Black Lips — 200 Million Thousand

I'm firmly convinced the Black Lips are the new Stooges.

Cole Alexander has the half-stupid, half-lazy (but awesome because you know he doesn't care about how sloppy he sounds) voice of a young Iggy Pop. Much has been written about Black Lips' on-stage antics, and they have the same buzzsaw guitar riffs as Ron Asheton. 200 Million Thousand cements their status as the heirs of the Stooges' raucous version of blues and psychedelic rock-drenched proto-punk.

"Take My Heart" is a boozy, totally sloppy and great combination of blues and garage rock, while "Drugs" and "Short Fuse" are the kind of surf rock songs that could show up anything on a Pixies album. "Let It Grow" is a fuzzed-out drooler of a track to which you can imagine all sorts of wild on-stage tomfoolery going on. The hilarious, bleeped-out "I Saw God" furthers the gigantic, druggy trip before the entire thing ends in a glorious mess on hidden track "Meltdown," which sounds exactly like its name.

There's nary a misstep, and this could well be the Black Lips' breakout album.

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