The Black Keys

True to their tire-town roots in Akron, Ohio, the Black Keys didn't conquer the charts overnight. They clawed their way to the top — earning a bigger following with every album, starting with the thicker-than-gumbo grooves of "When the Lights Go Out", a distortion-drenched cover of "Have Love Will Travel", and the joyride riffs of "10 A.M. Automatic." And then there's the duo's more recent albums, from the bruised hooks of Brothers to the Danger Mouse duets of Attack & Release — a breakthrough collection that tosses swampy breaks ("Strange Times") and mind-warping effects ("I Got Mine") into the mix. The Black Keys' hip-hop influence also pops up in our Next Steps, from subtle production touches to the band's BlakRoc project.

When Howlin' Wolf is one of your heroes and you've got a voice that was born to belt the blues, you've got only one option. Well, three options if you're Dan Auerbach, the most obvious being the frontman position in the Black Keys, a role he's relished since the early '00s (see: the slow-burning "Psychotic Girl" and such asphalt-scarring anthems as "Set You Free" and "Girl Is On My Mind"). But then there's Auerbach's other outlets, including his solo run (the fireside folk of "Trouble Weighs a Ton," the cruise-control chords of "Heartbroken, In Disrepair") and the Black Keys' BlakRoc alias — a twilight-zone take on rap-rock that's bursting with Motown-schooled soul.

Sometimes all you need to make a great rock record are rail-jumping riffs, a steam-powered rhythm section, and a born-to-be-wild attitude — the kind you can't fake, the kind that reeks of gasoline and pure grit. Just ask the Black Keys, Akron's answer to the White Stripes and the sort of scratchy, dusty blues records that line your grandfather's living room floor. Or as frontman Dan Auerbach once put it, "the groove was king" when the Black Keys first started cranking out four-track recordings in the basement of drummer Patrick Carney. And that's been the rule ever since, from the blistering, keep-it-simple cuts of The Big Come Up and Thickfreakness to the experimental flourishes of Brothers and Attack & Release, which sound not unlike RZA-produced Hendrix records.