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Behind the Video: The Black Lips on Their “Katrina” Clip

8/9/07, 6:05 pm EST

The Black Lips are four Atlanta rock & roll renegades who’ve been playing their wildly entertaining brand of dirty blues punk since 2000. On September 11, the band — known for truly outrageous stage shows that involve drinking pee, nudity, making out with each other and profuse bleeding — will release their new album Good Bad, Not Evil? on Vice Records. The LP is stocked with gleefully disturbed tunes like its first single, “Katrina,” which somehow manages to merge Kinks-style heartbreak pop with one of the most appalling natural (and political) disasters in American history. Rock Daily asked singer/bassist Jared Swilley about this unusual song, as well as the cheery day-glo video they made for it:

  • On writing a love song about a hurricane: “In a lot of ways a girl can be much like a hurricane. In this case, though, we didn’t want to be political, even though we have ties to New Orleans, so we tied the two ideas together.”
  • On why the song has only four lines of lyrics: “In this day and age of ADD, we try to appeal to those with a short attention span who wanna go ride bikes later.”
  • On the video’s larger concept: “I would describe the concept as strikingly similar to that of a Christmas tree’s lights. Sometimes they’re green, sometimes they’re yellow, and even sometimes, they’re purple. The fast shot changes pay homage to our lightning-fast wit.”
  • On what the Black Lips will do to celebrate the release of their new album: “Continue on with our never-ending tour and maybe buy a six pack of Busch.”


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Comments

Gaius | 8/9/2007, 6:32 pm EST

Hey Black Lips, the Strokes made this video three years ago.

Gaius | 8/9/2007, 6:34 pm EST

I mean this, by the way
http://youtube.com/watch?v =RM2Ssne97ek

Mike | 8/9/2007, 11:13 pm EST

Sweet.

EVH Dumb Down | 8/12/2007, 7:30 am EST

Cool.

EVH Dumb Down | 8/12/2007, 7:56 am EST

a guy licking a guitar GENIUS ABSOLUTE GENIUS where do they come up with this stuff. Probably while inhale large amounts of REVELL airplane glue. Usually the best art comes from shit heads who snort large amounts of that stuff Guys who huff paint can usually cut 15 tracks of a punk album in under an hour More genius Yes a video with a guy licking a guitar is very important art People who enjoy affixiating themselves like to fantasize about recording double albums but circumstances seem to ruin their plans

Hey Gaius | 8/15/2007, 7:03 pm EST

The Black Lips are about 100,000 times better than the Strokes

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