Spring doesn’t start for another 11 days, but don’t tell that to anyone listening to the new jammer from The Black Keys. The duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney dropped their new single today (March 10), and “Wild Child” is a snake-shifty, riff-mad cruiser that makes us wanna go run naked in the park.
The track is the first taste of The Black Keys’ forthcoming eleventh album Dropout Boogie, which hits May 13 via Nonesuch Records, and features guest appearances by Reigning Sound’s Greg Cartwright and Angelo Petraglia, the Kings of Leon producer and co-writer who was also a member of beloved Boston new wave group Face To Face.
That’s quite the gang.
“Living in Nashville and making records here has opened both of our minds to that experience a little bit more,” says Auerbach. “I knew Pat would love working with both of these guys, so we decided we’d give it a shot. It was the first time we’d ever really done that. It was fun as hell. We just sat around a table with acoustic guitars and worked out a song ahead of time.” Adds Carney: “The cool thing with Greg is that he wants to approach stuff with a story in mind — there’s a plot, almost.”
The Black Keys’ 2022 plot takes them out on a summer North American tour, and one of the stops is a July 29 twirl at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield. We’ll have plenty of time between the Dropout Boogie drop and the show date to learn all the word, shake our ass feather, and maybe, just maybe, go run naked in the park.
Get down with the “Wild Child” video below, directed by the band’s longtime collaborator Bryan Schlam.