Brightest Young Things

The Black Lips may have gained the music world's attention by lovably childish antics--onstage making out, offensive song titles, dressing like gangstas and rocking gold fronts--but behind the prankster chaos, if you bothered to look, there was always a terribly mature sense of spiritual malaise. Watch the Vice Guide to Travel...when their song comes on as the hipster tourists are driving through the hinterlands of Romania, it fit perfectly with the decrepit rooftops and skinny dogs. Their music doesn't have to address a menacing apocalyptic global atmosphere, it personifies it. It always has. But these days it's getting harder for anyone to categorize them as mindless fun. They've toured the world (the actual world, not just the parts with rich people in them) and dealt with the deaths of friends and collaborators (like old school Atlanta garage champion Bobby Ubangi). Their new record 200 Million Thousand has even more moments of psychedelic punk reflection- a song like "I Saw God" is working with a lot more introspection than"I Want Your Skull."

Not that they aren't still massively entertaining and catchy, and not that they won't start a mass psychosis throwdown at the Black Cat tonight, but when we spoke with Cole, guitarist and hat-aficionado, our conversation naturally got a little dark. We talked about his minor disappointments on the new record, the struggles of being uprooted by success, and death, always death, lurking in the bathroom mirror at the party, wearing its coked-out idiot smirk.

(live photos: CHRIS CHEN)

BYT: Where are you guys at right now?

Cole Alexander: We’re in Atlanta right now. We have a little time off in between tours. We’ve been doing a bit of recording too.

BYT: For which record?

CA:  The new one that we’re working on.

BYT: You guys just got back from Japan, right?

CA: Yea.

BYT: How’d that go?

CA: It went really good. It was our first time there so we’re just building a fan base. Everyone was really enthusiastic. The food was really good.

BYT: They have some great rock and roll fans over there, but I feel like it’s kind of a weird scene, too.

CA: They have their own little cultural quirks.

BYT: So you guys are back in Atlanta for a little while before the next tour...when you get back after touring do you still feel like you are at home and that you are part of a scene when you get back there?

CA:I still feel like it’s home, but I feel like less and less that we belong to whatever scene there is because we don’t really get to play that much in Atlanta. Plus it’s hard to keep up with all the new bands, the new younger bands—that I’ve heard good stuff about—if you don’t get to see them all, so I feel a little out of touch with the community as far as the underground punk shows or any nightlife. But, I try my best to check it out.

BYT: You guys have toured all kinds of crazy places all over Europe. Do you think it is a totally different situation being a band in Europe, or just touring Europe in general, rather then here?

CA: Oh yeah, Europe is a lot different. I found that a lot of the major cities are that are pretty similar, but in a lot of the small towns we’ll play and there won’t even be another band to play with. It’ll just be us playing—like in Germany or Italy—we’ll be the only band anywhere near that town. The people are pretty enthusiastic as a fan level, so they treat the bands really well—better than the bands in America. I would say at the bottom, when you are just starting and you are on tour, they treat you with a lot more respect in Europe because I think it’s more permanent thing. That’s just my observation. I don’t know if it’s completely accurate. They were a lot more accommodating. Like the club promoters would supply food for the band and give you a place to stay. I remember first starting in the States and it being like sink or swim.

BYT: Right

CA: You know, find your own floor to sleep on, or find your own food to eat. You kinda have to figure it out yourself. It’s harder to survive, I think. I can be good, but you have to work hard for it on a more competitive level. Europe has a lot of art funding that is funded through taxes, so they will have clubs that are funded by the government. Then you have some band that’s saying “Fuck the government” then they get fed and everything paid for.

BYT: [Laughs]

CA: They have a lot of support for the arts and stuff. In the States we have great arts but no support for them, so maybe we don’t need any support. But it’s always nice to have more support. We’re doing fine I guess.

BYT: Did you guys ever end up playing in Baghdad?

