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Live Review: LISTEN: The Black Lips 'Dance With You'

13 April 2012 | 9:00 am | Hannah Story

Hannah Story loves flower punk boys The Black Lips. Lo-fi psychedelic never sounded so demanding.

THE BLACK LIPS want to dance with you. In fact, they demand that you dance with them. See that? That was a sleazy wink. This piece of lo-fi garage grime is an outtake from 2011’s Arabia Mountain, that’s now being released as a single.

Sydney-siders, this song might conjure up images of a seedy evening at Shady Pines Saloon. It’s got all the attitude of a Western but with a noise-punk sound: lots of hollering, plenty of rowdiness. We love some howling garage rock, rambling along and suddenly speeding up, then slowing down like an old steam engine. Yum, flower punk.

Now this a band who achieved notoriety thanks to their on-stage antics: vomiting, urination, nudity, fireworks, flaming guitars, playing guitar with their dicks, the list goes on. Bassist Jared Swilley scoffs, “it doesn’t seem all that crazy to me. It’s not like we have ever done a human sacrifice on stage or anything like that.”

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I hope they never do. Wish they’d stop winking at me around about now though. Do you have your whiskey on hand? It’ll help.

Words by Hannah Story.