i wonder if this was the Kim Kardashian of her day,leaking her own nasty-ass cave paintings... pic.twitter.com/UhIMrvxl
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Thursday, September 27, 2012
things & stuff
The Brian Jonestown
Massacre Aufheben A. the berlin era of San
Francisco’s Brian
Jonestown Massacre
kicks into high gear
with the 13th full-length
from Anton Newcombe and company.
Named after a German term for
transcendence, Aufheben lives up to
its title. With a lineup consisting of
returning founding member Matt
Hollywood and principals of such
acclaimed experimental acts as
Spacemen 3, Dead Skeletons, Singapore
Sling and High Dependency Unit,
songs like “I Want to Hold Your Other
Hand” and “blue Order/New Monday”
showcase a new mood for the
Massacre—as if the nihilistic
Newcombe found inner peace in his
latest combo’s Motorik-laced fusion of
Eastern rhythms, Paisley psychedelia
and Factory Records groove. Hopefully,
he keeps this incarnation intact for a
while because they just blessed him
with the best bJM LP since Strung
out in heaven. Ron Hart .
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Roaming the savage wastelands and seedy underbellies of the music world.
INTERVIEW: ANTON NEWCOMBE (BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE)
Newcombe and his shifting band of acolytes in the BRIAN JONESTOWN
MASSACRE have been steadily and stealthily releasing records that that
are revered and reviled in equal measure. As one of music’s more
outspoken characters, Newcombe cares not for public opinion, nor would
he have it any other way. Taking time out from a lengthy world tour,
Newcombe spoke with us about his life in Berlin, thoughts on U.S.
culture and cynical Hollywood sharks.
AA:The title of your latest LP, 'Aufheben', is a word that
has multiple meanings. It can be used to mean 'to lift' or 'to abolish'
among others. What meaning did you have in mind when choosing it to
represent your music?
AN:I love the concept of destroying something to preserve it.
I read a book once about a Sufi institution of learning...maybe it was
in Iran hundreds of years ago. At some point a new ruler decided that
Sufi art and teaching were against more conservative Islam, so mobs of
angry orthodox people were going from village to town to attack and
destroy these schools of learning and art and purge these mystical
sects. The master of one school, upon learning of a mob heading in their
direction, ordered his students to grab all of the texts and art they
had created in the compound and take it out to the street and burn it;
all of the rugs and tapestries etc. A student said “What? You want us to
burn all of these texts and God inspired art?
The teacher said “Yes. When the mob comes, they will think we are a
part of their mob, and will keep moving on. We know how to make these
things again after it is safe as it is our own work...and we will live.”
AA: Early reactions to the new LP are very positive. Some fans
are calling it the best Brian Jonestown Massacre record yet. Is this
something you would agree with?
AN: I don't think about things in those terms. I'm pleased that
people enjoy it...I hope it finds its way into the hands/ears of those
that would enjoy it. I’m very much looking forward to starting on new
ideas, new albums. I love progress of any type and I would love to
expand on my own art in someway...create more songs in other
languages...perhaps do a soundtrack...
AA: A part of the My Bloody Underground LP was recorded
in Liverpool. As this site is based here, we are keen to know what your
impressions of the city and its people were.
AN: For me the city is all about the people. Love them. I had a
falling out with Pete and Peasy (mostly Pete, Peasy is lovely) so I do
not visit so much anymore. They were my European management so...you
know, I guess I was getting way scary drinking and being wild then
recording insane songs with those lyrics and giving it that Paul
McCrayfish/Woodenpeg bit. It freaked them out....but no hard feelings. I
am a Northern soul - loved the Bunnymen to the death. Will Sgt is a
good lad and I have loads of friends from Liverpool. I love people from
the city and area. Love the La's, don't care much for the Beatles
machine…ha!
AA: You currently reside in Berlin when not touring. What about the city enticed you to move there?
AN: Freedom. Berlin leaves me alone. At the same time I get the
feeling that the major players in the western world are falling apart
and just plain suck. Capitalism ran amok. I don't get that feeling at
all in Scandinavia or Germany. In some ways the UK and the States and a
few others…they feel like corporate fascist countries or states in a
global thing. I don't like it. Berlin…I don't get that vibe at all and I
feel like it will be the last of the western nations to dress up like
the Stasi or National Socialists because of their history. I feel safe,
happy...and I am thankful.
AA: Do you see yourself returning to live in the US in the future?
AN: I can't say, but I do not like the culture nor the cause or the
lies or the mainstream or the politics or the militarism, jingoism,
racism...it all makes me want to fucking puke. I've lost all respect for
the culture and for the people for not standing up to the bullshit that
started after 9/11 and it is embraced by both parties. People are so
self-centred, money hungry and lame. I don't want to see it, or see
bling or be around that fucking jackass Jersey Shore Kardashian tabloid
toilet any more than I have to. Goldman Sachs can have it.
AA: In an interview with the The Quietus in 2010, you stated
you were clean and on the wagon. Was this a conscious decision in
regards to your domestic life or something you just slipped into?
AN: It was time for me to stop drinking. Simple.
AA: You are currently undertaking a lengthy world tour until
August. Are things like burnout and fatigue still problematic or are you
experienced enough to deal with it?
AN: It’s hard work. I try the best I can. I'm not perfect. I worry about playing well...
AA: For as long as you've been in the public eye, you've
talked extensively about the notion of instigating revolutions and
wanting to totally alter people's perceptions of life and the world
around them. Do you think that people will ever widely accept such ideas
or have we gone too far down the rabbit hole as a species?