CA: No, but it’s one of our dreams to play in a war torn country like Afghanistan or Iraq. We’ve flirted with the idea and we have talked to some people who are knowable about that. We’ve had some friends visit Iraq and do some journalistic type stuff, but it’s pretty tricky. There are really two ways you can go; You could go on a USO tour, or you could come in from Northern Iraq near Kurdistan where it is more friendly to the West. So, like playing in Baghdad, if you're not playing in the Green Zone on a USO tour there aren’t many places to play. There is a heavy metal band in Iraq that we talk to, and yeah there aren’t that many places to play. But if we did do a USO tour I think that would be cool, and we could taking a tour of Baghdad outside the Green Zone, because the Green Zone is where all our troops are. Another one of my military buddies who is in Afghanistan said we could do a USO tour and then kind of travel outside the military zones really quick if you want. It’s kinda dangerous though.

BYT: So you are not burned out on playing in non-traditional Rock and Roll countries yet?

CA: Oh, no we’re just getting started.

BYT: Awesome

CA: We’re into it. We’ve gotten into Palestine before, and India.

BYT: Good, so you’re not disillusioned after the craziness that went down in India?

CA: What happened in India—I mean, when we were in Palestine it went smooth, it was just one outside show in the park—but India was definitely frustrating, but it kind of comes with the territory of playing in a country that doesn’t really have anything like that. It’s kind of culturally shocking on both ends—for our side and for theirs. To me it was exciting, I mean it was stressful, but I think it was a good experience for everyone that was involved.

BYT: At least you got some great T.V. out of it. Anyway, I was just listening to 200 Million thousand. First of all, what is the name from?

CA: We had a Czech tour manager and he had kind of broken English, and some things got lost in translation. So he was trying to tell us about some number about how many people were coming to our show, and he said some number that was really good but wasn’t real. It wasn’t 200 Million Thousand, but it was something like that, like kind of backwards because he doesn’t know English very well. So, we decided to make our own large and kind of unfathomable number. Like a big number that's great but at the same time unreachable and non-existent.

BYT: People are saying that the record has a lot of country elements, or outlaw country elements. I don’t know if I hear those all the way through...do you guys is that true, people writing that and also do you ever listen to modern country?

CA:Well I think as a compliment of the outlaw country I don’t think we did much of that on this album. We did much more of that outlaw country on previous albums. I actually want to get into new country but I haven’t really heard much. I feel like there is some good new country out there but I am just yet to hear it. I’m like totally ignorant. I know Dwight Yoakam is all right but he’s kind of like 80s or 90s more than he is now. He's not the currently hottest guy out there. I don’t know, I think there I’ve is potential and been in Nashville on that touristy strip with all these bars and some of the house bands there are awesome. I feel like they are has-beens stuck in these bars and they are more 70s outlaw country which is more you know real country.

BYT: You should definitely check out Brad Praisley he’s actually pretty good...he’s totally pop but there’s something great to him.

CA: All-right man I will, thanks!

BYT: I have a question about the recoding of a track like 'Starting Over,' which is kind of like a classic Black Lips track to me already. How do you get the edge of chaos on a song like that if you know what I mean, are there some deliberate  trick--do you actually go into it thinking "lets do it this way" so there is this edge of chaos to it?

CA: We didn’t know the song real well, we kinda rehearse it a couple times and did it live. You know our buddy Brad from Deer Hunter? Well I was plugged into this effect called a vital simulator effect where everything is kind of warped and he’s kinda like wiggling that knob for the pedal effect like, spontaneously, so there is this spontaneity that it kinda just jammed into this rim circle thing that wasn’t really played out. So more or less it is a normal thing we go for. I was actually disappointed with that song I feel my vocals were a little off key and the background vocals were a little too off key as well, and I like things to be a little off but they were too much off. So I was actually disappointed with them in the end because I didn’t really realize until it came out that they were that off key.
 

BYT: To me that was one of the best songs on that album.

CA: I always hoped someone would cover it and do it better than us. I don’t know if anyone wants to really do that.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/3233816[/vimeo]

BYT: I thought the off-key bits were part of its awesome charm...So we were talking about Atlanta for a second I was kind of wondering about the early days. I’m sure there is some southern garage shit, like the Oblivions or the Quadrajets, that you were aware of when you were kids, but what was your attitude  at the time towards the Elephant 6 folks or other nearby Athens psychedelic stuff?

CA: I was friendly to that.  On our first album--there was this band from E6 called the Circulatory System--one of the guys who played in them recorded with us. I felt the presence of that, definitely, when we first started. it was a neat moment. Our first record has an Indie rock sound even a little bit. I feel like it was kind of inspired by that, kind of psychedelic twee, kind of pop... I was kind of going for that psychedelic pop. I do associate some of Athens with that.

