Black Lips

Sneaking below the radar of college radio, NPR and, until recently, the mainstream press, Atlanta’s Black Lips has built a significant national following by playing its guts out at any and every club that would have it. Between tours, the group has released numerous vinyl singles and five LPs, including this year’s 200 Million Thousand. The foursome’s sound is deceptively catchy, hiding gems of pop underneath trash heaps of tinny distortion and calculated amateurishness. Eventually, thanks in no small part to the 2006 single “O Katrina,” folks took notice, and the boys repaid the attention by becoming more accessible, sort of. Still putting their backs into their live act, band members are settling in for the long haul as musicians with a — gulp — career. See ’em before you can’t afford to.