Black Lips Discuss Being Attacked by Fans, "Freedom Fries," and Labios Negros

Atlanta garage-rock band Black Lips have been together for 16 years, earning a reputation notorious for provocative and insane stage antics including vomiting, fireworks, electric R.C. car races, chickens, and flaming guitars just to name a few. Black Lips are always ready to having a good time.

Currently picked up by Red Bull to preform a four-city tour, Black Lips stopped by their home-away-from-home, Athens, GA to preform a free show. I sat down with Cole Alexander, one of the founding band members, to talk about touring, their new single "Freedom Fries," and what it’s like to be in a band for so long.

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TRANSVERSO MEDIA: So you’re part of Red Bull Sound Select, how did you get involved with them?

BLACK LIPS: We’ve done some events with Red Bull in the past. They kind of regularly do events in Atlanta and I’m sure all over the country but they had good selection of music so we’re down to get involved. Sometimes it’s weird working with a corporation but they’ve been cool with the act they’ve picked. Like we got to play with Juicy J of Three 6 Mafia who is someone we grew up listening to in like the late 90s.  I don’t think we would ever have gotten to play with him if it wasn’t for Red Bull. I think they’re doing a good job picking bands and putting together cool projects that makes the bands want to get involved.

You guys are known for crazy stage antics. I heard last time you guys were [at Athens venue 40 Watt Club] there were fireworks involved?

That was a long time ago! Um, sometimes some crazy things happen and those things get written about. Like, if you look at our Wikipedia it mentions these crazy things that have happened but it’s not like ever night we have this formal [plan]. It’s not indicative of our real band.

What’s the most insane thing that’s happened on stage?

I mean, we have fans attack us and stuff and kind of riot. Throw bottles and stuff. Sometimes crazy stuff happens but people get the wrong idea. We pretty much just play music like other rock bands with a lot of energy. Sometimes things pop off but we never want to do a forced thing. Like every night we are trying to start something, we just let it happen naturally.

Where is your favorite place to tour?

We haven’t really toured Mexico per se, but we’ve played a few cities there and I really like it. We played Mexico City and that was really nice. We played in Istanbul, I like that city a lot. Japan is pretty fun. There are a lot of cool places. There’s something fun about everywhere but those are some of my favorites.

Earlier this week you released a 7” with fellow Atlanta band Coathangers called “Freedom Fries.” What can you tell us about that?

Yeah, Coathangers is like our sister band. They’ve been going for a long time and touring. We’ve done a tour with them but never done some sort of project like that so we deicide to do a split 7” and used a left over song from our last album.

Side A - Black Lips "Freedom Fries" Side AA - The Coathangers "Watch Your Back" Pre-order: http://store.suicidesqueeze.net Release Date: November 13, 2015 Label: Suicide Squeeze Records (Black Lips appear courtesy of Vice Music, Inc.) Black Lips official site: http://black-lips.com/ The Coathangers official site: http://thecoathangers.com/ The Coathangers Instagram: @thecoathangers Suicide Squeeze Instagram: @suicidesqueeze

You guys have been a band since 1999. What would you tell yourself 16 years ago when you were just starting?

I guess, you know tough it out, it’s going to be better. In the beginning the first six years is really hard and it’s discouraging. We were kind of struggling the first six and I was working a day job to make the ends meet in between tours so it was kind of hard. There was a point where I wanted to quit trying to tour so much but they we held on just long enough and then the ball started rolling and we picked up some momentum to do it more comfortably now.

What’s your favorite song to preform on stage?

I don’t know… We were doing soundcheck for this song “Not Go Home” and I like doing that one.

If you weren’t called Black Lips what would you be called?

Labios Negros.

What’s a song you hate?

Um, I don’t like that Macklemore song about the thrift store. But I like talked crap about him in an interview and I felt bad because I heard he’s a really nice guy. I don’t like that song but I’m sure he’s a cool guy.

Since you’ve been a band for so long now, how do you guys stay relevant without losing yourselves?