BYT: It wasn't like you were reacting against that or anything?

CA: Well I think I was definitely more into 60s garage punk, but I think it was a friendly inspiration nearby, and a good thing for music in Atlanta and Georgia and Athens. Like it was some of the stronger stuff going at the time, so yeah I think that whole scene was a good thing and I wasn't working against it.  Instead we actually worked against that garage rock that got big in the early 2000’s. We actually worked against that because there were a lot of bands that were a flash in the pan, coming out Atlanta and riding this wave. We were always more like against those bands, and many of them dropped off the face of the Earth.

BYT: Its funny, that was a weird time, all these copy cats popping up. Talking about Southern punk rock—and I understand if you don’t want to talk about this—but what were your reactions to Jay Reatard dying?

CA: Oh, Jay dying? [pause] I feel like we came up in the same kind of circuit, and when he first started touring his band and our band would hook up. Like he had already had toured Europe before we started touring, so we in a lot of ways looked up to him. He was doing a lot of the things we were into and he had already shown us you could have success doing that. So we were kind of inspired by Jay on that level. Then we finally started hanging out with him in the early 2000’s, and playing shows with him, and even growing up together a little bit. We actually had a lot of up and downs in our relationship. Like there were moments that were like, “Fuck this guy!” He’s just real volatile, but then there would be moments where we just loved him—it was really volatile relationship. But, at the end of the day, he was a really good friend of ours and we loved him. Jared and I went to the funeral in Memphis. He was just a really cool guy. I felt like he was living Rock and Roll to the fullest. Some people it’s just like something they do as a hobby, and for some people it’s their whole life. I felt like GG Allin was like that, and Jay was really like that. There aren’t many people I can say that about. Jay was really awesome.

BYT: It’s such a tragedy, but does it give you any perspective about being in a band or partying all the time... or like you said the risks of “living” Rock and Roll and not just doing it as a job?

CA: Yeah, I mean, it can get the best of you. I’ve seen it with a lot of people that aren’t even in bands—they just kind of lose themselves a little bit. It happens a lot—that kind of thing. It’s pretty sad. But, like with Jay, I feel like he has so much to show for himself. I’m really just proud of him. He made so many great records and that’s more than many artists do in a whole lifetime. Just being so prolific and creative, I fell like that he lived a very full life. It’s sad that he died young and could have done more, but I don’t feel like his life was in vain, he did tons.

BYT: Speaking of being prolific, is it true that this new record is coming out this summer?

CA: No, I don’t think it will be ready by this summer. I think we still might be working on it till this summer. The thing is too, we don’t have a deadline for this record so we’re just going to keep working on it till it’s awesome, and if we don’t come up with something awesome the it’ll probably be awhile. We felt like with the last one, because we had so many touring obligations around the record, that we kind of rushed it. We just don’t want to do that again.

BYT: So are you trying out some new stuff on the record? Like some totally crazy shit?

CA: I always want to have a couple of surprises on every record, just to do something off the wall, but then have stuff that kind of stabilizes it, classic style material that keeps people happy with the stuff they like. I’m not really sure the direction of the album right now because we are in the very early stages, but there will be some off the wall type genre-jumping experiments.

BYT: Cool. Last question, you’ve said recently that you kind of aren’t into the kind of craziness at your shows that you've become known for...and that you want to focus on just playing really well. If you are playing a show and its not going that well and the audience is being lame, is that more likely to make you guys go nuts and start spitting on each-other and making out? Or is it the opposite, like if everyone is really into it, is that when you are inspired start to go crazy?

CA: Usually when people start going out of control you kind of have to react a little bit. I actually still like it when everything goes crazy and there is like a riot. It’s just that we aren’t dependant upon that to make it a good show anymore, I think. But, I love it when people get crazy and things get really chaotic.

BYT: I was going to say, I’ve never seen anyone make an audience lose their shit like you guys have—especially in DC.

CA: Our fans are the best, they just go nuts and it’s really interactive.

BYT: I'm sure tonight will be no different. Thanks Cole!

Witness the real shit tonight.