"STRANGE TIMES ARE HERE" proclaims The Black Keys' singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach over a synthesized howl on the first single from the band's, well, strangest album yet, "Attack & Release."

That howl, along with flutes, organs and more synthesizers is the result of The Black Keys' first attempt at recording an album in a real studio, with a real producer.

But the producer isn't exactly who you'd expect a drum-and-guitar blues duo to partner up with. Until now, Danger Mouse, aka Brian Burton, was most famous as the brains behind the Jay-Z and Beatles mash-up "The Grey Album" and the producer half of Gnarls Barkley.

The Black Keys — Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney — first worked with Burton on sessions for a new Ike Turner record he was producing.

"Brian gave us a call just out of the blue; we'd never met him before," Auerbach said. "He said, 'I'm friends with Ike and I want to make a record really raw and stripped down.'"

The Black Keys didn't actually record in the studio with Turner — the pair would record basic tracks, with and without vocals, and send them to Burton and Turner from Auerbach's home studio.

But the sessions were dragging on for too long and Auerbach and Carney wanted to make a new Black Keys record, so they took a two-week break to record "Attack & Release."

Unfortunately, Turner died a few weeks after "Attack & Release" was recorded, so the sessions with the soul icon were never finished.

"We ended up using a couple of songs [from those Turner sessions], but the Ike record didn't become this record," Auerbach said.

But he said some of the Turner sessions will eventually see the light of day, he's just not sure when. Only a few songs were finished, but they have Turner's family's blessing to release the recordings — Burton just needs to mix them.

"I only heard the demos but Ike's voice sounds amazing," Auerbach said.

And since The Black Keys liked what they heard between Danger Mouse and Turner, it was a natural to make "Attack & Release" with the producer. The band ended up recording at Suma Recording Studio, "tucked in the woods" in Painesville, Ohio, about 35 minutes from home, Auerbach said.

"We had never recorded in a studio before, but now we've studied up and gotten a bit nerdy about it, we both have our own studios now," he said. "We wanted our stuff to sound bad, but a good-bad — raw. Everything fell into place."

The rawness The Black Keys are famous for on their prior albums is still present on "Attack & Release," but there's also all these new sounds, layers and textures, giving the album an experimental psychedelic swirl at times.

"Lots of things freed us up to experiment more: being in the studio freed us up to experiment more, not having to worry about placing mics. ... We set the studio up where everything was ready to go with all the instruments we brought from home. ... Having Brian was huge because he just has a real super vision when it comes to sound and an entire record and entire sonic vision. It was cool to have him there to suggest ideas."

The album also features a number of guest musicians including Marc Ribot's slide guitar and Ralph Carney, Patrick's uncle, adding jaw harp and clarinet.

"We'd been fans of all these people," Auerbach said. "We really though they could add something without them sounding too forced."

Another guest is Jessica Lee Mayfield, who sings harmony vocal on the stunning album closer, "Things Ain't Like They Used to Be," a song Auerbach had originally recorded on his own a few years ago.

The album also has a very old-school vinyl feel too it, frown the roughness of the recordings to the sequencing. The album is even split into two sides by one song, "Remember When," which appears back to back in two distinctively different versions — a "Side A" and "Side B." "Side A" is a slow burner, guided by slide guitar, while "Side B" is almost its punk-rock counterpart. At first listen, you might not even notice that the songs share the same lyrics.

But fans who might be wary of the band's newfound experimental side shouldn't worry when The Black Keys plays a sold out 9:30 Club on May 12 and 13 — the band strips things down live.

"We never try to re-create the record on stage; we never try to sound like our album," Auerbach said. "We've adapted all our songs to the two-person lineup, stripped 'em down. Added some new things — keys, drum triggers. [But] it's still just the two of us on stage playing; it doesn't sound forced."

» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; with El-P, Mon. & Tue., 7:30 p.m., both sold out. (U St.-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Rudi Greenberg

Photos by James Carney

Posted by Express at 9:10 AM on May 12, 2008
Tagged in Entertainment , Music , The District , Top Stories , U St.-Cardozo , U Street-Cardozo