(Photo Credit: Owen Ela)
Atlanta flower punk pioneers Black Lips have just announced that their first album in three years, Satan’s graffiti or God’s art?, is set for release May 5 via Vice Records. Produced by Sean Lennon at his studio compound in upstate New York throughout 2016, the album is the group’s most musically evolved and mature to date, while still staying true to their original blistering take on fuzzy, dirty rock n’ roll.
During the recording the band isolated themselves from the outside world, infusing the album with a focused liveliness similar to the spirit that brought them together in the first place. On Satan’s graffiti or God’s art? founding members Cole Alexander and Jared Swilley teamed with former guitarist Jack Hines (who played in the group from 2002-2004) and recent additions Oakley Munson on drums and Zumi Rosow on saxophone. The album also features contributions by Saul Adamczewski of Fat White Family and guest vocals by Yoko Ono.
The Black Lips and producer Sean Lennon have been working in the studio, teasing fans with Facebook and Instagram posts since last April. The band had worked with Lennon before to great effect, so hopefully the wait’ll have been worthwhile.
The last time we heard any music from the Black Lips was on the particularly contentious and divisive election night, when they had shared an “anarcho style punk song” by the name of “Deaf, Dumb and Blind”
Black Lips were born of DIY ethic, working their way from sweaty basement shows in Georgia to huge crowds at international music festivals (including a performance at Fun Fun Fun Fest that appears in Terrence Malick’s new film Song to Song) to tours in such far flung locales as India, Jordan, Cyprus, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraqi Kurdistan, the United Arab Emirates, and many more. Satan’s graffiti or God’s art? vindicates Black Lips for sticking it out through many years of shifting trends and buzz bands; a sonically captivating document that is as creatively unhinged as it is precisely executed, one of the rawest and most expansive albums in the band’s storied history.
Check out the album cover and the track list below.
2. Occidental Front
3. Can’t Hold On
4. The Last Cul de Sac
5. Interlude: Got Me All Alone
6. Crystal Night
7. Squatting in Heaven
8. Interlude: Bongo’s Baby
9. Rebel Intuition
10. Wayne
11. Interlude: E’lektric Spider Webz
12. We Know
13. In My Mind There’s a Dream
14. Lucid Nightmare
15. Come Ride With Me
16. It Won’t Be Long
17. Loser’s Lament
18. Finale: Sunday Mourning
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