In what seems to be a suite of albums that namedrop the jams that Anton Newcombe loves (with the first being 2007’s My Bloody Underground), the Brian Jonestown Massacre is set to drop Who Killed Sgt. Pepper on New Year’s Day. And since Newcome is. always. on. fucking. MySpace. showing. us. the. dinner. he’s. cooking. and. other. random. and. often. stupid. shit., the tracklisting was made available for a brief time before it was retracted. Probably after a phone call from the manager. Be it as it may.

1. Tempo 116.7 (Reaching For Dangerous Levels Of Sobriety)
2. The Heavy Knife
3. Lets Go Fucking Mental (Melodica Mix)
4. White Music
5. This Is The First Of Your Last Warnings (Icelandic Version)
6. This Is The One Thing We Did Not Want To Have Happen
7. The One
8. Someplace Else Unknown
9. Detka! Detka! Detka!
10. Super Fucked
11. Our Time
12. Feel It (Of Course We Fucking Do)
13. Felt Tipped-Pen Pictures Of UFOs

Before the full length drops though, the BJM will release a new teaser EP that comes out next week called One EP. You can czech it courtesy of Cargo Records. Looking forward to hearing that, for sure. However, I currently have no predictions on whether Who Killed Sgt. Pepper will rule or not. This is the best of the streaming tracks I’ve listened to thus far, and I like it quite a bit. But some of the other tracks I’ve heard sound abysmal, and some were pretty decent. I dunno, what do you think? I’m certainly hoping for the best myself. I’m on your team, Anton.

POSSIBLY RELEVANT :::
The Brian Jonestown Massacre vs. The Decibel Tolls

Haven’t had a news roundup in a while, so let’s do this like Buddhists…

I’ve been grooving on Psychic Ills’ Mirror Eye since it dropped last month. It’s not groundbreaking material, but it’s good enough, and it’s the sound I enjoy in modern music (which is, let’s be honest, anything droney with lots of reverb and the tweaking of various knobs). I’d give Mirror Eye a solid B. Pitchfork disagreed (a 1.4 no less), and the Ills decided to post a response… for a bit.

Swan Fungus broke this story last week, but since then, the blog entry has disappeared!  Does Pitchfork have wiseguys that pay you a visit for your skulduggery?  Shit is nefarious, dudes.  Gee whiz… so anyway, the Ills wrote a review of P4Ker Joe Colley’s review and it cultivated a respectable amount of lolz.

From all we gather Colly’s transparent interest in and knowledge of music seems limited to recent trend fucking, and while that doesn’t shock, the fact that he gets so bent out of shape about music that he’s not into is interesting at the very least. Definitely not a fan of “abstract tendencies” or “eschewing traditional means of songcraft” Colly seems content in not having a mind of his own.

The response written was not a sour grapes type of retort – it was witty, intelligent, and honestly, they had a bad break with this review and were fairly justified in firing up the keyboard.  Colley admits, indirectly, to liking feel good crap your hands say yeah pop, so it’s no wonder that Mirror Eye harshed his mellow. But now… now the blog entry is gone!  Has a bounty been placed?  Sinister.

Well… thinking logically here, though I would love to uncover some sort of conspiracy with hipster shadow people and deep throats, the Ills were probably advised by management to not get into a pissing contest with the mighty ‘Fork.  Regardless, I’m still shooting Bob Woodward an email.

Perhaps all this will help generate more (and I think deserved) buzz about Mirror Eye, as this writer points out, since a dreadful review gets more exposure than a lukewarm one.  And that makes sense – wouldn’t you, as an artist, rather illicit any response, good or bad, than instill complacency?

