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04-01-2008, 10:30 AM
"It's always a bummer when that's the case. Your favorite records go under-appreciated, and then some jocks put out a record or some pseudo-hippie puts out a record, sells a million copies, writing songs about their toes or something."
http://assets4.pitchforkmedia.com/images/image/47652.Main3.jpg?
Photo by James Carney
Try this trick yourself: follow any statement you make with, "but then again, I'm a Juggalo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggalo)." It won't give you credibility, but it's guaranteed to get a laugh... at least the first twenty times. Patrick Carney, the man behind the drum kit for the Black Keys (http://www.theblackkeys.com/), is well aware of the comedic potential of the cult rap-metal band the Insane Clown Posse. Not a Juggalo himself (seriously!), he nonetheless alerted me to the existence of an unintentionally hilarious web page elucidating ICP's history and mythology.
Carney brought the site up in conversation when I asked if the close-up picture of him and vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach on the cover of the Black Keys' new album, Attack & Release (http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/49615-attack-release), implied anything about the Keys using this record to reveal their true identities to the world. He responded by calling the album their fifth card of the Dark Carnival (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Carnival_%28ICP%29), and things escalated (or deteriorated, maybe) from there.
Sure, we also talked about the album (which comes out today, April 1, on Nonesuch (http://www.nonesuch.com/)), working with Danger Mouse, cruising for awesome female bands on MySpace, Cleveland Cavaliers basketball (I'm from Cincinnati, he's from Akron), his distaste for seeing other people's toes, and the indestructibility of acidheads. But the important stuff was the ICP chat.
Patrick Carney: I figured out the name of that website. It's even better than I remember. It's called "An Intelligent Look at the Insane Clown Posse" (http://www.paoracle.com/?archive=77). It was written by, like, an absolute fucking retard.
Pitchfork: [laughs] So it claims to be an intelligent look, but really it's not intelligent at all?
PC: I mean, no, I'm sure it is. This dude did his fucking homework on some fucking lame-ass shit.
Pitchfork: Would the Black Keys be above creating such a website for yourselves?
PC: Yeah, I wish Dan and I would have had the foresight to have known that we would have been able to keep making records. Then we could have started off with some sort of Dark Carnival-esque [concept].
Pitchfork: Well, it's never too late to re-write history.
PC: Yeah, maybe we can just... I'm going to start working on a stance right now, so I can just try to tie all the records together.
Pitchfork: Or maybe later, you guys can have it in your biography. Like in the oral history of the Black Keys, you explain how that all came about.
PC: Yeah, how there was a meeting between Shaggy 2 Dope, and...oh god, what's the other guy's name?
Pitchfork: I have no idea. Shaggy 2 Dope is the only one I know.
PC: Shaggy 2 Dope... The other's one's something like "Silent J" [Violent J --Ed.].
Pitchfork: Which is strangely close to Silent Bob. Is he the fat one, too?
PC: Yeah, I think. [He is. --Ed.] I think the same type of people that like that type of thing like Insane Clown Posse, too.
Pitchfork: So, now that we know that Attack & Release is the fifth card of the...
PC: The darker carnival.
Pitchfork: The even Blacker carnival. [laughs] Was Danger Mouse the man who led you into that dark carnival?
PC: Yeah, he was the ringmaster. [MORE...] (http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/49467-black-keys-carney-talks-iattacki-danger-mouse-icp)
http://assets3.pitchforkmedia.com/images/link-arrow.gif?1200372477Video: The Black Keys: Strange Times [from the forthcoming Attack & Release LP] (http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/49430-the-black-keys-strange-times)
http://feeds.pitchforkmedia.com/~a/pitchfork/today?i=h6J13w</img> (http://feeds.pitchforkmedia.com/~a/pitchfork/today?a=h6J13w)
http://feeds.pitchforkmedia.com/~r/pitchfork/today/~4/261986137
More...
http://assets4.pitchforkmedia.com/images/image/47652.Main3.jpg?
Photo by James Carney
Try this trick yourself: follow any statement you make with, "but then again, I'm a Juggalo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggalo)." It won't give you credibility, but it's guaranteed to get a laugh... at least the first twenty times. Patrick Carney, the man behind the drum kit for the Black Keys (http://www.theblackkeys.com/), is well aware of the comedic potential of the cult rap-metal band the Insane Clown Posse. Not a Juggalo himself (seriously!), he nonetheless alerted me to the existence of an unintentionally hilarious web page elucidating ICP's history and mythology.
Carney brought the site up in conversation when I asked if the close-up picture of him and vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach on the cover of the Black Keys' new album, Attack & Release (http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/49615-attack-release), implied anything about the Keys using this record to reveal their true identities to the world. He responded by calling the album their fifth card of the Dark Carnival (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Carnival_%28ICP%29), and things escalated (or deteriorated, maybe) from there.
Sure, we also talked about the album (which comes out today, April 1, on Nonesuch (http://www.nonesuch.com/)), working with Danger Mouse, cruising for awesome female bands on MySpace, Cleveland Cavaliers basketball (I'm from Cincinnati, he's from Akron), his distaste for seeing other people's toes, and the indestructibility of acidheads. But the important stuff was the ICP chat.
Patrick Carney: I figured out the name of that website. It's even better than I remember. It's called "An Intelligent Look at the Insane Clown Posse" (http://www.paoracle.com/?archive=77). It was written by, like, an absolute fucking retard.
Pitchfork: [laughs] So it claims to be an intelligent look, but really it's not intelligent at all?
PC: I mean, no, I'm sure it is. This dude did his fucking homework on some fucking lame-ass shit.
Pitchfork: Would the Black Keys be above creating such a website for yourselves?
PC: Yeah, I wish Dan and I would have had the foresight to have known that we would have been able to keep making records. Then we could have started off with some sort of Dark Carnival-esque [concept].
Pitchfork: Well, it's never too late to re-write history.
PC: Yeah, maybe we can just... I'm going to start working on a stance right now, so I can just try to tie all the records together.
Pitchfork: Or maybe later, you guys can have it in your biography. Like in the oral history of the Black Keys, you explain how that all came about.
PC: Yeah, how there was a meeting between Shaggy 2 Dope, and...oh god, what's the other guy's name?
Pitchfork: I have no idea. Shaggy 2 Dope is the only one I know.
PC: Shaggy 2 Dope... The other's one's something like "Silent J" [Violent J --Ed.].
Pitchfork: Which is strangely close to Silent Bob. Is he the fat one, too?
PC: Yeah, I think. [He is. --Ed.] I think the same type of people that like that type of thing like Insane Clown Posse, too.
Pitchfork: So, now that we know that Attack & Release is the fifth card of the...
PC: The darker carnival.
Pitchfork: The even Blacker carnival. [laughs] Was Danger Mouse the man who led you into that dark carnival?
PC: Yeah, he was the ringmaster. [MORE...] (http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/49467-black-keys-carney-talks-iattacki-danger-mouse-icp)
http://assets3.pitchforkmedia.com/images/link-arrow.gif?1200372477Video: The Black Keys: Strange Times [from the forthcoming Attack & Release LP] (http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/49430-the-black-keys-strange-times)
http://feeds.pitchforkmedia.com/~a/pitchfork/today?i=h6J13w</img> (http://feeds.pitchforkmedia.com/~a/pitchfork/today?a=h6J13w)
http://feeds.pitchforkmedia.com/~r/pitchfork/today/~4/261986137
More...