When the Black Lips signed to Vice Records last fall we all knew deep down something cataclysmic was in store, but sending the boys to Tijuana to make a live recording with Rocket from the Crypt’s John Reis at the controls is possibly the most brilliantly disastrous idea ever.

Moreover, Vice had the vision to soak everyone in tequila, schedule the show the same weekend in September of some skateboarder trade show just across the border in San Diego – guaranteeing a throng of sodden skate kids – and hire an accompanying Mariachi band that hadn’t the foggiest idea of what the fuck was going on.

Meanwhile, all hell is breaking loose across Mexico because its federal electoral tribunal hadn’t yet made a decision on its bitterly contested presidential race. So Mexico didn’t even have a president!

“People were on edge everywhere,” says the Black Lips Cole Alexander. “And the cops were shaking kids down all over.”

Perfect.

All the while, Reis – the mastermind behind Rocket from the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu and the Hot Snakes – is lying in wait at the Salon Social Blanco y Negro like some sonic Wizard of Oz.

“John Reis was amazing,” Alexander remembers. “He’s this big, classy guy smoking big cigars and always drinking expensive tequila.”

And the result of this spectacle is nothing less than spectacular.

Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo, which translates to The Brave (or the Brave Men) of the New World, is exactly how you might imagine a John Reis/Black Lips collaboration to be: That classic Black Lips sound – the jangly blend of early 60’s rock and Motown and screeching punk – with Reis building up Jared Swilley’s bass lines, unscrambling the noise and making perfect sense of a chemical and booze-soaked riot, but also managing to keep the band’s ragged and raucous authenticity.

“Everything sounds so hi-fi,” Alexander says. “Usually during our live shows, we try to rough things up, but everything sounds so clean.”

There’s only one new song on Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo, the gritty, early Stonesy-sounding “Buried Alive,” (there’s also a hidden track) and Vice has made “Stranger,” which comes off their 2004 effort We Did Not Know the Forest Spirit Made the Flowers Grow, the first single.

The Black Lips will release a proper full-length studio record later this year on Vice, but this record is too good to be skipped over.

“I mean, our studio record will be better, but this was Tijuana,” Alexander said, noting that some of their equipment was stolen during the weekend-long melee and the band’s part-time manager was ticketed $800 for peeing in the streets and for possession; the band says the cops planted a $20 bag on him.

“Luckily though, none of John’s stuff was (stolen),” Alexander said. “It was a big risk for him to come to Tijuana and record us live with all this shit going on because he brought all of this expensive equipment.”

The Black Lips are back on tour in mid-March with the Ponys. But before that, they’re playing several shows in London and a Vice party in Paris March 2.