::: ::: :::

A calmer and more genial Brian Jonestown Massacre is ready to hit the road next month. Though, I should mention that I’m not going to make any cracks at Anton Newcombe in this article. Sure, there’s little doubt as to Newcombe’s status as being absolutely batshit crazy, but this makes him too easy a target. So, despite TMT’s penchant for poking fun at some artists who we do genuinely like, ragging on Anton is akin to igniting a bag of dog poop on your curmudgeonly neighbor’s porch. You know what you’re getting into and, hence, it’s not really worth it. So to that end, I just wanna chime in here to establish the following premises:

Anton and the latest (seventh perhaps?) incarnation of the Brian Jonestown Massacre are touring.
The BJM are amazing live, under the conditions when everything goes to plan.
Things have been on plan in the last couple of years.

Therefore, you should go see them (make haste!). Expect a cross-catalog setlist, at least one face-kick, and music that’s better than the majority of what’s coming out these days. Oh, and you lucky bastards who live on the Left Coast will get to witness our leather jacket-clad boys open for Primal “fuckin’” Scream! And I hate each and every one of you for this.

03.16.09 – Los Angeles, CA – Club Nokia #
03.17.09 – San Francisco, CA – The Filmore #
03.20.09 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
03.21.09 – Seattle, WA – Neumos
03.24.09 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theater
03.26.09 – Minneapolis, MN – Turner Hall
03.28.09 – Chicago, IL – The Metro
03.29.09 – Cleveland, OH – The Grog Shop
03.30.09 – Pittsburgh, PA – Rex Theater
04.02.09 – Boston, MA – Paradise Theater
04.03.09 – Northampton, MA – Pearl Street
04.04.09 – Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero
04.06.09 – Washington, DC – 930 Club
04.07.09 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
04.08.09 – Asheville, NC – Orange Peel
04.09.09 – Nashville, TN – Exit/In
04.10.09 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
04.11.09 – Memphis, TN – Hi Tones
04.13.09 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
04.14.09 – Austin, TX – Emo’s
04.16.09 – Tempe, AZ – Club House

# Primal Scream

::: ::: :::

Finally, it looks like the Chicago Sun Times’ Roger Ebert has, indeed, acquired a prescription for medical marijuana.  His Feb. 8 entry Ending up in a kind of soundlessly spinning ethereal void as we all must drops some next level science on yr. dome.

As you probably know, Ebert has had serious health problems recently, so it’s fair to postulate that he took some max strength pain killers and wrote a totally insane journal post adorned with fractal art.  It’s one of the more obtuse career moves I’ve seen a writer do – and also one of the more entertaining.

I certainly wish him the best, as I think Ebert is one of the most intelligent and, most importantly, fair critics in the game right now.  But godddammmm. That was the most 420 shit I’ve ever read that didn’t feature the frequent utilization of the pronoun “man.”

MP3 :::
Psychic Ills – Eyes Closed
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Here It Comes
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Getting High in the Morning
Frank Zappa – Flower Punk

It really was accident, or at least it wasn’t my intent to provoke a fight, but I guess that’s what happens when you poke a sleeping dragon in the eye.  I did not mean to get in an online nerd fight with Anton Newcombe.  I love the Brian Jonestown Massacre.  I can prove it, just look at my Last.fm, they get mad play… just like me, HEY-OH!

Anyway, here’s the story of the infamous pissing contest between myself and Anton Newcombe by way of the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s MySpazzz that I’ve been promising for quite some time.  It’s a good one.

I realize that I have just forfeit my ability to ever interview Anton by publishing this, but this story is just too good to keep in limbo.  A caveat: I do feel kinda bad that I claimed he wasn’t doing anything before I was aware that My Bloody Underground was already in the works.  However, it was never my intent to be mean, I just felt that there was a correlation between the advent of MySpace/YouTube/et al. and the sudden dropoff of BJM’s output.  I still think that’s fair. Here’s the original write-up I did describing the conversation which happened almost one year ago today…

So, as some of you are aware, I’ve been a big fan of the Brian Jonestown Massacre going on, oh, five years or so. Since around the release of This is Our Music. Of course, the documentary Dig has augmented the BJM’s legend and name recognition. In addition, if you’ve seen Dig, then you understand that the brainchild of the band, Anton Newcombe, despite being impressively prolific, is utterly batshit crazy.

