The Brian Jonestown Massacre
My Bloody Underground
A Records; March 2008
Birthed in the early ’90s by Anton Newcombe, The Brian Jonestown Massacre has arguably created some of the most memorable rock and roll music since the iconic 1960s, leaving behind a musical footprint as large as The Rolling Stones but doing so as quietly as The Velvet Underground. That said, it’s no surprise that this mostly instrumental full-length album, featuring an almost entirely new lineup, is as refreshing as it is reliable. BJM’s signature haunting melodies are still there but are covered with a heavy blanket of distortionsomething not completely new but also not exactly typical for the band. The result is something that sounds like ’60s garage rock’s marriage to the often-overlooked lo-fi indie rock of the ’90s, creating a spacey lovechild of a record that lives up to the hype.
