Las Vegas Weekly

Fashionable males

Lips Like Morphine arms itself with a new sponsor, new EP and potential new members

Nice pants, Lips Like Morphine.

Photo: Corlene Byrd

Lips Like Morphine is in fine form tonight. Feelgoods' monster sound and lighting system is treating the band well, and frontman Charles Earland's swagger impresses the ladies standing front and center. Even the beer-drinking, leather-clad bikers in the back are digging the performance.

Maybe it's the pants.

Half the Lips are wearing designer skinny jeans by Jayime, an LA-based fashion designer who apparently was such a fan she offered to sponsor the band's wardrobe. A little cross promotion can't hurt. "If we win, she wins," says drummer Ahmad Earland.

Of course, the new wave-inspired act doesn't want its impeccable fashion sense to be its main claim to fame. Lips Like Morphine is hoping new EP Saints & Sinners, officially released tonight, is what gets them noticed by overseas record labels. Style is just a pleasant bonus.

For Saints & Sinners, Lips hooked up with LA friend/producer Dean Dichoso to create a fuller, more diverse sound inspired by blues, indie, riot and revolt and, of course, Las Vegas itself. Dichoso is playing second guitar for the band tonight, and Charles has his fingers crossed that Dichoso will continue joining them — indefinitely.

Also with the band tonight, for the first time: a potentially permanent Morphine member, Veronica McCluskey. The keyboardist is fresh off the boat from Australia and could replace Chris Lash, who left the band about a year ago to pursue other projects.

Those changes are being made, in part, to quell comparisons to The Killers; Lips Like Morphine has gotten a lot of those, due to the bands' similar sound and connections between members (Charles worked with Brandon Flowers at a local restaurant; LLM's Dell Star was The Killers' original bassist). "We're hoping this gives us identity," Charles says. "We don't want to be compared."