Review: Brian Jonestown Massacre - My Bloody Underground

by Kevin Eagan

There's something to be said about experimentation and noise. Even the most simplistic rock band can transform themselves into something much more complex by adding a few guitar effects and background clamor; just look at The Beatles or The Rolling Stones -- both bands pulled it off well, and their songs have become legendary.

Anton Newcombe's The Brian Jonestown Massacre, an odd collection of musicians that have mixed the experimental with the accessibility of modern rock, have been doing this experimentation thing for a while now. With a diverse collection of albums that move from 1990s pop excess to the grounding of folk rock, Newcombe's band has been fairly successful with experimenting over the years.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre's thirteenth album, My Bloody Underground is just as experimental as anything else in their past, but this time around the band doesn't feel nearly as tight as they once did. As their "best of collection" Tepid Peppermint Wonderland: A Retrospective reveals, this band has tried practically everything, but have done so within the confines of succinct pop songs. Now, the band's sound seems like it's been released into some other realm and allowed to dissipate into the stratosphere.

With that said, My Bloody Underground does have some great songs, and the band's surrealist humor and tone still shines. The album begins with "Bring Me the Head of Paul McCartney on Heather Mills' Wooden Leg (Dropping Bombs on the White House)," a hilariously titled song, although jarring and low-fi. In terms of album openers, this one summarizes the rest of the album well: it's accessible enough to listen to over and over again, but has an off-color quality and is rife with experimentation. The guitars jangle along, as Newcombe sings, "so grab your silver bullets and your wooden stakes / And lock your fuckin' doors for Jesus sakes" with a beautiful melody as the drums and electric guitars drown out everything else. This is essentially how the rest of the album goes, although some moments are much better than others.

As the album continues, the band starts to sound like they're just randomly jamming, enjoying every second and seeing what happens. "The Infinite Wisdom Tooth / My Last Night In Bed With You" starts of with low-fi guitars, as the band stops so someone can tune the guitar. The rest of the song has a demo tape feel to it, and it's sometimes hard to follow, but a beautiful jam nonetheless. Equally on "Who Fucking Pissed In My Well?," the band jumps right into a far out mystic jam that includes acoustic guitar and sitar.

The album careens around like this until the fourth track, "We Are the Niggers of the World," a straightforward piano jam that feels more like a junior high piano recital than a song worthy of Newcombe's far out antics. Nevertheless, "We Are the Niggers of the World" provides an intermission in an album that's about to get even more trippy, and the title also seems to allude to more deconstruction of The Beatles and their post-Beatles antics (possibly a nod toward John Lennon's song "Woman is the Nigger of the World"?) .

The rest of My Bloody Underground -- indeed, the bulk of the album -- spaces out, comes back for one more drag, then finally goes comatose. "Who Cares Why" is a spacey epic full of distortion and noise with an acoustic guitar riff thrown somewhere in there, and "Just Like Licking Jesus" takes some of the bending guitar riffs of bands like Modest Mouse and bends them even further through discombobulated amps. Right between these two tracks are "Yeah - Yeah" and "Golden - Frost," which provide a sense of some direction as the band sticks to some straightforward songwriting. It's still fucked up, though.

As the band continues, there's more punk rock parody in "Automatic Faggot for the People," mocking R.E.M. and killing political correctness along the way. The song centers around a driving beat, screaming vocals (filtered through a lot of reverb) and ecstatic guitars. It's something we've heard before, but original enough to keep The Brian Jonestown Massacre fresh in our minds.

The album ends with "Black Hole Symphony," a loud white noise epic. I suppose this song marks the end of music itself, summarizing the dark moments of this album as one large destruction of rock music as we know it best. That, with the band's knack for irony in their lyrics and song titles, makes the album worthwhile.

Even though My Bloody Underground careens far into the unknown, and almost risks alienating listeners before it finally takes off, The Brian Jonestown Massacre have, once again, reinvented themselves. It's definitely not an album for those unfamiliar with the band, and at times, the album lacks flow and connection. But in the end, those who understand the band will finally come to terms with what's going on, and My Bloody Underground starts to make sense in some odd, demented way.

Originally published on Blogcritics.org.

Mix Bag #2: Fictitious Non-Fiction, Cake, and a Bloody Massacre

Mix Bag is a weekly feature that brings together a random collection of media and highlights why it all matters to you.

After an extended weekend off and a handful of other things to write, I haven't had too much time to peruse what's interesting out there this week. Usually, I'd say it's disappointing to put off a feature for a few days, but then I remind myself that with only a handful of readers to brag about, There There Kid is still too little of a start up for anyone to complain about Mix Bag coming out late. But I digress...

Anyway, we might as well jump right in and examine the world of cultural activity that I've found interesting lately. First, The New York Times' literary blog Paper Cuts has an interesting article up about yet another fabrication coming to light in a major non-fiction book. This time, it's not one of the infamous memoir fabrications marketed for mass appeal. Instead, it's a work of journalism that takes some liberties at truth or, as Stephen Colbert would put it, truthiness (that word makes a lot more sense now than it did when it came out). It's a book called Bringing Down the House, and it's the book that the latest blockbuster 21 was based on. But as it turns out, many sections were exaggerated to the point of being completely false; at one point in the book, for example, the team of gamblers supposedly strapped thousands of dollars to their bodies before boarding planes, which apparently never happened. There are other dramatic scenes that the real-life characters of the book deny ever happening, and this is all coming out right when 21 is out in cinemas across the country. Ouch.

There's also a collection of essays that just came out called I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley. They sound quite interesting, blending comedy with the mundane parts of daily life. Sloane works as a publicist for Vintage/Anchor books during the day, so her understanding of the absurdities surrounding literary publicity and the 9 to 5 office job could make an interesting read. I've ordered a copy and hope to read it soon. Sloane's Web site is also a lot of fun, adding art and excerpts/blurbs for her book.

There's also a book coming out in May that takes our current generation to task, called The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupifies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future by Mark Bauerlein. Despite the pretentious sounding title, the book actually looks like it smartly dissects exactly why, with more and more information at our fingertips, we keep getting dumber. Is there really a reason, or is this guy just a cranky old man? I hope to find out, and I'll probably have a review up later on.

In the world of music, things keep getting more and more interesting as the year continues. People seem in awe of R.E.M.'s latest (I'm still on the fence, personally), but most reviews seem to recognize that it's just about the best you can get from a band that's become increasingly less relevant over the years.

In jazz, I like Pete Robbins' Do the Hate Laugh Shimmy, and the album title gives the vibe of the album away. It's quirky and experimental, yet rooted in something whole and tangible. It's an excellent album that comes out later in the month.

And there are a lot more albums coming out this week. I've been on a Sonic Youth kick lately, so it's nice to see that Thurston Moore is releasing another solo album called Sensitive/Lethal. The Microphones and Man Man have new albums out as well.

Next week, the eclectic weirdos that make up Brian Jonestown Massacre are releasing their 13th album called My Bloody Underground. It's very experimental, and gives off a different vibe from some of their past work; to be honest, it sounds more like a collection of demos than a full-length LP. But there are some gems, and the experimentation is more in line with TV On the Radio than some of the blues influences of past albums. It took a few listens for me to get into it, and I'm still not fully convinced. But that doesn't matter, it's still a lot of fun.

That's about it for now, I'd love to see what everyone else finds interesting out there in the internet world.