AN: I can't really want things for society that they don't want
themselves. I find that I lose respect for humanity little by little
more each day. I would like to think that I am wrong, but all signs
point to the decay of some very vital aspects of human dignity, and that
distresses me. My only plan is to carry on with my art.
AA: Some people first became aware of you and BJM as a result
of 'Dig!' What were your thoughts on the film? Did you feel you had been
ambushed by those making the film or is it something that does not
particularly bother you?
AN: Ambush is the wrong word. I feel like I provided access under the
false impression that the film makers were honest when in fact they
were selfish and shallow. Betrayed is a better word for it.
AA: Rumour has it that BJM will be releasing a total of six albums in 2012?
AN: Not in 2012 - but yes I am working on more than one album. I will
release them as I feel like I can move on artistically from each one
and on to another.
The what: The world’s biggest band in the world if you
have pointy shoes, a stripey shirt and haven’t smiled in 3 years. The
Brian Jonestown Massacre bring their mates The Raveonettes to the party
and why shouldn’t they? Anton spent a few years in Iceland and Denmark
is close enough for them to be besties. Probably. The Raveonettes never really impressed me much on record and live when they played at Laneway a few years back. Sure everyone knows Love In A Trashcan
but are they more than just a one-hit-band? The answer is yes, they
were great. Lots of noisy feedback and dreamy vocals swished through a
haze of white noise. Good shit. I was impressed at the level of
shoegaziness (that’s a word) these cats played at. Will I go back and
listen to their albums now? Most definitely. I could probably pad this
out more but it’s been a few days and I’ve been cold. There’s been a lot said about Anton the last few
years and of course those early days of drug debauchery will always loom
over the band’s heads but the reason they became so notorious was the
music first and foremost. The craziness and partying was just an added
incentive to the legend. These days the band have sorted themselves out,
Matt Hollywood and Joel Gion have been back for a few years now and all
is well. Even their last album Aufheben have received great accolades so they’ve never seemed more close knit. But so what, it’s all about the live show. Seeing eight dudes on the tiny OAF stage bust into Panic in Babylon with its Paint It Black
vibes and 4-guitar harmonium is pretty special. Anton stands side of
stage and lets most of the other guys lead which is fine, it all blends
together perfectly. New and old, you got it. How about Not If You Were The Last Dandy on Earth, Who and Walking Up To Hand Grenades. In true BJM fashion there’s a lot of tuning between
songs and strange banter from Anton, although it’s nothing like that
legendary 2004 tour. There’s the usual crew taking vocals with Matt
taking on Oh Lord and Joel on I don’t know what. But as he’s easily the most replaceable member he may as well earn his keep. For the encore they play Straight Up and Down,
or as some people call it ‘The theme from Boardwalk Empire”. They don’t
just charge through it, they stretch it out to 15 minutes of pure
droney feedbacky wall of soundy goodness. And that’s the good shit that
makes me feel funny in my pants. Verdict: I will certainly go back and listen to The Raveonettes and Brian Jonestown Massacre are still kings of their genre. Good work. Rating:
2 Comments
TomJune 2, 2012 at 5:25 am
You don’t know what you are talking about. Joel is essential to
the bands’ rhythm section. He is the Spokesman of the Revolution fer
crying out loud!
A bizarre mix of hipsters, stoners and middle aged men huddled
together outside The Astor, comparing denim jackets and smoking
perfectly rolled cigarettes. The vibe was relatively mellow as the crowd
poured through the theatre doors and draped themselves over seats,
gathered on the floor and slunk into the dark corners of the room.
Gracefully arriving on stage, THE RAVEONETTES
instantly battered and bruised the crowd with uncomfortably loud
feedback that caused bones to vibrate and skin to tingle. We were going
to be killed, and we were willing to die. The trio delivered with quiet
confidence and sincerity, choosing to make very little conversation and
let the music speak for itself. Their intoxicating, almost hypnotic
brand of Trash Pop didn’t just speak, it screamed.
Raveonettes set was faultless and they owned their space as they roused the crowd with ‘Beat City’,
complete with ear splitting feedback that seemed to force it’s way into
the spaces between the audience, connecting everyone. The soft, dark,
dream pop of ‘Lust’ had the crowd blissfully subdued, but the moment was short lived and the abrasive garage noise was back in the form of ‘Aly walk with me’. It was the necessary slap in the face of the collective conscious, awakening us from our fuzz induced coma. Sune and Sharin
shared vocal duties and managed to create a heavy, full sounding set
that delicately hung somewhere between melancholia and mayhem. The drum
machine was a little loud and completely drowned out the sound of the
actual drummer, who may as well have been playing a biscuit tin with a
pencil. That being said, The Raveonettes still absolutely killed it.
Anticipation and excitement saturated the air as the masses gathered, waiting for the BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE to appear. There were those who had obviously seen Dig!, whispering amongst themselves about who they thought Anton would kick in the face and there were those who know better. With a 20 album back catalogue and years of touring, the Brian Jonestown Massacre
have emerged as a highly evolved pillar of stability. The lights
dimmed, the 8 members arranged themselves on stage and the onslaught
began.
