Pitchfork

Photos by Nilina Mason-Campbell

Whether it's starring in a movie called Let It Be about a band in the underground rock scene of the 1980s, starting a hotline for their fans to call "if you are in trouble, need advice, or are just plain lonely," or simply playing tons and tons of shows, Atlanta's Black Lips are always up to something.

Before the Lips headed off on their current European tour, we spoke to guitarist/vocalist Cole Alexander about all of the above. Over the course of the conversation, he also revealed his band's similarity to Mike Jones and New Kids on the Block, as well as his witchcraft-y plans for their new record.

Pitchfork: So what's the deal with this hotline?

Cole Alexander: The guys had cell phones, and they were like, "Cole, you need a cell phone." I guess that company Boost Mobile sent us some as a promotion, so I figured I'd try it. I actually really liked having it, because it has a recording device, so if I have a song idea I'm going to forget, I'll just hum it in there. And it's got a video camera, so if I see a terrorist attack go down, I can just film it. I can also just take pictures. It's a documentation device.

Anyway, Boost Mobile sent us more phones than we knew what to do with. [Guitarist] Ian [St. Pe] already had a phone and was in a contract, so we figured we'd turn the phone they gave him into a hotline, as long as they were giving us these free phones. So we just put [the number] on MySpace. We remembered the 80s, like New Kids on the Block, how they'd have a hotline you could call, and it was all automated. "If you want to speak to Donnie, press 'one.' If you want to speak to whomever, press 'two.'" And we like that old school feel, like an 80s fan club.

Here's the trade: Boost Mobile said that they would give us free phones if we sent them a couple pictures from our tour, like a tour diary. So I sent them the pictures. I haven't seen what they did with them, but we just decided to make it a whole different thing.

I don't know when they're going to cut us off, and that was the problem with the hotline: They put, like, 300 minutes on there, and once we turned on the hotline it was blowing up so much-- we were getting calls from British Columbia, France, Austria-- and then the minutes got severely diminished. If they don't keep footing the bill, it's probably going to get cut, but I'm sure they'll hook us up some more. They seem pretty nice.

Pitchfork: Do you guys answer the hotline no matter what? Are you always on the phone?

CA: The thing is, we honestly haven't kept up with the hotline. We had a couple days off when we weren't fielding the calls at all. But now we're on the road, so we turned it back on. Basically, it's active when we're on tour. If you look on MySpace, and you see we're on tour, we'll have it. Now we're going to be in Europe soon, and these phones don't even work in Canada, so basically, when we're touring in America, we'll have the hotline on.

People mostly call and then hang up, because they just want to see if it's real. They don't believe it. I was really [intent on] everybody realizing it was real, so we picked up every single call, and it was just non-stop. I'm losing my voice trying to talk to these people. Some people want to talk for a long time. They have serious problems, like one girl's friend was contemplating suicide. I was just kind of drunk and said, "Maybe you should call a professional about that." I don't know anything about how to address a situation like that. I appreciate that she was seeking help, and I did try to console her, but I'm not qualified for that one. We try to clarify for people: It's not a sex line. It's not a suicide hotline. It's just a fanclub hotline.

Pitchfork: Are there any really good calls you've received?

CA: The soldier in Iraq was pretty cool, an American soldier on vacation in Qatar. I guess they send troops to the beach every once in a while when they get stressed out, and he told me that his favorite songs to listen to on a convoy mission was our song "Hippie, Hippie, Hoorah". He said a lot of the other guys don't like it. They like heavier stuff. Avenged Sevenfold. I guess they want something more aggressive. You need that aggression to vent out the horrible atrocities you're seeing every day. But that was cool, that maybe some folks were kind of into it. He said his buddies think he's a wuss for playing "Hippie, Hippie, Hoorah" on a combat mission.

Then we got a call from France. Some guy was pumped about the show we were about to play in France. From Austria, we got a call, so that was cool.

Pitchfork: Is there a single most commonly asked question?

CA: The most common thing is they're like, "Oh my god," and you hear giggling from like three people around the speakerphone. Then they either say, "This is real!" and hang up, or you just hear giggling. They think it's funny that it really exists, but once they know it exists, then they've gotten their fix.

People prank us, and that's kind of funny. They'll ask, like, "Would you rather have a hamster attached to your neck for the rest of your life or have to drink a pint of your mother's period blood?" Then, no matter what we say, they'll be, "Oh, you are fucked up!" No matter what we pick: "Oh, you are so fucked up!"

Pitchfork: Which did you pick?

CA: I think I picked drinking a pint of period blood. He was trying to make me feel bad about it. It was pretty funny. It's fun to really connect with our audience. We've started to play some bigger clubs than we used to, and some of the fans feel like it's not as fun when the club is a little bigger. They don't feel as connected, so this is a way for us to make it a small world and connect with people. It's fun.

It's kind of passé, I think hotlines are more of an 80s thing, or that's what I remember when I was little. Mike Jones, the rapper, is the only other guy I've heard of in recent years making a hotline. On his album, he would actually rap it: "If you wanna talk on the phone/ Call 3-3-3 blah blah blah 0-4." He would say that throughout the album. I think it was just a temporary automated thing that you could call when the song came out, but it was kind of cool that he would spit his hotline in his songs and then go "Mike Jones!"-- constantly reaffirming his own existence.

Pitchfork: So is that what's coming up for you guys-- a Mike Jones-style shout-out to the hotline in a song?

CA: You never know. I do want to get more conceptual on our albums, just doing weird stuff. It doesn't have to be a song. It could be a skit or something like that.

I read this article the other day in The New York Times about a phonautogram. [The earliest-known recorded sound of a human voice, from 1860. --Ed.] I actually recorded it onto my phone, and I want to play that from off the phone onto our album and have a history lesson on our album.

