In My Head Today: Waking Up to Hand Grenades

Ah, the Brian Jonestown Massacre. We return to an ongoing theme. The good news is that The BJM have a brand new album out! Aufheben is fantastic. Finally, something new that I feel like listening to! It's kind of like the adult contemporary version of Their Satanic Majesty's Second Request. One thing that is totally cool about this is that Anton Newcombe, my favorite musical genius (as I've already noted) recorded the entire process of building the album on his broadcast station, DeadTV (see the DeadTV Facebook page and DeadTV). He released rough cuts almost immediately - often coming home from his studio and uploading or broadcasting his work the same day. So watching the process was cool. He put out something like 20 songs in this way, eventually shaping 11 of them into a full album.

His last album, Who Killed Sgt. Pepper was.... different. Dark. Very, very dark songs. I've posted some of them before. I'd draw your attention to the song, "Someplace Else Unknown" for a sample. Mind you, I loved most of the songs on the album. I was in a dark and twisty space myself so it totally fit my mood.

Nearly every review I've read of Aufheben says it is a "return to their previous style." Well, that's true, I guess. It is certainly more like their style prior to My Bloody Underground  and WKSP. As I've said before, I'm no expert and I'm no music critic. I just know what I like. I like that "aufheben" means - simultaneously - "to abolish" and "to preserve." Or as Anton has put it, "tearing apart something to save it." Hm. I can think of a number of personal situations in which I may have been saved by being torn apart.

But back to the video - or rather, the song. There were some dark times during the year or so that this album was conceived and recorded. Terrible world events, darkening moods, illness, etc. So imagine my surprise when I heard these lyrics (disclaimer: this is an approximation based on some of the lyrics sites. I think there are some inaccuracies, but it's close enough to make the point):

A voice from the ancient's
From way back in time
A gift from the sages
The melody fine
We've come to the altar
There's nothing to fear
Our waiting is over...
The good times are here

You're sleeping of late
You stay up all night
And going to church discretely
And turning out right
It's building an army
I wish you was here
Cause we're taking over

Our Time is here
Our time is here
Grab all the children
(inaudible)
Cause we're taking over
We're finally free
There's no way to change it
Cause this is our year
And we're gonna live forever

It's finally here
It's finally clear

Gather the children
And family near
And spread the goodness
It's finally here
The wisdom of ancients
The god of all time
He's finally found you
It's gonna be fine

It's gonna be ok.
It's gonna be fine.

I'll be honest: I cried. For me, this is a hopeful song. For the past year or so, life events have ratcheted up. In addition to the ongoing deterioration of my mother's health, there has been a huge tumult at work - interestingly, our organization has been abolished and rebuilt, in order to preserve it. Hm. Just figured that one out as I'm writing this! Mind blowing. At any rate, during this time of tumult and angst, hearing someone who has clearly battled his own demons sing, "It's gonna be fine" was pretty fucking powerful.

One other point of oddity - on iTunes, the song is called "Walking Up to Hand Grenades." WTF???

In my head today - June Beach Music and BJM

There are two things I am looking forward to in June. The first is seeing the Brian Jonestown Massacre on June 17. Here's a little taste of what I look forward to:



The other thing I'm looking forward to is the family trip to Hawaii. Yes, it is totally selfish to go to Hawaii when there are so many other things going on. I consider this a little bit of a recharge/pre-charge for the big changes I'm facing in my life. The beach - Hawaii in particular - has always had a magical effect on me. The sultry salty air combined with the soothing sound of the waves and the un-earthly color of the water... it is enough to lull my fears and concerns into submission. In fact, it has a hypnotic effect on me. Nice.

The first time I knew this I was listening to this song while walking on a deserted beach in Mexico:



I recently fount this song by a group I've only barely heard of. I think this is my beach sound for this trip:

In my head today: Iggy Pop, and Anton Newcombe on a Rooftop

I was never really into punk. I lived in a small town with one (crappy) record store and one radio station.... and eventually MTV. That was my musical buffet. So I didn't get a lot of Iggy Pop, except through my one actually cool friend who had some musical taste and brought records back from the city once in a while.

Truth is, I think appreciating Iggy Pop takes a lot more emotional sophistication than I probably had at the time anyway.

This vid is in my head for a sort of tangential reason. The song is awesome, but the performer..... the description on YouTube is that it's an "incendiary" performance. I don't think that quite captures it - is there something beyond incendiary? This is a man that fully commits - body, soul, and psyche - to the music. He lets the music channel through him. If you hate the song, at least do this - skip forward to about 3:55, and watch until about 5:00.

Intensity, commitment. Something greater is happening between the performer, the song, the band, and the audience.

This is what any real artist wants, isn't it? I don't know if I'm a GOOD artist by any stretch of the imagination. Though I am apparently (by some accounts) PFG (pretty fucking good), I know that I am not a genius. Whether I am PFG or not, I can tell you that Iggy Pop captures the way I feel when I step on stage. Iggy Pop from 5:00 on is Lady Macbeth. It takes some way of emptying yourself out for a period of time and letting someone or something else in.

Speaking of which.... this next vid is an apparently infamous interview with Anton Newcombe. If you don't know who he is.... well for God's sake look up The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Or look at two or three of my previous posts. Right now BJM is opening something up in me that I can't quite explain, but I think it is good.

People say a lot about this interview, and usually in any description of any interview someone has to spout off with some version of "he's crazy" - it happens especially often when people talk about this one. I think that is just a bunch of shallow-minded horseshit. I don't know the guy except through music and the occasional interview I read so really what the fuck do I know? But think for a moment about art, about artists, about being a vessel for the creative spirit.



If Anton is "crazy" then I want some too. He's not crazy, he's just got the balls enough to talk about what it feels like to have artistic vision and enough courage to BE the art.

So today, I want to be Iggy Pop, and I want to experience the artistic vision/genius of Anton Newcombe.

I aspire to so little, right?