Black Lips
200 Million Thousand Hear it Now
RS: 3of 5 Stars Average User Rating:0of 5 Stars


It's ironic when the Black Lips sing that they're "trapped in a basement" here. Ten years ago, this Atlanta band's purposefully sloppy "flower punk" would have been unjustly confined to basement shows; now it could fit in a Zach Braff film. The Lips' psychedelic and garage heroes loom large: "Big Black Baby Jesus of Today" sounds distractingly like the 13th Floor Elevators, and "Drugs" is all about the New York Dolls. This smart if self-conscious album makes it clear who the Lips would like to be, but it's hard to tell who they really are.

P.V. STUMP

(Posted: Feb 20, 2009)

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Peter Tosh
The Ultimate Peter Tosh Experience
RS: 4of 5 Stars

If Bob Marley was reggae's Bob Dylan, Peter Tosh was its MC5: less accessible, more cocky and a whole hell of a lot more dangerous. This two-DVD, one-CD set captures Tosh in all his confrontational glory. The CD is a somewhat random collection of hits and rarities: Hard-to-find gems like "Babylon Queendom" (a superior demo of "Mystery Babylon") and the raw early single "Arise Blackman" sit next to classics like the revolutionarily funky "Downpressor Man" and "Get Up Stand Up." Neophytes would do well to simply pick up Equal Rights and Wanted Dread and Alive. The real attraction here is Nicholas Campbell's artful 1992 documentary Stepping Razor: Red X. Tosh's story, narrated by the man himself from his homemade "Red X tapes," is one of intense struggle. It began in a poor town in western Jamaica and ended in Tosh's murder during a robbery attempt in 1987. Along the way, he co-founded the Wailers, one of the most influential bands in pop history, but left, feeling confined by a shared spotlight. Tosh wanted to change the world and get all the credit for doing so. The truth is, he did change the world — he brought a political intensity to reggae that wasn't there before — and Ultimate Peter Tosh shows you how he did it.



P.V. STUMP
(Posted: Feb 4, 2009)


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