Brian Jonestown Massacre - Tepid Peppermint Wonderland: Retrospective
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Free Music Notes for Tepid Peppermint Wonderland: Retrospective
Free Music Review: Great Music, But not a 'Best of'
Hit: 4 Stars
I find it incredible the fact that I can now say that this is my favorite band right now.
This is a great album with some great music, but a lot (not all) of their best songs can only be found on their numerous single album releases. I would guess this record would be okay for someone who wants to dabble, or for diehard BJM fans (which now I include myself) because of the previously unreleased material included.
Free Music Review: Hard to describe and thats how it should be
Hit: 4 Stars
BJM really is amazing. The influences range from the obvious psychodelic 60s bands like the Animals all the way to Cure, The Kinks?, Dave Clarke 5 et al. The CD really sets a mood and if you are inclined to put your fold up chair on the apex of your roof and bring out the party favors of your choice then BJM should be exactly what you are looking for. Oh, and Open Heart Surgery is like one of the best songs I have ever heard.Free Music Review: A fan's balanced review: please read before you vote!
Hit: 3 Stars
I first heard the BJM in songs that appeared on their early 90s album "Methodrone," and many of "Tepid's" best moments hearken back to this hazy/shoegazing/fuzzy/obsessive phase. "Feel So Good" (not a cover) is a later example of this Spaceman 3-type aura that the BJM capture well. Hearing these heftier, ascending, revolving tracks within the larger BJM shuffle (no chronological order here, which is refreshing; the anthology is well-sequenced), much of their later work sounds rather scrawny. Now, this skeletal tone, reminding me of 1971 Stones, works well, but feels like it's from a different band. Given the replacement of lineups that rivals Mark E. Smith's domination over The Fall, this may be true. But this lack of consistency makes for a rather undernourished faux-psychedelic/pale-bluesy/vaguely country-ish shamble that backs most of the 38 tunes here. Disc Two does sound better than Disc One, by the way.
I have all of the BJM's albums, but ranked next to, say, the first three Dandy Warhols' attempts to cover the same musical terrain and capture its woozy buzz, the less prolific if slicker Portlanders trump the diffused and wearier Angelenos, sorry to say. Newcombe too frequently lacks the ability to project a forceful, consistent persona as the frontman. He is capable of impressive imitation: not only Stones but (disc 2, track 5) the Beatles and elsewhere a Sunset Strip-a-go-go groove. His Byrds "homage" falls flat, however. The line between flattery and parrotting seems blurred here. Are drugs to blame? Newcombe's evident gifts seem too tawdrily or lazily wrapped up on many of Disc One's songs, tossed off rather than polished. Such spontaneity is prized in some genres, but on disc, under scrutiny, the songs often appear too wobbly. Live, naturally, they may gain backbone; the "live cuts" here are only three "live in studio for the radio" versions that I wish were replaced by concert tapes: none of these on "Tepid," alas. The closing song, "Sue," is a exception to many of the studio cuts: it takes time to build up and kick in, while too many other songs here end far too soon, limply.
The production often shortchanges the backing instrumentation(sometimes non-existent--true, many times lacking enough bass), undercuts the rhythm section, and although the trebly, tinny feel of many of the tunes (with those from "Methodrone" a perceptible exception) fits with the actual limitations of the late 60s/early 70s transistor era, in our digital age, on CD, the overall impact sags. Even scrawnier than even Mick Jagger or any other junkie thin white dude. Newcombe needs to punch out; instead he too often skips away from the lyric confrontation.
As a BJM fan a dozen years before "Dig" appeared, admittedly (as other reviewers have noted even if they get lower "yes" votes!), Newcombe played off of his erratic myth over his career. Yes, this does gain an audience. Like at a car crash. But, I listen to music more than gawk at its messenger, and if you detach the singer's physical image from the songs he records here, for BJM to become the voice for his muse, he needs to focus less on glam and needles. Yes, I buy each BJM album, predicting I will uncover a few worthwhile songs, but I still insist that he is capable of much more effort. I'd much rather see him keep producing thoughtful work expanding the visions of the Summer of Love into which he was born--rather than aping a cult-figure, trapped into a Lizard King/Kurt Cobain-downward spiral.
Free Music Review: Better Than A Kick In The Head
Hit: 3 Stars
Strange fruit those Brian Jonestown Massacre imps. Playing the Von Bondies role to The Dandy Warhols' White Stripes, the relationship between the two West Coast bands extends further than similar cultural appropriation for their monikers. Currently featured in the documentary DIG! alongside their on again/off again pals, this Brian Jonestown Massacre retrospective has dropped at an apt time to reap the benefits of their filmic status. Trippy hippyisms abound on the two discs and 38 tracks collected here, although there's plenty more than just Their Satanic Majesty's Request being lifted ad hoc here. Considerably more connected than the laughable psychedelia of berated Britpop column-hoggers Kula Shaker although still not immune to routine musical fiascos, Tepid Peppermint Wonderland moves from the excellent Dandy Warhols style of When Jokers Attack and Love Is The Drug through to outright misfires Vacuum Boots and Sailor. Just when it becomes easy to write off the Brian Jonestown Massacre as a bunch of drug users with a sideline in music (rather than the decidedly more commercial flipside of the coin), band leader Anton Newcombe suddenly supplants drippy lyrics and `60s throwbacks with the excellent rock sounds of Wisdom and the hushed acoustic ache of Stars. The obvious touchstones fly past thick and fast - whether it be the Rolling Stones' 2000 Light Years From Home feel of Nailing Honey To The Tree, the wispy shoegazing of Ride on Evergreen, Hide And Seek's homage to The Cult or the saccharine revision of Jesus & Mary Chain on Feel So Good. While this amalgam of reference points often leaves the band without a definitive personality of its own, the diversity ensures this Massacre isn't too much of a bloody mess. It's no Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia though, Anton.Free Music Review: For fans and wannabes only
Hit: 1 Stars
This CD is boring and derivative to the point of being cynical.
A better alternative would be to listen to either:
a) the original artists who influenced this band
or
b) someone at least trying to do something new with music.
To enjoy this CD you'd have to really want to like this band, either because you liked Dig or because you're attracted to their super-cool reputation.
If you're afraid you're missing out on something by not owning BJM's back catalogue don't worry, you're not.