Black Lips Albums (6)
'200 Million Thousand'
Release Date 1/1/2009
Tracks 15
Label Speak N Spell
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
On the Black Lips' fifth studio album, 2009's 200 Million Thousand, not much has changed on the surface. Maybe they are a little more together, more focused and tight, but they still have enough ramshackle swagger and loose-as-a-goose sleaze to go around and have enough for seconds. They still pick the bones of garage rock clean, sounding like they should be leading off side two of a Back from the Grave comp or at the very least a highlight of a Pebbles volume. They still sing about the insane life they appear to lead at all times (check their travails in India at the beginning of 2009) and do a convincing job of sounding completely debauched and bromantic ("I'll Be with You" is an amazing ode to a buddy) without coming off as foolish. While nothing on 200 Million is quite as catchy as Good Bad Not Evil's "Veni Vidi Vici," there are plenty of songs that rate with their best, including the rollicking "Drugs," the cover of Iggy Pop's "Again & Again" (a song from his days playing with the Iguanas in the '60s), the storming rocker "Take My Heart," and best of all, the folk-rock jangler "Starting Over," which features charmingly sloppy lead and background vocals and surprisingly sober lyrics which talk of re-forming their wanton ways. On these songs their formula of raw sound and hooky melodies works perfectly, the album only flags a little when the band tries to get spooky and "deep" and when they cut the tempos to a crawl. Songs like "Trapped in a Basement" and "The Drop I Hold" are decent enough but don't play to the band's strengths, and the sound collage/spoken word "I Saw God," which ends the album with a big fat slap of weirdness, is too arty for its own good. These more serious songs that dot the album's track list (and threaten to sink the album near the end) bring up an important point about the Black Lips. It seems kind of unfair to say it, but if they ever mature, they will almost instantly cease to be any good. You come to them looking for cheap thrills and easy kicks, looking for a band to soundtrack the times in your life when you don't give a damn and want to break a beer bottle over your head. 200 Million Thousand provides a fair share of these moments, and because of that you can say the album succeeds. It just could use a little more teenage head and a little less brains. ~ Tim Sendra, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Some bands strive to explore new musical territory each time they go into the recording studio, while others are content to follow the same path throughout their career as long as they improve in some way each time out. The Black Lips seem to be following the latter approach, though you'd be forgiven for not noticing the stylistic differences between their fourth studio album, Good Bad Not Evil, and their earlier efforts. The Black Lips continue to split the difference between Back from the Grave-era garage stomp and the darker throb of post-punk noise merchants like the Fall, but as befits the title, Good Bad Not Evil brings a bit more sunshine into the mix, and the deeper undercurrents of this music come more from the performances than the production and recording, which is clear and crisp by this group's murky standards. Jared Swilley's bass is high up in the mix, carrying a good share of the melodies and adding plenty of minor key tension, while guitarists Cole Alexander and Ian St. Pe use the extra room to shore up the high end with plenty of cheap guitar bashing and Joe Bradley's primal drumming holds the whole thing in place. Good Bad Not Evil finds the Black Lips going for a bit more obvious humor on tunes like "Navajo" and the country-accented "How Do You Tell a Child That Someone Has Died" (I said they were funny, not tasteful), and there's a playful tone to "Bad Kids" and "Veni Vidi Vici" that's lighter than you might expect from this band. But longtime fans looking for the Black Lips' patented low-tech rumble will be rewarded with "I Saw a Ghost (Lean)," "Cold Hands," and "Slime and Oxygen," which are just as unwholesome as you could wish for. Good Bad Not Evil isn't a major leap forward for the Black Lips, but it shows their sound is slowly but surely evolving, and they still rock with a nasty enthusiasm that's bold and compelling; this is quality stuff for your next black light party. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
'Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo'
Release Date 2/20/2007
Tracks 12
Label Vice
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
