The Brian Jonestown Massacre Albums (9)
What The Critics Say
After a four year hiatus (with the exception of a five-song EP in 2005) and another lineup change, Brian Jonestown Massacre take their sound full circle returning to the shoegazer roots that prompted the band to make their first album Methodrone. My Bloody Underground takes cues from two of the most important and influential bands of their respective eras, My Bloody Valentine and Velvet Underground, just as the title suggests, as well as Julian Cope's My Nation Underground. Noise pop and neo-psychedelia are the most notable sources for Anton Newcombe's new music, and after eight albums and a handful of EPs, his rekindled interest in bands like the Jesus and Mary Chain keeps his songs from sounding redundant. Newcombe's key talent is his ability to take music from the past and project it as music for the future. Despite the fact that his quick mouth and serious ego might persuade you otherwise, he's not a god or a superhero (too bad, because "Osmosisman" has a nice ring to it), but there's no arguing that he has a supernatural ability to soak up his record collection and project his favorite elements spot-on, filtered as a unique vision. The first couple songs feel a lot like the Brian Jonestown Massacre we've grown to know, love, and fear, with the expected psychedelic '60s Stones/Kinks throwbacks, charmingly slopped up with a junkyard of instruments and the occasional out of tune guitar. As the album picks up, things get truly warped and a new angle is introduced when '80s shoegazer aspects and '70s Krautrock are thrown into the mix. Imitation Kevin Shields' guitar drones with slight whammy bends fill the air alongside breathy vocals in "Who Cares Why" and "Just Like Kicking Jesus", and faux-German Neu! vocals and a driving guitar fuzz permeate "Golden Frost." Running almost 75 minutes long, the album's as surreal as anything BJM has done, and fans who appreciate their controversial side will appreciate that it is still intact, as evident in song titles like "Bring Me the Head of Paul McCartney on Heather Mill's Wooden Peg (Dropping Bombs on the White House)," "We Are the Niggers of the World," and "Automatic Faggot for the People." Hellbent on pushing the envelope, Newcombe shines as a prolific madman once again and as recycled as the ideas are, My Bloody Underground is a fantastic new direction and a forward thinking album that indicates that however combustible, there is a lot more life left in BJM, in any incarnation. ~ Jason Lymangrover, All Music Guide
'And This Is Our Music'
Release Date 10/7/2003
Tracks 17
Label Tee Pee
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What The Critics Say
It's futile to try to attempt to describe a Brian Jonestown Massacre album. One doesn't so much listen to their music as experience it, entering into their strange, warped world to wallow in the aural vistas they create. Like a '60s 'happening', it's not what actually occurs that matters, it's the experience itself, the fact of one being part of something greater than one's self, and so it is here with And This Is Our Music. "Keep dreaming, keep dreaming, until it's time to go," BJM sing on "Geezers," and the music builds, swelling into a mighty conflagration of sound that stutters out and into the acoustical love song of "Maryanne," which winds its way into the Star Trek-esque epic romance of "You Look Great When I'm Fucked Up," that comes down with a bang into the psychedelic jangle of "Here It Comes," then falls headlong into the wild tattoo of the beats and salsa sounds of "What Did You Say?" and so on, careening across 17 tracks in all. Musical themes are occasionally revisited, moods coalesce then transmute, a myriad of musical influences emerge, disappear, return, transform. "Can we ever really know where we're going, where we're heading?" the band inquire on "A New Low in Getting High," and with BJM as your guide, the answer is a resounding no. But that is the glory of the band: one never knows where one is, or where one will end up, left lost in their psychedelic haze, pulled into a twangy country and western world, or dropped into another of their endless, timeless ambient soundscapes. It's the musical equivalent of a carnival fun house, one never knows what one will find upon opening the door. Psychedelic they may be branded, but that is only the beginning, there's so much more to be heard and experienced within. No longer so young, but still so brave and totally right on. And This Is Our Music is music for each and every one of us. ~ Jo-Ann Greene, All Music Guide
'Bravery Repetition and Noise'
Release Date 10/16/2001
Tracks 12
Label Bomp
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What The Critics Say
Having long explored the ins and outs of psychedelia, the Brian Jonestown Massacre now delve deep into the gloaming world of pop. Bravery, Repetition and Noise is a darkly dreamy album, rich in atmospheres, layered in waves of sound, moody pop for disillusioned people. The album's antecedents are clear, the gloomy post-punk Brit bands whose angst shuddered out across the airwaves in the late '70s through the early '80s. Of course, many of those groups were as inspired by psychedelia as they were by punk's nihilism, pulling both strands into a doom-laden, experimental sound quite distinct from anything that had come before or since. BJM uses this as their touchstone, lovingly re-creating the moods and atmospheres of the past. The vast vistas of "Open Heart Surgery," for example, is so Cure-esque that it seems to have been ripped right out of the hands and mouth of Robert Smith. "Just for Today" is Echo and the Bunnymen transplanted to San Francisco circa 1967, which is where they really wanted to be half the time anyway. Brighter numbers are still capped by dark clouds, musically and lyrically, poppier melodies are snatched out of the sun to bask in the shadows, while there's even a handful of more acoustic ballads to give the whole concept a twist. Bravery may have started at post-punk's knees, but by the end shimmers into a category all its own, and its all the more enjoyable for it. ~ Jo-Ann Greene, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
It's with typical perversity that the Brian Jonestown Massacre makes the leap from the indie ghetto into the majors with their least immediate, most restrained record to date; given time to sink in, however, Strung Out in Heaven proves as engaging as their past efforts, with a focus and cohesiveness often lacking from their more visceral work. Settling into a blissfully psychedelic drift, the album opts not for the Stones-inspired raunch of before but for Byrds-like guitars, muffled drums and pulsating Hammond organ lines, all topped off by Anton Newcombe's half-stoned, half-shamanic vocals; thanks to standout tracks like "Going to Hell," "Wasting Away" and "Maybe Tomorrow," the cumulative impact makes for the BJM's most mature outing yet, evoking a kind of narcotic euphoria perfectly in keeping with the album's title. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
