If you haven’t heard of Black Lips, it’s really time you checked them out.
Black Lips are one of those punk bands that really gets it. By ‘it’ I mean the spirit of punk. I can’t count how many punk bands that I’ve seen that don’t get it. They put together these uninspired pseudo-political crap tunes and play half baked live shows, as if they feel they don’t have to go the extra mile, because hey, they have Crass patches on their black hoodies, so they’re officially punk.
Black Lips formed after their members got expelled from high school for being punk. This was after the Columbine shooting, so all the schools were on edge like that. Their first guitarist was hit by a drunk driver and killed a few days before their first tour, and they decided that he would have wanted them to go on tour anyway.
Their live shows have included all sorts of wild, unorthodox stuff, not the least of which being a full on remote controlled car race in the venue while the band was playing.
That’s punk.