The Picturebooks are a duo from Gütersloh, Germany, formed in 2009 by vocalist and guitarist Fynn Claus Grabke and drummer Philipp Mirtschink, the two having been close friends since their teenage years. Their sound is built on raw, stripped-down blues and garage rock recorded live with minimal microphone placement to preserve natural room reverb, a philosophy that gives their records an immediacy few studio productions achieve. Albums including The Hands of Time, Imaginary Horse, and Home Is a Heartache established them as one of the more distinctly voiced acts in the European heavy blues underground. Their music has been compared to the directness of The White Stripes and the desert-rock density of Queens of the Stone Age.