The Brian Jonestown Massacre

Since 1990, The Brian Jonestown Massacre have proven to be highly prolific practitioners of psych-rock hypnosis, and that productivity can be largely attributed to the unwavering autocratic vision of one man. Singer/guitarist Anton Newcombe formed the group in San Francisco and has remained its lone constant member over a turbulent history that’s yielded enough disgruntled ex-members to fill a phone book (though the band’s largely silent, mutton-chopped tambourine man, Joel Gion, has proved to be Newcombe’s most loyal right-hand man). Drawing equally from sneering ’60s mod rock, hazy-headed shoegaze, and sitar-speckled psych folk, the BJM achieved underground renown with a surge of seven eclectic albums released between 1995 and 1998, culminating in a short-lived major-label stint on TVT Records that ultimately couldn’t turn them into the American Oasis. But after Ondi Timoner’s acclaimed 2004 documentary, Dig!, put the BJM’s inter-band dysfunction—and penchant for onstage fisticuffs—on the big screen for all to see, Newcombe suddenly found himself playing for the largest audiences of his career. Since then, his ever-mutating group has enjoyed a sustained second wind that’s seen them veer between the beat-driven dance experiments of 2010’s ​​Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?, the multilingual motorik odysseys of 2012’s Aufheben, and the jangly drones of 2022’s Fire Doesn’t Grow on Trees.