Anton was pleasantly docile; positioning himself at the far left of stage and allowing fellow band mates the spotlight. Joel
took up the centre space, where he milled around banging his
tambourine, shaking his maracas and generally being a dude. There was
very little in the way of banter but no words were needed as they
proceeded to show us why they are, in their own words, the best band in
the world. They kicked things off with ‘Stairway To The Best Party in the Universe’, a track from the new album ‘Aufheben’,
and the room instantly stank of weed. The joint in question made it’s
way around the room as the crowd really pulled together, playing a game
of pass the parcel until the security guards caught on and kicked out
the last guy holding it. Bit uptight, but the band laughed and everyone
carried on without him.
Perfectly balanced, the sound was impeccable. BJM have grown into
such a dynamic, tight knit group who understand the sort of organised
chaos it takes to keep it all together; and they do it seamlessly. They
jumped between mellow, strung out tracks like ‘Anenome’ and the innocent playfulness found in ‘Wisdom’ and ‘Servo’. ‘(David Bowie I Love You) Since I Was Six’ had the crowd doing all kinds of odd interpretive dance but the pace was picked up and the real grooving began when Matt Hollywood sung the brilliant ‘Not If You Were The Last Dandy On Earth’. As the prodigal son of BJM, he really owned it.
With such a huge back log of tunes, they played hit after hit and the
two hour set seemed to come to an end all too soon. The lights went
down, the reverb resonated throughout the theatre and the band were
gone.
True to the premise that you should not be a bloody sell out, there was no encore.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Brian Jonestown Massacre
It’s complicated. There aren’t too many bands that have a Wikipedia
page dedicated to sorting out their current and past rosters. Over its
20-year existence, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, led by Anton
Newcombe—the band’s only consistent member—has seen more than 20 band
members. Partly due to sensationalized disputes, possibly because of
Newcombe’s personality, which is as eccentric as his interests—ranging
from cults and Sufi mysticism to divergent realms of underground
thinking—the San Francisco commune of psych rock has split factions
many, many times, often creating epic side-projects (Black Rebel
Motorcycle Club, The Warlocks, The Black Angels, etc.). At least the
latest 2012 release, Aufheben—a term used by Hegel to explain
what happens when a thesis and antithesis interact—sees BJM returning to
its roots of mingling Eastern sounds with neo-psych. The Blue Angel
Lounge open the show.
Date: May 9, 2012 Time: 9 pm Phone: 801-746-0557 Address: 241 S. 500 East, Salt Lake City, 84102 Where: The Urban Lounge
Anton Newcombe continues to explore his
influences on Aufheben and, as the Kraftwerkian name implies, Krautrock
plays a big part in this release. Recorded in Berlin, one might be
reminded of David Bowie's Berlin trilogy. Like Low, Heroes, and Lodger,
BJM's output from 2008 to 2012 (My Bloody Underground, Who Killed Sgt.
Pepper?, and this album) is a highly experimental series -- full of
fractured song structures and lengthy, extensive jams -- but each of the
three feels cut from the same cloth and, when stepping back and fanning
through the discography, they could easily be considered career
highlights. Newcombe once again proves to be an expert at filtering
vintage sounds into his own vision. The India-influenced '60s
psychedelia of Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request is revisited in
the flutes, sitars, and swirling textures, while ongoing nods to '80s
shoegaze and '60s psych are incorporated tastefully into the motorik
landscape. Under the sweeping, grandiose soundscapes are some of
Newcombe's best-written songs. It's a sign of maturity when an artist
can incorporate the best aspects of the past and continue to press
forward with such a sense of purpose. The hypnotic momentum is steered
by a stellar cast of session musicians, including ex-Spacemen 3 bassist
Will Carruthers and original member Matt Hollywood, who patched things
up with Newcombe for 2010's Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? Aufheben's shining
moments are the most daring ones, and are also surprisingly sweet:
newcomer Eliza Karmasalo sings sweetly in Finnish on "Viholliseni
Maalla," a dead ringer for a Stereolab B-side, and New Order's biggest
single gets a salute in a heartbreaking, bittersweet symphony called
"Blue Order/New Monday."
Release Date – 30th April 2012 Label – 2012 ‘a’ Records Rating – 7/10
Cult sixties revivalists The Brian Jonestown Massacre released
their twelfth studio album last week and it can be earmarked as a
return to form for a band that had lost their way in the heady pop
shit-storm that was the 00s.
The album, entitledAufheben, moves away from the disco/house vibes of last effort Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? and see’s Anton Newcombe and his merry men return to the sounds that shot BJM to underground stardom in the mid 90s.
Thus, due to this, the highlights from the record are the tracks most reminiscent of their early work, most notably the Beatles homage ‘I want to hold your other hand’ and the pounding rhythms of ‘Waking up to hand Grenades.’
The stand out moment however comes in ‘Seven Kinds of Wonderful’, a
track that has been knocking around online in demo form for the last
couple of years. It finds BJM at their neo-psychedelic best with
Newcombe droning indecipherable lyrics over a backdrop of endless swirls
of noise that lap at the ears.
Other examples of psychedelia include opening track ‘Panic in
Babylon’ and also midway track ‘Face Down on the Moon.’ Both tracks are
instrumentals and, particularly the latter, deploy Middle Eastern
elements.
What Aufheben is then is a return to form for the band.
Although by no way comparable to the classic trinity of albums all
released in 1996 of Take it From the Man!, Their Satanic Majesties Second Request and Thank God for Mental Illness, it is the most focused and consistent collection the group have put out since the dawn of the millennium.
Check out The Brian Jonestown Massacre here.
katy and anton leave portland
katy,collin and anton eat lunch in phoenix (burittos)
anton greets the blue angel mountain boys in denver.