Anton is MySpace friends with Lana, as she is also a fan of the band’s music. Since Lana is a cute young lady and Anton is 20 years her senior, he enjoys sending her messages from time to time and comments on pictures of her in a not-necessarily-appropriate manner. I think this is hilarious. However, on a daily basis, Anton posts two to four bulletins waxing nonsensical political musings betwixt random YouTube videos that have some half-conceived and hair-brained correlation. Be it as it may.

A few days ago, I decide that, still being a BJM fan, I’m tired of not having any new material to enjoy since Anton’s too infatuated with the same interests as tweens and pedos. I write him a message from Lana’s name (with idiosyncratic netspeak in tow), figuring that he would respond better to a cute girl than a scruffy dudeface…

anton,

look… you’re very musically talented && i love the bjm so much… so why don’t you fucking get the hell off myspace for ONCE && follow up the WE ARE THE RADIO ep, which was supposed to be the teaser for a new full length that we haven’t even been close to seeing because you’re on goddamned myspace and youtube all day!!!

LL

And Anton replies, much in the vein of the father in A Christmas Story whose vitriolic torrents of pseudo-vulgarities borders on the surreal…

why don’t you blow me fake bitch.
fucking stupid cunt look on youtube cia whore.
i don’t need turd pirate.

for nothin.
fuck you and led zeplin.

delete

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=antonfjordson

Better yet, he writes this on his blog with the subject “mail bag : satan 19 year old fuck jar writes(used).” So now Lana’s getting mail from both foes of Anton’s insolence and sycophantic Anton apologists. Some wrote messages like “good one!” whilst others felt that we needed to leave poor homeboy alone. One blog comment read: “you are always online, like a freakin tweaker, however, the girl is tryin to give you a compliment so dont be such a dickhead anton. send ted my regards.” His response was classic: “fuck you too. be productive. delete.” Obviously, as a polemist of sorts, this aggression will not stand, man.

I, also, don’t need turd pirate.

hey now, no need to be mean and spell led zeppelin incorrectly.

all i’m saying is that i’d like to see a new album. NOT an online release or another shortcut, a NEW JAM with artwork, a physical record, and some of the best songwriting around today. i just feel that myspace and youtube are hindering this, considering that you wrote and recorded, what, THREE albums in 1996 && now it’s been at least THAT many years since we’ve seen new shit. we had the best of retrospective in’ 04 (no new jams), and then only four songs in ‘05 with the”mini-album.” that’s bullshit, anton. i made a visual aid to demonstrate this point.

let’s get the ball rolling, anton. if not, i may have to bump the warhols up a bit on my playlists.

see? do not want.

stop being a fucktard.

also, thanks to my admirers from my original post. your support is appreciated.

Tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown massacre at the Peoples Temple community in Guyana, the second largest death en masse of American civilians from non-natural disaster origins (the first being niner eleven), claiming 909 very loyal lives. Jonestown wasn’t just a bizarre and significant historical event, but also was a direct influence or tangential muse to lots of delightfully psychotic music.  As with anything that could be filed under the hard-to-explain, I, too, am extremely fascinated by cults.

Heaven’s Gate and the Manson family unequivocally have compelling histories themselves, but no cult was as organized, influential, and as close to moving beyond cult-dom, as it were, as Jonestown. Total insanity. Of those who were killed 30 years ago tomorrow, casualties included North Carolina Congressman Leo Ryan, the first and only (to date) congressman killed in the line of duty.  That’s a hell of a thing. There was a recent production in Chicago called The Peoples Temple, also in commemoration of the 30th anniversary, about the final moments of Jim Jones‘ and his most important constituents’ lives.  Totally wanted to see it.  Wasn’t sure if anyone would come with me, or if I was in the position to afford tickets to fine art events.

