The Brian Jonestown Massacre is an American musical project group that was formed by Anton Newcombe in 1990 in San Francisco, California. Their music is characterized by heavy usage of acoustic and electric guitars that are complemented by the groovy rhythmic patterns on the drums. They have created 19 full length studio albums in their career span of over thirty years. Their latest album is called Fire Doesn’t Grow On Trees. This ten track album was released on June 24, 2022. The Brian Jonestown Massacre has a retrospective rock and roll sound not without some modern experimental elements sprinkled throughout. Their genres consist of alternative, rock, indie rock, country rock and experimental. Some of their greatest influencers have been the Rolling Stones along with other various United Kingdom based rock bands.
“The Real,” the opening track for this album, pleasantly welcomes its listeners with simplistic vocal melodies, a grooving drum beat that is completely in triplets, and guitar chord progressions that modulate between the parallel major and minor keys. This particular song’s simplicity, catchiness and repetition will leave its listeners humming the song long after it is played. This proves to be an iconic move considering the fact that The Brian Jonestown Massacre is welcoming its listeners not only to a brand new album, but also a brand new era in their long career.
The track that follows, “Ineffable Mindfuck,” quickly shows its listeners the grungy side of the Brian Jonestown Massacre. This particular song is heavy in guitar distortion and bass compared to most of the other tracks. This track also shows some immense similarities to iconic longstanding United Kingdom groups such as Depeche Mode and U2. This fast paced song has proven to be one of the most memorable pieces of the album and one of the darkest.
Meanwhile some of the other songs on the album such as “It’s About Being Free Really” and “Don’t Let Me Get In Your Way” have a more country/folk type of sound that proves to be raw, authentic, and easy to listen and groove to. These two tracks, as well as many of the other tracks on the album contain some elements of rock and alternative music from the 90s such as Green Day and The Backstreet Boys.
It is evident that throughout such a long musical career, The Brian Jonestown Massacre has cleverly cultivated its own original sound, mixing the old with the new. Therefore Fire Doesn’t Grow On Trees is an album that can be enjoyed and appreciated by multiple generations for many years to come.
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