The Brian Jonestown Massacre (due tonight at the Bluebird Theater) has been through ups and downs since 1990. But through it all, singer and primary songwriter Anton Newcombe,
has steered the band through releasing more great albums per decade
than most bands have across entire career. For the uninitiated, the
earlier albums of the BJM have incorporated the sounds of psychedelic
bands of the 1960s with more modern aesthetics in a way that sounds like
it is not locked in any particular decade. Some would broadbrush the
music as "post-modern," but there's nothing ironic or detached about the
honest emotional expressions in the songwriting.
We recently had a lengthy chat with the charming and witty Newcombe
about a variety of subjects but mostly about the importance of having
some kind of artistic integrity in a cultural climate that is trying to
erode and undermine our collective ability to live authentically and
compassionately. Westword: Your new album, Aufheben, was it something you largely recorded yourself or was it more of a band effort? Anton Newcombe: I have a recording studio in Berlin,
our own studio, and our group, my bass player has a professional
studio. He did one of the Superbowl ads in Portland -- the one with
Clint Eastwood that everybody hated -- "Half-time in America." He did
that. We have a recording studio with harpsichords and mellotrons in
L.A. with mature, productive people. Is your bass player still Will Carruthers?
Well, see, it's not that interesting a story, but I chose not to call
my group Beck. See, Beck plays with all kinds of people and makes a
record. He retains his aesthetics, and it doesn't matter, right? He just
makes records. Then a band shows up and plays live. I tend to play with
people over a long period of time regardless of what that mythology is.
It's been twenty years. But I'll record with anyone, and Will is a
friend, and I do play music with him. He has toured with us and he's a
great person. On the new record you have a song called "Viholliseni Maalla". Is that Finnish for "Enemy of My Country"?
No, it's "Land of My Enemy." Very close, and it is Finnish.
The problem with the Scandinavian languages is that you have to place
words in the context of a sentence, so they become really vague, so if
you just use two words, it could be "land of strangers" -- it could be
anything. In the context of your song, what was the significance of the title?
Don't you think it's kind of absurd -- like, you're in Colorado -- in
Utah, it's against the law for you to catch the rain that comes off
your roof and put it in a barrel of water. Utah owns the water rights.
How can you own the fucking water? Now they own the land and the
geological rights and every single thing about it. Nice trick. Do you
know what I mean? If you own it all, me as a spiritual entity, I am in
the land of my enemy. Philosophically, but maybe I'm reading too much
into my own thoughts. In a recent interview you did with The Quietus, you referred
to your music as "dark sarcasm" instead of the kind of joke music that
some people have made. Why do you feel that to be the case?
Well, because everybody does that. Beck is the perfect example of it
-- it never gets too deep or too serious about anything, particularly.
It doesn't stop you from enjoying the song, taking no chances, never
says anything offensive. You don't even know what that guy thinks. Neat
trick for a public figure. You have no fucking idea what Beck's
perspective is or what he thinks. Besides that you've heard he's a
Scientologist or something.
That's a real interesting trick for a man that all he does is sing
songs. He's not singing about anything that means anything. And you have
no clue as to what his personality is other than he's sort of fun, and
he's really good at what he does. He's got an imagination, maybe. That's
a parlor trick. That's like when your mom wears dark sunglasses at
night. That kind of distance. But you can't blame him because the world
is really weird. Like TMZ, they can't wait to get into everybody's dirty
stuff. A guy named Jeff Suthers was in a band called Bright Channel.
You championed him a bit, and you've done that for other artists over
the years. What about a band inspires you to champion them?
What a great group. Great guy. I love him. Well, I know what it feels
like to me, and I know that my taste isn't everybody's taste. But I
also use an ecosystem mentality. There will never be an Anton Newcombe
record store. There will never a club in Italy that waits every two
years for me to make my way to Torino for me to play in staying open.
It's a whole environment that needs to take place.
So it's in my own best interest to help create a musical environment
through awareness of the things that I need to feel stimulated in any
way that I can help. It takes very little effort, and it is its own
reward. Art, music, and the business, and the radio, and Clear Channel
-- all of it, the magazine Fader is a Levi's company. They didn't want
to buy ads in Rolling Stone every month, so they made their own
magazine. Everything is a part of this thing.
It's almost like that it's the luck of the draw that the most
powerful guy isn't going to get canned from his job in four years
attaches on to you with his ego. Then he throws millions of dollars at
it, making people, you know, say how great it is at the expense of
everyone else. Because they do it like Coke does it. When you walk into a
liquor store and you look at the shelf of pop and the Coke, two-liter
bottles go halfway down the aisle and it starts to be Pepsi.
Then you get down way on the end, and they might have Vitamin Water
or something, which is also Coke. Then they have something else. But
they don't need to have one thousand two-liter bottles of Coke at the
store on hand. That is specifically to deprive you, the consumer, of
more choices and dollars that could be filtered in another direction.
That's how it works with the media. The Beatles are the most guilty
of that. And I hate that, but I'm not some Charlie Manson guy who is
going to wage some crazy, idealistic, psychotic battle against the
machine because it is the way that it is. But it's wrecked itself, not
file sharers, not hackers. Why bring a band to your club, say, if you're
the Larimer Lounge, when you could just have a DJ?
Well I'll tell you why you bring a band: Because they love music at
the Larimer Lounge in Denver. So you're lucky because those places
aren't everywhere. They could tell you DJ AM is a great guy, man. We'll
never know a guy that's better than that, and we're hoping that someone
in the future learns how to press "play" on their iTunes, so we can feel
the experience again that we all shared. The titles of some of your songs reference pop culture in a
way that subverts the original meaning and puts the words in a new
context. What about that transformation of ideas appeals to you?
