I’ll be back.
Archive for February, 2009
Face/Off
2009/02/08James Whitmore 1921-2009
2009/02/07The Brian Jonestown Massacre
2009/02/07Anton Alfred Newcombe is a singer-songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist and founder, lead singer, guitarist, and head of the rock band, The Brian Jonestown Massacre.
Some 40 different members passed through the group’s ranks over the next half of the decade, but throughout their focal point remained Newcombe.
BJM is influenced by the surrealist technique of pastiche and image appropriation, and “Brian Jonestown Massacre” is a portmanteau of The Rolling Stones’ guitarist Brian Jones and the infamous mass cult suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. This name is often seen as insensitive to the real life tragedy in Guyana as well as a reaction against a trend toward monosyllabic band names.
A multi-instrumentalist, Newcombe claims to play over 80 musical instruments.[2] Instruments that he has been credited as playing on albums or has been observed to play are the guitar, bass guitar, upright bass, sitar, tambura, moog synthesizer, mellotron, piano, accordion, organ, drums, cello, koto, samisen, mandolin, lute, hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, and harmonica.
Controversy and Conflicts with Other Artists:
He is known for his somewhat volatile personality. At a show at the Viper Room in 1996, he became involved in a fist-fight on stage with his own band. As several music industry representatives were in attendance, many people feel this incident resulted in him not being signed to a major label (in this case, Elektra Records). In an incident made famous in the 2004 Ondi Timoner documentary DiG!, he kicked a scornful audience member in the head, resulting in his arrest for assault. Newcombe himself is critical of the film DiG!, calling it “at best, a series of punch-ups and mishaps taken out of context, and at worst, bald-faced lies and misrepresentation of fact.” He is quite frank with his opinions on other musicians. During Lollapalooza 2005, he mocked and insulted Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional, whom he called “The poster child for legalized abortion”. In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, he dismissed the legacy of Eric Clapton in rock music, and referred to the 1991 incident where Clapton’s 4-year old son fell to his death: “People talk about Eric Clapton. What has he ever done except throw his baby off a fucking ledge and write a song about it?”
Donovan v Dylan
2009/02/06The Anarchist
2009/02/05Christian Bale
2009/02/04
