Named in tribute to the legendary Rolling Stones guitarist and his influence in introducing Eastern culture into the world of Western rock and roll, The Brian Jonestown Massacre have made some of the most exciting underground music in America since the sixties. Formed in 1990 in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, The Brian Jonestown M...
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Named in tribute to the legendary Rolling Stones guitarist and his influence in introducing Eastern culture into the world of Western rock and roll, The Brian Jonestown Massacre have made some of the most exciting underground music in America since the sixties. Formed in 1990 in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, The Brian Jonestown Massacre is very much an amalgamation of that city’s past and present musical forces.
"And This is Our Music" is one of the most dynamic offerings in the band's storied career. It features contributions from Ed Harcourt and Kurt Heasley of The Lily's along with orchestration from some of Los Angeles' finest.
"…one of the band's most intoxicating albums yet." - AP
"…like Neil Young's Tonight's the Night (the harrowing dark side of hippie) for people born after 1975." Vice
"… refuels the mind for a long journey into the depths of unconscious delight." CMJ
"…on a genuine mission to recreate the sound in the demised Stone's head circa Morocco 1967." - MOJO
WIKIPEDIA ENTRY-
"Over its decade-long history, the band has undergone a large number of personnel changes. Multi-instrumentalist and main songwriter Anton Newcombe is the only member who has stayed with the Brian Jonestown Massacre since its beginning, when it was founded by Newcombe and guitarist/bassist/vocalist Matt Hollywood. Currently a member, tambourine man and "Spokesperson for the Revolution" Joel Gion has clocked the most time with Newcombe--he has also quit and rejoined the band more times than anyone else. There are at least two dozen musicians who have been in the BJM at one point or another.
Ex-members include: guitarist Jeff Davies; Matt Hollywood, a founding member of Portland band The Out Crowd; Peter Hayes, founding member of San Francisco rock trio Black Rebel Motorcycle Club; Oliver McLaughlin, founding member of The Mothership; Joel Gion, a founding member of San Francisco band, The Dilettantes; Rob Campanella, a Los Angeles studio producer and engineer who has worked with The Tyde, Beachwood Sparks, Dead Meadow, Mia Doi Todd, Frausdots, Scarling., and his band The Quarter After; Bobby Hecksher, founding member of Los Angeles band The Warlocks; solo recording artist Miranda Lee Richards; Matt Tow (formerly of Drop City), founding member of Australia's answer to the BJM, The Lovetones; Brian Glaze, solo artist and member of psych rock band, The Gris Gris; and David Koenig of Spindrift and the Clean Prophets.
Current long-term members include Collin Hegna and Frankie "Teardrop" Emerson. Long-time guitarist Ricky Rene Maymi was recently replaced by Irina Yaikowsky, who was in turn, replaced by Ricky Rene Maymi.
Much has been made of the fact that Newcombe is head-strong and has just one vision in mind: his own. However, many of the musicians who quit his band have stayed in his orbit and continue working with him in some capacity. Newcombe was, at one point, a drummer in Hecksher's Warlocks. Campanella produces or engineers many of the records on Newcombe's record label, the Committee to Keep Music Evil. Gion is forever showing back up shaking the tambourine at BJM shows. Ricky Rene Maymi was a drummer in an early incarnation of the band, then came back playing guitar several years later, and has since quit and rejoined the band at least once. Even The Dandy Warhols appear to have buried the hatchet with Newcombe, as he joined them onstage at Lollapalooza in July of 2005.
Newcombe's art is heavily influenced by the surrealist techniques of pastiche and image appropriation, and this influence is readily apparent in the name and logo of the band. The Brian Jonestown Massacre is a portmanteau of the name of original Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones, and the infamous mass cult suicide at Jonestown, Guyana. The name was also a reaction against a trend toward monosyllabic band names at the time, in particular the British band Ride.
Newcombe's interest in cults like that of Jim Jones and Charles Manson is well-known, and made quite plain by songs such as "The Ballad of Jim Jones" and "Arkansas" (written by, and supposedly performed with, Charles Manson.) Similar interests include a fascination with the Masons.
The music
The first BJM album, 1995's Methodrone approximates the UK shoegazing genre. Their second, Take it From the Man! is reminiscent of the majority of the Rolling Stones' sixities catalog. By their third album,Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request (a homage to the Stones' 1967, Their Satanic Majesties' Request), they began the pastiche of '60s psychedelia that has characterized most of their music. Even the incorporation of influences from world music such as Middle Eastern and Brazilian music seem to be filtered through the matrix of their '60s heroes, who also include The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, Donovan, The Byrds and Bob Dylan.
The album track 'Jesus' from 'Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request' is extremely reminiscent of the early Spacemen 3 sound on 'The Perfect Prescription'.
Stylistic divergences have occurred. A country/roots rock approach was applied to the Bringing it All Back Home - Again EP (another homage title--this time to Dylan), and electronic music crept into 2003's And This Is Our Music, whose title (a reference to a 1990 album by Galaxie 500) betrays much more recent influences. Thank God For Mental Illness displays a stripped-down sound, relying mostly on voices, and acoustic guitars. This is a format that Newcombe has occasionally resorted to presenting live during times of transition in the band.
The most recent BJM release is the mini album We Are the Radio.
Trivia
* BJM and former friends/rivals The Dandy Warhols were the subject of the acclaimed documentary DiG! -
* "You Look Great When I'm Fucked Up" was featured in the last minutes of Episode 5 of the British comedy/drama television series Skins which was shown on E4.
* "Not if You Were the Last Dandy on Earth" appeared in the Jim Jarmusch film Broken Flowers -
* Jarmusch also appears as the centre shot on the front cover of the BJM album, Bravery, Repetition and Noise.
* "Going to Hell" appeared in the 1999 film American Pie -
* "Open Heart Surgery" appeared on the soundrack to the TV series Rescue Me.
Descendants
* Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
* The Warlocks
* The Out Crowd
* The Quarter After
* The Dilettantes
* Dead Meadow
* Spindrift (band
* Sarabeth Tuceck
* Miranda Lee Richards
* Sky Parade
* The Peoples Temple Of Godstar Children
* Frankie Teardrop
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