Black Lips' Guide to a Garage Band's Garage

Black Lips just put out their fifth studio album, "200 Million Thousand," and the reviews have been positive, though a little repetitive. Pretty much every music critic refers to the Atlanta-based group as a "garage band." We have a general idea of what that means -- Black Lips do have a ramshackle sound similar to '60s rockers like The Kinks and 13th Floor Elevators -- but we're still a bit confused. (This is partially because we inhaled a lot of paint fumes in our own garage.)

To get some clarification, we caught up with Black Lips vocalist and guitarist Cole Alexander to explain this whole garage thing. He also gave us a grocery list of the items he recommends having on hand in the ideal garage band's garage.


Black Lips' guitarist Cole Alexander reveals what happens in the garage, after the jump.

Defining "Garage Band"
"The term originally comes from suburban kids in the '60s trying to start rock bands and not having studios, so they just went in their parents' garage. There were so many of those sort of bands that the term got picked up and tagged to any music that has that DIY aesthetic. We had a carport at my house, so we'd go down in the basement. A lot of my friends did the same thing. We did practice in our drummer Joe's garage before a talent show. Coming from Atlanta, it was pretty hot in there."

The Sound
"If you do recordings in a garage, there's probably going to be sounds bouncing off the walls. Usually the sound is really noisy. It sounds a lot crappier than a studio would, but that's the whole thing about garage rock -- you do it yourself. You might not have the best equipment. You might put two guitars into one amp, it might be a tight squeeze."

The Bedroom Is a Good Alternate Space
"Personally, I was always into bedroom rock -- when you rock out in your bedroom. That always makes you play a little quieter. You might have a little practice amp and just record in your room. I had hardwood floors in my house when I was growing up, and I used love the sound of those hardwood floors. I still love that sound to this day. We actually have recordings on our first few albums that were recorded in bedrooms."

Strip It Down
"Sometimes you'll just be playing through a little amp, so if you turn it up it will just sound like static. It forces you to be more reserved and strip it down. If you listen to early Elvis and Carl Perkins -- rockabilly from Sun Studios -- they were actually recording in a really reserved, quiet way. They didn't want to blow out the recording, especially the drummer, because they were all on one mic. So one thing about garage or bedroom rock is that it's stripped down."


DIY Recording
"Find a mic. It might be your little sister's karaoke machine, and you can record into that. We've done it before. Strip it down -- a snare, one guitar string and vocals may be enough. Instead of playing all six guitar strings just play one string. "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones can be done like that. It's similar to old blues, which is similar to garage rock. You've got to keep it simple."

Can't Live Without a Radio
"A ghetto blaster boom box is really important ... We used to do two-track recording where we'd play into one boom box's condenser mic. Then you'd rewind what you just recorded -- say it's a drum track and press play -- then you get another boom box and you record the other boom box and you playing guitar. Now you've got two tracks. So two boom boxes and a microphone and a practice amp and a Squier Stratoscaster should do it. I can't recommend two-track recording enough. We did a song called 'Can't Bring Me Down' on our first album like that, and it sounds great."

Garage Sustenance
"Schlitz [beer] and pork rinds. We also used get spicy samosas at the African market near our house and they'd sell to us underage. Our friend's mom would also go to Costco and get like 200 cans of tuna and we'd eat tuna out of the can and drink the broth."

The Right Mindset
"We have recorded on cough syrup, but it's pretty woozy stuff. That was big hobby when we were in high school. I don't recommend it highly, but if you want to try it get two of the 4-oz. bottles of [Robotussin] DM, and down it. You'll basically trip, but you won't be speedy. You can come up with some really great ideas, because you're on a different plane. Mushrooms can help for a jam, but you won't be able to record a full good session on it."

Invite Ladies
"I think it's cool to have friends come over and just hang out while practicing. It's great having ladies around drinking beer, and having somebody spray-painting the wall."



Mind the Cymbals
"When it's really loud and you're trying to record, you can put tape on the cymbals and it will muffle them. Cymbals will blow out any recording. Tape can muffle them and that will really help or if you can, just don't use them at all. If you can go snare, toms and bass drum, that cymbal noise won't take over your garage."

The Barest Essentials
"Guitar and snare drum. Maybe just a guitar, because you can bang on a couple pizza boxes. Squier Stratocaster or used pawn-shop guitars are super-cheap if you don't have a lot of money. Also, you should probably have a big American flag with a big marijuana leaf in the center. It's inspirational if nothing else."

Click here to stream Black Lips' "200 Million Thousand" at Spinner.com.