Interview: Cole Alexander of Black Lips

What: Black Lips
When: Saturday, April 3, 8 p.m.
Where: Varsity Theater
Tickets: $15

Atlanta-based Black Lips might very well be the best band in indie rock. The wild quartet functions under the self-tabbed “flower punk” genre, a fitting descriptor given their penchant for converging wild, lo-fi punk with dirty psychedelics. Topped off with a relentless touring drive and a killer live show? That’s a can’t-miss date at the Varsity this Saturday.
Lifelong friends, the group went from getting kicked out of high school back in Georgia to getting kicked out of India last year. Black Lips are famous for their debaucherous live antics — kissing, pissing, etc. The Indian government frowned when a penis appeared on stage last year and they were literally chased out of the country.
The boys are still on the road in support of 2009’s LP “200 Million Thousand. ” Frontman Cole Alexander caught up with A&E from the road to talk African proto-punk, sad clowns and college girls.

What’s it like to constantly be playing shows?
It’s unreal. It’s a strange, wild ride.
Take me through the day-to-day.
Day 1: Staring at cars, 18-wheelers. Truck stops. Get out of van. Sound check. Eat. Play. Rock. Woman … love. Sleep. Night night.
You guys have toured all over the world. How do audiences’ reactions vary given the place?
Sometimes they stare at us. Usually people dance — that’s kind of universal. But if we get really far out, like Palestine , people just stare. It’s uncomfortable to put yourself out there.
Does that make you wanna play those places less?
Makes me wanna play there more. We feel more like an oddity. But we’re trying to bring punk to new places, punk rock exploration.
I read you guys are playing The Replacements in a movie?
False. We considered a movie that was roughly based on an ’80s indie band. But we’re not actors, we’re re-al-itors.
Are you guys ’Mats fans?
I like the Replacements OK, but we’re nothing like them. We’re more like [1960s Minneapolis psychedelic rockers] The Litter. Or even more like [1960/’70s Minneapolis noise rocker] Michael Yonkers . We’re more on the Yonkers tip than the Replacements tip.
He did a great split LP with a band called the Blind Shake.
He should have done a split with us.
Would you wanna do that?
Yeah, can you talk to him? If you ever do an interview with him, toss it out there.
You guys toiled a lot before getting to the top of the indie heap. What’s it like to see bands like Vampire Weekend blow up immediately?
First there’s the bitter sting of jealously. But I give it to ’em, might is right; find your way to make things happen. I’m not really into their band, but I find it refreshing that they support the upper crust. No band does that. Especially rock bands, it’s all about, “We’re so poor, blah blah blah.” I thought it was refreshing to see a band be like “We’re upper crust, what’s up?”
As far as their music, I don’t know. They’re into African stuff and we’re into African stuff, too, but I’m more into African rock. There’s proto-punk from Africa that nobody knows about. They’re into, like, Paul Simon’s version of what Africa is. We’re more into like Zambian early ’70s proto-punk.
We cut our teeth, kinda paid our dues. We got tight, and we became a stronger unit. It was really shitty at the time, as far as funds were concerned, but it kinda made us stronger in some ways. Once you get through the worst, like, you can kinda get through anything. That’s why we’ve been around for 10 years.
Black Lips have a very young sound. It’s hard imagining you doing this when you’re 40.
I think you’re right. If they start paying us mad money when we’re like 60 to play, we’d probably do it
— but it probably wouldn’t be as good. If we’re like old and tired, I don’t know if I could sing “Bad Kids.”
Jared [Swilley, bassist] described the band as “The happy clown that cries ” a couple years ago. What’s your short, snappy descriptor of the group?
Yeah, like a happy clown … he’s playing with himself in the mirror, he’s crying.
That’s what you think of when you think of your band?
Yeah, like the makeup on the clown drips.
And why is that?
Well, life is nothing without comedy and sadness. The great Homer once said, “If you fail at first, destroy all evidence of ever trying.” And now that’s Homer Simpson , not the poet.
That relates to your music … how?
Comedy and sadness. Some phony philosopher said everything is love and fear, but for us it’s comedy and sadness.
What’s the highest point and lowest point for the band, thus far?
The highest point was playing Conan O’Brien’s show, “Late Night.” After we played our show, Conan said there’s a lot of phony stuff out there, but he said we’re the real deal. I don’t know if he was just being nice, but I took that with pride.
And the lowest point?
I guess when our first guitarist died. [Ben Eberbaugh died in 2002 after he was struck by a drunk driver.]
I read about that, truly terrible. Shifting gears, tell me about your band’s drink — Detune: Black Lips Magical Potion.
I guess it’s on a hiatus; there are certain chemical properties that the FDA didn’t find safe for the public. We’ll let them deal with that. There are some Russian herbs, basically, that haven’t been approved by the FDA. We had a test bottle on tour. It was a shit-kicker.
What’s actually in it?
Ian’s [Saint Pé , guitarist] brother’s a nuclear engineer and he fused these Brazilian sex herbs with these Russian amphetamine herbs. It’ll knock the [expletive] black off your ass.
I gotta ask, are you just messing with me?
I swear to God it’s real.
When can we expect a new record?
Next year. It’s gonna be kinda mid-fi, some pop hooks, some lonely jams.
Do you have a message for the campus?
Bring some girls from college. Tell them it’s gonna be a boys-gone-wild party.