Let's get specific with one. Are you talking about "Blue Order New
Monday"? I'll address that one and "I Want to Hold Your Other Hand." "I
Want to Hold Your Other Hand," in theory, if you imagine a person, boy
or girl who has two hands, and John Lennon has expressed his desire to
hold one of them, there should, in theory, be one for me. So "I Want to
Hold Your Other Hand."
Now "Blue Order New Monday," Bernard Sumner had a band for a hot
second called Bad Lieutenant, and they lifted a full riff from "When
Jokers Attack," on twelve-string. It's not a guitar lead like Jimi
Hendrix. It was a melodic motif, and they stole it all the way and
played it on twelve-string with the same tonality. Didn't mention
anything. Total dishonesty when you're coming from that kind of money.
We know he doesn't have any ideas worth merit anymore, so that's okay.
So you know what? I decided to get him back. I know how algorithms
work on the supercomputers. I'm in a legitimate band, and I make real
records. Now, for all time, you can't Google "blue order," right? You
can't Google "New Order Blue Monday" without coming up with "Blue Order
New Monday," too. You can't look for it on YouTube without having my
option. And you can't do it on iTunes or Spotify or Last FM.
So he's fucked. This is worldwide. I do Le Monde, Der Spiegel. I play
Tokyo or everywhere. Just because I'm not on David Letterman or
something like that doesn't mean I'm not legit. I do quite well. It just
means that they think I'll speak my mind. That's not the business
they're in. I was told by NPR they can't play my music because it's been
suggested that it triggers mental illness in children around the age of
nine or ten. Isn't that great? They actually told you that? That's crazy!
Yeah, they did. It's so funny. It's okay, I love that. It's not an
insult. I don't know if you saw the Super Bowl or saw the Grammys. I'm
in the music business, too, right? But that Roman thing with Nicki
Minaj? For them to laud that in front of everybody at the Grammys, this
thing about excellence in music and achievement? It's blasphemy. It goes
beyond the scandal of giving six Grammys to Milli Vanilli for not even
being involved with the record.
This is even worse. This woman is involved, and that's what
she's selling. So I don't take offense that there's not a sweet patch
for me to live and grow on this earth because to me it's like a cesspit,
just about. Hence the title of the record. "Aufheben" means "to abolish
or destroy" but also "to pick up or preserve." So if you put it in the
context of German history of the last century with National Socialism
and the DDR, they literally had to destroy their culture twice to lift
it up and destroy it.
I view western civilization in much the same light. And I'm not an
extremist. If you look at global warming, guess what? The status quo,
western civilization as you know it has to change. I'm not saying I buy
into all the methodology or the timetable or any of it. I'm just saying
that's the reality. So I put in the album Carl Sagan's picture that was a
communication to intelligent life when they sent the Voyager satellite
to the edge of the solar system.
The plaque said, "This is humanity. This is our biometric
information. This is our culture. This is our position in the solar
system. And here is this gold disk that has a selection of greetings in
every language that matters and a phonetic key. Here's some high points,
Bach and Beatles, and all this other stuff."
I thought it would be funny if a German actually put a word on it,
"Aufheben" and if they read it, "This must be destroyed to be
preserved." And then they think, "Got it, we know your location and
we'll be here in a minute."
I also think it's really funny that if intelligent life does find
that, right, and then they get here and maybe we're already gone and
they do some archaeology and they find my record and they're like, "Oh,
this is the guy." Or they pick up the Internet waves. They beam
interwebs up to the space station. Those signals are going everywhere,
so it'd be funny if they said, "That's the guy from the space ship."
2
On "Panic in Babylon," it sounds like there's a sample of some kind of primate.
That's a kookaburra from Australia. It's kind of a woodpecker and
very loud. If you're in Australia, even in the cities, you hear that.
The thing I brought to the table with that is that I'm possibly the
first person in history that ever ran one of those though digital delay,
so they're echoing. So it's some kind of quasi-Dreamtime thing. Did you use two different delays with differing time settings?
Yes, exactly. So it's echoing in this weird way. Not just grabbing
stuff off of YouTube randomly. Originally I called the song "Crazy
Farm." Like Animal Farm, but everyone's insane. Just a totalitarian government with this crazy ambition like in Animal Farm, but it's more like they're just fucking out of their head with hubris kind of thing. Maybe this title isn't supposed to be funny, but it's at least interesting: "Stairway to the Best Party in the Universe"?
"Stairway to Heaven" -- that's funny for a
Crowley-worshipping-full-on-Illuminist-Satanist, right? Bought Crowley's
house and everything. Wrote this song called "Stairway to Heaven." I'm
like, "[Life is more like] 'Stairway to Prison.'" Because even me
articulating my belief system, what I really think, is dangerous these
days. I don't live in America for several reasons. When every single
police force has a tank and everybody is dressed up like stormtroopers
and Darth Vader for anything, and this isn't for Afghanis that are gonna
sneak on a donkey across the border. This is for something else, and I
don't like its style.
I can't vote here in Germany, but every perspective that I want is
represented in spades, and people really stand up for it. So all my
political aspirations are fulfilled by politically active people. Even
down to when that Fukushima stuff happened, they shut down all their
atomic plants. There's nothing like that on a state or national level
that exists in the United States. The interests of the people aren't
represented. It's the interests of finance and the military industrial
complex that's represented there.
