The contrasting fates of neo-psychedelia’s heaviest hitters
Author’s note: The Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols are two of my all-time favorite bands. It’s only fitting that they once worked closely together and began to hate each other. To learn more, download or rent the documentary “DiG!” which also features sweet interviews by the Black Angels, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and more. Of course, like most documentaries, it’s misleading and irrelevant to the music. Anyway, these two groups released new albums relatively close to each other and that’s what we should talk about.
The cover of the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s 12th studio album, Aufheben, is taken from the plaque attached to the space probe Pioneer 11. So, if extraterrestrials ever stumble upon the drifting, obsolete NASA probe, they can learn a little something about earth and humans. Why is it an album cover? Maybe BJM’s founder and incoherent rambler Anton Newcombe wants his music launched into space. Or maybe it has something to do with how it was initially released—scattered on the Internet via torrents and YouTube, hoping the right ears find it.
Newcombe wants his music stolen because he can get away with it and because in his opinion, pure peer-to-peer sharing is where the recording industry is headed. Plus, Newcombe is doing well in album sales lately, as he’s said in interviews. He gleefully laughs at how major record companies are struggling, a spite that comes from a DIY mentality and a strong aversion to “The Man.”
Aufheben is a fitting title then. In German it means any of three contradicting terms: “abolish,” “preserve” and “transcend.” Aufheben doesn’t really abolish much, but there’s plenty of preservation of BJM’s “old sound,” that was notably absent on their last two experimentally focused albumsMy Bloody Underground andWho Killed Sgt. Pepper?
The best word to describe BJM is “pastiche,” meaning “open imitations of art, compositions or periods.” That explains why titles such as “I Want to Hold Your Other Hand” and “Stairway to the Best Party in the Universe” will remind you of some of the best music in history. Somehow, Newcombe still seems plugged into the magic from the ’60s and ’70s and every great episode of music since, even if he can’t write lyrics to save his life.
But finally, Aufheben transcends the current trend of BJM with mind-blowing tracks like the Middle Eastern chase music on “Panic in Babylon” or the Icelandic phantasmal sound filled with French lyrics on “Illuminomi.” Everything in between enhances with each listen.
Surely it all means something mystic, because obfuscation is another trait from BJM that makes their listening experience so metaphysical. Unlike many bands with a discography this massive and a career stretched this long, the Brian Jonestown Massacre just seem to get better with time.
The party never stops with the Dandy Warhols and they continue jamming with their eighth album, This Machine, but the heart isn’t there. This is what an obsession with Bauhaus and a so-called “gothic” sound brought them—their slowest, most drawn-out album since …The Dandy Warhols Come Down. There’s no interconnection here either. These tracks were as off-handedly recorded as when the band covered the Beatles’ “Blackbird” because Michael Jackson croaked (a promise from Welcome to the Monkey House.)
Speaking of covers, they do a pretty nice, short version of “16 Tons,” but this is a song about being totally enslaved by your corporate masters, back when that was legal in coalmines. Frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor just can’t express a breed of hardship that particular—it just doesn’t come as naturally as it did for Johnny Cash or Tennessee Ernie Ford.
At least what does come natural for the Dandy’s is freedom, as overtly expressed on “I Am Free.” It sounds like bragging, like every inspirational tune they’ve done before, from “I Am Sound” to “Mis Amigos,” but more introspective, indicative of the band’s age.
There are more smuggish stabs at humility on “The Autumn Carnival.” The fuzz of ghostly guitars balances between catchy pop and subdued shoegaze, making it a memorable favorite. A rare shot of instrumental madness, “Alternative Power to the People,” only needs more depth, but it’s the only spacey treat given out.
There’s an extra level of satire, typical of the Dandy’s weird humor, on “Enjoy Yourself,” as Courtney Taylor-Taylor yells at you to be more open-minded and relaxed. The sentiment has been reworked a hundred times by the Dandys, but never as weird as this. That’s not good or bad—it’s neutral, like This Machine is as a whole. These above-average tunes are only dragged down by purely awful songs like “Rest Your Head,” or “Slide.” Don’t even start with “SETI vs The Wow! Signal.”
The title itself is a reference to what Woodie Guthrie once scrawled on his guitars: “This Machine Kills Fascists.” But what does the Dandy’s Machine kill? Nothing? Either way, the Dandys can do better than this and this disorientated attempt at refocusing didn’t work too well.