If by chance you’re not too familiar with Jonestown, please read up on the rich history of Jim Jones and his followers with this Time article from 1978 here and/or this documentary here (nevermind the corny transition music).  Interestingly enough, Jonestown’s first run-in with the American government was through the FCC for unlicensed use of shortwave radio transmissions, which was the primary way the town communicated with people back in California.

It’s pointless to try to pass judgment on those to turned to Jones, or those who went through with the “revolutionary suicide.”  The truth is, you never know what these people were going through, what influenced them, and so forth. I hate when you read or hear reporters regurgitate the obligatory “why?”  It’s not inconceivable that any of us could get swept up in something that we believe in, unsavory or otherwise.  We all have to believe in something, right?  More importantly, though somewhat indirectly, look at what the Milgrim experiments taught us – it’s entirely possible for psychologically sound people to commit grievances while remaining keenly aware that it’s wrong.  And that’s just balls-to-the-wall crazy.

But I’m not writing today to condemn, defend, or WTF the Jonestown cult members who drank the purple stuff and died in 1978.  Many musicians also have a fascination with cults and the occult.  The most obvious reference to this is the Brian Jonestown Massacre, whose name is a pastiche of the late Rolling Stones guitarist and the mass suicide.  So it felt appropriate to take a trip into historical catacombs, as well as reach into my arsenal of strange recordings and render the “Jonestown Death Tape” for you all today.

I guess I should go on and warn you, this recording is extremely macabre.  It is exactly what it sounds like – Jonestown, death, et al.  The recording is a half hour long and features Jim Jones addressing everyone’s concerns – everything’s falling apart around the compound, the Feds are already after them – and how the “revolutionary suicide” is the best solution.  You hear him at the end accept responsibility for Ryan’s ambush.  However, you don’t hear anything particularly disturbing at any point, other than the general creepiness of peering into what a fervent cult is like.  With that said, remember that all faith-based organizations satisfy some of the criteria for what is considered “cultish.”

MP3 :::
Jim Jones – Final Sermon

It would be pretty excellent if Google displayed a festive logo to mark the occasion tomorrow.  Perhaps I’ll design one for them.

In the spirit of cults and the macabre, how about some Charles Manson?  The truth of the matter is that LIE and his other available recordings are pretty great, as long as you can try to forget that this is, indeed, Chuck Manson.  Of course, lots of psychedelic and acid folk artists went plenty berserk at some point.  Alexander Skip Spence, for example, tried to murder the other members of Moby Grape with an axe one night. Roky Erickson wrote a notarized statement claiming he was an extraterrestrial. So if you can sit down and hear Skip Spence and the like without picturing insanity and violence, give the ironically “Don’t Do Anything Illegal” a decent chance.  Really great jam.  L-Train’s take on Charles Manson is pretty entertaining, commenting as she was hovering over me while I typed this entry: “He does have a lovely voice.  It’s like a less nasally Lou Reed.  Of course, his music is better than Lou Reed’s.”

While we’re on the subject of Charles Manson, he was good friends with Dennis Wilson and was deeply influential to the almost equally batshit Brian Wilson.  I’m going to include my favorite song off of Smile below, but not the new one, because I don’t like it.

In the spring, look forward to some waxin’ on the Branch Dividiens and Waco, as Boards of Canada have written a great number of ditties about David Koresch and his roving gang of ruffians.

MP3 :::
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – The Ballad of Jim Jones
Charles Manson – Don’t Do Anything Illegal
Alexander Skip Spence – All Come to Meet Her
Brian Wilson – Cabin Essence

Once again, “woj” emerges victorious with another quality recording of WFMU’s broadcast of last weekend’s All Tomorrow’s Parties. This time, he comes bearing gifts of the Brain Jonestown Massacre and Spectrum (a.k.a. Spacemen 3’s Sonic Boom).

The Brian Jonestown Massacre says “no” to hippies and ravages through a cross-catalog of jams in a 45-minute span. Though the volume is low, the quality is good, with no discernible rip hiccups or encoding snags. The highlight for me includes, what I believe to be, an impromptu cover of The Smith’s “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore” right in the middle of “Hide and Seek” (from Spacegirl and Other Favorites). And of course, there’s always the strange and entertaining BJM stage banter.

