Image by Guy Eppel

Right now, the Black Keys are arguably the biggest band in world. Since the spring of 2010, they’ve played Letterman, Leno, Conan, the Colbert Report, Saturday Night Live, and many of the world’s largest music festivals. Their album, Brothers, debuted at #3 on the Billboard charts and their hit single “Tighten Up” reached #1 on the alternative radio charts. To top it off the band was nominated for 6 Grammys, airing at the 53rd Award Ceremony, this weekend.

They’ve earned this success, touring non-stop around the world in 2010 – a year in which Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney also moved from his hometown of Akron, Ohio, to New York, and then to Nashville. In speaking with him, I could tell that the move from Akron was an extremely tough decision, but one that he needed to make. I got the feeling in conversation with Carney that Nashville will be his new hometown for the foreseeable future.

Most music supervisors pay their dues working for record labels or publishing companies, or interning for established supervisors. It also doesn’t hurt to work for KCRW. Although he did work previously as an exec at MTV in New York, Scott Vener skipped most of the conventional rungs of the ladder and landed a job without any previous experience as a supervisor on Entourage, one of coolest shows on television. Scott’s music selections play a major role in the success of the program, especially his unique skill for finding the perfect song for the end credits of each episode.

One of the most exciting things about the music that airs on Entourage is that Scott consistently breaks tracks before they’re released anywhere else. That’s included Tame Impala’s “Half Full Glass Of Wine”, Jamie T’s “Salvador”, Gnarls Barkley’s “Gone Daddy Gone” and many other mainstream songs that have gone on to become very big. An LA native, Scott Vener (aka Broke Mogul) is now the music supervisor on How to Make it in America and on Beverly Hills 90210. He’s the first to admit that he’s got a great job and a great life.

We have three pairs of tickets to give away to R&G readers for Tennis and Lord Huron this Friday at the Echo. To enter the contest, please write an email to rollogrady@gmail.com. Include “Tennis” in the subject line and your full name & e-mail address in the body of the email. We’ll pick the winners tomorrow afternoon.

For further show and ticket info (click here).