Over the years,
Anton Newcombe and
the Brian Jonestown Massacre have gotten more promotional mileage out of their self-sabotage than they have ink spilled on their shambolic musical blend of
the Stones,
Velvets, and Summer of Love-derived transcendence. Megalomania, drug abuse, internal strife, aborted tours, and frustrated fans -- it's a checklist for band destruction. And yet
the Brian Jonestown Massacre endure. They got a boost outside of their sizable niche in 2003 with the release of a documentary that traced both their contentious relationship with
the Dandy Warhols and
Newcombe's mercurial antics/genius.
Ondi Timoner's
Dig! won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the 2004
Sundance Film Festival, and it proved a captivating depiction of the group's long strange trip. As the film showed,
BJM albums can be a long time coming. So
Tee Pee Records has capitalized on the exposure with
Tepid Peppermint Wonderland, a two-disc, nearly 40 song set of rare, old, unreleased, and live material. Each track is accompanied by recollections from various band participants (there have been over 40 since the group's 1990 inception), and there's a wealth of photos from that same stretch. But by including album cuts from throughout their career,
Tepid Peppermint also re-emphasizes just how great -- after all the drama --
the Brian Jonestown Massacre can really be. Disc one includes the softly swirling haze of 2004 single
"If Love Is the Drug," the
Bravery Repetition & Noise highlight
"Sailor," and both
"Anenome" and
"All Around You (Intro)" from the amazing, grimy, and beautiful 1996 effort
Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request.
"Wisdom" could be an ancient
Charlatans single, and
"Stars" is a brittle, very heavily '60s acoustic number about tortured love -- "I warned you I'd kill you/And I love you" -- that
Anton's notes say is the first song he ever wrote on guitar.
Tepid Peppermint's second disc is equally strong, beginning with an unreleased track and moving through the band's first-ever single (
"Evergreen"), live versions of
"Let Me Stand Next to Your Flower" and
"Hide and Seek," the nearly
garage rock stomp of 1996's
"Oh Lord," and
"Not if You Were the Last Dandy on Earth," the
Warhols-baiting single that plays a pivotal role in the documentary. The album closes with
"Sue," eight minutes that put
Newcombe and
the Brian Jonestown Massacre's most central themes -- drugs, drone, dirt, and melody -- into epic relief. ~ Johnny Loftus
