The Brian Jonestown Massacre – My Bloody Underground / 2008 A Records / 14 Tracks / http://www.brianjonestownmassacre.com /
Before receiving “My Bloody Undergroundâ€, I had heard a lot about The Brian Jonestown Massacre but I had not had the chance to familiarize myself with their sound. The act has been around since the early 1990s, and their first album, Methodrone, set the band onto a run that (as of this moment) ends with their thirteenth studio album, “My Bloody Undergroundâ€. To get into some sense of where the band has been in the past, I attempted to get into the band’s unique groove.
Learning about the act, I can say that “My Bloody Underground†is a little more “out there†than other BJM releases. This could be due to the fact that Mark Gardner, of Ride, had a hand in writing “Monkey Powderâ€. “Monkey Powder†is a focal track of the latter half of the album, continuing the run of longer tracks that began with “Auto-Matic-Faggot For The People†and ends when the album ends, during “Black-Hole-Symphonyâ€. The act gives their fan the most possible bang for their buck without having to move to a 2 CD form; the disc closes up shop at 78:19, a minute and forty-one seconds before they would run out of space.
What would be an interesting exercise for the BJM would be to release a double-disc version of “My Bloody Undergroundâ€, pairing the rough mixes that the band released before the album dropped with the finished versions that ultimately made it onto “My Bloody Undergroundâ€. Individuals that want something that is catchy and hooky may look towards other BJM albums; this album compels based on the experimental facet of the band that comes to light here. When individuals enter a journey that is eight minutes long, as is the case with “Who Cares Why?â€, one has to keep in mind that the runtime only notices the physical length of the song. The tracks are intricate and elicit a number of different emotions based on the specific condition of the individual going into the album. In some sense, what the BJM does here is provide individuals with a trip. It is the idiosyncrasies of the listeners that will ultimately determine how the album is received.
Top Tracks: Who Cares Why, Monkey Powder
Rating: 7.0/10