Black Lips is a "flower-punk" band from Atlanta, Georgia. 

History

While still teenagers, the band formed in 2000 after guitarist Cole Alexander and bassist Jared Swilley left the Renegades, and guitarist Ben Eberbaugh left the Reruns. Drummer Joe Bradley joined a few months later. They released their first 7-inch in 2002 on their own record label, Die Slaughterhaus.
Just days before a tour was to begin in December 2002, guitarist Ben Eberbaugh was driving a car that was struck by a drunk driver going the wrong way while he was parked at a toll booth. He was killed but the band carried on, believing that Eberbaugh would want them to continue.
The band's debut full length album, Black Lips!, was released on Bomp! Records in 2003. Eberbaugh was replaced by Jack Hines, a friend of the band members, and they recorded their second studio album, We Did Not Know the Forest Spirit Made the Flowers Grow, with him. Hines, too, was eventually replaced by current guitarist, and former Renegades member, Ian Saint Pé, in 2004.
They have slowly built a fanbase that appreciates their style that is a rough mishmash of blues, rock, doo-wop, country, and punk. One of their biggest influence is the 60's Peruvian garage band Los Saicos. They gained national attention in 2006 with features in Spin and Rolling Stone magazines. The band got exposure in the New York Times during the 2007 South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, in which they played a dozen shows over a three-day period.
Their debut for Vice Records, Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo, was released in February 2007. It is supposed to have been recorded at a bar in Tijuana, Mexico, but fans, musicians, and journalists have expressed doubts about that claim and speculated that some or most of it was recorded in a studio with John Reis.
In September 2007 their second studio album for Vice entitled Good Bad Not Evil was released. The Black Lips made their American national television debut in October 2007 on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and played "O Katrina". In May 2008 Black Lips made their UK TV debut performing 'Bad Kids' on BBC3's The Wall.
The Black Lips were going to star in a film entitled Let It Be, in which they portrayed musicians in a fictitious 1980s era DIY band called The Renegades. A trailer for the movie can be viewed at the official website for the film. The movie was set for production in the summer of 2008; however, in a September 2008 interview, the band admitted they became disenchanted with the project after viewing the trailer and seeing the way they felt they were going to be portrayed in the movie.
In October 2008 a portion of the band's song "Veni Vidi Vici" was played during the season premiere episode of the television show Dirty Sexy Money, shown on the American network ABC. The same song was going to be used in a commercial by British supermaket chain Tesco, but, according to the band, the company decided not to go through with the deal because of concerns with the lyrical content of the song.
The Black Lips released their fifth studio album, 200 Million Thousand, on February 24, 2009 on Vice Records. The songs were recorded at New Street Studio, a former art gallery in Decatur GA, near Atlanta.
"Bad Kids" from Good Bad Not Evil is featured in the movie (500) Days of Summer.

Live shows
The Black Lips have a reputation for crazy live shows that have included vomiting (Cole's medical condition), urination, nudity, band members kissing, eletric mini-car races, fireworks, a chicken, and flaming guitars. The frequency of the group's outrageous stage antics has declined, as they claim to have matured "a little bit". Regarding these stage antics, the band said: "People and other bands and club owners can get really mad. We have gotten kicked out of a lot of clubs. Sometimes they want to fight us when it happens. People run away and act scared. But theres nothing to be scared of, its all natural bodily functions. I think it's funny when people get mad." 
They played at Heaven in London on September 16, 2008, which ended with a classic stage invasion, and has become their most popular live YouTube video. 
In January 2009 the band toured India. Following some antics at their show in Chennai, the band became worried about being arrested and imprisoned for "homosexual acts" so they fled the city and eventually the country. As the band said in a recent interview at the Pitchfork Media musical festival: "they [Ian and Cole] kissed, some weiners got pulled out..." Vice Records documented the trip.
The band has played shows in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.
The group has expressed interest in playing venues and countries that typically don't see many rock bands perform. They've said they'd like to play Africa, South America, China, Japan, Indonesia and Iraq.

Future plans

After the band was kicked out of India in January 2009, they traveled to Berlin, Germany and recorded a 12-song LP of gospel songs with King Khan & BBQ. The album will be released sometime in 2009 under the name The Almighty Defenders.
The group has songs from recording sessions prior to signing with Vice which may eventually be released by In The Red Records.
The band have a featured role in the upcoming documentary We Fun: Atlanta, GA Inside Out. The title was coined by Jared Swilley on the band's blog. The film will make its debut at the Atlanta Film Festival in April 2009.
Volume six of Brendan Canty's Burn To Shine series includes a performance by the Black Lips. There is no release date set for this DVD.

Band members

Current
Cole Alexander - Vocals, rhythm guitar
Jared Swilley  - Vocals, bass guitar
Joe Bradley - Vocals, drums
Ian Saint Pé - Lead Guitar (from 2004)

Former members
Jack Hines - Guitar (2002-2004)
Ben Eberbaugh (deceased) - Guitar (2000 - 2002)