Skip to content
News

Hear the Black Keys’ Weird ‘Fever’ Prank Call

The Black Keys, "Fever," video, prank call

The mystery of the Black Keys’ “Fever” video phone number has been solved. As previously reported, the video from the Ohio rock duo’s May 13 album Turn Blue prominently displays a phone number, which, when called, leads to a scratchy recording that includes a man’s voice saying, “I’m calling because I’m interested in your releasing my album.” Audio of that recording is on YouTube, and it turns out that’s the band’s own Patrick Carney. Amid much background snickering, he’s apparently prank-calling the Black Keys’ own label, Nonesuch. He’s posing as Quartzazium, “a New Age artist from Rhode Island”; they’re “looking for a four-album deal.” While the sound quality makes the call a lot more easily comprehensible over the computer than via a tiny phone speaker, the gag is still, as with most prank calls maybe, a little bit oblique to those of us who weren’t there. So while we continue to wait for Mike Tyson to reveal the secrets of Quartzazium, remind us to tell you about the time we invited a Duke basketball player over to watch Uncle Buck.

Listen below.

//www.youtube.com/embed/TnrGpFF8B68