#the black keys

[shines-with-you]

unexpected cute noel&liam anecdote on trackstar 🥹

[lyafilms]

Seems like the lens fell for Alex as well (as it should)

[cosmonautroger]

The Black Keys, Lonely Boy

[liar-liar-liar-ha]

[demilypyro]

[milkmaidovich]

@dreamjupiter's Dancing prompt for @galladrabbles sparked something and I ran with it. Took much editing (I am a wordy motherfucker by nature), but I got that word count to 100.

An Outsider POV just for funsies, too

———

Lip closes the front door behind him and walks toward the kitchen, where the music's coming from, stopping before he gets close because he knows what he's seeing isn't for him to see.

Ian and Mickey, dancing. One of their arms wrapped tight around the other, free hands clasped together. Ian's got them cradled right over his heart.

Their eyes are locked, complete devotion in their gaze, and Lip gets it, gets them for the first time. It really has only ever been each other for them.

Song's appropriate, he thinks, leaving them to it.

You're the one I adore…

[nicoscheer]

The post

[twopoppies]

I was just reading an article about the Black Keys firing Irving Azoff as their manager and cancelled a tour because of it , wilddddd they were open about it and not giving a damn if there was retaliation from crusty irv lmao. Harry should be taking notes , you don’t have to be stuck with the same fucking creeps your entire career if you see they are doing you wrong or do not have your best interest in mind 📝

I really need for you guys to stop making statements like this because it’s apples and oranges. Harry Styles career and his connection to the Azoffs is absolutely nothing like the situation The Black Keys had. And they actually were concerned about retaliation and say so very clearly.

However, there are some importantly comments in this article that have to do with what we’ve been talking about in terms of the shady nature of this business and the monopoly that exists between Ticketmaster, live nation, promoters, Irving, etc etc etc.

[…] they canceled the entire tour, reportedly due to low ticket sales, and subsequently fired their management — which included industry heavyweight Irving Azoff — and PR team. Two weeks later, in a since-deleted tweet aimed at Azoff, drummer Patrick Carney wrote, “We got fucked. I’ll let you all know how so it doesn’t happen to you.” (In another deleted tweet, Carney sarcastically wrote of Azoff, “So great to know you are always looking out for the artist.”)

What specifically was shocking to you?

Carney: To generalize: to see how consolidated the industry has gotten and how connected things have become. It’s mind-blowing. And there’s just a lot of shared interests across the business side of this. When you’re an artist trying to interface with that and trying to receive helpful and constructive strategy and business input, you realize that that whole world is more deeply connected than I had ever really thought.

Let’s get into some details. Two weeks after the tour was canceled, a rep for Azoff said the split was “an amicable parting.” Is that how you would characterize it?

Carney: [Pauses.] I mean, we fired their ass. Shit happens. We spent a lot of time making Ohio Players and turned it in in October 2023 and had all this time to plan how we were going to tour. Things got off to this weird start where I was waiting for these European dates to pop up because our plan was to go to Europe first. We ended up getting nine shows sent to us [on] a three-week tour. There’s absolutely no way to make money [from] that.

We kept having to move shit around for a Manchester show because there was a venue that our management company co-owned and wanted us to play, and it wasn’t ready. After going to Europe 30 times in our career for tours, this was the most poorly orchestrated tour we had been on. The shows were incredible, but [it] just became the first sign that maybe there was some poor organization happening.

When did the relationship with Irving Azoff sour?

Carney: The ultimate answer to this is that it’s a broader thing. I don’t even want to mention that guy’s name. I want to look at this from a bigger perspective. The essential thing that we learned here was how many management companies are directly connected to a company that runs every single aspect of promotion in this country. This whole industry is so intertwined from ticketing to promotion to the management company. But essentially as artists — and this is the thing that we care the most about — it’s almost impossible to talk about this…. You’re dealing with management companies that co-own festivals with this other company. You’re at the [whims] of these people who have other interests.

So when you’re called into a manager’s office and he suggests something to you, I was naive enough to think that that was on the up-and-up. And more and more, it’s just not. So it’s a hard thing because I don’t think Dan and I want to sit here and look like whining bitches. But we got a little bamboozled here.

Patrick, last year you tweeted: “We got fucked. I’ll let you all know how so it doesn’t happen to you. Stay tuned.” How do you feel you got “bamboozled”?

Carney: Well, I had to delete it, so I didn’t get sued.

Who threatened to sue you?

Carney: No one threatened, but it was a big no-no to even talk about what’s going on here. There’s a concentration of connectivity that eliminates competition. [For] a capitalist society to function, there has to be competition. And if everything’s connected and all the interests are shared on one side, there’s no way to compete. Our tour, we had about 10 [arena] shows that were not doing great. They were just in rooms that they shouldn’t have been in.

So in any situation like this tour, we might’ve had to take one on the chin and find new venues to play in certain cities, but instead we were advised to cancel the whole tour. We were told … there were other venues being booked, and it was all going to get into more intimate rooms, and it would be great. But that wasn’t accurate. That didn’t exist.

It’s all very fucked up, and the bottom line is that we can’t even really talk about it because we won’t be able to work.

Full article here

I think these two quotes are especially important to consider in terms of Harry’s situation:

“The essential thing that we learned here was how many management companies are directly connected to a company that runs every single aspect of promotion in this country. This whole industry is so intertwined from ticketing to promotion to the management company. But essentially as artists — and this is the thing that we care the most about — it’s almost impossible to talk about this…. You’re dealing with management companies that co-own festivals with this other company. You’re at the [whims] of these people who have other interests.”

And this:

“It’s all very fucked up, and the bottom line is that we can’t even really talk about it because we won’t be able to work.”