The Brian Jonestown Massacre Album Reviews

“I am the last of the natural ones. Let yourself go and have some fun.”

I have a lot to say about this band, and they have a buttload of albums, so buckle up.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre, the BJM as us cool kids call them, is my ultimate “they get away with it” band.

Many of their songs boil down to three chords, sometimes the same three chords as the song before it. The performances are sometimes shaky and their tempos fluctuate. But, hey, they get away with it.

Most of the albums don’t have much cohesion or flow. A handful of tracks basically contain noise that goes absolutely nowhere. They even have a couple entire albums that do that, too. A ton of their songs fade out, which I hate. But, guess what? They get away with it.

The band’s frontman, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and dictator Anton Newcombe sings off-key a lot. His voice cracks. He occasionally fakes a British accent and takes on other vocal deliveries that feel contrived. His lyrics are usually basic and often cheesy. But, I’m telling you, they get away with it, man. They get away with it.

What do they do well? EVERYTHING ELSE. Their songs are sweet treats sent down from heaven.

Those three-chord acoustic guitar foundations are played with soulful touch. There are all these wicked cool electric guitar leads. There are imaginative layers with a ton of other instruments that blend together BEAUTIFULLY, always accenting each other. And when they don’t, it’s clearly intentional, letting the song tilt and teeter a bit without falling off the tracks.

Most of the songs cheer me up. Anton may have inner turmoil, but he makes bright, peaceful, fun music. Having a bad day? Groove to some BJM. It’s a party in your ears. The darker songs make me feel. The weirder songs make me think. The stripped-down songs make me relax. And I’m glad I get to have it all, without the filter of a record company hellbent on making every release a commercial success.

BJM gets categorized as psychedelic rock or garage rock, 60s vibes with 90s sophistication, but they honestly have more in common with Stevie Wonder than they do with the Velvet Underground or the Kinks. Sure, their most common sound combines a basic chord-heavy tune with surfy psych guitar leads and a singer who isn’t particularly impressive. But their magic comes from all the other stuff going on — guitar interplay, thoughtful bass, solid classic rock drumming, bits of added percussion, layers of organs and keyboards and sitars and flutes, and wordless backing vocals — giving each song its own singular charm. Their music is brilliantly conceived, wonderfully decorated, and expertly produced.

With all their instrumentation, you’d think this is the kind of band you need to crank up loud — and I do — but the nice thing is that I can put them on in the background and still enjoy it. The songs’ poppy qualities shine through. Not unlike Kurt Cobain, Anton seems to want to reject the shallowness of pop music, but he doesn’t escape his own innate gift for writing catchy, infectious pop songs.

It’s hard not to think about BJM without recalling the documentary Dig! which offers an intimate look at the band’s early years, from their start in San Francisco, to Portland, to Los Angeles. It displays the band as a hard-partying, woefully insecure group, and it exposes Anton as a downright abusive leader in the spirit of James Brown and Bobby Knight.

Besides Anton, the band’s longest-term member is Joel Gion. He is, get this, the tambourine player. That’s literally all he does, but his contribution seems to be more personal. He’s the upbeat party boy Anton needs around him, because, well, Anton’s nuts. When it comes time for the band to sign a contract, Joel is the one putting pen to paper. Anton is kept 3,000 miles away due to his self-sabotaging tendency and intense distrust of the record industry, which is, as he calls it, a mafia.

The other key contributors in the early days are bassist/singer Matt Hollywood and guitarist Jeff Davies. They both write material and offer special musical talents, but throughout the library, it’s hard to tell how much of what we hear is Anton by himself in the studio. One of the coolest parts of the documentary is when Anton pieces together an utterly beautiful song, recording one instrument at a time, with none of his bandmates around. Watching him bang a drum or belt out a single note, you’d hardly realize that he’s playing music … until you hear it all together, and then you’re like, “This guy is a fucking genius!”

We watch the guys trudge through the unglamorous indie grind, struggling not to rip each other’s heads off. Meanwhile, their buddies in the Dandy Warhols quickly earn mainstream success. The Dandies may be well-adjusted, but they kinda act like brats, making us root harder for the underdog BJM.

