Home > Music > CD Review > Brian Jonestown Massacre, 'My Bloody Underground'

Brian Jonestown Massacre, 'My Bloody Underground'

Shambolic 13th album from psych-rock misfits

By Adam McKibbin

Special to Metromix
April 14, 2008

Critic's Rating:

• Email
• Print View
• Share
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Furl
  • Google
  • Reddit
  • Spurl
  • Yahoo
• Add To Favorites
• Add to playlist

Backstory: Anton Newcombe is the founder and only steady member of lo-fi psych-rockers the Brian Jonestown Massacre. He’s released a ton of music, made much of it freely available, and some of it has even been pretty good—and yet he’s most widely known for his depiction as an audience-abusing, narcissistic blowhard in the popular 2004 documentary “DiG!”

Why you should care: If you think it’s lazy not to have to work hard to enjoy music, “My Bloody Underground” will give you the workout you crave!

Verdict: For a band so renowned for experimentation, BJM often drifts into the same-sounding plain of ambling psychedelic rock. “Just Like Kicking Jesus” comes closest to presenting their best side—hypnotically churning, Eastern-influenced, and not entirely adverse to discernible melody. But much of “My Bloody Underground” sounds simply slapdash and burned out, subverted by self-indulgent pastiches and uninspired droning.

X-Factor: The track list includes harsh thoughts about Heather Mills and Jesus, and drops more than a few unprintable words into the song titles. Uncompromising or just sophomoric? You decide.