The 300-Word Review: The Black Keys single 'Lonely Boy'

Expensive-looking haircuts. MTV Awards. Skinny jeans. These are the kinds of elements that seep into a band following a breakthrough album, and that’s what longtime fans have seen occur with The Black Keys ever since the blues-rock duo’s sixth (and best) record, 2010's “Brothers,” found its way to mainstream ears, production-heavy music videos and 1,032 TV commercial placements.

We’ve all know what happens to grass-roots-grown acts next. They try way too hard to be U2. They make music that avoids where their talents lie (and what drew fans to them in the first place). A majority of the band dates/marries Victoria's Secret models. Cue the inevitable onstage meltdowns and rehab.

If the band is lucky, they spend the rest of their career playing package tours each summer in the sheds. And if it takes a turn for the worse? The musicians end up rooming with Sly Stone in that white van of his and/or appearing as commentators on VH1’s “I Love The (insert decade).”

Which brings us to The Black Keys’ new single, “Lonely Boy,” released digitally Oct. 26 and from the forthcoming LP “El Camino,” due Dec. 6. The track begins with rising-cobra guitar and “96 Tears” organ spires. Singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach’s rich bellow remains in fine form, and drummer Patrick Carney pushes the meter noticeably faster than The Key’s normal mid-tempo wheelhouse.

The Keys probably credit this gearshift to “listening to more punk rock” or something like that, but I bet this song will sound awesome on decidedly non-punk dance floors. The chorus has a disco/soul feel. And the junkyard-lighting wah-guitar throughout the verses is pretty sexy.

“Lonely Boy” is the sound of The Black Keys continuing to ascend on their own terms. The boys may have outrun those breakthrough hellhounds. For now.

The 300-Word Review: 'The Visible Man' by Chuck Klosterman

Since Chuck Klosterman made his name as a music journalist, it’s tempting to describe his second novel, “The Visible Man,” using an analogy from that realm.

But I’m not going to compare this book to the Black Crowes’ sophomore album “The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion,” a disc whose charms are less immediate but ultimately more sophisticated than the retro-rockers' rowdy debut “Shake Your Money Maker.”

Or maybe I just did.

“Visible Man” focuses on an Austin, Texas therapist with a comic-book-girlfriend name, Victoria Vick, and her mysterious male patient, known to the reader only as Y____.

A rogue scientist, Y____ has developed technology allowing him to become invisible. Y____ uses this power to sneak into peoples' homes in order to indulge his fascination with how differently humans behave when alone. He enlists Vick for sessions to work out his complicated feelings about what transpires during these covert observations.

Klosterman constructs a viscous web in “Visible.” But he does so by restraining his comedic touch to serve the story. Klosterman’s first novel, “Downtown Owl,” explored small town quirkiness via the author’s dazzling pop-culture riffery. However, “Owl” built to a less than satisfying ending that - unlike the rest of the book - felt unnatural.

“Visible Man” is completely the opposite. The first two-thirds of the tome are a slow burn.

Waiting for Klosterman to fully unleash his wit, I kept thinking, “‘Wow, I liked ‘Downtown Own’ a lot better than this.” Some of Y____’s voyeuristic stories are, well, pretty lame. (Turns out, there’s a reason for this.) Klosterman really opens things up during the last third of “Visible Man,” when it becomes apparent life and death will be at stake.

Finishing the book’s last sentence on page 230, I found myself thinking, “Man, this completely smokes ‘Downtown Owl.’”