Time for Kiss to “surrender”

Jack Hines talks about his webchat with Gene Simmons and their European tour

Garage punk band Black Lips made the news earlier in the week after ambushing a live webchat with Gene Simmons.

Jack Hines, the former Black Lips guitarist reunited with his old pals for a European tour, recorded a video message for the Kiss man.

Flanked by his bandmates, faces painted black and white, Hines demanded: “Mr Simmons. We’re here to tell you that the day of misogynistic, sexist rock ’n’ roll is over. We call for the complete and utter surrender of the Kiss Army. Lay down your guitars. Do you accept our terms of surrender?”

Simmons, God of Thunder, laconically replied: “Yes. I surrender entirely. And I wanted to compliment your mom for the wonderful way that she designed the decorations in the basement that she lets you live in. I think it's very attractive.”

The Israel-born musician, in reference to a remark about immigration earlier in the webchat for HuffPost, continued: "I hope you get to leave your mom's basement soon. Remember: Learn to speak English. Good education. That will help. I did it, you can too."

A few days earlier singer and guitarist Cole Alexander had told The Argus: “We might not bleed on stage every night. But when we bleed it is real. When Kiss bleed every night it is fake. Fake blood every single night. We would openly challenge the Kiss Army to come to our show any night. We’ll stack our show back to back with his. Tell Gene Simmons I said that.”

Over their 15 years together, Black Lips have managed to expulse more bodily fluids than should be humanly possible. There has been vomit, urine, spit and blood during performances. Nudity, probably most painfully with a member taking place of a guitar pick, is not unheard of. Alexander says their riotous approach has not diminished.

“We haven’t calmed down. People say we’ve calmed down as we get older, but they don’t want to keep up with every show. We never did all these things at every show like Kiss do. It’s spontaneous. It happens when it happens.”

There was nothing spontaneous about the trips to perform in post-Arab Spring Egypt and Iraq, where Black Lips performed to locals rather than the American military. “I didn’t feel endangered,” he says. “I hear gunshots in Atlanta but I didn’t hear them there. Most guys come to Iraq with guns. We went with guitars.”

Black Lips are on the road to promote seventh album, Underneath The Rainbow, which follows an unlikely collaboration with 1980s revivalist and former Amy Winehouse producer Mark Ronson.

Underneath The Rainbow was recorded in Nashville with Black Keys’ Patrick Carney and in New York with former Sharon Jones, Amy Winehouse and Cee-Lo Green guitarist, Tom Brenneck.

Old Black Lips buddy and Deerhunter talisman Bradford Cox co-wrote album highlight, Dog Years, and Mastodon’s Brent Hinds aided the writing of Make You Mine. I Don’t Wanna Go Home was co-written by upcoming Atlanta soul singer Curtis Harding, who came up through the city’s gospel choirs.

“We used to just do it all ourselves, but it was time to try something new, so we got some friends involved,” explains Alexander. “It was time for some fresh blood.”

Dominic Smith