Zombie: A History

Like a lot of people, I think of shambling, flesh-eating undead when I hear the word ‘zombie.’. Zombies rise out of their graves, and their bite will slowly turn you into one of them. This common image was popularized by George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead,” and later by the Michael Jackson music video “Thriller.”

The dance in the “Thriller” video is instantly recognizable to many people, and is often referenced.  It has been performed everywhere from weddings to prisons, and Gorillaz certainly had it in mind in their music video for “Clint Eastwood.”

The zombie has only taken on this connotation in relatively recent years. In the black and white Bela Lugosi film “White Zombie,” for instance, the zombies were slaves charmed by voodoo curses, and not actually dead. As an aside, it’s worth pointing out that early Rob Zombie recordings were released under the name White Zombie, as a tribute to this film.

This older meaning of zombie crops up again and again. It shows up in the drug-infused sixties, most famously as a band name.

The word ‘zombie’ was used as slang for marijuana in Australia, and is referenced by “Men at Work.”

Afrobeat star Fela Kuti used the word to describe the thuggish behavior of the Nigerian military in 1977. In response, one thousand Nigerian troops attacked the commune where Kuti lived, beating him severely, destroying his studio, and killing his mother by throwing her out of a window. And that’s scarier than any ghost story you’ll hear this Halloween.

This is a review of “Brothers” by The Black Keys.

The Black Keys has finally found a mainstream audience with their new album “Brothers.” I’ve heard the album’s single, “Tighten Up,” on the radio and even in car commercials. This level of success comes none too soon, as the band has been putting out high-quality buzzy blues rock albums for years. I’ll admit that when first heard that “Tighten Up” was produced by Danger Mouse, I was a little worried. While I certainly enjoyed Danger Mouse’s production on “The Gray Album” and in the tongue-in-cheek Gnarls Barkley records with Cee-Lo, his production on rock albums tends toward the smooth and orchestral. He polished all the interest off of Beck on “Modern Guilt,” and left the Gorillaz album “Demon Days” overproduced. This fear turned out to be misplaced, as “Tighten Up,” the only song Danger Mouse touched, is as catchy a song as the band has ever released. Danger Mouse’s production does show in the distorted whistling and splashes of organ, but the band’s signature garage rock sound is left largely intact. Furthermore, frontman and producer Dan Auerbach has ensured the rest of the album is still as raw and grungy as ever.
“Tighten Up” is not the only catchy song on this album. For all its fuzzbox guitar, “Brothers” is filled hummable melodies, the best of which is a cover of Jerry Butler’s “Never Give You Up.” The original songs on this album are all simple, bluesy, and timeless, with Auerbach’s vocals providing plenty of interest and variation. Good melodic songwriting is hard to find in contemporary rock, so the transparent songwriting on this album is a breath of fresh air. Auerbach’s vocals and guitar are distorted and low-fi, recalling early garage and psychedelic rock. Patrick Carney’s drums, on the other hand, are mixed clear and hot, and penetrate through the mix. This gives his drumming a modern, almost hip-hop timbre. The combination of sounds and influences on this album is unique, and leaves The Black Keys in the enviable position of having a sound that doesn’t sound like somebody else.
At their best, in songs like “Next Girl” and “Ten Cent Pistol,” Auerbach’s emotive vocals give the band an electric energy the likes of which I haven’t seen since Son House. The heady “Too Afraid to Love You” is the album’s best showcase of how well his vocals can carry a song. The band does lose this electricity occasionally. The opener “Everlasting Light” seems to meander a little too long, as do “Unknown Brother” and a few other songs later in the album. That said, the album, which is a double LP, stays remarkably tight and focused, despite its length, and these slight drops in energy are small blemishes on an otherwise excellent record.