As the documentary finishes up, we check in on Dandy Warhols guitarist Peter Holmstrom, hanging out in a cushy backstage area. He’s not too likable throughout the doc, but he has enough sense to make a good point: “They’ll be remembered forever. Their records will become collector’s items. And who knows, we might just be forgotten.”

…

Postscript: As glowing as this intro is, my buddy Paul didn’t think it conveyed just how much I love this band. So, for the record, I FUCKING LOVE THIS BAND!!!

Methodrone

1995
6 new worlds to explore out of 10

Welcome to BJM Land, everybody! It’ll be a wild ride. This first stop is deceiving, though, pretty far off from the organic retro feel we’ll find later.

There’s a big fat shoegazey sound, electronic, machine-like, and deep-toned. Certain parts slam harder than anything else in the library.

Case in point, “Crushed” opens with ominous feedback for a while, and right when it’s peaking, you hear Anton exhale before the song’s thick riff and drum machine beat kick in, and the thing just PUMPS. That moment is worth a few points on its own.

I also love “Wisdom,” building slow until a nice cheery groove unearths itself. “She’s Gone” has wonderful cascading organ. And there’s the fun rocking “That Girl Suicide,” but I prefer the version on the next album.

The front-to-back experience struggles a bit, though, with a handful of atmospheric tracks and some songs that are mostly forgettable, lacking BJM’s consistently interesting zip.

Spacegirl and Other Favorites

1995
8 clear blue clears out of 10

What is this, noise rock? Except the prettiest noise rock ever? Does that count as noise? Half of it uses drum machines, and half of it is pretty calm, so is it even rock? There’s singing, but it’s way low in the mix with lots of echo. Are these even songs?

This was actually recorded in 1993, but it sounds a bit more like where the band was going eventually. It’s loaded with shoegazey layers, but it’s a touch more garagey than Methodrone.

Still lots of deep, pretty sounds that marinate in themselves for a while. It’s droney stuff, like literally one beat and one riff with various textures popping in for a while before the song fades out. The whole thing might lull you to sleep, but then there’s suddenly something super groovy and cool that tickles your ear. “That Girl Suicide” is classic BJM, a jumping beat and a tremolo guitar solo. Makes me want to twirl my head around. There’s another awesome recording of “Crushed.” It thumps, punk, it thumps. “Kid’s Garden” builds up forever into a cheery electric organ melody. You can tell it’s building to something, then you find out it’s just this friendly little organ, and you’re like, “I’ve been hoodwinked! … in the cutest way possible!”

This album holds back most of the time, so you need to have sort of a “take life slow” attitude to enjoy it, but it oozes coolness.

Take It From the Man!

1996
9 kisses from Jesus out of 10

Hay! Horray! Hay! An album full of joyful songs! This calls for a few tokes off my BJM pipe!

… okay guys I’m back. Acoustic guitar in the back, wicked groovy electric retro psych guitar licks up front, tambourine and shakers and a bajillion other things. I think at one point Anton lifts up an entire music store and turns it upside down. He’s also singing, like with a clear voice and everything. Kinda folky, kinda relaxed rocky sometimes, he doesn’t seem to give a fuck if he can’t hit notes or his voice cracks, he’s just a-goin’, man. The drums are booming, almost like they were recorded by an amateur, but don’t you dare doubt Anton and his genius recording skillzzz okay?! It’s supposed to sound like that!

“Vacuum Boots”… it makes me shake my hips even when I’m sitting on the toilet! “Who?” … it makes me thrust my torso, even when, even when I’m sitting on the fucking toilet! Haha! “Take It From the Man” … it’s the one that goes “ooooo-yeah!” It makes me sing damnit! “B.S.A” is romantic, bang that tambourine, Joel! Bang it!

The whole album has a fun, open, breezy, woody, tambouriney, organically retro quality to it. Nothing really goes too fast or slams too hard. Those guitar leads are precious. I’m still singing!

Their Satanic Majesties’ Second Request

1996
7 tiniest glimpses out of 10

In the midst of a bunch of albums that I’m giving higher scores, I feel like I need to say something negative to justify the 7 I’m giving to this one. Well, keep in mind that 7 is a damn good score. And my explanation is that this one is too light and psychedelic for the same level of wall-to-wall enjoyment I get from the others.

