Black Lips
(Vice)
The amazing thing about nearly every Black Lips recording is the
almost defiant way the band refuses to play the same kind of song
consecutively. Utilizing an almost haphazard method of sequencing and
pacing, Black Lips albums are like no-fi demos made by a dozen
different bands for a themeless mix tape. The Atlanta quartet’s new
album, 200 Million Thousand, follows faithfully in this
schizophrenic tradition. While the band has called their sound “flower
punk,” that phrase may be a loose translation meaning “the history of
anarchic music filtered through whatever we feel right now.” 200
Million Thousand opens with the tribal thump of “Take My Heart,”
sounding like the bastard crawlspace-hidden children of the Stooges who
learned their sound through the floorboards and damp osmosis. It’s
immediately followed by the almost spritely “Drugs,” a surf-tinged cage
match between Camper Van Beethoven and the Replacements, which itself
is left behind by “Starting Over,” a Byrdsian janglefest that suggests
Paul Westerberg channeling the La’s. Like Reese’s experiment with
peanut butter and chocolate, the Black Lips emerge from their garage
studio lab after mutating the co-existence of dissonance and melody,
pop and punk, reeling improvisation and calculated deliberation. 200
Million Thousand is their lurching, flower-picking, child-mauling
creation. — Brian Baker
This article appears in Dec 17-23, 2008.
