Black Lips “200 Million Thousand” Review
I am always skeptical of bands that seem to make headlines more for their escapades than their music, but that has never seemed to deter the soft spot in my heart for Atlanta’s garage rock provocateurs, the Black Lips. Their Sex Pistols type antics never cease to draw a crowd (people love theatrics), but while any band could pee/puke on stage and kiss each other, the Black Lips are able to back it up with some really solid music. Their self described “flower punk” is in full force with their latest LP, 200 Million Thousand. Like nearly everything else about the band, the title of the record seems like a joke the band is playing on the unsuspecting public, but the music inside is not. The album’s 15 songs, spread out over 51 minutes, is a strong collection that is both explosive and diverse music that should satisfy both new fans and old supporters.
As with their last studio album, Good Bad Not Evil, the Black Lips don’t break any new ground with 200. For being a band that is such a chaotic group on stage, they make some pretty straightforward music once they step into the studio. The record begins with “Take My Heart,” a song that quickly erases any doubt whether they are influenced by garage rock standard bearers like the Sonics and the Monks. “Drugs,” is about (surprise) the band driving around and scoring/taking drugs. While it isn’t horrible, the lyrical content is a little too campy and finds the band seemingly buying into their wild self image more than they should. From there the band picks up the pace with “Starting Over,” a track which also served as the first single from the release. This low key ballad finds its pulse with an understated beat juxtaposed with some jangly guitar and tambourine. Despite the song sounding like a sad look back at things that have fallen apart, it’s one of the highlights of the album.
The next two songs are a strong pair that shows the wide range of sound that the Black Lips are able to accomplish. “Let is Grow” is a buzzing wide open rocker, followed by the deranged and claustrophobic “Trapped in a Basement.” “Short Fuse” finds the band finding a middle ground between the last two songs, mixing some dark lyrical content (and for a nice change of pace, the vocals higher in the mix) with a fast paced rhythm. “I’ll Be with You” is a southern fried soul song that sounds warm and pretty, almost making you wonder if the guys who wrote it are the same who I once saw kicking equipment on stage and spitting loogies at the 7th Street Entry last year. The next two songs, “BBBJOT” and “Again and Again,” are great examples of their “flower punk” sound and shows the level of debt that the band owes to pysch-rock luminaries such as Michael Yonkers (whom they praised as one of their heroes at their last Minneapolis show).
Next up is “Old Man,” one of the most experimental and “out there” tracks on the whole record. This track finds the band using droning instrumentation segueing into a lighter, albeit no less trippy chorus. “The Drop I Hold” is a great mix of a lot of the different sounds the band had incorporated up until that point and is one of the best songs on the record. With vocals that are reminiscent of the “Magnificent Seven” punk meets rap era Clash, the slow moving song is a swirling mess and shows that delicate line the band walks where one side is a glorious conglomeration of sounds and the other side is a train wreck. This song teeters for a while, but eventually finds a way to not sound like shit.
The last three songs, while strong, suffer a little from sounding like retreads of the first 11 songs. “Body Combat” is a spiky, upbeat song followed by the mellower and piano laden “Elijah.” The final song of the album, “I Saw God” starts out with some spooky vocal tracks and spends over half of its time with some talk-singing that never really comes together. For a band that prides itself on making its art around the fringes, you really wouldn’t expect anything else, but even for the Black Lips this song stretches the listener’s patience. Fans that may tire of the seemingly directionless final song and leave the album early will miss out on the excellent hidden track that is tucked away at the end of the disc. The song, which starts about 4:30 minutes after “I Saw God,” is a sloppy mess that ultimately ends the album on a high note. The song starts with what sounds like planes swooping low above the speakers and moves into a buzz saw of a song that has vocals drenched in echo and drums, showing little regard for any semblance of formality. The whole song is a loosely based take on “controlled chaos” and includes a line that alludes to Obama fucking the Dali Llama, which could be the reason they decided to make it a hidden track. With its loose ideals that somehow come together to make a great song is in it’s own fucked up way, it serves as a great representation of not only 200, but the band as well.
It’s quite interesting to take a deeper look at what makes the Lips so well liked. Do they write air-tight scuzzy garage rock songs? Yes, but so do other bands that are much less popular. Is their fame simply a more nuanced case of infamy with their attention grabbing antics serving as a lighting rod that attracts attention and listeners? After giving the band’s albums a close listen, I would have to argue no. While they may sometimes be too much of a pastiche of their influences and have yet to step out of their “flower punk” comfort zone, they continue to do what they do almost better than anyone else. 200 Million Thousand is a shining example of the band creating some strikingly outstanding music, even if it takes getting chased out of India to get peoples attention.
Black Lips “Starting Over” [MP3]
Also: Black Lips & Vampire Hands @ Turf Club
