Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo (Live Version)

This Atlanta-based quartet plays garage rock that sounds as if it never left the garage. The Black Lips are loud, raw, out of tune — and as a result one of the most exciting sounding groups to wave the 21st Century garage rock banner. This album was allegedly recorded live in Tijuana. However, the recording quality is so haphazard, the audience so disjointed (they often seem to be talking to one another while waiting for a riot to happen) and the band so inclined towards mythmaking that it wouldn’t be surprising to learn that these are deliberately amateurishly recorded studio recordings with added crowd noise. In any case, the performances are inspired in their reckless abandon. The backing vocals are moaned in out-of-tune unison, the guitars play at top speed and the drummer doesn’t stop for anyone. Singer Cole Alexander poses and pouts like every great raspy garage-rock singer and one can hear the 13th Floor Elevators, the Trashmen and any number of grand practitioners in their effort. “Dirty Hands” is a ballad sung by a drunken choir, while “Boone” is a beautiful noise, the backing singers turning the title into cries of labor pain. Powerful and perverse.