But damn it’s still wonderful, cool music. There’s a soothing and relaxed tone most of the time … and it’s pretty heavy on the sitar and Middle Eastern drums. “Anemone” is a classic relaxed BJM rocker with warm female vocals. “Donovan Said” is down-tempo and soft and colorful and makes me want to hug a hippie. Anton channels his Sgt. Peppers flashbacks on a pair of “All Around You” tracks. We’ve got lovely, understated deep tones clashing with Anton’s sincere but severely flawed vocal performance on “Miss June ‘75.” There’s “Here It Comes,” but the version on …And This Is Our Music blows it out of the water.

The whole thing is so light that a gust of wind would knock it off balance. It’s peaceful, frail, wirey, harmless, like a 60s hippie who eats fruit for dinner instead of meat. Hippies shall hug!

Thank God for Mental Illness

1996
9 sweetest ones for me out of 10

Bob Dylan, eat your heart out. What the fuck does that even mean, by the way? Anyway this is acoustic, folk, country, sing-songing stuff. The lyrics are so simple and at times cliche, old-time American folk shit, so much so that I can’t tell if it’s an ode or a mockery.

The musical touch is there though, big time. It scratches the itches. It smooths the kinks. It cleans the counter, son! The songs all have a loose, airy sound, but they seem to find their bounce and groove one way or another, and it’s just really … pretty. Like you, babe! Like you! Okay just kidding, I know it’s all hairy dudes reading this. But I got weepy eyed romantic somewhere in the middle of this album.

“Ballad of Jim Jones” is kind of the best song I’ve ever heard even though it has three chords and a harmonica and a whole bunch of one-syllable words. “Free and Easy” is like a jig on the one-inch-high porch in front of an old saloon in Texas except the harmonica solo is the happiest-sounding thing ever. “Down” is haunting, with electric guitar appearing and playing eerie notes and there’s a chilling big bad bell in there too.

Anton isn’t Joe Satriani, but he’s got immaculate touch. Sometimes he hits a string just a little wrong but baybee it’s so right.

Give It Back!

1997
10 dirty needles into her veins out of 10

The obsession of the week is a sitar and a Middle Eastern feel, but it doesn’t dominate the album. Instead, this is the most fully formed and varied BJM release yet, a beautiful showcase of their infectious pop sensibility, raucous rocking, and go-everywhere instrumentation.

That classic BJM style I mentioned earlier is all over this: strummy acoustic chords giving the songs their backbone, with precious sunshiney electric leads, and Anton digging deep on the mic, although still finding that fake British accent at times.

There’s also the sparse but valuable addition of vocalist Miranda Lee Richards. She’s another Californian with a fake accent, except hers seems like Texas or Tennessee or wherever Dolly Parton is from. The bits where her voice unexpectedly pops up really shine.

We’ve got the magical trio of “S” songs here. “Super-Sonic” is ethereal with relaxed momentum and tons of nifty sounds. “Satellite” is sort of 60s garage rock but lifted to the sky with airy guitar leads. “Servo” is basically the song to show someone who’s never heard this band, groovy and bright and fun and Jesus Christ is that a flute solo?

Don’t forget “Sue” (it rocks!) and “Slalam” (it’s Indian-sounding!) and can you read this track listing 10 times fast without a lisp? Can you? Hey, by the way, “The Devil May Care (Mom and Dad Don’t)” is one of the most amazing songs ever and you must hear it. It’s got layers and layers of delicate stuff going on, melding together into a sound like nothing else ever recorded, just gorgeous. Sad lyrics too. Can you tell from the title?

“(You Better Love Me) Before I Am Gone” soothes! “#1 Hit Jam” kicks! “Malela” confuses! This album is great. Great!

Strung Out in Heaven

1998
9 hearts in their hands out of 10

Oh man, heaven is the word. This album is indeed heavenly. It takes a lot of the layered, groovy, surfy qualities from the last one, but focuses them into consistently bright, uplifting, happy rock songs. It’s a little more straightforward, but not by much. There’s a slight uptick in the production quality too, sweeter and cleaner.

We’ve got joyful vocal harmonies, harmonica, piano, maybe a mellotron, and did I already say surfy? I did, but it bears repeating that the guitar leads catch the wave, bruddah! I’ll spare you the song-by-song gushing this time. We’ve got a fuckton more albums to go.

