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Laidos’ Lips going alone in new video
Indie | Tuesday 18th September 2012 | Osh
The Lips’ video for ‘Bleach’ has been out for a little over a week now, and it’s not in any danger of getting old any time soon.
For what is essentially a one-man band, The Lips – otherwise known as Anthony Laidos, and definitely not to be confused with the Flaming variety – put out some fantastic sounds, swinging between soft indie tones and slightly heavier grungy punk songs. ‘Bleach’ sways towards the latter, with the video being shot in a garage and Anthony messing around with guitar and vocals. Small wonder, then, that Jersey Rock Reviews hailed this effort as “a unique approach on punk rock”. To take punk rock, strip it down in places, and liberally add other genre tones in others, without a bona fide band, is a lesson in musical ingenuity.
It is especially well done considering Laidos started out going down a more funk and blues focused line with the slight misnomer of a group, DubSound Distortion, with such songs as “Jesus Plays the Basketball” and “Turtle True Blues”. The sound is almost unrecognisable on ‘Bleach’, which is the opening track on The Lips’ self-titled album. But the drastic change is not necessarily a bad thing, with both styles working equally well for what they are – good-time funk on the one hand, intelligent indie/alt rock on the other. They may not be the best-known indie group – or person – around yet, but for The Lips, surely the only way is up.
By Dave Rees
