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The Brian Jonestown Massacre

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The Brian Jonestown Massacre is a psychedelic rock band founded in San Francisco, California in the early 1990s, led by Anton Newcombe. They are now most famous for their role in the 2004 documentary DiG!, which details their explosive onstage antics and their feud with fellow '60's psych-rock revivalists the Dandy Warhols. The band is currently based in New York City.

Contents

The line-up

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, tambourine player Joel Gion (who stayed with him the longest), and guitarist/bassist/vocalist Matt Hollywood. There are at least two dozen musicians who have been in the BJM at one point or another.

Ex-members include: guitarist Jeff Davies; guitarist Reginald Shumway; Matt Hollywood, a founding member of Portland band The Out Crowd; Peter Hayes, founding member of San Francisco rock trio Black Rebel Motorcycle Club; Joel Gion, a founding member of San Francisco band, The Dilettantes; Rob Campanella, a Los Angeles 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, founding member of Australia's answer to the BJM, the Lovetones.

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. Even the Dandy Warhols appear to have buried the hatchet with Newcombe, as he joined them onstage at Lollapalooza in July of 2005.

The name

Newcombe's art is heavily influenced by the postmodern 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 mash-up 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 monsyllabic band names at the time, in particular the San Francisco 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, but with their second record, Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request (a retread of an old Stones album title), 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 include the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Velvet Underground, Donovan, the Byrds and Bob Dylan.

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. 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.

In 2005 The Massacre released the mini album "We Are the Radio". A full length is rumored to come out sometime in 2006.

