Talk about real industrial metal music. These New York-based “junk rockers” are just as likely to play a battered coffeepot, frying pan, or Radio Flyer wagon as their “normal” instruments. With their synthesis of clang-and-bang sounds and the gloom-and-doom lyrics of singer/bassist Erik Sanko, the Keys are equally at home in a modern art gallery and on a club stage. Their surprisingly fluid new CD, Obtainium, is more focused than previous records, but the rhythms are scattered all over the place like tools in a high school shop class. SK’s off-kilter existentialism won’t be to everyone’s liking, but it will appeal to admirers of John Cage, Tom Waits, and the vastly underrated Fat Albert and the Junkyard Gang.
This article appears in Dec 4-10, 2002.