The first tastes of the Black Lips’ “Arabia Mountain’ couldn’t be more different. Last month they released a video for “Go Out and Get It,” a clip as sunny and funny as its Monkees-on-
Banana Splits ear candy. And last week they released a video for “Modern Art,” a dark piece of psychedelia that’s a real trip, literally.
“We took Special K at the Dali Museum in Spain,” singer and guitarist Cole Alexander shares about the latter song. His polite tone and raspy Georgia accent are rife with an innocence that one wouldn’t immediately associate with combining modern art and horse tranquilizers.
“I don’t like to endorse the use of drugs,” says Alexander. “But I do like to feel disassociated from my own mind, and that’s one of the drugs you can achieve that with.”
So what happens when you’re under such a spell like and looking at art that already feels surreal?
“Well, surrealism already kind of gets you out of your headspace, so when I took the ketamine, it was almost a double-negative, like the surreality was taken away,” says Alexander. “It was like everything didn’t make sense, so it all kind of did.”
The Black Lips
with Vivian Girls
Tomorrow, 7:30 p.m.
Webster Hall
125 E. 11th St.
$20, 21+, 212-353-1600
www.websterhall.com
