Monday, March 14, 2011
Music news Black Lips’ Arabia Mountain due out June 7
Posted by Chad Radford @ChadRad on Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 12:45 PM
Several weeks ago, I was invited to guitarist Cole Alexander’s house for a late-night listening session the day it was finished — we listened to it on a small boom box (with a $3 thrift store price tag on it) that sat on the floor next to the dog’s water bowl and crate.
At the time, the title for the album had not yet been decided, but they were kicking around a few names. Expensive was my favorite, but I guess they liked Arabia Mountain a little more. The songs we listened to had not yet been mastered, either, and when they played the Mark Ronson-produced numbers next to the stuff that they recorded on their own, the differences were apparent but not overbearing. What really made the record shine was the attention to the song writing itself.
There was vague mention of Lockett Pundt from Deerhunter working on the album, too, and he’s now credited for producing two songs, “Bicentennial Man” and “Go Out and Get It.” But the songs that left the strongest impressions on me include: “Noc-a-homa Cries” (which has since been shortened to just “Noc-a-homa”), “God Lived as a Devil Dog a God Dam Mad Devil Dog” (which has since been shortened to “Mad Dog”), “Dumpster Dive” and “Nude Erection,” but if you believe Vice’s press release, it’s now called “New Direction.”
Within the first few seconds of listening I found myself thinking that this is the record that should have come out after Good Bad Not Evil. The songs are fast and concise without losing the rough edges that define Black Lips’ sound.
“Mad Dog” was the noisiest, and most twisted thing I heard that night, but it wasn’t just noise for the sake of it. Play it backward and you’ll hear Kesha’s “We R Who We R,” which turns out to be kind of a meaningful and secret parody/protest, but I'm duty bound not to reveal anything else about it.
When Black Lips dropped, 200 Million Thousand in February, ‘09 I bought the hype, at least for a minute, but not because it was a great album, or even a logical follow-up to older, better records, like Let It Bloom and Good Bad Not Evil. For me 200 Million Thousand was the culmination of a lot of demos, loose ideas and experiments that the group had been kicking around for years. Does anyone remember hanging out during Kirkwood Baller’s Club nights at the old Lenny’s when Cole would play his trucker hip-hop songs over cassette tapes of homemade beats? For me the album invoked that era. There are a couple of worthwhile jams on the record (“Take My Heart,” “Drugs” "The Drop I Hold," “Elijah” and so on), but ultimately, 200 Million Thousand is pretty unmemorable — a speed bump in their career.
Arabia Mountain, at least from my first listen to the raw tracks, shows Black Lips getting back on track with an album that’s a return to form. Part of what will make it a success is Ronson’s influence, there’s no doubt about that. But the group’s willful embrace of song craft is what really gives the record a transcendent quality. To say that these songs show some maturity isn’t misleading, but it misses something fundamental about Black Lips perennially juvenile essence. Regardless, the songs on Arabia Mountain are clean and catchy, and that only gives them the punch they need
Arabia Mountain track list
1. “Family Tree”
2. “Modern Art”
3. “Spidey's Curse”
4. “Mad Dog”
5. “Mr. Driver”
6. “Bicentennial Man”
7. “Go Out And Get It”
8. “Raw Meat”
9. “Bone Marrow”
10. “The Lie”
11. “Time”
12. “Dumpster Dive”
13. “New Direction”
14. “Noc-a-homa”
15. “Don't Mess My Baby”
16. “You Keep On Running”
Comments (19)
Showing 1-19 of 19
oh good! i was afraid there were only going to be FIVE articles in the past 30 days the reference the black lips.
SIX articles in 30 days is more like it.
#yourfavoritelocalbandstillsucks
like
dislike
How dare you, Creative Loafing! Covering a band people like to hear about?! Come on, get wit it- Welsey
maybe one of the band members is into chubby, pasty hipster wannabe groupies with a myspace page.
good luck.
I just get a little tired of CL getting the business everytime they cover Deerhunter, Black Lips or any other "big" bands in Atlanta. It is an Atlanta music blog. "maybe one of the band members is into chubby, pasty hipster wannabe groupies with a myspace page."
I'm not sure of the intentiont of his petty comment? I guess Luke Skywlaker is calling someone fat?
This is the problem with WWW and that other idiot that come on here and bitch about them covering Deerhunter and the Black Lips. That other Jake guy whined about every band in Atlanta it seemed. They will not suggest any bands that they like that do not get coverage. The reason is they are either in other bands and do not want to piss off the Atlanta elite (which is actually fair but highly less likely) or they are just pussies. I will now both list the band i play in and the bands i think deserve more coverage. Watch this dickheads. I play in a punk band called the Vaginas. We get about as much coverage as a punk band called the Vaginas is going to get. Here are some bands i think are really good who are not covered very often by CL: Doomed Youth, The Charges, The Liverhearts (i think they are now defunct) and Sons of Tonatiuh. Thats about all i can think of right now and Doomed Youth is the only band i mentioned that i have never seen get any attention. So either start listing the bands you like who are being screwed over or just shut the fuck up already.
