'A' Recordings

'When you are compelled to do the right thing, when you live by some internal code, and you don't shy away from standing up to and in the face of adversity or against the mob or the man no matter what that might mean to "your fame or prospects", it's doing the right thing... for some it might be taking a knee, or even a baton or bullet. That's a fire inside you, and it doesn't grow on trees. I create my own culture because it is what I need and what I feel isn't being provided. It doesn't exist unless I participate.' – Anton Newcombe

ANTON NEWCOMBE – frontman, songwriter composer, studio owner, multi-instrumentalist, producer, engineer, force of nature – returns with the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s 19th full-length studio album Fire Doesn't Grow On Trees, which will be released on 24th June 2022 on his own label A Recordings.

It has been 30 years since the release of their first single She Made Me / Evergreen. Released in 1992, as the British music press descended on the US to anoint the next US guitar band as flavour of the month and major labels were on the hunt for the compliant hopefuls to be their latest quick fix, Anton Newcombe had an idea: say no. As leader of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Newcombe had already established himself as a visionary songwriter, a man to whom making music wasn't a lifestyle choice or a hipster haircut but the very fabric of existence itself, and he had observed in silent horror as his peers meekly acquiesced to everything – yes to contracts, yes to management, yes to suggestions, yes to this, yes to that, yes, yes, yes. But he was different. Anton Newcombe was going to say no to everything. "I just knew I would be more successful in a certain way by saying no, just being contrary because I figured that if people liked me they were gonna like me anyway," he says. "Or dislike me. It doesn’t matter."

Brian Jonestown Massacre's shoegazing-tinged debut album Methodrone was released in 1995 and since then numerous band members have joined Newcombe on his sonic escapades, but he has remained the sole constant, the creative mastermind at the centre of one of music's most fascinating bands. There have been a further 18 albums under the Brian Jonestown Massacre moniker since then, each embarking on their own mind-expanding adventure and exploring the outer realms of rock'n'roll; psychedelic rock, country-blues, snarling rock’n’roll, blissed-out noise-pop and more.

Along the way, Newcombe has established himself as a once-in-a-lifetime talent who saw the direction in which mainstream indie-rock was heading and opted to take the long way round. He's emerged as - revolutionary force in modern music, an underground hero. There was no other way, this was how it had to be. "My only option with everything in life has always been that you just jump into the fire," he declares. "It doesn’t matter what it is."

It's with that spirit that he’s hopped around the globe, from the West Coast to New York, from Manhattan to Iceland, and then to Berlin, where he’s lived for 14 years and has two flats, one to live in and one that's been converted into his studio. He goes there six days a week to work and write and record and produce and it's where the fantastic new BJM album Fire Doesn’t Grow On Trees was made. In an era where one band bleeds into the next and production all seems to be pulling from a similarly beige-y sonic palette, here is a record that crackles with excitement and possibility, the fuzz of those 60s Ampeg amps, the exhilarating swirl of guitars and keyboards and Newcombe in the middle of it all, conducting the chaos.

Fire Doesn't Grow On Trees is the beginning of a thrilling new phase for Newcombe and his band. Joining him in the studio for this album were Ricky Maymi (guitars), Ryan Carlson Van Kriedt (keyboards), Hakon Adalsteinsson (guitar), Hallberg Daði Hallbergsson (bass), Uri Rennert (drums) and Sara Neidorf (drums).

After a hugely prolific 2010s that saw the release of eight long-players and one mini-album, Newcombe had been going through a period of writer’s block when one day he picked up his 12-string guitar in the studio and album opener and lead single The Real came out of him. Like the kraken, it was as if he’d summoned it. "All of a sudden, I just heard something," he says. "And then it just didn’t stop. We tracked a whole song every single day for 70 days in a row."

Four minutes into Fire Doesn’t Grow On Trees, there are two lines that sum up its fearless spirit. "Fight the beast until it dies, raise your sword up to the sky!", sings Newcombe as an explosion of fuzzy guitars, thrumming organs and rolling drums collide around him. As soon as Newcombe wrote it, he knew The Real had to open the new album. "That line is like fantasyland!" he laughs. "It's the little kid in me, full on St George shit. It's as much a declaration of anything that I could ever muster. A lot of the album is about affirmation by just living. Existentially, this time period has felt pretty dark so it’s about fighting the good fight. I’m singing to empower other people. First of all, I’m getting whatever I need out of it, but I can see it as something other people can identify with."

