Happy holidays! Sporadic postings will continue until next year. Here’s some stuff we thought you’d want to read, watch, and listen to. Stay warm!

We highly recommend the KEXP video session with Sharon Van Etten. We’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating that her album, Epic was one of our favorite releases of the year.

NPR premiered a new video from David Wax Museum

Over the holidays I thoroughly enjoyed reading Jay-Z’s new book, Decoded

Our podcast partners at 91.7 WMSE share their DJ’s favorite albums from 2010.

The Dallas Observer lists “Four Folk Acts To Follow in 2011,” including Strand of Oaks.

It could be argue that no band had a bigger year than the Black Keys, whose album Brothers absolutely exploded the group’s popularity. You can pick up the whole album digitally for only $3.99 at Amazon.

Some great concerts in Milwaukee have been announced recently including a two-night stint of Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson at the Northern Lights Casino Theater on March 2nd & 3rd.

School of Seven Bells will perform a free show at Turner Hall Ballroom on Sunday, January 23rd.

The Greenhornes and Hacienda hit the Cactus Club in Milwaukee on Tuesday, March 29th.

Please Join us for both of our 6th Anniversary showcases next month. On Friday, January 14th we’re excited to welcome Sat. Nite Duets, Golden Coins and more to the Cactus Club in Milwaukee. The following night, Saturday, January 15th we’re excited to welcome S. Carey (of Bon Iver) and Conrad Plymouth to Club Garibladi. You can get tickets to the latter here.

Other than that, I’ve been listening to Dylan’s Time Out of Mind almost every day. Most days it’s multiple times through.

By Jon Stone | @jwstone

I read something recently that called the new Black Keys record blues for the 21st century. I’d agree. Blues, to be good, has to be almost bridal: it has to have something old, something new, something borrowed, and, well, something blue. Think of your favorite blues records and I bet you’ll be able to hear those elements. For me, it doesn’t get better than B.B. King’s Live at the Regal and Exile on Main Street‘s recent rerelease reminds us that the Stones were best (like Zepplin) as a dirty blues band — and that they were supurb borrowers. Since seeing The Black Keys play a few songs from the back of the huge crowd at Lolla in 2008, I’ve moved from a passive admirer of the band to a full fledged fan. I think, more and more, that they get that formula right.

Like those old greats, the Black Keys’ Brothers is also dirty. And like all classic blues, it’s riff heavy with stark and evocative lyric cycles. But this one’s gots Danger Mouse production* and with that production comes the eclecti-pop sensibility of a Danger Mouse joint. The man is a force. It’s almost like he can take that dirty (which is good, as mentioned, but less widely accessible) and sell it to the masses. He dials Brothers into a place where it can sell 73,000 units in its first week. Which it did.

Despite Mouse’s magic, I think what makes Brothers a great record is the same thing that makes The Black Keys a great band: the dialectic of Patrick Carney’s sexy, restrained drumming and Dan Auerbach’s disarming, soulful voice. Throw in consistently interesting and rock/bluesy guitar melodies (See “Ten Cent Pistol” or “Next Girl“), and I’m not so sure we need to overemphasize the Danger (I’m thinking of you whistle intro on “Tighten Up“).

The Black Keys are on my top five list of bands not to miss at Bonnaroo next week. Like many, I’m hoping that we get some a bit of collaboration from some of the fest’s great hip hop acts during their midnight set on Friday night. See you at That Tent.

Buy: The Black Keys – Brothers

*As our astute commenter points out, DM only produces the one track (“Tighten Up”) and a little bit more homework reveals my second paragraph up there fits better in a description of Attack and Release where Danger Mouse deserves full album production credit. Yes folks, those first week numbers can really only be credited to the band themselves. They deserve it.

Happy Belated New Year! We’re pretty excited about 2010, new decade and all. Plus, we’ve got our 5-year bash going down in Milwaukee (with Madison and Chicago dates coming soon). I spent the waning hours of 2k9 with Spoon at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee. New Year’s Eve turned out to be kinda massive for live music fans. In addition to Spoon, Girl Talk threw down in front of a crowd well exceeding 4,000 at the Congress Theater, The Black Keys tore up the The Riviera, and Jens Lekman played a number of dates in Chicago as well. If only I had a hologram(s) to take it all in. Since I couldn’t be in all places, I did what I usually do when I miss out, fire up YouTube. I found two clips that are essential viewing as far as I’m concerned.

