

The duo soon met at Neill's La Mesa home and got to work on several ideas, notably recording "These Days", which would ultimately become the closing track on Brothers. "Then we hugged and made up and it's been all good ever since," said Auerbach. Eventually, Auerbach and Carney met to discuss how important the band was to both of them. "Homeboy was miserable," Auerbach said of his bandmate "He was being manipulated mentally and emotionally." Carney eventually broke off the relationship with a phone call while his wife was in Europe. By the end of the relationship, Carney was depressed, drinking heavily, and had gained 25 pounds. According to the drummer, his ex-wife slept with his best friend, lied to him for several years and bilked him for money. He and Grollmus were married for two years but together for nine. Auerbach said, "I really hated her from the start and didn't want anything to do with her." Ĭarney realized his anger was misdirected as he was coming off a rough divorce. Auerbach, who had played Carney the recordings but failed to mention it would see release, found it increasingly difficult to communicate with the drummer due to his antipathy for Carney's then-wife, Denise Grollmus. I was mad at everybody." Carney was afraid Auerbach had moved on and was on the verge of quitting the band the two hardly spoke for several months and another Black Keys recording was uncertain. Drummer Patrick Carney, who had not been informed of Auerbach's solo plans, was livid: "Everybody knew but me. The sessions became Auerbach's solo debut Keep It Hid, which was released in February 2009 on Nonesuch Records to positive reviews. Guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach was introduced to engineer Mark Neill through friend Liam Watson, and with his assistance built his own analogue home studio at his home in Akron, Ohio (later named Easy Eye Sound System), and in late 2007, the two convened in Neill's La Mesa, California home to record. Tensions had grown within the band by 2009, and the two embarked on side projects. In 2011, it won three Grammy Awards, including honors for Best Alternative Music Album. It also went double-platinum in Canada and gold in the UK. In April 2012, the album was certified platinum in the US by the RIAA for shipping over one million copies. The second single, " Howlin' for You", went gold as well. The album's lead single, " Tighten Up", the only track from the album produced by Danger Mouse, became their most successful single to that point, spending 10 weeks at number one on the Alternative Songs chart and becoming the group's first single on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 87 and was later certified gold.

Brothers was the band's commercial breakthrough, as it sold over 73,000 copies in the United States in its first week and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, their best performance on the chart to that point.

Co-produced by the group, Mark Neill, and Danger Mouse, it was released on on Nonesuch Records. on the front cover) is the sixth studio album by American rock duo The Black Keys.

