Atlanta’s Black Lips come from a storied past of garage rock counter-culture greatness. It has been 15 years since Cole Alexander and Jared Swilley were kicked out of school for being regarded as “subculture danger,” and joined up with drummer Joe Bradley to form the group. In their early days, the guys gained attention for their scrappy mélange of blues, rock and roll, doo-wop and punk along with their crude antics at live shows like vomiting, setting guitars on fire, urinating and starting riots. Since then, they’ve made a name for themselves by being, essentially, the best of the worst. Their ragtag mix of lo-fi production, jumbled punk noise and “we seriously don’t give a shit” attitude has propelled them through criticism and into a continuously blissful pocket of music where rock and roll is still alive and authority still sucks. Though the garage rock moniker will most likely continue to follow the group, this shouldn’t be something held against them. Their latest album, Arabia Mountain, was the closest the group has gotten to breaking into a new realm. By teaming up with A-list producer Mark Ronson for the album, it seemed as if they would be escorted out of the garage and into more mainstream success. Though they were game to try something new, Ronson didn’t make them into something they weren’t, and the group has stayed true to their outlaw nature.
For their new album, Underneath the Rainbow, they stayed more inside their own wheelhouse, teaming up with The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney to co-produce the album. The LP jumps from style to style with the energy of a little kid. The first single off the album, “Boys in the Wood”, is a rambling track rolling through an ominous southern rock and roll beat with bluesy guitar thumping along, and even a trumpet gliding in towards the end. “Drive by Buddy”, on the other hand, has a heavy 60s vibe that sounds eerily similar to The Monkees “Last Train to Clarksville”. Its lyrics also seem telling of the bands attitude in releasing its seventh album: “Well brother, what’s the matter?/Do you hate the life you chose?/But it’s all good./We’re hanging on a broken T-bird hood.” Then there are songs like “Funny” that show the groups more psychedelic leanings, with its echoing snare and gleaming synth through the chorus.
At times, however, it does seem as though the band might be treading water with a few of their tracks. Which in all honesty, makes some sense. After all, how much can one band exhaust the rock and roll genre, which we all thought was already dead? If there exists in you any sort of sentimentality or novelty for this band though, I expect this feeling to be momentary. Though some songs off the album are lackluster, the groups concoction of styles and surprisingly wide-ranging ability makes the album impressive musically, as we have come to expect. Even more than this talent, the best part about the album is that even though they have been together for 15 years now and are all getting into their 30s, they bring the same subversive teenage energy and endless supply of “fuck you” that made us all love them in the first place. Until they lose that, I hope these guys will continue to make all the music they can.
The album is available to stream (which you can do above), and comes out officially March 18th via Vice Records. Along with the release, the band’s upcoming tour will feature scented shows. The smells will include ocean, cedar, moon, denim, squid ink, fire and semen. If the Black Lips live set was so crazy before, this addition will definitely make for an interesting show.