Parental Advisory Sticklers

It's easy to find the members of Black Lips amidst the upmarket finery that is the lobby of Austin's Embassy Suites. They are the ones decked out in beanie/trucker-cap/redneck chic. Bass player Jared Swilley and guitarist Ian Saint Pé Brown excuse the absence of the other half who have made a dash back to their rooms to rehydrate. They are midway through a week of intensive promotional work, for their new Underneath The Rainbow album, at the annual SXSW industry gang bang. Multiple gigs daily slotted between a year's worth of interviews, photoshoots and schmoozing fitted into just a few days. Less tough bands will be axing gigs by week's end as singing voices are inevitably lost - so rehydrating takes precedent.

Swilley politely chats Australia until the others arrive. “Honestly, I didn't have super high hopes,” he recalls of their first visit here. “'Because before we came to Australia, we were pretty much living in England. We were literally just touring for months and months and months. And it's such a tiny island. I was like, 'I hope it's not just some weird ex-colony.' But once we got there…”

Drummer Joe Bradley and rhythm guitarist Cole Alexander walk up at this point. Immediately Bradley picks up on the subject at hand and promises a return soon, “Of course. The sooner the better. There's talk about a Japan tour.” Swilley adds, “I heard, like, December.”

Saint Pé Brown has another reason for enthusing about Australia. “For the young kids that don't know,” he says as he leans in closer to the recorder, “Masters Apprentices is one of my favourite Australian bands.

“We search this music out - that's what we do. We love this stuff. We love all kinds of music but within whatever genre you consider us, I put Masters Apprentices in that genre.”

Bradley adds, “Eddy Current Suppression Ring too.” Now all the Lips warm to the topic, and props go out to Total Control, UV Race, The Missing Links and Beasts Of Bourbon.

Bradley then reveals they once recorded with Bourbons' Spencer P Jones in Paris, “but it never came out”, says Swilley.

What did make it out this year though was their VNSFW vid for ...Rainbow's first offering, Boys In The Wood. The southern Gothic clip landed on YouTube with a viewer discretion warning. “What is the point of having that now?” muses Alexander. “Almost any kid with access to the internet can just go to Google and write 'porn' and then…”

Bradley interjects: “When I was a kid I had to find Playboys or something.” Swilley adds, “We had a communal Playboy that was hidden in the woods near my friend Cliff's house. It was well guarded and it was all water-logged and damaged. Now a kid can just [type] 'ass', 'titty'.”

Talk returns back around to that video. Alexander admits, “I thought it was going to freak more people out.” Saint Pé Brown disagrees; “It wasn't all that shocking.”

Swilley adds, “It made my girlfriend really uncomfortable. That's why I said to do it. They said they were gonna get an actor to do it and I was like, 'Well… I can't think of any other instances where someone was raped in their own video.' Could you imagine Prince agreeing to be raped in his own video?”