EHP 0.09: Black Lips s/t 7" [ out of print ] Pressing Information: 100 blue/purple swirl 400 black Five song seven inch from Atlanta's rowdiest, BLACK LIPS. These guys have been banned from almost as many clubs as they have played! Stripped down, dirty, and primal punk rock and roll, with a youthful, deep dyed garage feeling. The trebly menace of early CRAMPS and THE DWARVES mixed with noise, blues, and Pabst Blue Ribbon. After releasing a 7" on their own, and this 7", THE BLACK LIPS went on to release records on Bomp! and Vice. TRACK LISTING: 1. Freakout 2. Sweet Kin 3. Steps 4. Fad 5. I've Got A Knife REVIEWS: Maximum Rock N Roll (Jeff Heermann) The sounds of four hairy fine-art majors beating on oil drums at the student union. Tune in, turn on the Black Lips, and drop out of the job pool....toss your flowing locks to and fro and dream of a dark tommarrow. Six tracks of loping, loose limbed art garage jangle, falling just on the right side of "inept" and lovable in a retarded kid brother kind of sense. The Black Lips trip over cables, fall through plate glass windows, eat the contents of ashtrays and turn in a ode to "sweet kin," and brag that "I've got a Knife". Dense stuff with a nice sense of casual abandon. Heartattack #36 (Mikey Ott) This is dirty rock n roll from the south. People seem to either really love or just fucking hate this band. In the last week I've heard both claims. I find it to be garage rock done pretty damn good, at moments it even sounds like The Stones. It's snotty and bratty, but still tight. The last song is my favorite. One thing i do think it is weird though, is that the insert is on thicker glossier cardstock than the cover is, but whatever... Mike at The Electric Human Project is a sweet kid, so it's worth buying just for that reason alone. The Journal Review (Wade Coggeshall) Atlanta's The Black Lips have released a self titled seven inch that is the British Invasion reborn. Five wonderfully ragged tunes, and the first one sums it up - "Freekout". Discordant guitars rule the day, and none of the songs even reach the two minute mark. "Steps" is totally unhinged bombastic music, as garage as garage music can be. "Fad" displays prominent jangling six strings and a dancable beat. "I've Got A Knife" is a shout along track with jarring piano and guitar. These five pieces of work go by much too fast for those who prefer concise blasts of ear stimulating discord. This record plays like a riotous concert, too, so serve up and go wild. Cross My Heart With A Knife online zine (Matt) I feel like ive been through about 40 years of music history today and The Black Lips keep it up. Through five songs they manage to produce the most authentic sounding garage rock of the 60s possible. It goes from straight up, down and dirty grooves to laid back, almost bluesy tracks. It rocks out, with harmonica in hand, not carring what the hell youre thinking or doing. All the way though its somewhat charming. These arent the heavy as hell discharges youre used to now. Its just about having fun I would assume, and if one of them happens to bash you up-side the face with a guitar then thats just the way it goes. The vocals are rough and gritty and through a lot of the songs we get a chorus of back up singers chanting the songs catch-phrase lyrics, like "get down tonight". If you have a dad, this is probably something he would enjoy. I think everyones old enough now to know that liking something that sounds like its close to 20 years older than you is ok. So, check this out if youre feeling mean and rebellious... in a cute kind of way. Geek America (cs) GRADE: A. Aside from having a name that is too easily confused with the Black Dice, Atlanta, Ga's The Black Lips have got it made. This 7" is packed with 5 songs of pure 60's influenced rock and roll. I'm not talking 60's co-opted with 2002 ala' the Strokes, I'm talking Rolling Stones, Kinks and the Animals influenced rock and roll. The 2 songs on side are definitely stronger than the B-side, especially track 2 on side A that is a lovely little blues influenced ballad that will warm the heart of any able eared music lover. It's rare to find a 7" this good, so I highly suggest you write them and buy it. Dot Dash Could this be the e.p. of 2002? Freakout is a bizzarre out-of-nowhere tune that REALLY DOES sound like it was recorded in 1966. I mean, I wanna find out what the trick was. Did they spill a beer on the master tape? This is such a killer garage punk tune. The piano key (ala Stooges, Modern Lovers) is the perfect addition. The flip side has 3 short punk blast. Outsider recording dubs and loops over wild punk beats in "Steps". These guys know how to write super primitive fucked up toe tappers. They even dig into a Stooges stomp. FANTASTIC.