The Black Keys have no love for Nickelback

Nickelback is such an easy target that you’d think it would have stopped being fun to rag on them. They’re one of the biggest bands on the planet and they got there by shilling bland, repetitive rock music that’s been dialed down to be palatable to the masses. They almost make it too easy to mock them, but somehow it’s still pretty enjoyable to do so.

I’m far from the only one who feels this way. The Black Keys are on my side. Drummer Patrick Carney told “Rolling Stone” that the Canadian band is killing rock ‘n’ roll.

Rock & roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world,” he says, blowing cigarette smoke out the window of his rented East Village loft a few days ­before the band heads to L.A. “So they became OK with the idea that the biggest rock band in the world is always going to be shit – therefore you should never try to be the biggest rock band in the world. Fuck that! Rock & roll is the music I feel the most passionately about, and I don’t like to see it fucking ruined and spoon-fed down our throats in this watered-down, post-grunge crap, horrendous shit. When people start lumping us into that kind of shit, it’s like, ‘Fuck you,’ honestly.

This particular dose of criticism comes on the heels of their denouncement of streaming services like Spotify and Rhapsody. It would be easy to write the band off as a couple of haters, except they manage to back themselves up with really convincing arguments.

The Black Keys’ album “El Camino” is out now on Nonesuch Records; just don’t try to listen to it on Spotify.

[Via Rolling Stone]