Their momentum escalated considerably with their 2004 album Rubber Factory, which not only received strong reviews but some high-profile play, including a video for "10 A.M. That label released Thickfreakness, recorded in a 14-hour session, in the spring of 2003, and the Keys supported the album with an opening tour for Sleater-Kinney. They released their debut, The Big Come Up, in 2002, receiving strong reviews and sales, and leading to a contract with Fat Possum by the end of the year. Natives of Akron, Ohio, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney formed the Black Keys in 2001. The duo returned with renewed vigor on 2019's Let's Rock, maintaining that momentum through the blues covers album Delta Kream in 2021 and the rollicking Dropout Boogie in 2022. After the trippy 2014 album Turn Blue, the Black Keys took an extended hiatus through the back half of the 2010s, during which time Auerbach set up his Easy Eye Sound studio and label. The band's collaborations with the adventurous hip-hop producer opened the doors to a variety of sounds, colors, and textures, a broadened palette they'd channel onto sharp songs on their platinum-selling albums Brothers and El Camino, both arriving in the early years of the 2000s.
Making the leap to the major-label Nonesuch, the duo of guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney dove into heady psychedelic territory, sometimes assisted by producer Danger Mouse. Originally a raw, visceral blues-rock outfit inspired by the likes of such juke joint rockers as Junior Kimbrough, the Black Keys expanded their purview after mastering their garagey roar with Rubber Factory in 2004.