Black Keys win MTV video award

Black Keys, the two-piece Akron band with Patrick Carney as drummer, won an MTV Music Award in the video category on Sunday. Carney is the son of BJ reporter Jim Carney and stepson

Top: "Tighten Up" video participants, the
"children"  in foreground and Carney (left) 
and bearded Auerbach in background.
Bottom left: Auerbach, the 
singer/guitarist/songwriter.
Bottom right: Carney, the drummer.

of Jim's wife, Katie Byard, also a BJ reporter.

Black Keys won for "Tighten Up," with their fictional children fighting and Carney and guitarist Dan Auerbach intervening and having a bloody battle with each other. Their music has been described as "sweaty Delta blues riffs, heavy pounding and textured grooves."

Firestone High graduates Carney, 30, and Auerbach, 31, grew up near each other in Akron. Auerbach and wife Stephanie have a daughter, Sadie, and they are thinking about moving to Nashville. Carney, though he still owns a house in Akron, has moved to New York. He married Cleveland Scene and former BJ reporter Denise Grollmus on 7-7-07 -- all lucky 7's -- in the Glendale Cemetery chapel. Later, they divorced.

The Black Keys' 2002 debut, “The Big Come Up,” was recorded on an 8-track in Carney’s basement. They have made eight albums. Their sixth, “Brothers,” debuted No. 3 on the Billboard Top 200 chart with more than 73,000 copies sold in the first week. Auerbach does the songwriting and singing.

The Black Keys have toured Europe, Australia and North America and played to a sellout crowd at Akron's Civic Theatre. Their "Desperate Man" was the background music for a Heidi Klum Victoria's Secret bra commercial in 2006.

Click on the headline for the story about their MTV award.