If you had a thing for late ’70s post-punk efforts that yielded bands like Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers, and a few other promising “punkish” bands with a love for the early era of Rock and Roll, then you just might develop a thing for the Black Lips band. Their approach to Rock and Roll is of a basic style, nodding to the great architects of our garage sound. even better, Black Lips have a distinct reminiscent style that will be familiar to every Johnny Thunders fan.
Black Lips have been around for a while, so they’re no strangers to our beloved Rock and Roll. started in 1999 from departures from The Reruns (Ben Eberbaugh), and Renegades (Cole Alexander, Jared Swilley) , and the addition of drummer, Joe Bradley. Ben Eberbaugh is no longer with the band having died in a car accident, but is replaced by Ian Saint Pé. In 2003, Bomp! Records released their debut album, Black Lips!.
Black Lips! is an irreverent album with daring songs within. But that doesn’t make it unlistenable, nor an album not to be tolerated. In essence, the core of Rock and Roll is found within the songs. They followed it up with the excellent and stylish We Did Not Know The Forest Spirits Made The Flowers Grow from 2004. The songs on that album tease a psychedelic interior with a hard-candied punk shell.
Over the years, the band signed with Vice Records (where they remain to this day), releasing three albums (Good Bad Not Evil – 2007, 200 Million Thousand – 2009, Arabia Mountain – 2011). In between their Bomp! and Vice signings, they released a lone record on In The Red Records, the excellent Let It Bloom album from 2005. Every album from Black Lips demand to be heard. Every album work styles into a hard garage soup of songs that please.
On March 18, Vice Records will release the band’s latest work, Underneath The Rainbow in CD, DD, and LP forms. I highly recommend that you give them a listen, especially if you loved the post punk era from the late ’70s. Black Lips will please you if you do.
