It’s hard to separate the music of the Brian Jonestown Massacre from
the public persona of the band’s stubborn leader Anton Newcombe, so we
won’t. His notorious tantrums, on full display in 2004’s excellent
rock doc Dig!, very much fuel his creative juices. Or is it the other
way around? It’s hard to tell at this point in the game, and it surely
hasn’t stopped the BJM from putting out some revered work. Since its
inception in 1990, the group has gone through 40 members, making them
more of a loose collective or a business than a band in some ways,
with Newcombe as eternal CEO. Over a dozen albums, numerous EPs and a
greatest-hits set into their career, the band is currently touring
ahead of their upcoming release, Aufheben, recorded in Newcombe’s new
Berlin-based recording confines, hence the title. The group caught
mainstream buzz yet again when HBO’s violent bootlegging series
Boardwalk Empire used BJM chestnut “Straight Up and Down” as its
opening theme song.
Sat., April 28, 8 p.m., 2012
This article appears in Apr 26 – May 2, 2012.