The Black Keys closed out 2011 with a bang when their latest album, El Camino, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts and made countless critics' Best of the Year lists, including Rolling Stone, SPIN, MTV, the Guardian, Paste, Time, the Washington Post, and many more. Now, band mates Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney kick off the New Year in a similar fashion, landing their first-ever cover story on Rolling Stone magazine, pictured at left. The cover story, written by Rolling Stone's Brian Hiatt, appears in the January 19 issue, available on newsstands this Friday. You can read an excerpt from the article now at rollingstone.com and see a slideshow of the duo, "from playing festivals to garnering Grammys," also at rollingstone.com.

The band is also featured on the cover of the latest issue of Relix magazine and serve double duty as both the subjects of a feature article and as guest editors of a special issue of the magazine. "During the past decade, The Black Keys have slowly emerged as one of the most successful independent-minded bands in the world," says Relix. "Using their love of blues riffs as their base, vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney have melded their disparate influences in garage rock, hip-hop and radio-friendly indie into a sound that’s distinctly their own." Read more at relix.com and pick up the January/February issue of the magazine on newsstands now.

To pick up a copy of El Camino, head to the Nonesuch Store, where CD and vinyl orders include high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s of the album at checkout; the album is also available to purchase there as MP3 and lossless FLAC files.