Zero (Songs From the Album Bravery, Repetition and Noise)

2000
8 things that you’ve gotten from the robots that love you out of 10

Do you want to be confused? Look at the title of this EP, then look at the title of the next album. It includes exactly three songs (not all, and not zero) from Bravery, Repetition and Noise, plus just three other songs. The backstory has something to do with Anton and the record company not seeing eye to eye. Shocking, I know.

The good news is that those three songs are good, and the other three songs are good too. (By the way, the versions of “Let Me Stand Next to Your Flower,” “Sailor,” and “Open Heart Surgery” on this and Bravery, Repetition and Noise seem to have been recorded in the same sessions, but there’s some light remixing that differentiates them.)

Altogether, the sound here is quite lovely, slower than a normal BJM release, and I don’t know what to call it, half 60’s psychedelic, half gospel, part Pet Sounds-esque clear airy brightness. Oh, there’s a long long instrumental synth-soundscape thing at the end and the motherfucker shimmers and just watch out you’ll probably have an acid flashback. It’s kind of a secretly awesome record, actually.

Bravery, Repetition and Noise

2001
7 bells ringing in the local church out of 10

For whatever reason, the band returns to the somewhat low-fi production style from earlier in the catalog, along with songs that are slow and loose. Anton is extra breathy and lovey-dovey, singing lines like “You’re like candy to me” and “If I love you, girl, I want you to know that I’m never ever letting you go.”

Altogether, the album never gets going quite like the others, a bit tepid. There are a few really wonderful songs here, though. “Nevertheless” works the BJM formula well with a strong-pulsing acoustic backbone and some creepy percussion in there. “Open Heart Surgery” is slow and downbeat and emotional. “(I Love You) Always” pulls in a highly melodic, wide-open, soaring-through-the-sky mixture a la Explosions in the Sky, but stops it on a dime repeatedly instead of letting it go go go go.

…And This Is Our Music

2002
10 tears on the pillow out of 10

Good lord, this album is simply INTOXICATING. I could walk miles in a snowstorm wearing jeans and the bullshit hoodie I got from my employer, and as long as I was listening to this album, it wouldn’t matter.

The thing starts harmlessly enough, some droney electro atmosphere stuff, but then you’re sinking in a sea of inviting acoustic guitar tunes, and more acoustic guitars harmonizing and accenting in ways that make you think you’re dying and going to heaven. Then there’s mysterious electric guitar, Wall-of-Sound-esque layers of more guitar, then some bright organ tunes, pristine drumming, solid bassing, sweet vocals, MORE sweet vocals from a backup female singer, flutes, horns (horns!), maybe some dashes of extra percussion, maybe some electric keyboard… man it’s just gorgeous!

“Introesque”: Electronic foreboding.

“Starcleaner”: Lean and strong and weepy.

“Here to Go”: Like waking up in a sunny flower meadow. Heavenly notes dance around in a spacious groove.

“When Jokers Attack”: A bit of the grooving earlier BJM style but hitting harder, fun guitar leads, rock rock rock!

“Prozac vs. Heroin”: Joyful, pretty, bouncy, AWESOME layering of guitars and violin (?) and vocals.

“Geezers”: Blow that horn, whoever you are! This song is a feast for the ears! Boisterous, infectious vocal lines. “Dreamers! Keep dreaming till the dream ends, then they tell you where to go!”

“Maryanne”: Sad song that really lets those acoustics breathe while the rhythm section takes a break.

“You Look Great When I’m Fucked Up”: I mean, what can I say about this one? I fucking LOVE THIS SONG. Dark and haunting, somehow also uplifting and inspiring. The best moody guitar line ever, then some creepy electro tunes, into an unusual drum beat tightening and loosening, powerful piano, unearthly wordless vocals, synths screaming out. So much vibe. You need to hear this song!

“Here It Comes”: A slow swing gets filled to the brim with glorious sunshine. Listen to the guitar solo on this one!

“What Did You Say?”: Wake up! It’s a clanging India-kinda jam.

“Prozac vs Heroin Revisited”: Okay now you’re on a spaceship! Electro madness from another planet. What is this? Just BJM proving they can do “dubstep” music and Boards of Canada better than everyone else … on their first try?!