And I know that. And I know where it went wrong, too. They should
never have allowed the former head of the CIA to become the president of
the United States. It blurs the illusion that you're telling the truth.
The CIA, I'm not bitching at them, but check this out: The CIA's
concept of democracy -- look at Chilean history -- it's taking you up in
a helicopter at 1,000 feet and kicking your ass out for being a
dissenting voice. That's a fact.
So with three hundred million people, having some guy that was in the
Navy -- I don't know if there's evidence for it, but I hear he was a
hero in the war -- became a congressman, and then the ambassador to
China, and then he became the head of the CIA, then the vice president
and then the president. Then his two sons were governors, and one of
them became president. Boy, I want to go Vegas with that family; they
are so lucky. Berlin seems like an interesting place to explore. What have
you found culturally and artistically that maybe has inspired you and
that you find interesting?
At this point in my life, as an artist, I don't speak German
fluently, so I'm oblivious to the advertising. All of it. Or even idle,
if there were some, on the subway. People are pretty quiet. As a
culture, they won't intrude into you. If you're at a party in America,
some guy is going to say, "Hey, my name is Jim. I work for Bright
Channel. How do you know Sue?" All this crap. Everybody's telling each
other their lives all the time, and all that stuff.
These cultures over here, you can be around people at a party, and
they're not going to offer up all that information, and neither are you.
It's possible to develop a relationship at its own speed instead of
this verbal calling card, selling yourself, just talking because you're
nervous, breaking the ice -- whatever you call it. I like Berlin because
it leaves me alone. It has everything, and it works.
Women and children are safe here, and that's more than I can say for
any city in America. I mean really safe. These people get the job done.
They invented that whole spying thing, and, of course, technology has
brought it to a whole new level, but it just isn't in your face. You get
the feeling they're going to take care of business and do what they've
got to do, but they're not going to threaten you on TV, saying they're
going to look up your butt every time you get pulled over, which is
outrageous!
Every person on Facebook should say, "No, isn't appropriate to strip
everyone who doesn't maybe even have their insurance in their car naked
and look up their butt just because some fuckin' judge says it." So it's
disgusting and shame on all of you. I can't believe anyone would be
talking anything else, because that's mom and it's human dignity, and
that's why we fought these guys that treated people like North Koreans
and deny your freedom.
I'm not even Alex Jones or some saying some crazy stuff, but come on.
It's one thing to be searched before going on an airplane, but it's
another thing [to have that happen in everyday situations]. We've seen
what the police are capable of sometimes. I'm not mad at you when I say,
"Shame on you"; I'm saying "Shame on myself." I've done nothing but
fight the good fight, you know. You've learned to play numerous musical instruments over the years. Did you bring anything on board for the new record?
I try and push myself, and sometimes it's technically something that
hasn't occurred to me. On this one, the reason I included the more
disco-y beat on the last track, I'm playing the mellotron, and I'm
bending those sounds. I've been listening to the mellotron since 1967,
when I was born. "I Am the Walrus" was bitchin' -- The Moody Blues had
it going on for a while. All those people. But I'd never heard anybody
use the instrument that way in the whole world, and I have thousands of
records. It's not something you can copy, because it's not something
that comes out of a can. I created it that way. There's that.
But what I'm really interested in is this soundtrack thing. Ideally,
in America, all I could think of was someone along the lines of Quentin
Tarantino. Except his stuff, I dig quite often, is lifting a song from
another movie. I think that's a real shame, considering how many
musicians of merit there are on the planet, let alone in your country,
let alone in your city. I think that's a poverty of the imagination.
That doesn't help anything.
That's big business now. They think there's enough stuff to distract people a la Brave New World.
There's enough goodies to pass around to make sure no one gets paid.
It's all on Spotify. The only people getting paid are the advertisers
and the people doing the analytics, which is bullshit. So I want to do
soundtracks and hit up people I respect in the world. I'll figure that
out when the time comes, and that could be genre-spanning and mix that
all together. That would be so cool. Make a storyboard and a script.
Loop in everybody. Not just tracks. I have no problem when Martin
Scorsese and those fellas from Boardwalk Empire called and said, "How do you feel about us using this song?" I was like, "Thank you, because you guys are great."
I taught Pete [Hayes] from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club how to play guitar. He's got the Twilight people and their publishers going, "Hey we want you in this movie, Twilight!"
"Great, here's a song called 'Black Twilight.'" "Cool." You know, they
just collect this stuff, and it's all part of the 360 deal. That shit
can blow me, except it has a dirty mouth, you know what I'm saying?
That's just a "zinger," as they say. That's just what I was doing.
The way Ennio Morricone had that trust set in on some stuff -- I'm
not talking about spaghetti Westerns specifically. I'm talking about
something where I could bring in the likes of Flying Lotus from the West
Coast. Somebody with some mad skills. I also look at a generation. I
was born in '67, and maybe coming of age in the '80s or whatever and
making my name as an artist in the '90s and my legacy into the thousands
or whatever. I'm thinking about in your awareness in an art movement
with this technology, this interaction that we have internationally with
what can be done.
With surround sound and all this fidelity, I've yet to see this
ass-kicking music. I have yet to see a movie where you're like, "What
the hell was that?" And you can't get it out of your head. I want to be a
part of that. And I want to blow anything out of the water, like if you
could imagine Dark Side of the Moon being a movie not in
a movie. Or something. I want to take it to the next level somehow and
be a part of that. Unfortunately, Hollywood is not in the movie
business. It's in the Billion-Dollars-of-Anything business. If it's in
the millions-of-dollars business, it's a failure.
