Black Pistol Fire: The Austin Blues Duo's Favorite Bands

Black Pistol Fire whipping it on live

​This week we talked to Black Pistol Fire, who headline tonight at Warehouse Live in the studio with Animal Farmacy. The Austin duo and proud transplants from Toronto are loud, aggressive and bluesy. Though they get comparisons to the Black Keys, they don't see much of themselves in that other bluesy pair from Akron, Ohio.

"The Black Keys are great, but we don't take much from them, even though we always get compared," the BPF boys say on the way to Texas.

"Our style and influences really vary. While we love raunchy classic rock and blues, we also love groovy jam bands, punk rock, and down and dirty funk. We use our songs as a base to improvise live. Because of this, the live show and records can be quite a different experience and no two shows are ever the same."

Their self-titled LP was written while gigging and rehearsing in Austin, but they went up north to Detroit to lay down the tracks with Motor City luminary and Dirtbombs/White Stripes producer Jim Diamond. Songs like "Cold Sun" and "Where You Been Before" definitely set them apart from the bunched-up, claustrophobic Keys, stretching out a little more.

"We've been friends and musical partners for so long that we almost have a little bit of ESP, where we can take a slow blues groove and at the drop of a hat, crank it up to a punk-rock speed or even change the song completely," says the pair. "We are always trying to evolve. Our songs vary between Southern rock, punk rock, blues, funk and everything in between."

Ahead of the show tonight, we asked the BPF titans about their favorite bands and primary influences.