a vent …on Black Lips
The following views do not reflect Georgia Music Magazine as a whole, mainly just me (Cooper). Consider this a “Letter to the Editor”.
i’ll [try to] keep this short.
Someone in the last [name of magazine witheld for…ahh fuck it, it was Flagpole] asked “Are the Black Lips the Last Real Rock Band?” in the second headline of a most page article.
I can’t let it go.
I first saw this headline a week back and read through the first paragraph and threw the paper to the side. To be fair before writing this, I just read the whole article. I still don’t get it. Why can’t you just write normal instead of coming across trying to sound “Black Lips”-like? it seems fake when you throw “punk-ass” and ”fuck” in the first paragraph and then change back into normality thereafter. Like you are trying to be ‘hard’, really it does, to me at least. Just, you know, write what is real. Not what you think people think they want to think. Did you catch all that? And no, just because a 4 piece is the GG Allen of today doesn’t make them the “last real rock band” as you re-questioned in your last sentences. I’ve seen them and heard them and yes they are entertaining. And I’ll actually agree with you they are shock-rock, its quite obvious. But here is where I make my point: First, you’re an idiot for ever using a questioned finality, even if it is to grab eyes it is tabloid like. Second: Shock rock is a gimmick. Sorry if I offend you, but they rose to fame on a wagon of fire that they lit themselves. Which is great, seriously it’s genious. A self replicating marketing strategy. Have shows Caligula would approve of and how could you not expand? If you’re going to make it, might as well burn your way to the top. Again, well done. You go to a Black LIps show to get retarded and thrashed with hundreds of others willing to take a chance of getting spat/bled/pissed/puked on. Now this isn’t to discredit or to deface the Black Lips and claim them as a bad band or anything like that; their shows are fun in a masochistic way and something you talk about and brag about for days after.
They command unwilling obedience from the stage and make the venue their mistress. They are William Wallace, their fans: The Scotts. A mere glance and their followers rally unabated. But “the last real rock stars in indie rock”? No. Some odd hybrid shock-grass-indie grit-Punk hard-folk? Maybe, I’m willing to go there. But this is more about that guy who merely posed the question anyway.
Any truth in there?
