History
Andrew and Zachary Gabbard grew up in a musical household with a guitar-playing father, who taught them to play the instrument at an early age. [1] Zach recalls growing up "listening to Neil Young, The Grateful Dead, CSNY and New Riders of the Purple Sage from as long back as I can remember." [2] With access to their father's record collection and musical instruments, Zach says he and his brother were "groomed" to make a career of playing music. [2] Zach formed the garage rock band Thee Shams in 1999; the five-piece band included the other two future members of Buffalo Killers. Thee Shams released four albums on four record labels before the Gabbard brothers broke up the band in late 2005. "In the end it was broke and the road only made it worse", said Zach, adding, "It was best to move on, take a break and re-evaluate the situation". [3] In early 2006, the Gabbard brothers recruited Sebaali to play drums (he had played keyboards in Thee Shams) and formed Buffalo Killers. [3] The new band's sound was a "more polished version" of Thee Shams' minimalist garage rock, but "still rooted in that great sweaty and swampy blues-rock inspired by '60s garage rock psychedelia", wrote Rick Bird of The Cincinnati Post . [4] Other reviewers compared the band to Blue Cheer, Mountain and The Rolling Stones. [5] [6]
Buffalo Killers–present
It was a big fucking deal to me when The Black Crowes asked us to go on the road with them. I grew up listening to them. For us, it was like touring with The Beatles.
Zachary Gabbard [2]
Shortly after the band's formation, Buffalo Killers began gigging throughout Ohio and recorded a five-song demo with producer John Curley. [3] [7] Though the band intended to release the demo independently, Zach sent copies to record labels on a lark. [3] Less than a week later the band received a call from Alive Records; the label "liked the recordings so much that they wanted to release them as they were", according to Zach. [1] Alive Records subsequently signed Buffalo Killers, who scrambled to write and record five more songs to flesh out an LP. [2] The album, Buffalo Killers , was released on October 10, 2006. Chris Robinson heard the album and invited the band to open a string of dates for The Black Crowes in 2007. [7] Buffalo Killers had just finished booking their own tour, but then their booking agent "started calling me back frantically" recalled Zach. "He said that The Crowes had called and invited us on the whole fall tour. I was like, 'Well, cancel all that other shit.'" [7]
While on tour with The Black Crowes, Buffalo Killers wrote half of what would become Let It Ride . The band entered the studio, with Black Keys guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach serving as producer, immediately following the tour. [2] The recording session took "only a few days", according to Auerbach, who downplayed his role in making the album. "These are the kind of guys that don't need a lot of help when it comes to making records or sparking their imagination." Auerbach felt his most important contribution was in capturing "the raw live sound of this band". [2] A concert tour, on which Buffalo Killers opened for The Black Keys, preceded the July 22, 2008, release of Let It Ride. [8] A bonus live CD, sourced from a fan's bootleg, was included in a limited edition vinyl pressing of the album. The inclusion was made (even though the bootleg "sounds like shit", said Zach) to show that the band can play live and is not studio-enhanced. [7] Another tour opening for The Black Crowes followed in November. [9]
Dig. Sow. Love. Grow. was released in August 2012. [10]
In 2014, Buffalo Killers added a fourth member, Sven Kahns, on guitar and lap steel. [11]
In August 2019, it was announced that Zachary and Andrew Gabbard had joined The Black Keys' touring band on bass and guitar, respectively. [12] The announcement was made after Rolling Stone published an exclusive rehearsal video showing the Gabbard brothers performing the song "Go" from the Keys' ninth studio album, Let's Rock. [13] The band's first show featuring this new lineup was on September 19, 2019 at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. [14]
The Black Keys are an American rock duo formed in Akron, Ohio, in 2001. The group consists of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney (drums). The duo began as an independent act, recording music in basements and self-producing their records, before they eventually emerged as one of the most popular garage rock artists during a second wave of the genre's revival in the 2000s. The band's raw blues rock sound draws heavily from Auerbach's blues influences, including Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside, Howlin' Wolf, and Robert Johnson.
Daniel Quine Auerbach is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer, best known as the guitarist and vocalist of The Black Keys, a blues rock band from Akron, Ohio. As a member of the group, Auerbach has recorded and co-produced eleven studio albums with his bandmate Patrick Carney. Auerbach has also released two solo albums, Keep It Hid (2009) and Waiting on a Song (2017), and formed a side project, the Arcs, which released the albums Yours, Dreamily, (2015) and Electrophonic Chronic (2023).
The Big Come Up is the debut studio album by the American rock duo the Black Keys, released on May 14, 2002, on Alive Records.