Sometimes we get a little tired or rusty, but we’ve had some member changes so that helped us sort of reinvent ourselves a little bit. Like, we just got our old guitarist back so that’s brought new energy to the band and new chemistry. Me, Joe the drummer, and Jared the bass player have always been consistent in the band. So, like, the extra guitar has been always a wild card.

Anything else you want to add?

It’s good to be back in Athens. It feels like home-away-from-home because it’s so close to Atlanta and they have a good scene, so its good to be back!

EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE: Austinn Is Calling On "Answer Your Phone"

“Answer Your Phone” is Luxembourg pop-rock two piece Austinn’s newest single, following their debut track "Galaxy," produced by Matt Squire (One Direction, All Time Low, Ariana Grande) and directed by Cedric Letsch.

The duo of Jameses, Jimmy Braun and Jim Scheck, explained the backstory behind their curious name to Transverso, saying,

“Jimmy bought a leather jacket on Ebay and it came [all the way to Luxembourg] from Austin, Texas. The guy who sold the jacket wrote his address on the package as well, [but] he wrote Austin with two nn’s, [which] makes Austinn. Nobody knows how you can make such a mistake in spelling Austin, but Jimmy had a laugh while reading it and thought it looked pretty cool.”

This shiny new music video, reminiscent of The Virgins at their poppiest, comes hot off the heels of multiple sold out European tours and gives a modern take on the classic drama recounted by Blondie back in the day: getting left Hanging On the Telephone. Check it out below:

Big Boi and Phantogram Play to Each Other's Strengths on 'Big Grams EP'

At this point, collaborations between artists from disparate genres aren’t a new concept. While a rapper remixing an indie band’s hit single used to be cause for confusion or celebration, these days it’s common for, say, Big K.R.I.T. to add a verse to an alt-J single. But these tracks tend to lack a sense of immediacy ­– more often than not, it sounds like the rapper just recorded a verse on the road and emailed it to the band’s manager.

Big Grams – the new collaboration between Atlanta rapper Big Boi of Outkast fame and New York electro-pop duo Phantogram – feels refreshing in comparison. Big Boi discovered Phantogram through a pop-up ad (making Big Grams the most compelling argument against Spotify Premium so far), before the trio tested the waters on three of the standout tracks from Big Boi’s 2012 album Vicious Lies And Dangerous Rumors.

It’s a testament to the versatility of both artists’ sounds that this new, full collaboration covers several different styles, never content to stay in one lane. Opener “Run for Your Life” features Big Boi maneuvering an anxious, clattering beat that feels nearly claustrophobic until Sarah Barthel’s soothing hook emerges like a sunrise on a dark night. Two tracks later, standout single “Fell In The Sun” lays Phantogram’s signature synths and horn samples over skittering hi-hats to produce a warm, exuberant summer jam that sounds like an ice cream truck riding on hydraulics.

Barthel recently told Rolling Stone, “The main focus of wanting to do this project was to do things that we wouldn't normally do anywhere else,” and the EP’s experimental streak extends to its guests: Rap legend 9th Wonder and dubstep wunderkind Skrillex contribute production to “Put It On Her” and “Drum Machine,” respectively, but these tracks don’t feel out of place alongside Josh Carter’s stylistically omnivorous production. Similarly, “Born to Shine” matches the aggressive energy of guests Run the Jewels while still feeling like a Big Grams song. Big Boi’s verse compliments the tone and theme of “Lights On” without feeling superfluous, while his playful sing-rap conversation with Barthel on “Goldmine Junkie” is one of the record’s most thrilling moments.

Not everything works – there are moments where Barthel’s hooks feel like an afterthought, and Big Boi has a tendency to fall back on familiar subject matter (if you don’t want to hear multiple references to Big Boi’s semen, Big Grams EP might not be for you), but the project succeeds overall because both parties understand each other’s styles and what makes them work, allowing them to play to their strengths while simultaneously exploring new, unexpected directions. Over the course of their debut EP, Big Grams prove that cross-genre collaborations are more than just a gimmick – as long as they’re done right.

