A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

I haven't even thought of being in, let alone actually been in a band for well over three decades. However, I heard this song and once I get a handle on the neuropathy or whatever it is that's affecting my right fretting hand, I'm all in. The set list will be an hour and a half version of just this one song, ninety straight minutes of G/F/C. LOL, I'm totally fine with that. Tell me this wouldn't be an absolute blast to play:

To add some spice and variation to the 90 minute set you could segue into The Who's "Magic Bus" for a hundred measures or so.

toomanycats wrote: ↑Sun Aug 15, 2021 6:24 am To add some spice and variation to the 90 minute set you could segue into The Who's "Magic Bus" for a hundred measures or so.

LOL, maybe for the encore and there's probably an obscure T-Rex song too out there as well. Seriously though, I'm absolutely in love with this tune, it pushes all my primal R n'' R buttons. I must have looped it a hundred times yesterday and I'm starting off the same this morning too, it puts me in some sort of trance...

It doesn't take long to start down a rabbit hole on The Youtube. Apparently 'Brian Jonestown Massacre' is a thing and has a following that I was not aware of.
I don't love it but it is something I could listen to while doing something and not get too distracted.

ID10t wrote: ↑Sun Aug 15, 2021 10:36 am It doesn't take long to start down a rabbit hole on The Youtube. Apparently 'Brian Jonestown Massacre' is a thing and has a following that I was not aware of.
I don't love it but it is something I could listen to while doing something and not get too distracted.

Yup, that's exactly what happened to me. BJM (Anton Newcombe) has been around for thirty years and while I'd heard of them, never listened to any of their stuff until abut a week or so ago. Now it's look out below. All the usual suspects whose music I'd draw on for inspiration based on my generation went right out the window and I did a complete 180. The Dandy Warhols are another band I recently pretty much just listened to for the first time and the same thing happened. In fact, the motivation to look into BJM was prompted by an interview with Courtney Taylor-Taylor, the founder and creative energy behind the Warhols when he mentioned that they were one of his favorites...

Only proves that there is something for everyone!

Funny. I've had Green Day's American Idiot randomly flashing into my grey matter at the oddest times, making me think maybe I should be playing that one here and there. I wasn't even really a Green Day fan by anyone's standards.

This BJM thing is bad. If it were drugs or alcohol, a family intervention would be in order...

tobijohn wrote: ↑Sun Aug 15, 2021 1:17 pm This BJM thing is bad. If it were drugs or alcohol, a family intervention would be in order...

If family hasn't stopped your guitar purchases, I don't hold much hope for you BJM kick.
If that is your biggest problem, lap it up

Just to finish the thought, links below to a few of their songs that knocked me back against the ropes when I first heard them (mostly because I'd never heard anything quite like them before). For those with the interest and time, the last one is to a live show with excellent sound and camera work (the first link is taken from this concert) and is fairly representative of their body of work. The set list and times for it are in the first comment. IMHO, there isn't a bad tune in the lot, in fact, they're all great. If you do end up watching the concert, Forgotten Graves, Who Dreams of Cats and When Jokers Attack are also stunners.

When you break them down, none of the songs are particularly complicated or virtuosic, I think if you can play Hey Joe or Gloria and a couple minor chords, strum decently and play the leads using the wound strings below the seventh fret, you can pretty much cover most of the catalog but the way they are arranged and interact is IMHO, some sort of genius and have some of the best melody lines and hooks I've ever heard. Influences that i can discern are anywhere from 60s Psychedelic rock to The Smiths to Pink Floyd to by its cadence, old English folk music.

Also of interest is how prevalent an electric 12 string is in the compositions. I've watched dozens and dozens of live vids and in all but one, there's an electric 12 string. In fact, a couple tunes have two electric 12 strings. Tom Petty has a number of songs utilizing a 12 string Rick and of course Roger McGuinn / Byrds used one quite extensively but not like these guys. They've also got some really unusual guitars. Anton Newcombe uses a couple Vox Cheetah semi-hollows, the primary 12 string guitarist has a Gibson 335 with a trapeze tailpiece (which I've never seen before), the previously mentioned Vox Phantom 12 and a triple single coil semi-hollow with a Bigsby that I haven't been able to identify:





(from some French TV show, vid begins at the song I'm referring to but a few more after it as well)

Full concert (set list and times in first comment)

That f’n Anton Newcombe, like that line from The Godfather “Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in”:



I absolutely love how the sloppy cymbals come in at the beginning of the last verse and the drummer almost loses the beat. Plus those raunchy raw leads, can’t seem to get enough of this stuff.

Another great one:

Hey. I haven't checked in here in a while but good to see you are all still here. I'm a big fan of BJM and Anton. The music isn't overly sophisticated but Anton has a brilliant feel for what makes a classic outsider tune. And he's as prolific as hell.

I first heard of Anton a good few years ago when the movie/documentary 'Dig!" came out. The full film is here (hopefull viewable in USA but I'm not sure). It's a great watch if you like R&R excess, ego and fuckupness.

Trailer:-

SalteeDog wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 8:17 am Hey. I haven't checked in here in a while but good to see you are all still here. I'm a big fan of BJM and Anton. The music isn't overly sophisticated but Anton has a brilliant feel for what makes a classic outsider tune. And he's as prolific as hell.

I first heard of Anton a good few years ago when the movie/documentary 'Dig!" came out. The full film is here (hopefull viewable in USA but I'm not sure). It's a great watch if you like R&R excess, ego and fuckupness.

Good to see you again. I'd previously bookmarked a link to Dig from a different source on YT but so far have been too busy to watch it as I just keep looping my BJM/Anton Newcombe playlist all day/everyday. I hope to break out of that cycle soon so that i can...