The Black Keys – “Your Touch” – New Year’s Eve, Chicago
The standard New Year’s Eve roll out, confetti and balloons, but just wait for the 1:04 mark when the music and lights come in at exactly the same time, perfectly exploding the entire venue into a fireball of light and sound. Energy.

Girl Talk – New Year’s Eve, Chicago (via)
Your typical party from Girl Talk, except this was bigger and the dude had an entire furnished house constructed on stage.

See Also:
Jens Lekman – Empty Bottle, Chicago(12/31/2009)
Spoon “The Beast and Dragon, Adored” – Riverside Theater, Milwaukee (12/31/09)

Discuss: What did you do to ring in 2010? What albums, tours, etc are you excited about in the new year? Did anyone do the polar plunge in Milwaukee?

For the remainder of 2009 we will be featuring albums that meant a lot to us this decade. I have really enjoyed spending quality time with my record collection and not just what is new and current. One thing this collection will not be is all-encompassing. We will be deliberately leaving out some of the universal favorites (Kid A, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Funeral, etc) because you’ll see them everywhere, and the last thing we want to do is state the obvious.

Instead, this collection will very much an outlet for us to share/discuss our favorites over the past 10 years with a focus on albums that we feel have been overlooked in the lists we’ve seen roll out this far.

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The Black Keys | Thickfreakness (2003)

Discovering the Black Keys was a personal treasure of the decade. My friend Justin gave me a burned copy of Thickfreakness and I became a fan on first listen. I soon picked up its predecessor, The Big Come Up, and, while I could argue that album should be the focus of this post, I have to tip my hat to the album that made me a fan of the band.

Thickfreakness arrived in the wake of The White Stripes climb to the top of indie rock charts behind White Blood Cells. Some were quick to write off the Black Keys as a clone to the already popular White Stripes, mostly out of the fact that they too were a duo and that both bands drew influence, at least guitar-wise, from blues music. Those quick to toss aside the Black Keys failed to connect with the slow, blues drawl of front man Dan Auerbach, whose vocals continue to carry the torch of a traditional blues genre that is slowly starting to slip into the ether.

Over the years the band has put out some albums that I’ve loved and some that I’ve loved a lot less. Without fail, whenever I’m in the mood for some music from the Black Keys, Thickfreakness is the album I turn to for my fix.

Best Live Show I Saw: Mad Planet, Milwaukee (2004) | With Radiohead in Chicago (2006)
Best Tracks: “Hard Work,” “Set You Free,” “Have Love Will Travel,“Hold Me In Your Arms”
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Buy: The Black Keys – Thickfreakness

++ Keep up with our Best Albums of the Decade by bookmarking this page ++

Today, Pitchfork.tv posts part one of a Daytripping session with The Black Keys. Many of you Madison readers were probably in the crowd, and you can catch our photo recap here.

The Black Keys Live at the Crystal Ballroom DVD will be released on November 18th.

Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys will release Keep It Hid on February 10 via Nonesuch records.

Will Attack & Release be making anybody’s year end list of favorites? We’ve got a signed copy of the CD to giveaway. Leave a comment to get yourself entered!

Myspace: The Black Keys
MP3: The Black Keys – “I Got Mine” (Live at the Crystal Ballroom)

The Black Keys Live at the Crystal Ballroom DVD will be released on November 18th.

“Produced and directed by Lance Bangs (R.E.M.’s Road Movie), the disc will include 17 live songs; original music videos for “Your Touch,” “Just Got To Be,” and “Strange Times;” and behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the band’s most recent album, Attack & Release. The live performance was recorded on April 4, 2008 at a sold-out show at The Crystal Ballroom in Portland, OR.”

THE BLACK KEYS LIVE AT THE CRYSTAL BALLROOM

1. Same Old Thing
2. Girl Is On My Mind
3. Set You Free
4. ThickFreakness
5. Stack Shot Billy
6. Busted
7. You’re The One
8. Remember When (Side B)
9. Your Touch
10. Oceans and Streams
11. Strange Times
12. Psychotic Girl
13. 10 am Automatic
14. No Trust
15. I Got Mine
16. All You Ever Wanted
17. Till I Get My Way

Buy it from Nonesuch for $9

Photo: Ed Oliver
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Myspace: The Black Keys
MP3: The Black Keys – “I Got Mine” (Live at the Crystal Ballroom)