Ashley Eada Giahn

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The Black Lips w/Davila 666, Xray Eyeballs
Webster Hall
Saturday, October 29

Better than: The overpriced coat check.

Here's the thing about Black Lips shows: They're completely out of control as a rule. Playing Webster Hall on Saturday for their "Hell in the Hall" All Hallow's Eve celebration, the Atlanta quartet was ready to party, and the mostly costumed audience was in similar spirits. The band's homemade backdrop—a white sheet covered in spraypainted Satanic symbols that had horror movies projected onto it—and streamers and fog machines brought a DIY aesthetic that helped set the stage and make Webster Hall seem much more down-home than than it usually is.

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Last winter, the Black Lips—along with with fellow dumpster docksiders Ty Segall, Jacuzzi Boys, Turbo Fruits, and Vivian Girls—set sail on the Bruise Cruise, which sailed from Miami to the Bahamas. Those of you who couldn't get together the scratch for the trip, but who might be wondering what sort of shenanigans the band and their pals got up to, can watch the band's video for "Go Out and Get It" (from the Mark Ronson-produced Arabia Mountain (Vice), out today), or check out our pics from the boat; you can also check out the band's five reasons why playing a booze/Bruise Cruise was something they'd do again.

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​We're giving away a pair of tickets to the Black Lips/Vivian Girls show at Webster Hall, which is happening tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. To enter, just email the Sound of the City inbox with the answer to this question: Who produced the band's new album, Arabia Mountain? Answers will be accepted until 6 p.m. New York time today.

Given the resounding success of last week's declaration that 2010 is the Year of the Indie Pet, it behooves us to provide you with more evidence of this Very Important Trend. Which brings us to "Chinchilla Mohair Room," a slightly confusing, slightly ridiculous blog dedicated to a furry Mohair creature who evidently has a penchant for indie rock. Despite running the Japanese blog through Google Translator, we're still mystified about the specifics. Does the owner have more than one cat? What's the cat's name? Where is this creature based? What makes Atlas Sound better for chasing around a watermelon balloon that, say, Animal Collective? Answers to none of those questions below.

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​Finally, the take-a-cruise-with-a-rock-band phenomenon trickles down to the Jelly Pool Party set: Mark your calendars for February 25-28, 2011, whereupon a "Bruise Cruise" sets sail from Florida to the Bahamas with the Black Lips, Thee Oh Sees, and, yes, the Vivian Girls aboard for your listening pleasure. This is a real thing, that exists, and we've got the snazzy promo video to prove it:

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--New York Governor David A. Paterson approves Jay-Z 's #1 spot on MTV's 2009 Hottest MCs in the Game list, and he let the cable channel know as much via e-mail. Vote-baiting, culture-critiquing gems included, "the MC that figures out that people 18 and older who got the right to vote in 1972 never exercised it till 2008 -- there's a real culture for discussing how our government works and how our society works. The MC who could blaze that trail and find a creative way of displaying it will be the MC of the next decade." G-Pat: dropping knowledge, making MSG cameos, confounding the youth vote.

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​--Viking will likely publish a posthumous debut novel by the deceased poet and musician Jim Carroll sometime next year, reports the New York Times. The book is tentatively titled The Petting Zoo and concerns "an art-world prodigy of the 1980s, Billy Wolfram, who is driven by early fame into seclusion, where he suffers psychological and spiritual crises." The book, which Carroll wrote in the same Inwood building in which he'd grown up, was apparently in final edits when a September 11th heart attack felled the former Trinity basketball star. "Jim was really in love with the concept of his own phoenix-like rise, which had happened repeatedly in his life -- bottoming out, then transcending his negative circumstances with an undeniably brilliant work of art," said his ex-wife, Rosemary Carroll. Here's to one more resurrection.

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Black Lips walked on to "Liquid Swords" with GZA's voice booming from the back room. When he came out, the crowd went apeshit. The rest of my notes: "This is a trainwreck."

Not pictured: loogies

The singer of this Atlanta band is known for hocking wads of spit into the air only to land them on his tongue seconds later. I've never tried to catch a loogie in my own mouth—it's basically spitting on yourself, which isn’t cool or punk or revivalist. Spitting on others is a different story, but who wants to deal with messy saliva stains in 2008? Remember: There's a difference between the Stooges and stooges. With Gringo Star and Titus Andronicus. — RYAN DOMBAL

8 p.m., $10. Market Hotel. Find it yourself.

The photog sez, "Guy in the army-hat is some weirdo fan who brought [Ian St. Pe] a fancy belt-buckle as a present."

Black Lips
Other Music
Monday, March 10
photos by Rebecca Smeyne

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