Crib Notes

It’s obvious that a collaboration featuring Black Lips, King Khan and BBQ would yield muddy forays into ’60s garage rock rhythms and gospel soul. When Black Lips were chased out of India for indecency, they holed up in Khan’s Berlin-based Moon Studios, and these 11 songs document the decadence of their eight days together. The field hollers of “All My Loving” and haunted moans of “Ghost with the Most” flow with urgency and echo. “30 Second Air Blast” is catchy but a little too juvenile, and BBQ’s Bill Haley wail in “Cone of Light” is the album’s shining star. “Bow Down and Die” rattles with beautifully busted fidelity, and “I’m Comin’ Home” resurrects the Mighty Hannibal’s war-torn Vietnam anthem, drenched in reverb. The album feels hastily assembled, like an excuse to jam, but isn’t the ongoing love affair with Black Lips built upon the band’s sense of spontaneity and abandon? Churning out fiery songs by the seat of their pants is what these guys do best. (Vice) 4 stars out of 5

“Cone of Light”

“Bow Down and Die”

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From Vice:

This morning, Stereogum premiered the first slab of lo-fi gutter gospel from super group The Almighty Defenders, a meeting of might between Atlanta garage goblins the Black Lips, Berlin-based soul punker King Khan, and Mr. BBQ himself, Mark Sultan. Conceived during the Lips’ Berlin exile (after their VBS-documented ejection from India), the band’s self-titled debut is a madcap, liquor-drenched revival, a blissfully fucked up realization of one of garage rock’s most fitting collaborations. “Bow Down And Die,” the “booming, chivalrous third song,” is an off kilter, beer-swilling chant-along that borrows just as much from choral church music as it does from skuzzball rock n roll.

The Almighty Defenders “Bow Down and Die” mp3

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Ever since that whole debacle went down with the Black Lips having to flee India to avoid going to jail, I’ve been getting daily phone calls from the Mighty Hannibal asking me if I know anything about the Black Lips and King Khan teaming up to cover one of his songs for a new record they recorded while exiled in Berlin. The answer has been a categorical no until yesterday when Vice announced that it will be releasing the self-titled debut LP by the Almighty Defenders, a new collaboration between the Black Lips, Khan and his longtime cohort BBQ, or as his friends call him Mark Sultan. It’s important to note that no track list has been revealed yet, but Hannibal assures me that they’ve covered what he calls a “bad ass damn version” of his song “I’m Coming Home.”

“They really did it up right and it teaches me something about my own song,” Hannibal says.

The album, according to Vice, is “brimming with soul, earnest shouts, cries and hand-claps over post-modern gospel-rock anthems.” The whole thing was recorded at Khan’s Moon Studios and will be released on LP and digitally via Vice Records on Tues., Sept. 22.

Almighty Defenders @ Amsterdam Brewery from NOW Magazine on Vimeo.

(Photo by David Waldman)

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From Vice:

The Black Lips recent expedition to India was marked by a series of fairly seismic culture shocks. Everything from bottle-throwing fans at a gig in Pune, to livid show promoters in Chennai who chased them out of the country, all in response to a bunch of full-frontal punk rock provocateurs from Atlanta.

See the video.

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Mastodon brought the Scion Rock Fest to a crashing finale on Saturday night. Scott Kelley from Neurosis made a cameo at the end of their set tearing through “Aqua Dementia” from Leviathan, “Crack the Skye” from their forthcoming full-length and “Crystal Skull” from Blood Mountain; which was preceded by an announcement from guitarist Brent Hinds that the cops were there to shut everything down.

Indeed they played slightly beyond 11 o’clock, but the show ended without incident.

In Purgatory inside the club, Zoroaster brought their set to a close with a noisy cluster of feedback and chaos after technical difficulties inspired bass player /vocalist Brent Anderson to kick over his entire bass rig. At some point during the melee a drum cymbal stand was propelled upward like a rocket and stabbed drummer Dan Scanlan in the roof of his mouth (which was pretty hardcore).  Afterward he looked dazed, but appeared to be no worse for the wear as he smoked cigarettes and recalled the story. At a metal festival of such caliber there’s bound to be some carnage.

Speaking of carnage, Norwegian black metal band 1349 wrapped up their set across the hall in Hell, shortly after the Zoroaster incident. Rumor had it that they had adorned their stage with severed pig heads mounted on spikes. If they were there the crowd had devoured them before I made my way into the room. At the end, vocalist Ravn lurched at the crowd in full corpse paint and blood stained hands, slapping high fives and grunting a ghastly war cry.

This was the real deal on all fronts. After stellar performances from Neurosis, Wolves in the Throne Room, Boris, Kylesa, Torche and so many others there was a feeling of wasted annihilation in the air, as though Cloverfield had paid a visit to the Masquerade Music Park and left a massive footprint in the dark red mud that stained so many shoes and pant legs of concert goers who filed out with ringing ears and a touch of whiplash.

(Photo by Chad Radford)

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… and if you’re still lurking around after Ricky Powell’s DJ set at Criminal Records, the Black Lips are sitting up for a 5 o’clock in-store to celebrate the release of 200 Million Thousand.

When they’re done, Austin, Texas high-concept rockers …Trail of Dead will play an in-store at 7 p.m. Both shows are free.

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This morning Pitchfork posted a long overdue review of Gentleman Jesse’s debut album on DoucheMaster Records (whom, by the way received a CL Best Of Atlanta award this week for critic’s pick for best local record label).

Unlike the pukey face review that Vice gave him this month, Pitchfork likes Gentleman Jesse so much that they bestowed upon him an empowering 8.1 rating.

Read the review here.

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