© AP / Dan Auerbach
The Black Keys hint at new album, plot tour with the Flaming Lips
Jan. 7, 2013, 5:37 PM EST
By Jason Lipshutz, N.Y., Billboard
Billboard -- The Black Keys are gearing up for their eighth studio album as
their seventh LP, 2011's "El Camino," has a shot at an Album of the Year Grammy
next month.
The rockers plan to hit the studio this month and have offered a quartet
of tour dates alongside psych-rock maestros the Flaming Lips in the meantime.
"We're going to start making the new album in the second week of January, and
we're hoping to have it done by sometime in March," frontman Dan Auerbach tells
Mojo (via NME). "Then we have a couple of weeks of touring, then we're going to
take the summer off, which we haven't done for a while. The record isn't written
yet. We'll do it when we get into the studio. This is when we both work best,
when we're dying to make an album. All of our records take place in the studio,
in that we make stuff up while we're there."
"El Camino," which has sold 1.1 million copies, according to Nielsen
SoundScan, came in at No. 2 on Billboard's Top Rock Albums year-end chart for
2012, behind Mumford & Sons' "Babel." The Black Keys are nominated
for five Grammy awards, including Record of the Year for "Lonely Boy," as well
as Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Album and Best Rock Song.
After joining the Rolling Stones onstage for that group's final 50 and
Counting concert on Dec. 15, the Black Keys will briefly hit the road with the
Flaming Lips, beginning April 28 in Kansas City.
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