These are songs fuelled with the heady feeling of capturing a moment – from the hot-footed country sway of It's About Being Free Really to the hazy grooves of What's In A Name, from the garage stomp of Silenced to the widescreen 60s-pop of Wait A Minute (2:30 To Be Exact). Nothing was pre-written. Like The Real, everything was conjured up by where an instrument took Newcombe when he picked it up. "I could sit at the piano, the organ, any instrument, and get an idea all of a sudden. I would play for one second with the band to get a grasp of the idea, and then we would unplug the amps and put on the headphones, plug in and track it. Then I would go, 'guys leave the room', sing the words in my head and then record them. Everything's off the top of my head, just like one-take Jake. I surprised myself."

Fire Doesn't Grow On Trees is a brilliant album, but there is no such thing as a defining statement in Anton Newcombe's world anymore, just more chapters that contribute to the tale. "Nobody can stop me, I'm not asking somebody, I'm not making the rounds at Warners, saying 'please put out my record!'. It's just for me," he says. He hopes he can be an inspiration to others. "I would love to see more groups, people playing music in the UK and everywhere else because I really enjoy it. That's the only reason I need. It's the only reason to do stuff." That hits to the core of what makes Anton Newcombe and Brian Jonestown Massacre tick in 2022. He'll keep jumping in that fire. That's how he rolls. Savour it.

Tracklisting:
1. The Real
2. Ineffable Mindfuck
3. It's About Being Free Really
4. What's In A Name
5. Silenced
6. Before And After land
7. You Think I'm Joking?
8. #1 LUCKY KITTY
9. Wait A Minute (2:30 to be exact)
10. Don't Let Me Get In Your Way

This is the debut album release from L'Epée , the band are Emmanuelle Seigner (Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle), Anton Newcombe (The Brian Jonestown Massacre) & Lionel & Marie Liminana (The Liminanas) . It is very rarely that a musical project lives up to the billing of being a supergroup'. However, the exception to this rule comes in the shape of L'épée.

A stellar combination of the talents of The Brian Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcombe, cinematic femme fatale Emmanuelle Seigner and ice-cool pop provocateurs The Liminanas (Lionel and Marie Liminana), L'épée transcend artistic and traditional borders.

'We are living in very culturally insular times, so it feels really good to be swimming against the tide,' says Anton of the band's bi-lingual, cross-continental approach.'There's something really positive about branching out, collaborating and taking risks.' Far from being defeated by a world seemingly regressing into turmoil, L'Epée's strength comes from a long history of challenging the status quo.

From Anton's legendary battles with The Man'with The Brian Jonestown Massacre to Emmanuelle's eclectic screen career to The Liminana's community-minded ethos- setting up their own record shop, L.G.D.C, and promoting gigs by the cream of the world's garage rock scene (New Bomb Turks, Oblivians, Fleshtones, Revelators) -they share a fierce intelligence and an outsider aesthetic which, over the decades, has been sharpened to a razor's edge.

Fitting, then, that their name translates as The Sword. 'It came to me in a dream,' explains Anton. 'I woke up and there it was, The Sword'. Someone told me there had already been a band with that name so I flipped it into French. It suits the band because we're united in a common cause.' This pent-up creative energy has been channelled into their extraordinary debut album, Diabolique. Named in tribute to Mario Bava's 1968 cult classic Danger: Diabolik', it's a musical masterclass where elements of garage, ye-ye, sleaze rock, cult soundtracks, sci-fi, spaghetti westerns and girl-group pop noir are combined with the cut-and-thrust zeal of a band bursting with ideas and energy.

All delivered by Emmanuelle in a sultry Gallic drawl which will send a frisson of recognition through anyone familiar with her iconic roles in, among many others, Frantic, Venus In Fur and Bitter Moon (all directed by her husband, Roman Polanski). 'I've loved rock music since I was a kid,' she says, namechecking Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground and The Stooges as key influences.
'I always wanted to be a musician, but it wasn't so easy in France as I couldn't meet the right people. Then I became a model and then very quickly after that I did Frantic and became an actress. It worked for me, but in my heart I always wanted to do music.'

Having asked close friend Bertrand Belin to provide lyrics for three further tracks (Grande', On Dansait Avec Elle'and Lou'), the trio set to work at The Liminanas'studio in Cabestany, Southern France, in November 2017 -with Emmanuelle, ever the perfectionist, fine-tuning them the following February.

