In addition to the consistent critical acclaim heaped upon their recorded effort, their regularly lauded live performances, and their propensity for making headlines with their extracurricular antics, Atlanta natives Black Lips have one of the most highly coveted sounds in modern rock music.
Sitting somewhere between traditional punk rock, garage, and old-school R&B, while maintaining a distinctly modern beefiness, it’s a sound that’s culminated in the band’s latest release, Underneath the Rainbow, which they’ll soon be touring around Australia as part of Falls and Southbound festivals, and a series of sideshows.
To find out what helped Black Lips forge their unique take on rock music, we spoke to bassist Jared Swilley, who took us through seven records that changed his life and the lives of his bandmates.
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Link Wray – Mr. Guitar
“The record that really… like, a big first one with me was this Link Wray double disc. It was put out through Norton Records and that was really the record that we learnt to play guitar from.
It was so simple and that sound just sounded so cool and punk for being recorded at that time. And it was actually chords that we could play, like you could just look at a chart and play that chord.
And that sound, I think hearing that sound for the first time and that kind of guitar style was pretty much what set us up for the kind of sound we were going for. I think we heard about it through… ‘cause that was when Pulp Fiction was really popular and we heard that song in the Pulp Fiction movie, Rumble, and we were like, ‘Damn, what is that?’ and we went out and got the record and it was pretty instrumental. I was like, ‘I wanna sound like that.’
I was into punk rock before, but then hearing that was awesome.”
Ramones – Ramones
“I guess when I first started buying records it was like punk stuff, like The Damned and the Germs, Ramones, stuff like that. I started skateboarding and you start skateboarding with older kids that show you the punk stuff.
The Ramones’ first album [really had the biggest impact on me]. That’s kind of what I learnt to play bass along to, I’d just listen to that Ramones record. The songs were so simple, I could actually play them on the bass. That was a huge one.
I still listen to the Germs’ first record a lot. Seeing them perform… like, from a performance standpoint, that really influenced me a lot. The show they put on.”
Captain Beefheart – Safe As Milk
“Even records I’ve played a million times, I still listen to all the time. There’s not really anything I hear that I’m say, ‘Oh, I can’t listen to this.’ Captain Beefheart’s Safe As Milk, I’ve listened to that a lot, a lot. And sometimes… I love it and I’ll still listen to the whole thing, sometimes I’m like, ‘Oh, I can’t do this right now.’
It’s wild. It’s like, psychedelic blues stuff and Captain Beefheart’s vocals are just awesome. Ry Cooder’s guitar work on that is just incredible.”
Muddy Waters – 20th Century Masters: The Best Of Muddy Waters
“[When we were making our first album], we were probably listening to Them a lot. The Damned, Damned Damned Damned, that first record. We were listening to a lot of Muddy Waters. We had a tape player in our van and this Muddy Waters tape and we just played it so much that it just started warping.
His voice is awesome, the songs are super simple, and the guitars are real powerful. He just has a great tone. It’s just really driving and awesome. I like simple music. Simple, powerful music… [we were] trying to achieve some of that older sound and getting it to sound primitive and basic. In the beginning, everything was real stripped down as much as it could be.”
Jacques Dutronc – Jacques Dutronc (1968)
“[The most important album that we were introduced to on tour was] probably Jacques Dutronc. It was our first trip to France and our friends in Paris who we were staying with were playing [this album] and I just thought it was incredible.
It’s like this French, psychedelic, Rolling Stones kind of thing, but real Francophile. We ended up covering one of the songs. As far as being overseas… he has so many great songs and records. That was pretty awesome, hearing about that.”
Lee Moses – Bad Girl (Part 2)
“My favourite 45 and maybe one of my favourite songs ever written is a song called ‘Bad Girl (Part 2)’ by Lee Moses and I think that’s my favourite song of all time. I could listen to that song multiple times a day, every day, and sometimes I do [laughs] Sometimes I hear that song every day.
I think it’s just a perfect beat and they hit the horns at the exact right time. It’s just real powerful, it’s hard-hitting and it’s so simple, and just his voice, he just belts it out. I just think it’s arranged perfectly. I also think Cathy’s Clown is one of my favourite arrangements for a pop song.”
The Rolling Stones – Between the Buttons
“I think all the Stones records… like, Between The Buttons is a pretty perfect album, and just that mid-‘60s Stones sound is just my idea of how a record should sound or at least, how I like records to sound.”
They hit the nail on the head for a good ten years there.”
Black Lips 2015 Australian Tour Dates
Falls Festival 2014/2015
Sunday, 28th December 2014 until Wednesday, 31st December 2014 (Exit Thursday, 1st January) – SOLD OUT
Lorne, Victoria
Monday, 29th December 2014 until Wednesday, 31st December 2014 (Exit Thursday, 1st January)
Marion Bay, Tasmania
Tickets: Falls Festival
Tuesday, 30th December 2014 until Friday, 2nd January 2015 (Exit Saturday, 3rd January) – SOLD OUT
Byron Bay, New South Wales
Southbound 2015
Saturday, 3rd January – Sunday, 4th January 2015
Sir Steward Bovell Park, Bussellton
Tickets: Moshtix
The Black Lips Falls Festival Sideshows
Tuesday, 6th January 2015
The Hi-Fi, Melbourne (18+)
Tickets: The Hi-Fi
w/Straight Arrows + Destiny 3000
Wednesday, 7th January 2015
Oxford Art Factory, Sydney (18+)
Tickets: Moshtix
w/Frowning Clouds + Steve Miller Band
