Tour Rehearsal Tapes

Although The Black Keys released this 2012 six-song EP as a digital-only release, it resonates with rich, analog depth—as if they\'d cued up a big old spool of two-inch tape and hit “record.” *Tour Rehearsal Tapes* was recorded live in the studio in December 2011 as preparation for a world tour. The opening take of “Dead and Gone” plays with more muscle and grit than the Danger Mouse–produced rendition included on *El Camino*. Similarly, the following *Gold on the Ceiling* plays like an exaggerated version of British glitter-rock legends Sweet (who actually recorded an incredible cover of the song in their 2012 comeback album *New York Connection*). Compared to the professional mix of “Lonely Boy,” this one cuts through with raunchy garage-rock ooze so thick it could be spread on toast. Where the production of “Next Girl” on 2010’s *Brothers* boasts a hard-buzzing fuzz guitar, here it sounds harder and older, as if singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach had somehow procured the knife-slashed speaker cone that Dave Davies used for “You Really Got Me.”

Recorded just before the first supporting tour for the Black Keys 2011 album El Camino, and released just as the band was kicking off its second U.S. tour supporting the album, the 2012 EP The Tour Rehearsal Tapes finds the Ohio duo bashing through six songs from El Camino and Brothers.