Black Lips

by Mark Deming
 
Playing garage-flavored punk rock with a Southern accent, a messed-up and bluesy undertow, and the gleefully destructive impact of a 15-year-old with a bag of firecrackers, the Black Lips are an Atlanta-based combo who after their debut in 2000 soon developed a reputation as one of the Peach State's wildest bands. The Black Lips consisted of Cole Alexander on lead vocals, guitar, and harmonica, Ben Eberbaugh on lead guitar, Jared Swilley on bass, and Joe Bradley on drums when they released their first single. After a second single and a handful of out-of-control live shows that led to them being banned from several Georgia venues, they caught the attention of Greg Shaw at Bomp! Records, who signed the band to a recording deal. The Black Lips cut their self-titled first album in mid-2002, but before it could be released, Ederbaugh was killed in a freak auto accident when a driver going the wrong way crashed into his car at a toll booth. The death occurred only a few days before the Black Lips were to set out on an East Coast and Midwest tour; believing Ederbaugh would have wanted them to continue, the band set out as a three-piece and made plans to add a new lead guitarist for a more extensive tour in 2003, scheduled to support the release of the album. The Black Lips jumped to In the Red for the 2005 effort Let It Bloom. Since that time, the band put out Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo -- the band's first release for Vice -- and Good Bad Not Evil, both in 2007.