Pitchfork: Are you guys already planning to record?

CA: Yeah, we're planning to work on our new album this summer. The movie we were working on got postponed a little bit, so that freed up some time this summer.

Pitchfork: Have you guys already shot the movie?

CA: No. It's in preproduction, getting financing, so now we're going to make a new record this summer. I want to have it out this year, so we can have an album come out every year, but we'll see.

Pitchfork: The movie seems a little like a Replacements homage. Is that the case?

CA: Yeah, the filmmakers mentioned that. I think they're leaning Replacements, and we're leaning more Butthole Surfers.

Pitchfork: What would the difference be? Is it still possible to change the story, or are you talking about the character of the band you play?

CA: It's the character. The story is more or less the same-- an 80s band in America touring the DIY circuit and what that was like-- but it's more the characteristics, the aesthetics of the band. I like the Replacements, don't get me wrong, but our band is more psychedelic. That's kind of what Butthole Surfers were. The Replacements were more of a pop group.

Pitchfork: Have you guys started writing for the new album yet?

CA: We all have some song ideas. We just need to come together and make some demos.

Pitchfork: Are the other band members on board with your idea to include random history lessons and interludes?

CA: Yeah. I really like the idea of [hearing someone singing] in 1860. It's like a little time capsule. These people are dead, so it's like a séance, hearing their voices now. On our new record, I want to mess with taking samples of dead people and interacting with them as if it were a séance. I almost feel like it's a form of magic when you're hearing a dead person's voice, especially if you interact with it.

We have a sample of a monk chanting on a song on our first record. The thing is, he was alive when we made the record, so that chant wasn't as special. He died since. Now when we play that song live, we have that sample, and his voice is really there. Every night it's different what we do, so we're constantly interacting with his voice, playing new sounds with someone who's dead. That's how I want to use that sample of the phonautogram. I feel like if we add music over that, not just as a history lesson, it's like we're interacting with dead spirits. The words are still there. It's as if these people are alive. It's the same sound. I want to do more of that on the new record.

Pitchfork: Do you plan to interrupt recording at all this summer for any tours?

CA: I don't want to tour so much. We're known as this touring band, and I'm kind of sick of that. I don't want to burn out by just being a live band, so I really want to block off the whole summer just to record. We'll do the occasional show here and there. I think we're doing a show at McCarren Park in New York with Deerhunter and King Khan and His Shrines, but, beside that, I want to focus on recording. I feel like, when we die, it's easier to live on through records than live shows.

Pitchfork: Is there anything else on your plate that we haven't covered?

CA: We're going to be in Europe for a month and a half, and we're coming back to do Coachella and Lollapalooza, which I'm excited about. I remember Lollapalooza when I was a kid-- all that grunge stuff. Hopefully, we're going to smash up some guitars at Lollapalooza, 90s-style [laughs].

Black Lips:

04-02 Hamburg, Germany - Molotov
04-03 Malmo, Sweden - Debaser
04-04 Stockholm, Sweden - Debaser
04-05 Oslo, Norway - Bia
04-06 Copenhagen, Denmark - Loppen
04-07 Cologne, Germany - Tsunami Club
04-09 Athens, Greece - Gagarin 205
04-11 Paris, France - La Maroquinerie
04-12 Rotterdam, Netherlands - Motel Mozaieque Festival
04-13 Brussels, Belgium - Domino Festival
04-15 Milan, Italy - Musicdrome
04-16 Treviso, Italy - Roncade New Age Club
04-17 Marseille, France - Cabaret Aleatoire
04-18 Barcelona, Spain - Nista
04-19 Madrid, Spain - Caracoal
04-21 Porto, Portugal - Porto Rio
04-22 Lisbon, Portugal - Lux
04-23 Vigo, Spain - La Fabrica de Chocolate
05-01 Cardiff, Wales - The Point
05-02 Swansea, Wales - Club NME @ Club Sin
05-03 Dublin, Ireland - Crawdaddy
05-04 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowlands 2
05-06 Sheffield, England - The Plug
05-07 Leeds, England - Brudenell Social Club
05-08 Birmingham, England - Club NME @ The Place I Love
05-10 Rye, England - Camber Sands Holiday Centre (ATP vs. Pitchfork) $
05-11 Cambridge, England - The Junction
05-12 Oxford, England - Zodiac
05-13 Bristol, England - Thekla
05-14 London, England - 100 Club
05-15 London, England - King's College
05-16 Brighton, England - Great Escape Festival
05-27 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club ^
05-28 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club ^
05-30 New York, NY - Terminal 5 ^
06-03 Boston, MA - Bank of America Pavilion ^
06-04 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis ^
06-05 Toronto, Ontario - Ricoh Coliseum ^
06-07 Detroit, MI - The Fillmore ^
06-09 Columbus, OH - LC Amphitheater ^
06-10 Cincinnati, OH - National City Pavilion ^

$ with Bon Iver, the Hold Steady, Jens Lekman, Caribou, Hot Chip, Les Savy Fav, No Age, Dirty Projectors, Of Montreal, Los Campesinos!, Glass Candy, Vampire Weekend, Times New Viking, Meat Puppets, Jay Reatard, the Black Angels, Marissa Nadler, Wooden Shjips, Deerhunter, Shit and Shine, Sebadoh, Ween, Girls Against Boys, Redd Kross, Pissed Jeans, Yeasayer, Fuck Buttons, Apse, A Place to Bury Strangers, the Clientele, Black Mountain, Harmonia, Born Ruffians, Howlin Rain, Car Sick Cars, Even, Various Production (DJ set)
^ with the Raconteurs