“New Low in Getting High”: We’re back to the rocking groove now. This song feels a bit dark despite bright instrumentation.

“Some Things Go Without Saying”: Campfire guitar + slight country twang + BJM = beauty.

“Tschusse”: Remember what I said about that earlier song being better than the entire Boards of Canada library? This song is like one-upping three Radiohead albums in four minutes. It somehow weaves in piano and a horn and a violin into a sort of straightforwardly jazzy feel. Beautiful song.

“Pregnancy Test”: Rejected from being in nature videos about deep sea creatures for being too awesome.

Man, there’s even a great bonus track in the streamiverse, but that’s just unfair. This album is too good already. Kicks my ass, lifts me up, inspires, delights, haunts, stays interesting. A+ tunes. A+ vibe. A+ performance. A+ arrangement. A+ production. An emphatic 10 out of 10.

My Bloody Underground

2007
4 buhvuvuvvvvvvvvvs out of 10

This one is a drastic departure, an experimental album, let’s call it. It’s got heavily muffled, buzzy production that makes the band sound like they’re literally underground and we’re hearing the music by pressing a stethoscope against the dirt.

I suppose it’s a tribute to 80s shoegaze a la My Bloody Valentine, but it’s even less intelligible, spoiling its potential for musical dynamics. Most of the songs sound lazily constructed too, some dancy beat stuff, slowish punky stuff, and 10 minutes of tuneless noise to close it out.

Oddly, there is one rocky song in the typical BJM style, and one piano track that’s utterly beautiful, making you hang on every note. Merciful interruptions within a wholly unsatisfying album that lasts a dragging 78 minutes. Not sure what Anton was thinking on this one.

Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?

2010
3 ehhehehehheheheeekssses out of 10

It’s another experimental departure this time around. While not as muddy as the last album, it’s another batch of electronic-focused, melody-devoid songs. We’ve got stuff that’s like a more cheery Nine Inch Nails, tuneless shoegaze, dance grooves buried under muffly distortion, bits of acoustic drums playing very mechanical beats, an out-of-nowhere growly female vocalist at one point, a distinctly eastern European vibe over more dancey stuff, bits of other languages here and there, and lots of bad words. Anton seems to be trolling us again.

Aufheben

2012
5 c’est un banc d’oiseaux out of 10

While not as headscratching as the last two, here we find the band in a “world music” mood, using about 100 instruments to play songs that don’t do much of anything.

The most prominent instrument sounds like an organ with a German twang, if that’s a thing, but I don’t know for sure. Everything else sounds pretty faint, even Anton’s vocals, which are so muddled you can’t make out the words.

The whole thing does have a pleasing, peaceful sound, though. It’s like jogging music for someone living in a remote European village.

If one of these songs comes up on shuffle, you might say, “Hey this is a neat song,” but listening to an album full of them gets pretty boring.

Revelation

2014
8 nånting gick fel så långt tillbaks out of 10

Woah, there’s an all-new color to this album. That Germany organ is back, but it fits way better into the context of this album’s well-composed rock songs. The organ has a cheery tone but gives the music more power. It thickens up the mixture, kinda like powdered sugar thickens up a cake. (By the way, this album was the first to be recorded at Anton’s new home in Germany. So if I’m wrong about it being an organ, at least I’m half-right about it being German. Also, I think there are electric horns and a flute, but I can’t tell for sure. Whatever it is, it sounds Euro cool.)

Another big change in the sound is a drummer favoring up-tempo, deep-pulsing beats. There’s not as much of the “old rock with occasional swing” style from earlier. The songs tend to hang on the same rhythmic feel, letting that ooey gooey instrumentation marinate in itself. (Man, I’m doing food analogies now? It’s tasty, folks, it’s tasty!)

The band seems content to load up on the instrumentation without always working their way toward a catchy hook, but they avoid making it sound overloaded.

I can’t say this is my favorite form the BJM has ever taken, but fuck, it’s a damn good one.

…

Folks, if you can believe it, we’ve got at least five more full-length albums to go, and a shitload of EPs and singles (who knows if I’ll ever get to those), but holy fuck I need a break, so until next time…

Published March 2022