Solid Little Rock Jams

Black Lips - Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo

1) This is a live record, and it's good.
2) They pee on each other during their concerts.
3) They're playing at Logan Square Auditorium on March 31st.

I'd be a fool to not go then, right? I don't go to a lot of shows as often as say, Yancy. I saw Kevin Drumm perform with some bald Swedish guy at this place called ODUM in the West Town part of Chicago last Saturday, though! It was this really low-key, cinderblock building. I almost didn't notice it the first time I passed it, and when we drove back past it after it was over, I was like, "Where did it go? Was it all a magical dream?" You walk in and there's a table, and you pay this dude, who gives you a pin that was custom made for the performance of "experimental music" that you have attended, as well as a pretty kickass program of some sort. So then you go in this room that's not all that big, and there were what, 65 people there, about? I counted. It was something like that. So anyway, my bro and I didn't get a seat, so we stood. The crowd looked like a pretty cool "avant-garde music" type of crowd, but there were a few indie rock bearded sunglasses wearing dudes that came in late, but there was this camera lady who was just a TOTAL CUTE INDIE CHICK TYPE, she was rad. I went up to her and was like, "BITCH, RESPECT THE COCK!" Then the performance began! First, one of the dudes pressed a button or something and this weird industrial churning shit started coming out of the speakers. Then Leif Elggren (bald guy) read some pretentious shit poetry over it for 20 minutes while Kevin made some sort of sonic alteration once in a while. Then the dude stopped talking, and it was just pure knob twiddling awesomeness. All these different noises just kept building and building, it was great. Layers upon layers of awesomeness. There were parts where there would be these big changes, and they would actually feel physically relieving. And right when I thought, "Shit, are these guys just gonna go on for another hour," they brought it all back down. So awesome.

The Black Lips are a band of young men who piss in each other's mouths (I'm sorry if the band is sick of hearing people talk about the pissing thing, but it's awesome and hell, you can make a career out of that type of shit) and play drunken, sloppy good-time rock 'n roll music. This is a live album recorded in Tijuana by one JOHN REIS (of Hot Snakes/Drive Like Jehu fame AWESOME BANDS ALERT) and it's a blast and a half! I'd be tempted to describe this music as Stonesy, but these songs are just too basic to have been on Sticky Fingers or Exile On Main St. Somebody somewhere compared them to the Swinging Medallions, and shit, that's as apt of a description as any! This ain't your ordinary Hives/Strokes/White Stripes/Mooney Suzuki/Vines/Datsuns "2001 garage revival" hooha. There's a lot less of the rock star posing that went on in a lot of that music, and more of a "Hey, let's get smashed in my parents' garage, make a godawful, guitar bashin' racket, and call it 'rock 'n roll'" kind of thing goin' on. Once again, the tunes are pretty simple, but some of the hooks end up being totally awesome, like the one in "Dirty Hands." These guys don't give a fuck! They're having the time of their lives rocking out/pissing on each other. More music needs to sound this carelessly exuberant.

Rating: Get it if you like fun! Or guys! Because there sure are some on this CD!

Song: "Dirty Hands"... Here's some High Rise song, also!