Satisfied with the results, the trio flew to Berlin to hook up with Anton and (Liverpudlian engineer) Andrea Wright at his Cobra Studio in Berlin Utilising a treasure trove of vintage equipment ('I've got way more 60's gear than The Beatles and The Stones had, I'm mad for that stuff', explains the BJM man), Anton set to work, re-recording the drums with Marie and adding -and deleting- tracks so that the shifting layers of sound suited the mood of each individual track.

'I've got plenty of other ways to express myself, so I really enjoyed taking a backseat, creatively,' he explains. 'Lionel is such a great composer. There's a very visual sense to his songs and I was very conscious of not stepping on his intentions too much. There were some really interesting sonic things I would add, like a track of the craziest feedback, to give a song a weird ambient quality. It's the role that Brian Jones had in the Stones, or Warren (Ellis) has in Nick Cave's band. Musically, they're all over the map, but they make things happen.'

'It was so inspiring to see Anton work,' says Emmanuelle of seeing him in action.
'When we sent the songs to him they were good, but they were nothing like how it ended up. He's so talented, like a genius. He made the whole thing darker, more interesting and more psychedelic.'

Tracklisting:
1. Une Lune Étrange
2. Lou
3. Dreams
4. La Brigade Des Maléfices
5. On Dansait avec elle
6. Ghost Rider
7. Grande
8. Springfield 61
9. Un Rituel Inhabituel
10. Last Picture Show

Release Date: 06/09/2019

10th anniversary remastered edition of self-titled debut album.

The story of The Blue Angel Lounge began in the post-industrial town of Hagen in Western Germany in 2006 when Nils Ottensmeyer and Dennis 'Mel' Melster, both with abundant talent and little to do, began sculpting soundscapes. The band recorded and self-released their debut self-titled album in 2008, and shortly thereafter caught the attention of 8MM Musik in Berlin.

The band took their name from the club in New York City that in the 1960's offered Nico (Velvet Underground) her first live performances in America. Nico would remain an underlying influence on the band.

Initially a 6 piece darkly psychedelic outfit, with their second LP 'Narcotica' (8MM Musik 2010), they began subtly introducing post-punk elements to their melodic songwriting, and the intensity of Nils O's vocal began to come to the forefront.

Strangers to the mainstream, but revered by a steadily expanding fanbase around the world, the band have earned the respect of other groups such as Interpol, The Dandy Warhols, and A Place To Bury Strangers and been invited to support them on tour.

Anton Newcombe (founder of The Brian Jonestown Massacre), a fan of the band, assisted with production of 'Narcotica', and in 2012 The Blue Angel Lounge supported The Brian Jonestown Massacre on a tour of the United States, earning rave reviews.

The band played Roskilde Festival in 2013 and been twice invited to the Austin Psych Festival (now called Levitation) in Austin, Texas (2011 and 2012). In November 2012 they supported The Dandy Warhols across England, France, Holland, and Belgium.

Tracklisting:
1. Looming Solid Massive Steamer
2. Ashes Round The Skull
3. Desert Shore
4. Orange In Green
5. Into Cold Water
6. Hundred Years In Love
7. Die Away As One In Time
8. The God
9. Lsd And The Search For God
10. Rising End

Release Date: 02/11/2018

The first thing that hits you is the voice. Alex Lipinski's caressing sympathy, full-throated resentment, and the raw rockabilly excitement of earliest Elvis have grabbed unwary listeners from the West Country to Krakow, Berlin and New York, since he first left Somerset to become a crucial habitué of Soho's legendary, lost 12-Bar Club.

He has followed in the footsteps of his hero Dylan to write in the Chelsea Hotel, and sung Elvis songs in the home of an admiring Liam Gallagher, who responded with a roaring 'Acquiesce'.

With older brother and fellow musician Adam Lipinski by his side at Newcombe's residential studio in Berlin, Alex'basically took six hours. 'Anton put a lot of time and energy in. I recorded with an old guitar, because he wanted to capture the effortless, timeless 60s records that he had in his mind. We had initially planned to be in the studio for three or four nights.

The first evening we rattled though the songs, a take or two of each and in those six hours everything clicked. By midnight we were done. We ended the evening by going to a great bar called 8mm.

Anton set up a gig there the following night and played old folk records, then we played a live set. We added small overdubs on the record later. But the album captures the character of the songs live with no frills. The slight imperfections add to the feel. Anton taught me about perfect mistakes.'

Tracklisting:
1. Going Nowhere Fast
2. Dandylion Blues
3. Carolyn
4. Hurricane
5. Come On People
6. Sophie's Song
7. The Devil You Know
8. Lonely Kid
9. Another Travellin'Song
10. This Gir

Release Date: 10/11/2017