My Bloody Underground in Bloomington, MN

After a four year hiatus (with the exception of a five-song EP in 2005) and another lineup change,
Brian Jonestown Massacre
take their sound full circle returning to the
shoegazer
roots that prompted the band to make their first album
Methodrone
.
My Bloody Underground
takes cues from two of the most important and influential bands of their respective eras,
My Bloody Valentine
and
Velvet Underground
, just as the title suggests, as well as
Julian Cope
's
My Nation Underground
. Noise
pop
neo-psychedelia
are the most notable sources for
Anton Newcombe
's new music, and after eight albums and a handful of EPs, his rekindled interest in bands like
the Jesus and Mary Chain
keeps his songs from sounding redundant.
Newcombe
's key talent is his ability to take music from the past and project it as music for the future. Despite the fact that his quick mouth and serious ego might persuade you otherwise, he's not a god or a superhero (too bad, because "Osmosisman" has a nice ring to it), but there's no arguing that he has a supernatural ability to soak up his record collection and project his favorite elements spot-on, filtered as a unique vision. The first couple songs feel a lot like the
we've grown to know, love, and fear, with the expected
psychedelic
'60s
Stones
/
Kinks
throwbacks, charmingly slopped up with a junkyard of instruments and the occasional out of tune guitar. As the album picks up, things get truly warped and a new angle is introduced when '80s
aspects and '70s
Krautrock
are thrown into the mix. Imitation
Kevin Shields
' guitar drones with slight whammy bends fill the air alongside breathy vocals in
"Who Cares Why"
"Just Like Kicking Jesus"
, and faux-German
Neu!
vocals and a driving guitar fuzz permeate
"Golden Frost."
Running almost 75 minutes long, the album's as surreal as anything
BJM
has done, and fans who appreciate their controversial side will appreciate that it is still intact, as evident in song titles like
"Bring Me the Head of Paul McCartney on Heather Mill's Wooden Peg (Dropping Bombs on the White House),"
"We Are the Niggers of the World,"
"Automatic Faggot for the People."
Hellbent on pushing the envelope,
shines as a prolific madman once again and as recycled as the ideas are,
is a fantastic new direction and a forward thinking album that indicates that however combustible, there is a lot more life left in
, in any incarnation. ~ Jason Lymangrover