Patrick James Carney is an American musician and producer best known as the drummer of the Black Keys, a blues rock band from Akron, Ohio.
Thickfreakness is the second studio album by American rock duo The Black Keys, released in 2003. It is their debut release for the Fat Possum record label, although in the UK and Europe it was co-released by Epitaph Records.
Marc Ford is an American blues-rock guitarist. He is a former lead guitarist of the rock and roll band The Black Crowes, the former lead guitarist of The Magpie Salute and the leader of his own bands: Burning Tree, Marc Ford & The Neptune Blues Club, Jefferson Steelflex, Fuzz Machine and Marc Ford & The Sinners.
Chulahoma: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough is an EP by American rock duo The Black Keys. Essentially a tribute album, it is a collection of the band's cover versions of songs by Fat Possum Records bluesman Junior Kimbrough, who died in 1998. The title is a Choctaw word for red fox and is a reference to Chulahoma, Mississippi, location of "Junior's Place", a juke joint bought by Kimbrough around 1992 and operated after his death by his sons until it burned down on April 6, 2000.
Luther Andrews Dickinson is the lead guitarist and vocalist for the North Mississippi Allstars and the son of record producer Jim Dickinson. He is also known for being a guitarist for The Black Crowes. He hosts Guitar Xpress on the Video on Demand network Mag Rack.
Thee Shams was a garage rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio, consisting of Zachary Gabbard, Andrew Gabbard, Joey Sebaali, Chad Hardwick, Adam Wesley, Max Bender, and Keith Fox. They were signed to Mississippi's Fat Possum Records and also released records on Shake It Records and several other small labels. Many of Thee Shams' recordings were engineered by John Curley at Ultrasuede Studios in Cincinnati. The band played a large role in Cincinnati's garage rock scene until they broke up in 2006.
Jessica Lea Mayfield is an American singer-songwriter from Kent, Ohio, United States. She is known for her ominous song writing, with a plaintive minimalist style that draws on both country and rock music.
Buffalo Killers is the debut studio album by American blues rock band Buffalo Killers. It was released in October 2006 on Alive Naturalsound Records as a Compact Disc and a limited edition LP with yellow, swirled vinyl.
Let It Ride is the second studio album by American blues rock band Buffalo Killers. It was produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys and released in July 2008 on Alive Naturalsound Records. The first pressing of vinyl copies included a bonus live CD sourced from a fan's bootleg recording.
3 is the third studio album by American blues rock band Buffalo Killers. It was released on August 2, 2011, on Alive Naturalsound Records. Of the first thousand vinyl copies, half were released on blue vinyl and the other half on purple.
El Camino is the seventh studio album by American rock duo the Black Keys. It was co-produced by Danger Mouse and the group, and was released on Nonesuch Records on December 6, 2011. The record was the band's follow-up to their commercial breakthrough, Brothers (2010), and was their third collaboration with Danger Mouse. El Camino draws from popular genres of the 1950s to 1970s, such as rock and roll, glam rock, rockabilly, surf rock and soul. Danger Mouse contributed as a co-writer on each of the 11 songs alongside guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney.
Michael Ross Perkins is a songwriter and recording artist from Dayton, Ohio.
Dig. Sow. Love. Grow. is the fourth studio album by American blues rock band Buffalo Killers. It was released in 2012 on Alive Naturalsound Records as a Compact Disc in addition to various colored vinyl in limited numbers.
Ohio Grass is the fifth release by the American blues rock band Buffalo Killers. The album was released for Record Store Day on April 20, 2013. It features 7 studio recordings and 3 live recordings. Alive Naturalsound Records released the album on limited-edition colored vinyl, as well as on CD.
Heavy Reverie was released on May 27, 2014 by the American blues rock band Buffalo Killers. This was the band's fifth studio release on Alive Naturalsound Records as a Compact Disc in addition to various colored vinyls in limited numbers.
"Lo/Hi" is a song by the American rock band the Black Keys. It was released as the lead single from their ninth album, Let's Rock, on March 7, 2019. The song topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock, Adult Alternative Songs, Rock Airplay, and Alternative Songs charts in the United States simultaneously, making it the first song ever to do so.
Let's Rock is the ninth studio album by American rock duo the Black Keys. It was released on June 28, 2019, through Easy Eye Sound/Nonesuch Records. It was their first release since Turn Blue (2014), marking the longest gap between studio albums in their career. After collaborating with producer Danger Mouse for their previous four records, the duo decided to self-produce Let's Rock and to eschew keyboards in favor of a basic recording approach of guitar, drums, and vocals. Drummer Patrick Carney called the album "an homage to electric guitar".
