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According to an interview on NPR's Fresh Air, the group's name " the Black Keys " came from a schizophrenic artist named Alfred McMoore that the pair knew ; he would leave incoherent messages on their answering machines referring to their fathers as " black keys " such as " D flat " when he was upset with them.

The band's debut album, The Big Come Up, was recorded entirely in Carney's basement on an 8-track tape recorder in lo-fi and was released in May 2002.

The album, a mix of eight original tracks and five cover songs, forged a raw blues rock sound for the group ; the covers included tracks originally by blues musicians Muddy Waters, Junior Kimbrough, and R. L. Burnside.

Two singles, covers of the traditional blues standard " Leavin ' Trunk " and The Beatles ' song " She Said, She Said ", were released as an EP.

The track " I'll Be Your Man " would later be used as the theme song for the HBO series Hung.

A week after the album was released, the duo played their first live show at Cleveland's Beachland Ballroom and Tavern to an audience of, in Auerbach's estimation, four people.

In order to help fund the tour, Auerbach and Carney took jobs mowing lawns for a landlord.

Although The Big Come Up sold poorly, it gained a cult following and attracted attention from critics, eventually landing the group a record deal with Fat Possum Records.