BLACK LIPS, THE 'Good Bad Not Evil'

THE BLACK LIPS fifth album is titled 'Good Bad Not Evil'. The title 'Good Bad Not Evil' is inspired by The Shangri-Las' song "Give Him a Great Big Kiss". The album was produced by the band in their hometown of Atlanta at the living room studios aided by the band's friend Ed Rawls, a bartender at the nearby drunken unicorn bar, just around the corner from where fellow Atlantans Outkast work. THE BLACK LIPS formed when as teenager after school friends Cole Alexander (guitar/vocals) and Jared Swilley (bass/vocals) signed up their friends Joe Bradley (drums/vocals) and Ben Eberbaugh (guitar). After swiftly becoming one of the Atlanta underground's most talked about bands, and along the way being banned from numerous venues for their wild live shows, the group released albums and seven inches on different underground garage labels like Bomp and In The Red. Tragically, Eberbaugh was killed in a freak traffic accident but the band carried on with new Orleans-born Ian St Pe. These events would go on to influence the song "How Do You Tell a Child That Someone Has Died", a stand-out track on 'Good Bad Not Evil'. The album ranges from dirty psychedelic blues songs about holy world war 3 "Veni Vidi Vici" to outright pop hits like "Katrina" (written the night the band found out that the hurricane of the same names had devastated New Orleans) and "Bad Kids" (based around certain band members' experiences with juvenile detention centres). There's also the bruised, tender album closer "Transcendental Light", a song written by Ian about discovering his mother's body. On this album, THE BLACK LIPS were really inspired by themselves, especially their first two albums. The album is a fresh, exciting take on the wildest records of bands like 1960s Peruvian punk bands like Los Saicos, The Stones, 13th Floor Elevators and the raw pop exuberance of cavern-era Beatles. It's probably the most out-there, funniest album you're going to hear all year.