Descendants

Discography

See Brian Jonestown Massacre discography

Albums

Album Cover Info Track Listing
Spacegirl & Other Favorites
Year: 1993
Format: LP
Label: Candy Floss 		1. Crushed
2. That Girl Suicide
3. Deep in the Devil's Eye & You
4. Kid's Garden
5. When I Was Yesterday
6. Spacegirl
7. Spacegirl (Revisited)
Methodrone
Year: 1995
Format: CD
Label: Bomp! Records 		1. Evergreen
2. Wisdom
3. Crushed
4. That Girl Suicide
5. Wasted
6. Everyone Says
7. Short Wave
8. She Made Me
9. Hyperventilation
10. Records
11. I Love You
12. End of the Day
13. Outback
14. She's Gone
15. (Untitled)
 Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request
Year: 1996
Format: CD
Label: Bomp! Records, Tangible 		1. All Around You (Intro)
2. Cold to the Touch
3. Donovan Said
4. In India You
5. No Come Down
6. (Around You) Everywhere
7. Jesus
8. Before You
9. Miss June '75
10. Anenome
11. Baby (Prepraise)
12. Feelers
13. Bad Baby
14. Cause, I Lover
15. (Baby) Love of My Life
16. Slowdown (Fuck Tomorrow)
17. Here It Comes
18. All Around You (Outro)
Take It From The Man!
Year: 1996
Format: CD
Label: Bomp! Records, Tangible 		1. Vacuum Boots
2. Who?
3. Oh Lord
4. Caress
5. (David Bowie I Love You) Since I Was Six
6. Straight up and Down
7. Monster
8. Take It from the Man
9. B.S.A.
10. Mary Please
11. Monkey Puzzle
12. Fucker
13. Dawn
14. Cabin Fever
15. In My Life
16. Be Song
17. My Man Syd
18. Straight up and Down
Thank God For Mental Illness
Year: 1996
Format: CD
Label: Bomp! Records, Tangible 		1. Spanish Bee
2. It Girl
3. 13
4. Ballad of Jim Jones
5. Those Memories
6. Stars
7. Free and Easy, Take 2
8. Down
9. 'Cause I Love Her
10. Too Crazy to Care
11. Talk-Action=Shit
12. True Love
13. Sound of Confusion
Give It Back!
Year: 1997
Format: CD
Label: Bomp! Records, Tangible 		1. Super-Sonic
2. This Is Why You Love Me
3. Satellite
4. Malela
5. Salaam
6. Whoever You Are
7. Sue
8. (You Better Love Me) Before I Am Gone
9. Not If You Were the Last Dandy on Earth
10. #1 Hit Jam
11. Servo
12. Devil May Care (Mom & Dad Don't)
13. Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request (Enrique's Dream)
Strung Out In Heaven
Year: 1998
Format: CD, LP
Label: TVT Records 		1. Going to Hell
2. Let's Pretend It's Summer
3. Wasting Away
4. Jennifer
5. Got My Eye on You
6. Nothing to Lose
7. Love
8. Maybe Tomorrow
9. Spun
10. I've Been Waiting
11. Dawn
12. Lantern
13. Wisdom
(Bringing It All Back Home - Again) (EP)
Year: 1999
Format: CD
Label: Which? Records 		1. The Way It Was
2. Mansion In The Sky
3. Reign On
4. The Godspell According To A. A. Newcombe
5. All Things Great & Small
6. Arkansas Revisited
 Bravery, Repetition & Noise
Year: 2001
Format: CD
Label: Tee Pee Records 		1. Just for Today
2. Telegram
3. Stolen
4. Open Heart Surgery
5. Nevertheless
6. Sailor
7. You Have Been Disconnected
8. Leave Nothing for Sancho
9. Let Me Stand Next to Your Flower
10. If I Love You?
11. (I Love You) Always
12. If I Love You? (New European Gold Standard Secret Babylonian Brotherhood)
And This Is Our Music
Year: 2003
Format: CD, LP
Label: Tee Pee Records 		1. Wrong Way
2. Introesque
3. Starcleaner
4. Here to Go
5. When Jokers Attack
6. Prozac vs. Heroin
7. Geezers
8. Maryanne
9. You Look Great When I'm F**ked Up
10. Here It Comes
11. What Did You Say?
12. Prozac vs. Heroin Revisited
13. New Low in Getting High
14. Somethings Go Without Saying
15. Tschusse
16. Pregnancy Test
17. Right Way
Spacegirl & Other Favorites (Reissue)
Year: 2003
Format: CD
Label: Bomp! Records 		1. Crushed
2. That Girl Suicide
3. Deep in the Devil's Eye & You
4. Kid's Garden
5. When I Was Yesterday
6. Spacegirl
7. Spacegirl (Revisited)
8. After the Fall
9. Thoughts of You
10. Hide and Seek
11. Never, Ever!
12. Ashtray
13. Fire Song
Tepid Peppermint Wonderland: A Retrospective
Year: 2004
Format: CD, LP
Label: Tee Pee Records

Tepid Peppermint Wonderland is a greatest hits
compilation spanning the band's entire career
(with the exception of Strung Out in Heaven
due to legal issues). 		Disc 1:
1. All Around You (Intro)
2. Who?
3. When Jokers Attack
4. Servo
5. Open Heart Surgery
6. If Love Is the Drug
7. It Girl
8. Sailor
9. Straight Up and Down
10. Anenome
11. Wisdom
12. Just for Today
13. Stars
14. Vacuum Boots
15. Prozac vs. Heroin
16. She's Gone
Disc 2:
1. Nailing Honey to the Bee
2. That Girl Suicide
3. Nevertheless
4. Evergreen
5. Starcleaner
6. Let Me Stand Next to Your Flower (Live)
7. Hide and Seek (Live)
8. In My Life
9. Mary Please
10. Talk-Action=Shit
11. Oh Lord
12. This Is Why You Love Me
13. Not if You Were the Last Dandy on Earth
14. Swallowtail (Live)
15. Feel So Good
16. Fucker
17. #1 Hit Jam
18. Ballad of Jim Jones
19. Free and Easy Take
20. Stolen
21. Mansion in the Sky
22. Sue
We Are The Radio (EP)
Year: 2005
Format: CD
Label: Tee Pee Records 		1. Never Become Emotionally Attached To Man, Woman, Beast Or Child
2. Seer
3. Time is Honey (So Cut The Shit)
4. Teleflows vs. Amplification
5. God Is My Girlfriend

External links

 

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