Red Experiences a Bacchanal of Emotions with New Brian Jonestown Massacre Album
The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?
‘a’ Records
By Greg Lehman
I feel high on some Australian shit when I listen to this album.
I’m riding in a car with a clutch that keeps slipping.
We surge forward and start on down the road, never moving any faster than is necessary.
The clutch slips again.
We slow for a brief moment, then surge forward.
This is the feel of track one, “Tempo 116.7 (Reaching For Dangerous Levels Of Sobriety),” on the new The Brian Jonestown Massacre album called Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?
Fuzzy, strange, moody, and angry, like a bacchanal of emotions, every track on the storied band’s latest is a different extension of frontman Antone Newcomb’s explosive personality.
“Tunger Hnifur,” which sounds like a mi between Andrew W.C. and Rob Zombie, is one of my favorites. My testicles decend half an inch as this song hurls itself through my car speakers and attaches itself directly to the pleasure center of my brain and roots around a bit. It’s followed by two droning, repetitive non-plussed filler songs and then my next favorite track, “This is the First of Your Last Warning (Icelandic),” comes on with sweaty dance hall rhythms and come hither Icelandic vocals. I’m hooked.
This album is “good weird.” It’s strange, it’s full of itself, and often times it’s not able to differ between creative and just plain nutbar. But it works.
I’d skip the last song, “Felt Tipped-Pen Pictures of UFOs,” though. It’s just weird. “Bad weird.” – (6/10)