You can't blame them, because you've got fake CIA agents going, "Hey,
I just made a hundred billion. I'm Fuckface Facefuck." For your job,
that's not that great. You've got to jack it up so you feel important.
"Boy, it's great being an investment profile mutual fund manager."
Because those guys are doing that, it's not good enough -- like after
World War II and everybody owned a house in Detroit, where I make twenty
times the salary of the labor on the line. I've got to make one
thousand, two hundred and twenty times of that guy.
And we've got to compete with the Chinese. We just opened a new
factory in a prison. The whole "fuck you all" kind of thing. That's why
I'm an artist. And that's why I don't sell the rights to my stuff,
because it's obvious to me that when somebody's laying off ten thousand
people and I'm hiring people, they destroyed the music business. They
wrecked it.
The governments now, when they tell us about this stuff, their hubris
has gotten in the way. They're not good at governing. They're not good
at planning society or anything of the things -- the infrastructure and
paying their bills. What they are good at is the police state. Let's run
with that. It's so weird. I know the big picture, so this isn't about
Arabs; this is about China.
We're only as strong as the weak among us. When you care about
someone that you don't know and don't have to, that's one of the most
beautiful things that humans can do that animals don't. I was promised a
lot of really wild-ass daydreams being a little kid growing up. And I
feel like I was fucking ripped off, so I'm going to do my best to live
up to some of that promise. From H.R. Puff'n'stuff -- they looked like they were having a good time.
3
On your last tour through Denver, you played almost entirely from your releases prior to Who Killed Sgt. Pepper. For this tour, will you play material from your new record?
I'm going to try and do a combination, and that will change
regionally. Like when I'm in France, I'll play some of the French stuff,
and I probably won't play any of the French stuff in America. There's
no right way to do it. Unless it says "J. Mascis is coming down to the
Bluebird Theater playing his classic album from 1989 and other things.
Cookies will also be served" -- then people expect that. Otherwise, it's
not up to them. Your job as an entertainer is to be entertaining.
When you have hundreds of songs, it's a really difficult decision.
The first order of business is to get the band to feel really good and
have good communication. Hopefully the best ever right now, because at
our age, there's no reason to be there unless they're having a good
time. The next part of it is, I'm gonna challenge everybody and interact
with some of the ideas I've personally created to different ends.
Right now I'm going to propose to Matt to sing the Finnish song in
English, and I'll make it part of the single so he can get paid for his
efforts through iTunes and I can play music with the sales of it. And I
can play music because I don't care if I'm the front person,
necessarily.
I'm more interested in the whole big thing. I want to be part of
something worth seeing, hopefully. Hopefully we're in a decent mood and
that everybody has a good time and feel like, "That doesn't happen every
week." Or something. No break dancing moves this time. I threw my back
out. Bob Pollard and Iggy Pop have to run into the speaker every show. James Brown did his crazy dancing up to his final shows.
What a guy. Until he just, for no apparent reason, did the "Living in
America" on stage. That PCP-induced, driving across South Carolina with
no tires? That was pretty badass. That movie wasn't his high point. Rocky IV. No. After he did that driving stunt on
PCP, he did those PSAs that college DJs used to play. His mea culpa to
society or whatever.
Yeah, but he did the whole "Stay in school" and so many PSAs this
whole time because of his poor background -- no shoes. He was always
about empowering the community. So that wasn't about "The man stepped on
me so hard." He was doing that shit anyway, even though it would be
hypocritical in light of his arrest. I don't think that broke him; I
think the money did. Because I don't think he needed any of the money --
which is the weirdest thing. That sample, "Funky Drummer" and all that
shit? Think about. That was everywhere. He was so rich at that point. Did you do that "Verve" cover with just synthesizer?
The only covers I've done, I did this Crying Shame song, called
"Sailor Ship," and called it "Sailor" and credit those two guys and
changed a bit. Nobody knew about this record. And those guys have never
been mad at me for that. I just covered this Bobby Jameson song. Frank
Zappa stole his wife.
This is the guy that worked for Phil Spector and Jack Nietzsche, who
was flown, when the Stones wanted to hire Phil Spector, he said, "Okay,
I'll send my sound over." He sent Nietzsche and Bobby Jameson. He was the guy from Mondo Hollywood. He recorded this demo, because that's all he did. They had him doing protest songs under the name Chris Lucey.
He did this one in '65 called "There's a War Going On." And I swear
to god, it kicks the shit out of any Dylan, any Joan Baez, any Pete
Seeger, even any Phil Ochs -- wow, that song just bags it. It was so
hard-core they couldn't even use it. I heard it. One of my friends, Joe
Foster from Creation, posted it on Facebook. So I just hit up Bobby
Jameson. I found him because he blogs. He's still so pissed off at the
industry getting ripped off over everything. He's the one that brought
the Vox fuzz from L.A. to Brian [Jones], and it's used in
"Satisfaction."
This guy is deep, Bobby Jameson, and I said, "I'm gonna nail this
thing and do it as a group." And I just blew it out with the bass full
blast and distorted. I'm remixing it and putting it out as a single with
his original demo on the other side. That song is so good, I just
changed one word to make it look like there is a war in the Middle East
instead of Vietnam. It's probably going to come out in August. You crank
that up and you feel like your head is on fire. It's like the "House of
the Rising Sun"-style progression. So why did you do Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" as "Bittersweet Irony"?.
