Black Lips

Playing garage-flavored punk rock with a Southern accent, the Black Lips are an Atlanta-based combo who developed a reputation as one of the Peach State's most distinctive bands. Their attack manages to be muscular and ramshackle at the same time, reinforcing the dark, buzzy tone of their performances. The murky frenzy of their early work was best documented on 2005's Let It Bloom and 2007's Good Bad Not Evil, and an over-the-top live show was preserved on 2007's Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo. The band experimented with cleaner studio sounds on 2011's Arabia Mountain (produced by Mark Ronson) and 2014's Underneath the Rainbow (co-produced by the Black Keys' Patrick Carney), and added funk, hip-hop, and classic pop accents to the swampy tone of 2022's Apocalypse Love. Formed in 1999, the Black Lips consisted of Cole Alexander on lead vocals, guitar, and harmonica, Ben Eberbaugh on lead guitar, Jared Swilley on bass, and Joe Bradley on drums, when they released their first single. After a second single and a handful of raucous live shows that led to them being banned from several Georgia venues, they caught the attention of Greg Shaw at Bomp! Records, who signed them to a recording deal. The Black Lips cut their self-titled first album in mid-2002, but before it could be released, Ederbaugh was killed in a freak auto accident when a driver going the wrong way crashed into his car at a toll booth. The death occurred only a few days before the Black Lips were to set out on an East Coast and Midwest tour; believing Ederbaugh would have wanted them to continue, the three-piece made plans to add a new lead guitarist for a more extensive tour in 2003 to support the release of the album. Their second effort for Bomp!, 2004's We Did Not Know the Forest Spirit Made the Flowers Grow, featured new guitarist Jack Hines. After the album's release, Hines left the band and was replaced by Ian St. Pé. The Black Lips jumped to In the Red for the darkly atmospheric 2005 effort Let It Bloom. The band then put out 2007's Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo, a chaotic live album recorded during a show in Tijuana, Mexico, which was their first release for Vice. The group's fourth studio project, Good Bad Not Evil, followed later that year. 200 Million Thousand followed in 2009, also on Vice; prior to the album's release, the Black Lips staged a tour of India, where their stage antics made them no friends in a nation that prizes socially conservative behavior. In early 2010, the band hit the studio with producer Mark Ronson (best known for his work with Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse) and began work on their sixth album, Arabia Mountain, which was released in June of 2011. After failing to get first choice Phil Spector or second choice Ronson, the band enlisted the Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney and Dap Kings member Tommy Brenneck to co-produce their slick, Southern rock-inspired seventh album. Underneath the Rainbow was released by Vice in spring of 2014. Guitarist Ian St. Pé left the group, and Jack Hines rejoined the lineup on six-string. The band saw more personnel changes in 2017, as drummer Joe Bradley dropped out and Oakley Munson took over behind the kit; the group also added a sax player, Zumi Rosow. With its membership settled again, the band was ready to hit the road in support of Satan's Graffiti or God's Art?, released in May 2017 and produced by Sean Lennon. In 2018, Jack Hines left the Black Lips, and Jeff Clarke took his place on guitar. Clarke made his recording debut on Sing in a World That's Falling Apart, a country-influenced set that appeared in early 2020. The group stepped away from that new country sound for their next LP, 2022's Apocalypse Love, a stylistically diverse set that saw them filtering funk, hip-hop, '60s-style pop, vintage R&B, and much more through their garage rock formula. ~ Mark Deming