The Brian Jonestown Massacre

Methodrone (Bomp!)
by Joshua Brown

The Brian Jonestown Massacre have an ingenious/sinister/holy method of droning. Rather than only lulling the listener into a dull, everyday slumber, they provide direct access to the right kind of dreams. The melodies and vocal style could almost peg them as alternaBrit, but they’re from San Francisco and hit you so hard with their soporific power that I doubt The Brian Jonestown Massacre are particularly radio friendly. That’s judging from this release, which makes a definitive, deliberate statement. If they wanted to hit the Casey Kasem frequency, they certainly have the wherewithal.

It was strange how this band came to my attention. The night Electrafixion played at Axis, I was at an afterhours party, chatting with some drunk guy slurring his Britishly accented words. I assumed he was a roadie, and the level of his drunkenness had reached made him a little annoying, but intelligent enough. After we settled our disagreement about which Clash album was better (by agreeing to disagree), and I was finished telling him about the 18th Dye, he told me that the Brian Jonestown Massacre was the last band who had deeply affected him and really demanded his attention. I later found out that the guy was Ian McCullogh of Electrafixion, formerly of Echo and the Bunnymen, a guy who had a huge part in the formation of the sound that we now call alternative. The next day the Methadrone CD showed up in the mail for review.