to be delayed again and again. Even after completing the album, they still kept the faulty mixing console in the factory. This experience makes this album an important milestone in their career.
Album packaging and art design
Michael Carney, creative director of the Black Keys and Carney's brother, designed the album cover for Rubber Factory, which depicts a desolate cityscape on Akron's east side, including abandoned stores, tire The accumulation and the image of the Gude-Nian spacecraft.
Publicity and market response
Several songs from the album, such as "When the Lights Go Out" and "10 A.M. Automatic", were featured in several films and commercials, further increasing the Black Keys' popularity. What’s more worth mentioning is that “Rubber Factory” received great acclaim after its release, and entered the US Billboard 200 for the first time, with a peak ranking of 143rd.
“The album has attracted a large number of music fans with its unique sound style and rich emotional content, and has also received rave reviews from critics.”
According to the ratings aggregation website Metacritic, the album received an average score of 81, and music critics gave high praise to Black Keys' album. David Browne's review in Entertainment Weekly was particularly specific and enthusiastic, calling it "quality indie-rock blues".
Unique experiences in music
The Black Keys' music-making process during the recording of Rubber Factory is undoubtedly legendary. They used environmentally friendly traditional recording film for recording, and even in 2009 Carney said that the factory would be demolished. In 2011, the scenery shown in their new single "Lonely Boy" was exactly the recording location.
This album not only consolidated the Black Keys' position in the music industry, but also paved the way for their future development. From the initial difficulties to the subsequent success, the persistence and perseverance behind it are topics worthy of reflection and learning for every musician.
Today, with the changes in the music ecology, the evolution of recording equipment seems to have pushed music creation to a new peak. If the hardships of the past can once again become the inspiration for today's music creation, what kind of music will be produced in the future? Woolen cloth?