Youth Lagoon Expands Sound And Soul On 'Savage Hills Ballroom'

If ever there were any doubt that Trevor Powers’ efforts as Youth Lagoon presented his own inner-workings in a genuinely vulnerable light, Savage Hills Ballroom acts as a visceral offertory to the remaining doubters.

Powers took up a two-month residency with Bristol, London based producer, Ali Chant (Perfume Genius, She & Him), recording and adapting his solitary narratives into more relatable motifs than albums past. It suggests an emotional actualization brought upon by the drowning of a close friend in Powers’ native Boise, Idaho in 2013. Understandably so, the death had great effect on Powers, propelling him to cancel a string of dates.

Where Youth Lagoon’s first two albums, The Year of Hibernation (2011) and Wondrous Bughouse (2013), played into the solitude of Powers’ being, Savage Hills Ballroom presents a more extrinsic aspect of Powers’ psyche. SHB’s opening track, “Officer Telephone” initially acts as a misdirect for the album’s course. The Wurlitzer-y ambling paired with Powers’ noticeably post-production-less vocals harkens to Youth Lagoon days of old with a slight twist. A minute into the track, however, Powers turns the track on its head in the best of ways with a psych-folk rock breakdown and layered vocals ushering in an irrefutably divergent Youth Lagoon, only marred by an abrupt fadeout come far too soon.

“Highway Patrol Stungun” continues the startlingly in-your-face emotionalism that would seem to be the SHB norm. Powers offers unfamiliarly inclusive lines, such as “remember when no one danced the same / we all had a voice/we all had a name.” The composition of the track mimics the expressive lyricism, with less post-production wizardry and more warmth from strings and keys.

Other songs on SHB continue the remarkable deviation from introspective opining to highly associative accounts of what can only be assumed to be aspects of Powers’ emotional navigation since his friend’s passing in 2013. “The Knower” offers particularly familiar tones of sorrow and personal delusion: “oh, everybody wants to think they’re good at heart when they’re full of hate/oh, everybody wants to think their luck will change, when there’s no such thing.” Disconcerting realities of the everyman are prevalent throughout, but none more familiar than the opening line of “Rotten Human”: “How are we supposed to know what’s real?” Whether or not Powers’ intentions for lines such as the one referenced are intended to be highly relatable or not, the motif is beguiling nonetheless.

Appetizing lyrical and composition departures aside, SHB is not without the familiar dream pop musings that garnered Youth Lagoon its praise. Songs like “Doll’s Estate” and album closer “X-Ray” offer highly introspective glimpses into the soul of the album, despite both songs’ lack of lyrics.

Savage Hills Ballroom is an excitable coping mechanism framed with universal themes and existential crises. It is Youth Lagoon at its core, but vigorously distinct from preceding records. The change is good, if not grand, presenting Powers’ musings and idiosyncrasies in a more performative state.   

CHVRCHES Play It Safe On 'Every Open Eye'

Chrvches’ 2013 debut, The Bones of What We Believe, was a magnificent triumph in skirting boundary between indie and pop – it was palatable enough for the uninitiated to listen unperturbed, but layered enough for the most jaded of audiophiles to listen as a sort of guilty pleasure. And those hooks, by god, those hooks sent the album over the edge. With sharp barbs steeped in emotional defiance and vulnerability placed on top of intoxicating sans-guitar synth riffs, it was a throwback to the shoulder pad pop of the 80s and championing the new-age feminism of the modern era.

Tracks like “The Mother We Share” had become ubiquitous in all of media; the band received a menagerie of awards (2014 NME “Best New Band” included) and the hype train eventually led to a feature on a Hunger Games soundtrack. Despite having reached what most would consider being the precipice of mainstream success, Lauren Mayberry and her CHVRCHES cohorts (Iain Cook and Martin Doherty) continued to masterfully toe the line of synth pop.

Critical admiration and mainstream proximity notwithstanding, CHVRCHES’ ascension into the limelight was not without some conflict. In the latter part of 2013, Mayberry (a former journalist) penned an op-ed in the UK’s The Guardian addressing the perverse misogyny that “being a band born on the Internet” had garnered them during their rise. Mayberry’s op-ed went viral, virtually solidifying her as a torchbearer of gender equality and social justice.

