Black Lips

The Black Lips emerged from Atlanta as a quartet steeped in garage-tinged punk delivered with a pronounced Southern drawl, quickly earning a reputation as one of Georgia’s most singular acts. Their sound blended forceful drive with loose, unpolished edges that heightened the shadowy, buzzing quality of their shows. Early recordings captured this raw turbulence most vividly on Let It Bloom in 2005 and Good Bad Not Evil in 2007, while the 2007 live set Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo preserved the excess of their stage performances. Later efforts explored clearer production on Arabia Mountain, helmed by Mark Ronson in 2011, and Underneath the Rainbow, co-produced in 2014 by the Black Keys’ Patrick Carney; by Apocalypse Love in 2022 the group had folded funk, hip-hop, and classic pop elements into their swampy foundation.

The band came together in 1999 with Cole Alexander handling lead vocals, guitar, and harmonica, Ben Eberbaugh on lead guitar, Jared Swilley on bass, and Joe Bradley on drums, releasing an initial single in that configuration. A follow-up single and a series of rowdy concerts that resulted in bans from multiple Georgia clubs drew the interest of Greg Shaw at Bomp! Records, who offered them a deal. They recorded their self-titled debut album in mid-2002, yet Eberbaugh died shortly afterward in a car crash when an oncoming driver struck his vehicle at a toll booth. The remaining members chose to proceed with the East Coast and Midwest dates and later added a new lead guitarist for expanded touring behind the 2004 Bomp! release We Did Not Know the Forest Spirit Made the Flowers Grow, which introduced Jack Hines. Hines departed after that album and was succeeded by Ian St. Pé.

The Black Lips moved to In the Red for the brooding 2005 album Let It Bloom. Their first Vice release arrived in 2007 with the unruly live recording Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo, captured in Tijuana, Mexico; later the same year the studio album Good Bad Not Evil appeared. The 2009 Vice effort 200 Million Thousand preceded a tour of India whose provocative antics clashed with local expectations of restraint. In early 2010 the group entered the studio with Mark Ronson, whose prior credits include work with Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse, to cut Arabia Mountain, issued in June 2011. For their seventh album, Underneath the Rainbow, released by Vice in spring 2014, they turned to Patrick Carney and Dap-Kings guitarist Tommy Brenneck after failing to secure Phil Spector or Ronson; Ian St. Pé exited and Jack Hines returned to the guitar slot.

Further shifts occurred in 2017 when Joe Bradley stepped away and Oakley Munson assumed the drum chair while saxophonist Zumi Rosow joined the lineup. With the roster stabilized, the band supported Satan's Graffiti or God's Art?, issued in May 2017 and produced by Sean Lennon. Jack Hines left in 2018, replaced on guitar by Jeff Clarke, who made his recorded debut on the country-tinged Sing in a World That's Falling Apart, released in early 2020. The next album, Apocalypse Love in 2022, moved away from that country direction toward a broader palette that filtered funk, hip-hop, 1960s-style pop, and vintage R&B through the group’s garage-rock approach.