ARTIST OF THE WEEK: The Black Lips

When Black Lips frontman Cole Alexander finally takes the phone from his tour manager at 2pm US time, he sounds both completely disinterested and incredibly high. Erratic, partly nonsensical and often incomprehensible, his behaviour is hardly surprising considering the track record of the band as a whole.

Having formed the Black Lips when in their teens, Alexander and bassist Jared Swilley were expelled from high school for the same crude behaviour their live antics have become notorious for - albeit in a swirl of post-Columbine paranoia - and proceeded to make musicianship their full time gig. They’ve played the San Francisco Bathhouse in Wellington and Laneway Festival in 2010, and both events were replete with the undressing, inter-band sexual acts and mastication that live videos of their performances on YouTube are rife with. One particularly memorable moment involved Alexander spitting onto the venue roof, gauging the moment at which gravity would force said spit back to earth, and catching it again in his mouth.

The Black Lips - Modern Art

Currently on tour in support of their sixth studio album Arabia Mountain, Alexander quickly notes - although he didn’t really have to - that the attitude in the Black Lips camp is still remarkably similar to when they began (“yeah, we still like to get buck wild on stage.”) Their behaviour consistently complements their sonic countenance too.

Described by Alexander as “rudimentary and psychedelic”, their output is an amalgam of a garage rock, DIY sensibility and a weirdly sentimental alt-country side that emerges occasionally via cute - yes cute - lyrics and complementary guitar lines, muted percussion and the jangly quirks of a band who might actually care about the fun they’re having, and never more so than on Arabia Mountain.

A meeting of the minds between Vice Records and the Black Lips for the release of 2007’s Good Bad Not Evil exposed a ready-made audience to their sound and antics. Alexander cites their fans - and fun - as the reason for their output, stating, “Our whole deal is to make our fans have fun and our MO is just to have fun and rock out and then the fans will love it too, hopefully.”

One would be hard pressed to explain away their second album, 2009’s 200 Million Thousand, with this aforementioned sentiment. A mystical and incomprehensible sprawl remiss of the pop hooks implied in their mission statement, it suggested a band uncomfortable with the mainstream success they were courting.

The Black Lips - Go Out & Get It

Which is why their latest effort - Arabia Mountain - is such an important release in the Black Lips’ catalogue. It’s arguably the album that should have followed 2007’s breakthrough. 16 tracks - most of which fall short of three minutes - of classic sixties musicality and universally-themed lyricism that, while also maintaining a consistent roughness suggestive of their live show and their roots, are cleaned up enough to cater to their current needs and audience.

By Courtney Sanders

Read the full feature on The Black Lips in the current issue of Rip It Up magazine out now.