If Love is the Drug Then I Want to OD

Such campy titles can come from none other than Brian Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcombe. Anyone who has followed the band knows that they have been no stranger to dischord. They have broken up several times and gone through members frequently over the past twenty one years. Despite a continued lack of major distribution, the Brian Jonestown Massacre earned the largest profile of their career in 2004, when the band became the unlikely focus of an award-winning documentary, DIG!, which charted the trials of Newcombe and those of his rival, Courtney Taylor, leader of the Dandy Warhols. In 2008, the band reinvented itself with My Bloody Underground, featuring yet another lineup and a hint of shoegaze and noise pop. Who Killed Sgt Pepper? followed shortly after, being made available in streaming format at the end of 2009 and receiving an official release on January 1st, 2010. Currently, Anton is distributing their music himself through his label, The Committee to Keep Music Evil. For vinyl fanatics like myself, this makes buying their records challenging because the price point is through the roof!!

While The Singles Collection (1992-2011) is not as essential as Tepid Peppermint Wonderland, it is a nice alternative that delivers a wide spread of Brian Jonestown Massacre material. The band’s music will always be overshadowed by Anton Newcombe’s debauchery and tantrums, and there are so many albums that it’s not easy to dive right in (although, the five albums from 1996-1998 are all excellent), but this compilation provides a nice starting point. The 22 remastered tracks are taken straight from vinyl 45s and cover a range of styles, from ‘60s influenced psych to gnarled garage rock, and in later work, shoegaze -- including two drone-based songs that Newcombe released under the name Acid. Fourteen of the tracks were previously unavailable on CD, and some suffer from fidelity issues, but that doesn’t make them any less appealing.

Get yer ya ya's off to "If Love is the Drug then I want to OD" here.


Buy your copy of The Singles Collection here.