As of early 2009, Slab City’s song “Milwaukee’s Beast” opens each episode of the MTV2 series VBS.tv. According to Slab City keyboardist Ernie Quintero, he followed around the Spits with his video camera for almost a year; the Seattle band invited him to roadie and film their 2004 U.S. tour. The Black Lips joined the Spits for the East Coast leg of the tour, and after hanging out for a week or so with the break-out Atlanta band, Quintero promised the Lips to show them around if they ever came to San Diego.
“I told them, ‘Next time you get to San Diego, I’ll take you to Tijuana.’ Eventually they did make it to town, and of course, they wanted to go to TJ. The trip ended up being a West Coast tour, and I just jumped on the road with them,” he says.
That short trip led to an invitation to roadie for the Black Lips on a two-month tour of Western Europe and Scandinavia in 2006. Before heading to Europe, Quintero met the quartet in New York as the band was working out their deal with Vice’s record label. The magazine was starting up VBS.tv around the same time.
“A few months after that tour, I helped set up the show for the Black Lips’ live Tijuana album [Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo]. I put them in touch with John Reis and the venue in Tijuana. VBS had me do some of the filming of the Tijuana show. I gave the VBS people a [Slab City] CD when they were in San Diego, and I’ve been in touch with them since.”