Black Lips

As a rule, live albums are kind of like hearing about someone else's super-hot one-night stand -- titillating, yes, but never as fulfilling as the real thing. But the Black Lips know how to keep their listeners sa-tis-fied. With both band and crowd bellowing at each other in drunken Spanish in between sloppy, saucy (guitar) licks, Los Valientes sounds just as raucous and dirty as if you'd gone all the way -- to Tijuana, that is, where the show was recorded. Of course, when the band in question rocked it fast, loose and lo-fi to begin with, it helps.

Atlanta rockabilly punks the Black Lips are one of the best live bands in America, a fact
they prove on their debut for Vice Records, Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo. This
twelve-song sonic apocalypse -- recorded live, as the story goes, at a mariachi club in
Tijuana -- serves as an excellent introduction to these debauched rockers, who already
have three albums out on various small labels. Tracks like "Dirty Hands" and "Stra... More >