The Mighty Hannibal and Black Lips - Tonight @ The EARL

There's another night of truly-can't-miss music in Atlanta this evening. The Mighty Hannibal, an r&b legend from the '70s in Atlanta, will perform with Black Lips as his backing band at The EARL. From the things we read, this is going to be quite a show. According to The EARL's site, doors open at 9:30pm and there are a pair of openers. This will likely sell out, so make sure to get your tickets.

Recently, we had the opportunity to sit down with Black Lips for an upcoming piece in DIW. Enjoy some interview surplus with quotage about this evening's show, Andre 3000 and much more:

On the star of tonight's show:
Bassist Jared Swilley: "He was this old soul/r&b guy from Atlanta, The Mighty Hannibal. We met him last year, and we're bringing him down to do his this show, and we're going to be his backing band. He lives in New York and just started doing music again. He's already blind. He got signed to a record label and had a couple songs on the r&b charts. He was local to Atlanta and used to play with Ray Charles and Little Richard."

On the show in Tijuana, Mexico that the band recorded for its first Vice release (on 2/20/07), Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo:
JS: "We set up a party down there. A free show. And we bought a shitload of beer from the Tecate brewery. So there was unlimited beer and tequila, and we hired a mariachi band to be onstage with us."
Guitarist Ian St. Pe: "Vice gave us a budget, so we rented out a big hall down there, rented equipment, got the Tecate..."
JS: "It was a super random place. It's usually a social club, so normally it's reserved for weddings and those parties when Mexican girls turn 15."
ISP: "It was a crazy ass show. People were everywhere. Then halfway through, we had the mariachi band come on. It was a difficult show."
JS: "The stage was like a foot high in the center of the room. People were surrounding us and I kept getting punched and knocked over. We had to fight a guy and kind of take him out. I couldn't play, because he was unplugging me and knocking down my mic. He punched me in the face."
ISP: "Yeah, and then you headbutted him and he went down."
JS: "Usually, I'm pretty tolerant until I simply can't play."
ISP: "There will be 10-15 minutes of video from the show for those who buy the CD."
JS: "We had a local Mexicali band. So it was half local Mexican kids that were into cool music and the rest were white kids from San Diego. And we got a lot of passerby because of all the free alcohol. It was a nice weird mix of people."
ISP: "Should we mention the guy from the guy in the bathroom?"
JS: "He kind of looked like Ricky Martin. He had a polyester suit on in the bathroom and he was a drug dealer. It was an open market. He just set up shop. That's not our territory, so I wasn't going to say anything about it. And actually, a bunch of shit got stolen. The cops came in and were shutting stuff down. They wanted to do security, but we basically had to pay them off..."

On the pressure that comes with signing to a bigger label:
ISP: "I can't speak for the other guys, but if I was really to sit down and think about it, maybe there's a little more pressure, but I am more than confident. You know, we're not changing anything. The production might be a little higher, but it's the same stuff that we've always done."
JS: "It feels different than the first album we did, but it's not bad pressure. The first tours we didn't even have guitar cases. We've definitely had to change everything to make things easier. I mean, this is all we've done for so long."
ISP: "We have tuners now. Hard shell cases."
JS: "We've pretty much had the exact same routine for the past three years. Three or four months in Europe, recording at the same time, pretty much the same thing."
ISP: "We're on tour so much, if one were to ask where we practice, the answer is we don't. We're on tour so much. We write songs in the van, then hash them out at sound check. That's just what we do, and it works."

On self-producing their records:
ISP: "It's what we've always done. We have four strong voices and we know what we want. I mean, maybe if the label wants a certain single, but otherwise, hell no."
JS: "Unless someone really awesome comes along. And I can't even think of who that would be."
ISP: "Andre 3000. That would be great. That would be cool. You can print that. Maybe he'll read it."

Related links:
TheMightyHannibal.com
Hannibal biography
Black Lips on Vice Records