Following their yearlong victory lap of headlining festival slots and blogosphere adulation, the Glasgow trio announced in December of 2014 that “work on album two starts in January (2015).” Fast forward a year and a half, and CHVRCHES announces they’ve completed the album, priming the release of Every Open Eye for September 25, 2015.

If there was ever any fear that CHVRCHES would elect to spurn the synth-pop anthems that made The Bones of What We Believesuch a massive success, they’ve been quelled in Every Open Eye. The sophomore effort plays like an extension of Bones, but not much more.

“Never Ending Circles” opens Every Open Eye with the same lyrical edge and expansive soundscape as any track on Bones – Cook and Doherty weave their razor layered synth compositions to accentuate Mayberry’s empowering hook “here’s to taking what you came for/and here’s to running off the pain.”

Following the robust first track, “Leave a Trace,” offers up another Bones-esque synth pop anthem. Arguably the album’s tent pole track, Mayberry’s hook of “take care to bury all that you can/take care to leave a trace of a man,” further asserting the lead singer’s role in empowering the individual.

The rest of the album begins to drop off in rather startling fashion, with each track maintaining the CHVRCHES sound of starry synth layering and clever lyricism with glints of irascibility, but as far as preserving the anthemic resonance of the album’s open, tracks like “Keep You On My Side,” and “Clearest Blue,” begin to sound more like Chrvches B-sides, begging the question of whether or not the trio’s limited respite between albums one and two had begun to burden band’s process.

Even with the formulaic familiarity of the middle of the album, Every Open Eye still manages to maintain the listener’s attention with tracks like “High Enough To Carry You Over,” in which Mayberry’s manic pixie dream girl fervor is traded for one of the two male member’s run-of-the-mill indie pop timbre. An admirable attempt in exhibiting some versatility, but the endeavor ultimately leaves the listener ready for Mayberry’s return. Maybe that was the intention, and if so, bravo.

The end of album simply comes and goes before it can even be acknowledged. “Afterglow” is the closing track and presents an intriguing departure from the rest of Every Open Eye. Simple in composition, but cinematic in scope, it presents a more intimate (albeit trope heavy) side to Mayberry’s lyrical prose – “With all of the light and shape/we take up our own space/I’ll find my own way back/back to the past tense.”

All in all, Every Open Eye leaves much to be desired in maintaining and elevating the complexities that were presented in The Bones of What We Believe. Yes, the infectious hooks and shoulder pad riffs are there in tracks like “Leave a Trace” and “Never Ending Circles,” however they're starkly lacking the same sense of urgency of CHVRCHES tracks past. While Every Open Eye is nothing less of an above average sophomoric effort, one could probably concede that CHVRCHES' enlivened zeal seems to have fallen off ever so slightly, as if the band were only biding their time.

Hear Five New Arcade Fire Songs on 'Reflektor''s Deluxe Reissue

Immediately following the abstract documentary The Reflektor Tapes that chronicled Arcade Fire's time spent creating and performing their 4th LP Reflektor, the Montreal-based indie darlings have released five previously unheard songs as part of a deluxe version of the record out today.

“Apocrypha," “Women of a Certain Age," “Soft Power," “Get Right," and “Crucified Again,” as well as a remix of album track "Flashbulb Eyes" by reggae artist Dennis Bovell. "Get Right" and "Crucified Again," which were played in the film, are available as a 7" starting today, with all six tracks being released under the name The Reflektor Tapes in the (appropriate) medium of tape cassette October 16.

"Get Right" / "Crucified Again"

You can hear the new tunes below on Spotify now. Watch The Reflektor Tapes trailer here.

Wig Out With Dream Culture’s Kaleidoscopic 'Post Habitual' EP

Cover art by Mac Stewart

Dream Culture are a relatively new Athens, GA purveyor of psychedelia in its most modern sense. On their odd Picasso adorned second EP, Post Habitual, they fine tune their sound and double down on their contemporary influences to create a great little slice of psychedelic pastiche.