Oh, yeah! I did that because of Allen Klein. He's a fucker. What
happened is that when Keith Richards and Mick [Jagger] found out that
Brian was getting twenty percent off the top because it was his band and
then they were splitting it equal ways, they tore into him. They lied
and stole all the rights to all the music. Not only did they take the
credit for their fame when they signed that deal with Allen Klein, they
didn't even write all those songs.
So Andrew Loog Oldham had paraphrased a riff in the song that you
can't even copyright and put it out as the soundtrack to "Charlie Is My
Darling," which is a 1966 Australian tour movie. He has a cello quartet
doing the hooks of their songs. But the audio recording on the books was
Rolling Stones money. They signed it over, they didn't own it, but they
just gave it to Allen Klein.
For some reason, the idiots in the Verve tried to clear the sample
afterward and it broke the label. The penalty for that was they made no
money for the whole album. It was 1/13th or three points on the album or
whatever anybody gets. An artist gets 13 percent after expenses. The
Doors now get 26 percent for the $10,000 investment. But every year they
have to renegotiate it. Michael Jackson's highest royalty rate was 25
percent at its zenith.
So check this out, I was like, "Fuck you, Allen Klein" -- before he
died, you know -- "I'm going to cover this with real instruments and you
can't sue me, it's not a sample. See ya." That song took me less than
an hour and a half to track out with somebody. And then it was there,
and that's all they had to do. Instead they broke up their band because
they were like, "This business sucks." Which I think was really pussy.
I know for a fact Brian Jones wrote "Satisfaction" because Keith
doesn't even play lead guitar. How is he going to make up leads that
aren't a Chuck Berry song? He said he woke up in the morning and it was
on the tape deck. On Brian's tape deck. Next to his head. He can't even remember writing it. But when you read his book, you know he's a guilty guy. He tries to rationalize it.
Now, the police acknowledge it was murder. He was the best swimmer of
Cheltenham County. He was the best youth swimmer, and he drowned in a
pool you can stand up in. You know what he was going to do with the
Rolling Stones money, which he owned one fifth of? Chas Taylor came to
him and said, "I want to put out this guy Jimi Hendrix." He went to the
office and Mick and Keith were like, "There's no fucking way you're
putting out someone better than the Rolling Stones as our first release
on Rolling Stones Records!" So he was like, "I'm out of here. I'm buying
a really expensive house with my money." You still have your own record label, of course.
A Recordings Ltd. It's cool. People will find out very soon. I would
love to talk Jeff Suthers into putting out that Bright Channel record.
Make a vinyl or something. You know how I met them? I was deejaying for
some other band's party, and they were playing, and not to be mean, but
they captured me. Like, "This is the shit right here." It was so bad,
coming out to DJ and support somebody, make it a good party of whatever.
It was at Larimer Lounge.
It was absolutely real. It transcended his influences. Him chasing
Albini or whatever and being into Sonic Youth and all these different
things. It was fucking real and haunted. Shannon Stein is just like such
a fucking imposing bass player. She reminds me of the girl from Serena
Maneesh. They're like two peas in a pod. You want them in the Viking
boat with you, because it's gonna get rough. Without saying a word,
she's way more badass than Courtney Love could ever be. It was
inspiring, and the drummer was excellent. The
Brian Jonestown Massacre, with the Blue Angel Lounge, 7 p.m. Tuesday,
May 8, Bluebird Theater, 3317 East Colfax Avenue, $20, 303-377-1666, 16+
(and this today from digital spy)
Brian Jonestown Massacre release new album 'Aufheben'
The follow-up to 2010's Who Killed Sgt. Pepper features original member Matt Hollywood.
Of reuniting with Hollywood, frontman Anton Newcombe told NME: "He's a very creative person, even if he's playing a piano part or something.
"It's
strange how we both understand each other's ideas, and also contribute
unique things, i.e. since we taught each other to play music, we both
have the same approach to writing and playing and at the same time and
end up with totally different ideas to contribute. The best of both
realms."
The album also boasts input from former Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized star Will Carruthers.
The full tracklisting of Aufheben is as follows:
1. 'Panic In Babylon' 2. 'Viholliseni Maalla' 3. 'Gaz Hilarant' 4. 'Illuminomi' 5. 'I Wanna To Hold Your Other Hand' 6. 'Face Down On The Moon' 7. 'Clouds Are Lies' 8. 'Stairway To The Best Party' 9. 'Seven Kinds Of Wonderful' 10. 'Waking Up To Hand Grenades' 11. 'Blue Order/New Monday'
Brian Jonestown Massacre support the release with the following UK tour dates:
July 6 - T in the Park Festival, Balado, Kinross-Shire
Fact:
Anton Newcombe told NME: "I feel like I am on the crossroads of
creating an epic soundtrack for film, so in a word, ['Aufheben' sounds]
cinematic."
8 / 10
Nearly 10 years since the infamous documentary DIG!, The
Brian Jonestown Massacre continue to plough their whimsical psychedelic
furrow. Mainman Anton Newcombe is now sober, and here has made his best
album since 2003’s ‘…And This Is Our Music’. Cohorts include Will
Carruthers (ex-Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized) and returning member Matt
Hollywood (last seen storming offstage in DIG!), who sings one of
the highlights, the fantastically titled ‘I Want To Hold Your Other
Hand’. The album title is more appropriate, though, German for
contradictory meanings: either ‘abolish’ or ‘preserve’. On this
evidence, it’s the latter.
Roaming the savage wastelands and seedy underbellies of the music world. 
Track Pick 
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