Your Anton Newcombe Quote for October 1st:

Interviewer: What keeps you buzzing as a band?
Anton: Amphetamines

A quick programming note – the Decibel Tolls is ALL NEW this Friday with Kenny Bloggins v. Anton Newcombe. Comedy ensues when Kenny accidentally gets into an online nerd fight with the BJM front man, but they make up and touch weiners afterwards.

Spectrum… just plain sounds amazing. Spectrum dusted off and reworked some old gems, such as their own version of Spacemen 3’s version of Mudhoney’s “When Tomorrow Hits.” I’m also including a celebratory Silver Apples MP3 below since Simeon used to jam with Sonic Boom, often uncredited, under the Spectrum name. What, you don’t have the SA/Contact joint? Take care of that! Oh, and hey, anyone got that Spectrum/Silver Apples split Lake of Teardrops? That shit’s hard to find.

The new Spectrum album is tentatively titled On the Wings of Mercury (though I’m sure someone will correct me if this is wrong) and is supposed to be released before 2008 on Space Age Recordings, but no official date has been announced.

MP3 :::
The Brian Jonestown Massacre at ATP – 9.21.08
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Here It Comes
Spectrum at ATP – 9.21.08
Silver Apples – Misty Mountain

A lot of small, relevant snippets of information have been appearing on my newsdesk in the past couple of hours, so I figured, why not dump everything in my action items box into one convenient, slammin’ post. So here’s all the news fit to print, in one post. It will help augment my lack of posting over the weekend, as I will be out of town. The timing was a little bad considering…

Ariel Pink Hits the Bottle This Weekend… Hard

Ariel Pink, on his 2008 “Thanks Mom, I’m Dead” tour, is now bringin’ it proper with a lush, full band. I’m interested to hear this, considering the last time I saw Ariel’s twisted AM radio golden pop was his opening spot for Animal Collective during the Sung Tongs tour. They sounded (sonically, not compostionally) like shit, just like on album. I wonder if this same interpretation will happen full band (featuring members of Indian Jewelry, Lilys and Beachwood Sparks). Philadelphia’s singing-at-the-bottom-of-a-well siren Tickley Feather opens the New York, Philly, and Baltimore shows. I know nothing about Tickley Feather’s live show, but the recorded material is sick! As for local action, Ariel Pink hits the Empty Bottle in Chicago this Saturday (totally feelin’ sad panda for missing this). Please see it for me – take photos!

7/19 San Francisco, CA Cell Space
7/21 Salt Lake City, UT Kilby Court
7/22 Denver, CO Larimer Lounge
7/24 Omaha, NE Slowdown
7/25 Minneapolis, MN 7th Street Entry
7/26 Chicago, IL Empty Bottle
7/27 Toronto, ONT TBA
7/28 Montreal, QC Zoobizarre
7/29 Boston, MA TT The Bears
7/30 New York, NY Knitting Factory
7/31 New Haven, CT People’s Center
8/1 Philadelphia, PA M Room
8/2 Baltimore, MD Sonar
8/4 Atlanta, GA Eyedrum
8/5 Tallahassee, FL Beta Bar
8/6 Baton Rouge, LA Spanish Moon
8/7 Houston, TX Walter’s on Washington
8/8 Denton, TX Hailey’s
8/9 Austin, TX Mohawk
8/11 Tucson, AZ Plush
8/12 Los Angeles, CA Echo

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Grafitti – Inmates of Heartache
Tickley Feather – Natural

Lightning Bolt and Wooden Shjips Do ATP’s Release the Bats

Halloween is the only holiday I really celebrate, and if I can locate a few extra thousand dollars (plus exchange rate fund) lying aruond, I may just take a hajj to London’s Forum on October 31 for ATP’s Release the Bats. No, I probably won’t make it, but you Britons should take the trip to see Lightning Bolt and Wooden Shjips, then tell me how it was. Lightning Bolt, who refuse to play on a stage, is worth traveling any distance to see, for their energy, face melting performance, and sheer unadulterated volume. Wooden Shjips will be fun to see live, as well, since they will be testing lots of new material for the follow up to their airborne self-titled. ATP is encouraging people to dress spooky. Considering LB is booked – shouldn’t be a problem.