Now, I say pastiche here because their influences shine through not unlike that Crazy Diamond we all know and love. However, it isn’t Pink Floyd they’re sounding like here, but rather Tame Impala and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Everything from percussion style, the impressive crunch of guitar, their choice of synthesizers, and even how the vocals are mixed in bring forth elements of both the aforementioned groups’ second albums.

While this does give Dream Culture’s overall sound on this album a very derivative feeling, this is not completely to their detriment. The band plays with an earnest tenacity that can't be denied on this album, and they sound like they had a hell of a time recording this biz. Come for the kaleidoscopic grooves, stay because it’s too much fun not to.

Sample the EP with two standout tracks "Doesn't Have To Be" and "EveryDay" below. Post Habitual is out now on Moeke Records and you can buy it in full here.

Broken Bells Are Back With "It's That Talk Again"

The Shins' James Mercer and the ever-prolific Danger Mouse have already released two moving LPs as part of their Broken Bells collaboration, and today we get a small taste of something new with one-off space disco single "It's That Talk Again." 

The groovy track adorned with Mercer's searching vocals comes ahead of the concert film Broken Bells: Live At The Orpheum being premiered at Palladia on Saturday. Immerse yourself in it below:

Get Your Big Grams Fix With “Goldmine Junkie”

It’s a testament to the powerful chemistry at work in Big Grams that their partnership is still taking on new and interesting forms. While “Fell in the Sun” highlighted Big Boi’s verses and “Lights On” put Phantogram front and center, new single “Goldmine Junkie” is the most collaborative effort we’ve heard from their forthcoming Big Grams EP so far.

The song’s lyrics detail an unhealthy love affair over plaintive piano chords and soaring strings, and while the hook isn’t the strongest in either artist’s catalog, the interplay between Big Boi and Phantogram singer Sarah Barthel brings both vocalists out of their respective comfort zones. Big Boi’s verses boast a melodic dexterity that we rarely hear from him, while Barthel drops an impressive rap interlude that sounds unlike any performance she’s delivered in the past. When the two trade lines on the song’s interlude, it’s a genuinely thrilling moment that feels like the purest realization of Big Grams’ potential.

Big Grams EP is out September 25th via Epic/Republic.

Destroyer Ushers in a 'Poison Season'

Ah, Dan Bejar, with your linen shirts, lah-dah-dahs and wonderfully verbose lyrical content, welcome back. After four long years, Poison Season is Destroyer’s latest offering to the industry he loves to routinely criticize.

What initially comes to mind is how it might compare to the preceding record, 2011's Kaputt, though you can’t approach this LP the same way. It's not that the two aren’t comparable, though; the players on Poison Season were all part of the band Bejar put together for the Kaputt tour. 

What we have here, however, is an altogether different album. For those who were introduced to the world of Destroyer with Kaputt, it could be feasible they might not like Poison Season; Gone are the new age ambient workouts like "Poor In Love" and the sad-boy disco stomp of that damn near perfect title-track. Poison Season is a live band playing Destroyer songs, and good ones at that.

That's not to say that the ambience is completely lost, as evident in "The River"’s soothing presence, it’s just presented differently. In interviews Bejar has compared this setup he’s got going on to the likes of Billy Joel, and, at risk of sounding like a yes-man, yes, the instrumentation does remind a bit of Billy Joel and the like.

Above everything, though, we still have Bejar’s sense of melody and always outstanding understanding of why English can be such a cool language when put to music. His deft turns of speech and beautifully surreal imagery (like on "Forces From Above"), ear for little details (the lone saxophone in the right speaker holding its note out at the end of "Times Square" just does things to me, man), and deft use of older lyrical cliches for his own purposes ("Sun in the Sky") all serve as reminders that Dan Bejar knows what he’s doing here.

Let the record wash over you. Pay attention to what he has to say because, hell, whatever it is he’s trying to say sounds really pretty when he says it.