'a' Recordings

Brian Jonestown Massacre burst into 2019 with the release of their 18th full-length album, just 7 months after their last one. The self-titled 9-track album is released on Anton Newcombe's A Recordings on 15th March 2019.

It was recorded and produced at Anton's Cobra Studio in Berlin.The album was originally going to be released in September, but due to a hugely successful global tour - taking in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe the release was delayed.

Recorded this time last year, the album features Sara Neidorf on drums, Heike Marie Radeker (LeVent) on bass, Hakon Adalsteinsson (BJM / Third Sound & Gunman & Holy Ghost) on guitar and Anton Newcombe on multiple instruments.

Also making a guest vocal appearance on Tombes Oubliees'is Rike Bienert who has sung on previous BJM albums.

The band performed songs from the album throughout the European leg of the 2018 tour.

Tracklisting:
1. Drained
2. Tombes Oubliees
3. My Mind Is Filled With Stuff
4. Cannot Be Saved
5. A Word
6. We Never Had a Chance
7. Too Sad To Tell You
8. Remember Me This
9. What Can I Say

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

Available on 180 grm Black vinyl 12'.

This is the debut single release from L'Epée, the band are Emmanuelle Seigner (Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle), Anton Newcombe (The Brian Jonestown Massacre) & Lionel & Marie Liminana (The Liminanas).

Recorded in Cabestany (France) and Berlin at Anton's Cobra Studio, this three track 12' single comes in deluxe packaging & precedes the full length album released in June this year.

Tracklisting:
Side A:
1. Dreams

Side B:
2. Last Picture Show
3. Dreams (extended a-go-go)

Release Date: 17/05/2019

Peter Holmström named his solo project Pete International Airport after a song by his other band The Dandy Warhols.

Safer With The Wolves - ¦'is a meticulously crafted psyche rock journey into the dark heart of electronica upon which Peter has enlisted the help of numerous like-minded musical allies.

One of which, if you're to believe a certain infamous rock documentary called Dig! is an unexpected union; the Brian Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcombe is releasing Safer With The Wolves - ¦'on his own record label A Recordings.

The albums'11 tracks feature a variety of guest singers and collaborators including Robert Levon Been (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club), Alex Maas (Black Angels), Lisa Elle (Dark Horses), Jason Sebastian Russo (Hopewell, Mercury Rev), Jsun Atoms (The Upside Down, Daydream Machine), Emil Nikolaisen (Sereena-Maneesh) and Jeremy Sherrer (The Dandy Warhols, Modest Mouse, The Shins).

Tracklisting:
1. Even Happier
2. Señorita
3. Hurray For The People
4. Flowers Of Evil
5. VHS Or Beta Fish
6. Love In Reverse
7. Western Shouting
8. Dance Around The Broken
9. After All
10. Happens All The Time
11. Cloven Hooves

Release Date: 17/11/2017

 

Born in Berlin in early 2014 and nurtured over the following summer, I Declare Nothing'is the spine-tingling collaboration between Tess Parks and Anton Newcombe (Brian Jonestown Massacre), due for release on Anton's A Recordings label on 29th June.

The duo, who co-wrote and co-played on the album, they are touring across Europe this year. 

Tess Parks - A native of Toronto, Tess Parks moved to London, England at the age of seventeen where she briefly studied photography before deciding to focus on music. Tess made an impression on industry legend Alan McGee, founder of Creation Records, albeit the timing of their meeting could hardly have been less ideal; McGee was no longer involved in music and Tess was due to move back to Toronto. After moving back to her hometown in 2012, Tess formed a band on the advice of McGee and less than a year after their meeting, he returned to music with his new label, 359 Music.

Tess became one of his first signings and released her debut record Blood Hot'in November 2013 to excellent reviews. One reviewer described her as 'Patti Smith on Quaaludes'. Others have mentioned her "gauzy psychedelic sound' and "smouldering voice'. Alan McGee himself said: 'She's only 24 and is already an amazing songwriter... she just doesn't quite know she is yet - ¦ her most beautiful quality is her lack of ego. Tess is an amazing lady'.

Anton Newcombe - Anton Newcombe is the leader of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, who returned last May with their 14th full-length album Revelation'to critical acclaim. It is the first album that was fully recorded and produced at Anton Newcombe's recording studio in Berlin and was released on his record label A Recordings. It was supported by a successful European tour.

Named in tribute to the legendary Rolling Stones guitarist and his influence in introducing Eastern culture and music into the world of Western rock & roll, Brian Jonestown Massacre formed in San Francisco, California in 1990.

Two dozen band members later and numerous 'ups and downs' (some have been famously sensationalized in the media), the one thing that has always remained consistent for this psychedelic collective, is front man Mr. Anton Alfred Newcombe.

LP Tracklisting
Side A:
1. Wehmut
2. Cocaine Cat
3. Peace Defrost
4. German Tangerine
5. Gone

Side B:
6. October 2nd
7. Mama
8. Voyage de L'âme
9. Melorist
10. Friendlies

CD:
1. Wehmut
2. Cocaine Cat
3. Peace Defrost
4. German Tangerine
5. Gone
6. October 2nd
7. Mama
8. Voyage de L'âme
9. Meliorist
10. Friendlies

'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

The first track is "Forgotten Graves" (which is exclusive to this release) & the second track is  'Tombes Oubliées' with Rike (Friedrike) Bienert providing the vocals which is off the forthcoming self titled BJM album.

With Sara Neidorf on drums, Hakon Adalsteinsson on guitar &  Heike Marie Rädeker on bass supporting Anton Newcombe in these sessions that were recorded between December 2017 & January 2018 at Cobra Studios in Berlin .

The band have just completed successful tours of the USA ,Canada, Australia, New Zealand & Europe. "Forgotten Graves" is released in the same month as the world commemorates the hundredth anniversary of the World War 1 ('the war to end all wars'), this war never ended any other war & more forgotten graves are being added every day.

Tracklisting:
Side A:
Forgotten Graves

Side B:
Tombes Oubliées

Release Date: 30/11/2018