Tell it, adam! I agree. Most of the bands that I like get covered sooner or later. I can't really think of a good Atl band that has not had press.
Btw, this "chubby, pasty girl" thinks vaginas should get more press. That name is not as dirty as pearl jam and they get decent coverage.
I have to agree with Jake; the bands that Chad thinks are good pretty much suck across the board. This is not a result of my band not getting coverage, or someone else's band not getting coverage, it's a result of Chad not knowing very much about music. And as other readers have noted, when you heap praise on bands that sound like they spent ten minutes making their record, it makes them feel like there is no reason to spend any longer on the next one. For the record, I think there are two bands on Jake's list that don't suck. But I think that the law of averages would dictate that in a city of this size, there are probably a lot of good bands - they just don't seem to catch Chad's "ear". The only bands that catch Chad's "ear" are his hipster friends' bands. I've seen countless great shows by out-of-town bands that didn't make Chad's list of recommended shows. One new local band that has two good records out is called The Head, though you never see anything about them in CL. Or some of the more prog-leaning bands like the Ghosts Project, or Brass Knuckle Surfer; there must be many many more who can actually play their instruments and write a decent song. Instead we read every week about bands that really aren't very good. The Black Lips are great guys, but do you really think anyone will remember them for their music? The same is true of all the other "bands" like Back Pockets, Coathangers, Carnivores, etc. that can barely play their instruments but have made friends with Chad. Anyone that knows the local scene can read CL and know that they won't learn who the best bands in town are, but an out-of-town reader would probably come to the conclusion that there aren't any good bands in ATL. I think that Jeff Clark is right about one thing - CL would be very wise to dump the entire music department and start from scratch. I did appreciate one readers comment that there are now a lot of blogs that cover local music, but I do tend to read CL out of habit, as it was once a pretty decent music magazine.
Dear Music Lover,
If your idea of a great but overlooked Atlanta band is Brass Knuckle Surfer then fuck you. You have bad taste. And if you are going to praise Jeff Clark and his great ideas then fuck you again!
Long live Bobby Ubangi
The Lids were a great band, and B'Jay (Bobby Ubangi to you) was a good friend of mine.
claire/edgewood adam:
maybe if u kiss more ass on the CL music blog, one of these band members will let your pale/chubby selves go down on them. good luck with that.
the rest of us would like to hear about more than 2 or 3 shitty bands on a regular basis.
edgewood, sorry, i'm not in a shitty band named after what your face looks like. but my point still stands.
#yourfavoritelocalbandstillsucks
Wow, let's have a Battle of the Bands soon!! John, Patrick, can I book a show at the Earl for this?
Im not kissing anyone's ass. I just cant listen to bitching for too long. And there is nothing worse than bitching without a solution. Im not a fan of lots of local bands. My point is if people are going to bitch then offer some other bands. That guy Jake has not done that once and Musiclover finally just did. And really WWW?? My face looks like a Vagina. Good one. Another zing from the least clever person on these blogs. Have you really taken to calling girls fat for not agreeing with you? Which is rich because if you google search Wesley What What the name Wesley Nicholas comes up. Type that into facebook and you will see a creepy looking, fat, pasty dork. He looks like he jerks off with marshmellows.
I will not agree to disagree!!! Adam, Westley must be a cool dude... he did use a stars wars pic as his little profile pic!!! We can talk about it when we double up on Rad Chadford tonight. Because my goal is to let black lips or a writer get on top of me.
So sorry...didn't mean to step on so many toes.BUT, ole chad is deaf and dumb.The black lips are a joke...as for bands i like here's a few. Local first... The Whores,Ledfoot Messiah,Bigfoot,Armazilla...out of towners...Beitthemeans,Dex Romweber,High on Fire,..
Dex Romweber is one of my heroes. I don't how you can call the black lips a joke? do they knock it out of the park everytime? no, not at all. But they churn out some great hits. and theyve come a long way from the old 513 days as the renegades.
is "jerks off with marshmEllows" the name of your OTHER shitty band, edgewood douchebag?
and the vaginas IS a clever choice for a band name. the other guys in the band probably don't even know you named it after your beard.
thanks for googling me. and then stalking me on facebook. nothing creepy about that, eh?
my point still stands. the black lips/deerhunter are mediocre at best, and CL should start covering other bands more often. i, for one, would love to know just how shitty "the va jay jays" sound outside of their basements.
"the other guys in the band probably don't even know you named it after your beard." I don't get this joke? and I was disappointed there were no jabs at me last time Westley- what gives?
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