Tampa Calling

Black Lips play Orpheum in Ybor City next Thursday, March 26. Here’s my feature/interview with the band:

“I want other bands like us to become as successful as we are so they can stay as shitty as we are,” says Jared Swilley, bass player for Black Lips, talking on a cell phone as the band rolls out of Omaha in a van.
So why is Swilley standing up for shitty music? You have to understand his definition of such: music that comes from a raw, unfiltered place, that’s not recorded using the latest computer technology, that doesn’t concern itself with whether the vocals and guitars are exactly in tune or the rhythms are perfectly in time.

“I like the human side of music,” he says. “I love imperfections and mistakes. Otherwise the cyborgs win. Look at ‘Louie Louie.’ It was No. 1 hit [actually a No. 2 in 1963] and it was sloppy and had the biggest vocal flub.”

“Louie Louie” would be a fair reference point for the music of Black Lips, an Atlanta quartet that’s been together since the early part of this decade. It sounds like the stuff made in basements and garages by self-taught kids in the 1960s, recorded off-the-cuff with lots of reverb and little regard for squeaky-clean sonics. Black Lips have dubbed their music “flower punk.”

“When me and [guitarist] Cole [Alexander] were pretending to be in a band early on, we listened to The Germs and they couldn’t play their instruments at all,” Swilley says. “When we really started playing guitar, we emulated Link Wray. He had these guitar riffs that were cool and tough and easy to play. We were into the punk stuff, but we were always into the ’60s stuff.”

Another defining aspect of Black Lips music is the kind of snottiness associated with disenfranchised suburban youth. “The best rock ‘n’ roll comes from alienated, middle-class, suburban young people,” the bass player declares. “We had the luxury of buying instruments and amps and having a place to play. We had the luxury of saying ‘fuck my parents’ — even though I love my parents — ‘fuck school.’ It’s a privileged sort of rebellion.”

Black Lips are living the life that just about any fucked up suburban teen would dream of: traveling the world playing shitty music for crazed fans, getting wasted and getting laid a lot. And getting paid. “I don’t think we’ll ever break into the Top 40, but I make a comfortable living now and I’m having fun while doing it,” Swilley says, summing things up nicely.

While Black Lips’ five albums have racked up respectable sales, and their song “Veni Vidi Vici” was played during the premiere of the ABC prime-time show Dirty Sexy Money, it’s non-stop, far-and-wide gigging that remains their stock-in-trade.

They don’t stick to the usual stomping grounds of the U.S. and Western Europe. Black Lips have done tours in Israel, India and Mexico, and have open invitations to perform in China and Indonesia. Swilley says that organizing these jaunts is merely a matter of connecting with kids online in different countries who help set up gigs, put them in touch with promoters, pick them up at the airport and give them places to stay.

The band’s propensity for onstage hi-jinx has at times overshadowed their music — and early this year it spurred an international misadventure. During a show in Chennai, India, Alexander and fellow guitarist Ian Saint Pe lip-kissed on the bandstand and Alexander mooned the crowd. After a dose of post-concert euphoria with giddy Indian fans (all guys), the Black Lips were told that the remainder of the tour had been canceled and they might be apprehended by authorities for their antics. That put the quartet on the lam, driving 10 hours in the night to Bangalore and then quickly flying out of the country.

“It sucked at the time,” Swilleys says. “I don’t regret going but it was the most stressful situation I’ve ever been in in my life. We didn’t eat or sleep for two days. What really sucked is that it was the first show where we really connected with the audience, and the kids had a good time. It showed them they don’t have to be repressed all the time.”

The episode hasn’t turned Black Lips into mellow shoegazers, but it has reinforced their intention to downplay the in-concert lunacy.

“That aspect of the band has been trumped up a lot,” Swilley says. “In the early days when we were playing the shittiest venues, not getting paid and were not very good at playing our instruments, we’d go into this sort of crazy performance art. But not too many people really saw that.

“Now we don’t do crazy shit nearly as much. It depends on the alcohol intake for the night. Lately, we’ve been relying on the crowd; they’ve been having so much fun and it eases our workload. Sometimes I’ll find myself laughing my ass off on stage watching them. Recently I saw a kid running around with no pants on burning his pubic hair. That was actually pretty gross. I couldn’t believe he’d do that. It’s funny how quickly they can turn into animals.”

Black Lips w/Gentleman Jesse and his Men, Thurs., March 26, Orpheum, Ybor City. $12

Black Lips Live in Pune, India

Black Lips in a backstage discussion about their misadventure in India.

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