Black Lips

Like many others but better than most, Atlanta’s Black Lips play live-wire, Stooges-inspired garage rock, and swaggering ’60s Brit R&B. Their sound has grown more firm and assured over the years, and the comparative clarity of 2009’s 200 Million Thousand serves their slurry hooks well. None of that quite accounts for the live show, though, which includes things like dudes kissing, bare butts, and genitals used as guitar picks. The Lips are already working toward topping those shocking antics with their new Arabia Mountain, reportedly using a human skull to give one track the right amount of head-rattling reverb.

Updated 03/22/2012