The Black Keys, who are up for five awards at the 55th annual Grammy Awards, have just announced a series of special dates with The Flaming Lips for this April and May. The bands will perform at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri; CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh; Aaron's Amphitheatre at Lakewood in Atlanta; and Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The Grammy nominations and tour follow a highly successful year for the duo, whose critically acclaimed Nonesuch album, El Camino, was recently certified RIAA Platinum.

Patrick Carney, drummer of The Black Keys, will host Serious Boredom, an exclusive show on SiriusXMU, channel 35, featuring Carney talking about and playing his favorite independent music, new and old, as well as music from his personal collection. The show premieres this Thursday, December 20, at 8 PM ET. New episodes will debut on the first Thursday of every month beginning in January 2013. "I'm excited about the show and the opportunity to host SiriusXMU’s Serious Boredom," says Carney. "I've wanted to do a DJ gig like this for a while now and am looking forward to being on air."

The Black Keys are featured in an encore episode of Austin City Limits (ACL) airing Saturday, December 29, 2012, on PBS stations across the United States. The episode, which originally aired in October 2010, is a prescient indicator of things to come as the band brings raw energy and steel-belt grit to tracks from their 2010 breakout album Brothers in their ACL debut. The episode also features Sonic Youth. The Black Keys close out year with two performances at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.

The Black Keys will join The Rolling Stones on stage for the Stones' final “50 and Counting” concert, at The Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday, December 15. The special “One More Shot” event will be telecast live via pay-per-view and will also be available to stream online. Says Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney: “It’s an honor to be asked to play a tune with one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time.”

Congratulations to all of the Nonesuch artists who were nominated for the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, announced last night by The Recording Academy: The Black Keys, Dan Auerbach, Amadou & Mariam, Björk, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Ry Cooder, Dr. John, Brad Mehldau, and Pat Metheny. Together, these artists have garnered an astounding 14 nominations, including a remarkable five nominations for The Black Keys' latest album, El Camino. You can hear music from all the nominated albums on the new Nonesuch Radio channel "2012 Grammy Nominees."

There's still more than a month to go before 2012 comes to a close, but already the music magazines have begun to weigh in on the year's best music. Uncut, Mojo, and Paste have all published their lists of the Best Albums of the Year, and included among them are a number of Nonesuch releases: the latest from The Black Keys, Ry Cooder, Dr. John, Jonny Greenwood, Punch Brothers, Carolina Chocolate Drops, and much more.

The Black Keys launched their Australian tour at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre Sunday night. The tour continues with two nights at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, followed by shows in Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide, and two nights in Melbourne. The Black Keys head to New Zealand next for tour stops in Auckland and Wellington. Their new digital EP, Tour Rehearsal Tapes, is now available in the Nonesuch Store as MP3 and FLAC. The Independent says the tracks "underscore the explosive musical energy between guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney."

Tour Rehearsal Tapes, a new digital EP from The Black Keys, is out today on Nonesuch Records. Available exclusively on iTunes for the first two weeks, the EP features six songs recorded live in the studio during December 2011. The EP comes as the duo’s acclaimed 2011 full-length album, El Camino, is officially certified RIAA Platinum in the US. It is also Platinum in Ireland and UK; double Platinum in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand; and Gold in Belgium and France. The band’s 2010 breakthrough album, Brothers, is also certified RIAA Platinum.

The Black Keys launch an arena tour of the western US in Fresno, California, tonight, including stops at the famed Santa Barbara Bowl, the Staples Center in LA, and in Arizona and New Mexico. Tegan and Sara open. Just announced: The Black Keys will headline Lollapalooza Brazil and Lollapalooza Chile next year. At the Global Festival this past Saturday, the band "tore through a set of searing, hard-riffing rock," raves MTV, "one that had the 60,000 who packed Central Park's Great Lawn losing their collective minds."

The Black Keys have released the music video for "Little Black Submarines," the new single off the band's latest album, El Camino. The video, directed by Danny Clinch, captures the band performing before an intimate audience at the Springwater Supper Club in Nashville. Watch it here. The band has just added a second London show to their recently announced UK tour in December.

The Black Keys closed out their European summer festival tour with a performance at the Reading Festival Sunday night. The BBC was there and captured their performance of "Little Black Submarines," off El Camino. The band was also featured on last night's episode of Le Grand Journal on Canal+, performing "Gold on the Ceiling," also from El Camino. Watch both videos here. And listen to an interview with Patrick Carney from Lollapalooza via The Weekly Feed.

The Black Keys have announced new UK dates in December 2012. The tour includes concerts in Newcastle, Glasgow, Birmingham, and Manchester, culminating with a night at London’s O2 Arena on December 12. The tour also includes dates in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Holland, and Germany. Tickets for the UK shows go on sale this Friday, August 31.