Lightning Bolt – Duel in the Deep
Wooden Shjips – Lousin’ Time

Watch Anton Newcombe Woo His Peers and Neighbors in DIG!

DIG is an amazing documentary by Ondi Timoner outlining the seven year trajectory of two very aesthetically different groups, starting from the same place, but creating two vastly incongruent story arcs (with the Brian Jonestown Massacre acting as the undeniable central force, the immovable object, like the Joker in the Dark Knight). Totally fascinating – sometimes you just can’t make this stuff up. Of course, a lot has been written and discussed concerning the general insanity provoked by Anton and company (which I think is kinda cool in a psychotic way). What really matters is the music, ultimately, and this film holds true to this ideal.

Now, thanks to SnagFilm, you can watch this riveting piece of human drama – for free. Way rad. Czech out DIG here, or go on and watch it all up in that lil’ widget dude above! Technology is fucking aces.

Personally, I love every Brian Jonestown Massacre record. But even if you’re not into the music, the movie is more than entertaining. If you do love the BJM, there’s tons of great music throughout. You should definitely buy the DVD if you like the flick, since the DVD is packed with tons of great deleted footage, extras, and BJM performances. In a later post, I have quite a story concerning my epic run-in with Mr. Newcombe. Look out for that, but in the meantime, enjoy a lil’ guy from the We are the Radio EP.

Brian Jonestown Massacre – Seer

So now to the point – one very excellent band and one very good band will be opening for the Dandys this fall. The first, Darker My Love, will provide the opening white noise squall throughout the fall to promote their upcoming album, in a Zepplinesque fashion, 2. They’re playing a few west coast dates starting next week to premiere the jam hive, then go out on the road and, hopefully, steal Courtney’s drugs when he’s not looking. Aces. 2 drops like Fat Man and Little Boy on August 5.

7/17 San Francisco, CA – Popscene
7/18 Los Angeles, CA – The Echo.
7/24 San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop
7/25 Los Angeles, CA – The Echo
7/26 Seattle, WA – Capitol Hill Block Party
8/5 San Francisco, CA – The Independent.
8/7 Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour.
9/9 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
9/10 Madison, WI – Barrymore Theatre
9/12 Chicago – Vic Theatre
9/13 Toronto – Kool Haus
9/14 Montreal . Club Soda
9/16 Boston – Wilbur Theatre
9/17 NYC – Terminal 5
9/20 Philadelphia – Theater of Living Arts
9/22 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
9/23 Atlanta – Center Stage Atlanta
9/26 Lawrence, KS – Liberty Hall
9/27 Denver – Gothic Theatre
9/28 Aspen, CO – Belly Up Aspen

Brookyln’s A Place to Bury Strangers will be opening the two SoCal dates: Oct 1 in San Diego at Belly Up, and Oct 3 in LA at the Wiltern Theater. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing them at the Empty Bottle here in Chicago on Sept 21 (that’s the fall equinox, ya’ll) because, ya know, I’ve never seen the Jesus and Mary Chain live. And if I did see them live, I’d want them to do a “Don’t Look Back” performance of Psychocandy. Since that won’t happen, A Place to Bury Strangers fills that void in my black heart. Supposedly they’re the loudest band around these days, but I’ll believe that when I see it. Mogwai, Hair Police, and Dalek are pretty loud, and all have done permanent damage to my hearing. But if A Place to Bury Strangers can hang in that company, they will conquer live. And upset every Dandy fan in the audience.

MP3 :::
Darker My Love – Summer is Here
A Place to Bury Strangers – Another Step Away