One of the members of the Black Lips enthusiastically announces, "This is going to be the best live record of all time!" before the band launches into "Not a Problem" on Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo, and from a conceptual standpoint this disc would seem to have real possibilities. For this live set (if the liner notes are to be believed), the Black Lips opted to record a gig in one of the world's great centers of debauchery -- Tijuana, Mexico -- and hired a mariachi band to open the show. A drunken and audibly enthusiastic audience packed the joint, hookers performed lewd acts while the band wailed on-stage, and a splendid time was had by all capable of remembering the evening. While the performances on Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo (or, "The Brave Ones of the New World") sometimes sound suspiciously coherent for a real live recording (especially given the frantic circumstances they claim for the evening), the band's dirty, primitive take on blues-infused garage rock sounds fine indeed, and though these performances are a few notches shy of "tight," the Black Lips sound just as together as they wanna be here. However, two-thirds of the songs here already appeared on the band's previous studio set, 2005's Let It Bloom, so you don't have to be an especially loyal fan to be familiar with the material, and as over-the-top as the best stuff is on this disc, the approach isn't radically different from their studio recordings. But judging from the crowd noises, a bunch of folks were having a hell of a good time while the tapes rolled for Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo, and anyone who digs their Fall-meets-Trashmen vibe will doubtless feel the same way while listening to this album, though some potent beverages (or under the counter medications) are advised to help re-create the experience. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
While most bands get tighter and "more professional" with the passage of time, Black Lips have opted to follow another path, and the Atlanta foursome dig deeper into the well of murky aural power on their third album, Let It Bloom. While garage rock at its most blessedly crude remains the band's obvious reference point, guitarists Ian St. Pe and Cole Alexander (aka Old King Cole Younger) take their songs through enough twists and turns that no one is going to mistake them for either the White Stripes or the Chesterfield Kings, and the low-flying shards of guitar noise and echoing textures call up shades of the Fall, the Godz, the Cramps, the Witches, the early Velvet Underground (think Cleveland 1966, not the Banana album), and a few dozen other bands who enjoy playing around in the dark matter rather than burning out in the sunshine. And while Black Lips don't sound much more "accomplished" than they did on their 2002 debut, they've gotten much better at working their magic in the studio, and Let It Bloom is their strongest effort to date, from the minor-chord stomp of "Punk Slime" and the sinister beachside romance of "Dirty Hands" to the French-accented dirge of "Hippie, Hippie, Hoorah" and the descent into the maelstrom of "She's Gone." Mike McHugh's recording sorts out the good noise from the bad noise with just the right balance, and the result is an album that drips with just the right kind of bad karma. Let It Bloom will creep out your neighbors and you can dance to it, and can you ask for more than that? ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
'We Did Not Know the Forest Spirit Made the Flowers Grow'
Release Date 5/13/2004
Tracks 12
Label Bomp
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
The Black Lips take Back from the Grave-style garage punk frenzy to such extremes of slavering cacophony that they border on experimental noise rock at times. Tossing musical decorum out the window while barreling down memory lane, this is the perfect album for Swamp Rats fans who think the Sonics are too tame. Performed with far more gusto than finesse and recorded at several different locations to ensure lack of consistency in the tinny sound, We Did Not Know the Forest Spirit Made the Flowers Grow is an avalanche of distortion and fuzz, with occasional variety provided from touches such as the slower swamp blues of "Dawn of the Age of Tomorrow," the mock classicality of "Nothing at All/100 New Fears," and the pulsating organ on "Notown Blues." There are even a few hooks that manage to surface from the thunderous din, although this album is best appreciated if you don't expect the melodicism of a power pop band. The CD also includes a "hidden" track of experimental noodling, as well as a Quicktime video of "Fad." ~ Todd Kristel, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Listen to the first couple of cuts from the Black Lips' self-titled debut album and it sounds like you've uncovered yet another nuevo-garage rock band with an extra shot of punk rock attitude. All well and good, but let the album sink in and you realize these kids have a bit more up their sleeves -- the tres-wasted psychedelia of "Freakout," the creepy blues crawl of "Stone Cold" and "Down and Out," and the free-form dementia of "You're Dumb" prove these guys have been absorbing their influences from any number of less than wholesome sources. A bit like the Dwarves pre-Blood Guts & Pussy, the Black Lips are looking for something dirty, dangerous, and just plain unhealthy beneath the energetic veneer of garage punk, and on this album they don't have much trouble finding it. While the performances are often ragged to the point of near collapse, that seems to be the point much of the time, and the addled wail of singer Cole Alexander is a fine mouthpiece for this journey through the gutters of your mind. Savage and not for the squeamish, but cool stuff for folks who like their rhythm hooch in a dirty glass. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