With a name like this, it's pretty clear these guys have '60s on the brain, but as revivalist-type bands go, they're definitely above average. They could use more editing, though; this is their sixth album in about two years, and while no one complains about short value with a running time of 55 minutes, about half of this is run-of-the-mill pseudo-'60s garage/psych with too many indulgent guitar breaks. They get a lot more interesting when they slow things down to a wasted quasi-junkie folk-rock mode, similar in spirit to Nikki Sudden or early-'70s Stones. The spooky "The Devil," which sounds like a Satanic cousin to a Stones track like "Heart of Stone," is a standout in this regard; "Malela" (a close facsimile of the Chocolate Watch Band) and "Salaam" show them to be one of the few '90s bands capable of intelligent use of sitars in a rock context; and "(You Better Love Me) Before I Am Gone," for a change of pace, is a goofy (and not very good) homage to Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra's duet style. Inspired song title: "Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request." ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
'Thank God for Mental Illness'
Release Date 10/25/1996
Tracks 13
Label Bomp
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What The Critics Say
At the risk of further belaboring a rather obvious point, with Thank God for Mental Illness, their third collection of absolutely stunning music in less than a year, the Brian Jonestown Massacre parallels the prolific and effortless brilliance of the Rolling Stones at their fevered late-1960s peak; the sheer scope of their achievements is stunning -- rarely are bands quite so productive, or quite so consistently amazing. Thank God is the BJM's down-and-dirty country-blues outing, all 13-odd tracks supposedly recorded on a single July day at a cost of just $17.36; while it lacks the blistering immediacy of their previous material, the album swaggers and struts with all of the group's usual attitude intact, coming complete with a loose, offhanded feel perfectly accenting the overall atmosphere of debauchery -- "Too Crazy to Care," "Sound of Confusion" and "Talk Minus Action Equals Shit" aren't just song titles, they're words the band lives by. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
'Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request'
Release Date 6/18/1996
Tracks 18
Label Tangible
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What The Critics Say
Truth in advertising: the Brian Jonestown Massacre's sophomore album does, as promised, spring forth from the Rolling Stones' long-underrated 1967 masterpiece Their Satanic Majesties Request, copping not only Mick and Keith's leering bad-boy attitude but also their their rock-and-roll-circus spirit. Opening with the brilliant "All Around You (Intro)," a tongue-in-cheek guide to the mind-altering journey ahead, the record is a kaleidoscopic, drug-fueled freakout -- like the Stones' namesake album, Second Request is painted by Eastern drones and psychedelic tangents, each track bubbling with dozens of sound effects including sitars, mellotrons, farfisas, didgeridoos, tablas, congas, and glockenspiels. Travelling through the past, darkly, the Massacre arrives on the other side unscathed; their music is too rich to be merely retro, and too knowing to be merely slavish -- the Stones themselves haven't made a record this strong or entertaining in years. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The Brian Jonestown Massacre's obsession with the Rolling Stones continues unabated on the brilliant Take It From the Man!; where the group resurrected psychedelic-era excesses on the previous Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request, here they jump further back in time to the Stones' mid-'60s period, with even more superlative results. From the opening "Vacuum Boots" onward, Take It From the Man! is gritty, swaggering R&B-influenced rock, delivered with remarkable assurance and attitude; singer Anton Newcombe is half madman and half shaman, and he commands each delirious moment with absolute mastery, emerging not so much a disciple of Mick Jagger but as a serious threat to the throne. Tracks like "Who?," "(David Bowie I Love You) Since I Was Six," and the epic finale, "Straight up and Down," are simply amazing, evoking rock's golden age without ever disintegrating into slavish devotion -- clearly, the BJM is a group that believes in killing their idols, and their intensity begs the question: just who is the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band again? ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
While Brian Jonestown Massacre have since become known for their wasted Stones take on music (in any number of permutations), when the debut album Methodrone finally surfaced after months of delay (to the point where a side project album by ImaJinary Friends actually came out first), there was an easy, one-word reaction: shoegazers. Redolent with the spirit of such high priests of effects and delay as Loop, Spaceman 3, and My Bloody Valentine, not to mention a fair dollop of the Jesus and Mary Chain (sample song titles: "That Girl Suicide," "Hyperventilation," "She's Gone"), Methodrone clearly is the sum of its influences. Thankfully BJM does a very solid job with them throughout the album's course of over 70 minutes. Anton Newcombe favors breathy, sighing vocals over post-Jagger drawls, understandably ("Crushed" is as perfect an example of American Anglo singing as it gets), while the seven other rotating bandmembers whip up a good amount of machine-like chugging and rave-up bliss as they go. Part of the reason why it all works so well is Newcombe's impressive abilities to actually perform rather than pose. "Wisdom," for instance, isn't very complex, but it successfully creates a psychedelic haze. While assembled from a variety of different sessions and about seven different engineers, Methodrone feels like a unified collection. Newcombe is due further credit for ensuring that his own particular (if second-hand) vision is carried throughout. The album closes on a spectacular high, with the wafting feedback prettiness of "Outback" followed by the majestic drone of "She's Gone," armed with a stunning guitar line, then wrapping up with an untitled bonus track that assuredly builds to a strong end with quirky touches. Though the band never returned to this sound in full, Newcombe and BJM as a whole have nothing to be ashamed of here. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide
