Take It From The Man! Anton Newcombe’s Favourite Tracks via Quietus by Julian Marszalek
With The Brian Jonestown Massacre's UK and Ireland tour in support of recent LP Revelation starting in Brighton on Saturday, the band's frontman shirks the album rundown request, opens up his DJ bag and gives Julian Marszalek a top 13 songs mixtape.
If there’s a common thread that runs through the Baker’s Dozen section it’s that artists struggle and anguish over which 13 albums make their final cut. What’s to go in? What’s to be left out? Will the subject’s mind change before publication? Decisions, decisions…
The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe is no different. But it’s not just the choosing of albums that causes Newcombe consternation; it’s that he doesn’t really like discussing other people’s music.
"I was never one of those guys that sit around and talk music with people because I’ve always been interested in playing music. I even find this a little bit weird," he tells the Quietus via Skype from his Berlin studio. "As much as I’ve been into music my whole life, owning thousands of records or something, that’s not been my connection to other people."
But that’s not to say that Newcombe isn’t a music fan. Far from it. In addition to his day-to-day duties with The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Newcombe can often be found spinning records either for Berlin-based radio stations or at gigs, clubs and parties and, as exemplified by his choices for his Baker’s Dozen, is a man with catholic tastes. He’s just not that stoked about discussing them.
"Music’s been my personal salvation; it’s like my church or something that I go to," he says. "There’s a refuge that I seek and that’s what I identify with the music and that’s something that I can’t really share with people, and it kind of annoys me when other people get into it, although I do a little bit with people. It all depends on my mood."
Thankfully, Newcombe is in a fine mood. In an interview punctuated with much laughter and a genuine love of his choices that’s palpable throughout, the psychedelic overlord proves to be highly entertaining (virtual) company. But there is a caveat. Any attempts to choose his favourite 13 albums ended with head-spinning frustration on his part so Newcombe has instead elected to open his DJ bag to choose 13 songs.
"This can sort of be my mixtape to you," he laughs as we begin to go through his choices…
Popera Cosmic - Philadelphie Story
On an emotional level, I can identify with it because of my own aspirations of wanting to make music. It’s passionate and it’s an earworm. I posted it on Twitter and Andy Votel, who’s a DJ in Manchester and runs Finders Keepers, and is one of those crate pickers who’s always looking for those lost gems, was like, "Oh my God, Anton! Do you know anyone who’s got this?" and it turns out I do know someone who’s got a copy in Iceland, but they only made a few hundred copies of this record and it went nowhere. On another level, just bringing this up, I can relate to it because every song I used to write – even if I thought it was great but it wasn’t executed well – people always thought they were amazing and I think about all the copies of the NME and all the stuff they used to rave about that was so important that it had to be in your face, and that means nothing. And me not even being able to get into the papers about something, I could just identify with this guy because, to me, he’s like a master – a master at work. And it’s like a prog-orchestral thing in a way that I can understand. Like, something like King Crimson is a little bit too much and this is obviously coming from the same kind of place except without the jazz-fusion, and I was just like, "Wow!" And also, I like psychedelia that isn’t limited to just paisley shirts and fuzz boxes. There’s this whole other side of it to me, which is mind-expanding and that’s where the whole rock orchestra thing comes in. I love music that allows you the space to interact with it.
2. Barış Manço - Ölüm Allah
He was like the John Lennon of Anatolia, Turkey. He’d made dozens of records and when he died there were a million people or something at his funeral procession. There were people lining the streets with his portrait. On his birthday, they have a special design on Google Turkey and his name trends on Twitter worldwide. There are a lot of Turkish people here in Berlin and on German YouTube you tend to find more Turkish channels. I was looking through their oldies channel because I like Eastern musics and a lot of artists from North Africa and when I find something good on a channel then it’s worth my time to dig through their crates. I figure it’s an anomaly in this day and age if someone had three good records, so if I find someone who’s doing something really good then I’m going to check out all of their stuff. See his visuals, someone who looks like this vampire crusader guy, really over-the-top with these Black Sabbath-looking clothes with the long hair and the beard and I was just like, "Wow!" In the 70s he started recording with some German guys so it’s really rocking out. I really fell in love with this song and I started playing it on this little radio show I have when I DJ. My friend in Sweden got me the actual disc and I then read about him in Mojo and I was like, "I didn’t find out about him from you guys! Where did you guys find out about this?" So I was wondering how that went viral. But he was great and he died while screwing some young chick on the side and he just went out like a legend. But the best thing about this song is the title which I looked up: ‘Death Warrant Of God’ and that fits right into the puzzle, because he looks so outrageous and the song has this heavy air about it. I translated the lyric and turns out it’s all about God signing your death warrant – look out! I think that’s so rock, you know?
3. Simon & Garfunkel - Richard Cory
My family is ethnic and on my dad’s side they all used to send me money for my birthday and I’d become attached to music before that. By the time I was two-and-a-half it was something that I responded to, and my mom was always playing music and she always worried about me touching the record player, so she got me one of these Mickey Mouse tiny little record players. I basically looted her 60s record collection and one of those records was Sounds Of Silence. I didn’t like ‘The Sound Of Silence’, but what I liked was side B of the album, which are all these songs that are so dark, and out of those songs I really like ‘Richard Cory’. ‘A Most Peculiar Man’ is really great, too, and it’s about this guy who doesn’t talk to anybody – he lives in this tiny little world with his books and that was fine by him, but nobody knew that he died in that tiny little room which is the way he wanted it because he was this most peculiar man. ‘Richard Cory’ has this story about this guy who has everything in the world. He’s like a City of London banker or one of these Russian guys; you’re always reading about him and he owns a football team and he has parties in Monaco and he owns a yacht and you wish you were like him and then you read the paper one day and he’s blown his brains out. I just love that flip around! It’s little bit lefty, this song, obviously, but it’s good poetry and it’s a good story and it’s that culmination of folk-rock that I really like. The way they overdubbed that stuff with Glen Campbell really kicked butt. And those guys’ harmonies are just untouchable – in ’65 those guys were kicking butt for pop music.
4. Fabio Viscogliosi - Nostro Caro Angelo
I ended up DJing with my friend, the French rock photographer Richard Bellia, in Switzerland recently and we were doing song-for-song and this guy has insane tastes in music. He just carries a little box of 45s with him and he came there to fully kick my ass DJing! The only person I chicken out of doing this with is Andy Votel – he asked me to do it with him in Berlin and I said, "No way. You’re too good." See, Andy would have everything that I have and he’s going to have something I don’t have so I’m going to be left playing some B-52s song or whatever. He’s too good with everything! But Richard had this single in his box and it immediately caught my ear. I was like, "What is this?" because to me it had the sensitivity of Elliot Smith and there was something that I recognised in it – this softness and a vulnerability in the song. I looked Fabio up but there wasn’t too much information in English except that he’d worked with Blonde Redhead, which is OK in my book because those guys are a trip. Blonde Redhead always keep their distance from me. I remember this one time I was backstage and I went to talk to Kazu Makino and the twins [Simone and Amedeo Pace] just formed a gate in front of me on either side like cartoon royal guards; it was just bizarre! They’ve both dated her which I find absolutely bizarre. But however that works into their art is just phenomenal and I’d like to hear more from them in the future if they’re not done. But I’ve found out absolutely nothing about Fabio. I think he’s French-Italian and any time I play that song they really like it, which is cool.
5. Nina Simone - Ain
So many of her records are live and the live version on the record is great, too, but that film of her playing in Harlem and watching that band play with her and thinking about that time period after Martin Luther King was killed and all the troubles – and they were still headed for more troubles – that woman was laying down some heavy soul. She wasn’t lying. Every single word of that song… she was like, "This is what I got. I ain’t got all of these things but I’ve got me." That kind of power is so important and the power of that band is so amazing. It’s something you don’t get from DJs; it’s a totally different energy. It was hard for her to relate to other people and her life was hard and even though she was universally accepted she doesn’t get her dues. People don’t realise how great she is in jazz music because of her attitude. As time went along she was trying to communicate how awful it was. People were trying to hit her up because she was rich and had records and she had to move to Switzerland so people could leave her alone and treat her with respect.
6. Marvin Gaye - What
The thing about Marvin is that it’s a personal journey. He spent so much time entertaining people and making them happy and smiling a lot and looking sharp and being really, like, Mr. Manners for the whole label. ‘Sexual Healing’ and all that stuff came a lot later. He went through a lot of personal pain. That whole Vietnam thing… people don’t realise in England how many black people fought there. The race riots and all that stuff kicked off and the drugs that were coming back in… it looked like so much of the progress… what with Dr. King’s death, it was so crazy what was going on and Motown wasn’t about that. Motown was classy black people doing their thing, you know, and it wasn’t about the revolution. It was the opposite to the word on the street. So, for him to even do this record, against Berry Gordy’s wishes, was like, this is not the role you play; this is not your archetype in this parade. It was amazing and the way he articulated all that stuff musically and lyrically is so smooth but it’s filled with so much pain. I could feel that so it speaks to me as a listener and it never gets old for me. A lot of these songs, when I go backwards, all of this stuff is songs that I wish I could write but it’s all pretty much once in a lifetime stuff. It’s so amazing that this came out of him; it’s so honest. And that’s what art is supposed to be and it’s one of the things that only art can do – speak to everyone and speak for everyone. Sometimes art just nails it.
7. Bob Dylan - Isis
Dylan’s done the same as Marvin but in a way he sings about absolutely nothing and he goes on and on about it. With the songs from this period, and several of the ones that I really love, there are so many words in these songs but I just enjoy it, and there are points of reference that lead to books and things. I could have chosen dozens of Dylan songs that I’m really crazy about but I find myself DJing this one all the time. I really like the drum track and it’s a good way to kill a couple of minutes. I DJ really odd; I’ll DJ at concerts or whatever and I like to DJ first, even if they put me headlining. I’ll do it right when the doors open and be gone before anybody gets there. Why? Because I couldn’t care less! Some of his stuff is hidden messages. In ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ he’s saying shit like, "The rules of the road have been lodged" and he’s talking about Masonic lodges; he tosses these things in and then it’s like, ‘Don’t trip! It’s alright, ma; if I can’t please everyone then that’s alright.’ And with ‘Gates Of Eden’ it’s based more on literary points of reference and classical literature, I think, and poetry. I think ‘Isis’ is more fun and it’s a weird tongue-twister that only he seems to be able to pull off. And in ‘Hurricane’, which comes before on the record, is this true story and he just nails that one. But a lot of his protest stuff is very vague. I find people like Bobby Jameson, when they’re being aggressive, to be more to the point about the system or something in folk music. I just find that Dylan, at times, was being super-vague. But you know who’s even crazier without saying anything? Beck. It’s like, we don’t know anything about that guy! He’s been around for like, 20 years, and nobody knows jack shit about him. It’s amazing! I know his brother and I’ve met Beck a few times and I really like him.
8. David Bowie - Wild Is The Wind
I see Bowie [these days] kind of doing like a Ringo Starr sort of thing. Ringo’s like, "Look, I signed millions of autographs and I’m not fucking doing it! Sorry!" and I love him for that. And Bowie’s kind of doing his own thing, probably. He’s always had his ear to the ground and lifting all those styles and incorporating them. I have so much respect for that guy in a lot of different ways. Here’s another artist where I could have picked anything; I could’ve jumped in right at that moment and said, "This is my favourite Bowie record" because he’s a man that’s produced albums. I even enjoy Station To Station as an album. Everybody says Low and I love that and I love all these albums so much, but his version of ‘Wild Is The Wind’ is emotionally amazing. What it does to me, the listener, is that it kicks it up a level and it kicks it up a level from Nina Simone’s version which I love. He makes it believable to me in this weird operatic way. It has the same effect like I was watching an opera and just get caught up in the story and believe that Romeo and Juliet are two people in love and not just two actors on stage. It’s a suspension of disbelief.
9. The Velvet Underground - Rock & Roll
We keep running over the same fertile ground and it’s like, how many Velvet Underground songs can you choose? But to me, The Velvet Underground is The Velvet Underground & Nico, and I do like White Light/White Heat, but I can relate to this song. See, I don’t like Lou Reed as a person but I was so sad that I cried when he died. He epitomises New York and I hate New York; I hate it but I love it! The New York that he is doesn’t exist. I love John Cale, though. I love that guy. I love who he is now and I love his band and I love that Chelsea Girl recording and his attitude and his whole career has been cool. But anyway, in the song, the picture that Lou’s painting is about how your life is saved by something; it’s the only thing that’s happening. There’s nothing happening in your life but you tune in to this thing and it grabs you. And it saves your life because it gives you something you identity with and so that song captures the whole story right there. And for him to be able to articulate that… see, because he already has that experience with the doo-woppers, and that led him to get involved with music in the first place. So he already had that experience before that and here it is coming up at the start of the 70s and he’s whipped this one out in a totally different style than the doo-woppers. He’s speaking the truth and it’s an amazing track. I tend to DJ this one too. And it has the aesthetic too. Not all of my choices have this aesthetic.
10. The 13th Floor Elevators - You
What an amazing record! We just left off talking about Lou and how it reaches this crescendo with the guitar break and this aesthetic feeling and here, imagine your mixtape going to this song and this kicks in with this tub-thumping rhythm and Roky Erickson’s vocals – it’s amazing! He’s hysterical! I just don’t see anyone else hitting that level; it’s the hysteria. The combination of everything is maddening to me. I love it. It has this 60s go-go element to it. There’s this whole California sound and Pacific Northwest sound and all these garage bands have this element and these guys are right up there. They were the best Texan psychedelic band, for sure. It’s an incredible noise that they made and it reminds me of ‘Paint It Black’ in a way but the din they create is otherworldly. I guess ‘Paint It Black’ has this more Andalusian thing with the bass going on but there’s this otherworldly spirit in it. And Tommy Hall’s jug! We still don’t know if he was going "toodle-loodle-loodle-loodle" into a microphone or he was really making it with some kind of jug. When you listen to those jug guys, they’re just blowing into it but we don’t know if he was just putting everybody on! See, I’m a bit of a troublemaker and I have a bit of the leprechaun blood in me and I wanna believe that he’s taking the piss! I mean, the absurdity of having an electric jug player – how cool is that?
11. Jackie Mittoo - Ghetto Organ
Jackie Mittoo was in The Skatalites and all that stuff and they were one of the major ska bands so I take it he was playing on everybody’s sessions because he was phenomenal. But that track – that’s another one of those things, see? Growing up in L.A. there’s this radio station called KEXP or whatever, and at weekends they had this full-on Jamaican lady just cutting into the tracks going, "Isn’t this a beautiful day?" as the music was going "boom-boom-boom". And she was talking in and out and hitting the faders for like 20 minutes and playing stuff. But of all the years that I’ve sat out there listening to stuff on the beach fanatically and enjoying that music, the Caribbean stuff, I’d never, ever heard that song before. The music was popular enough in L.A. to have a four-hour show dedicated to it but it wasn’t as big as it was in the UK. But I’d never heard that track and just ran across it on YouTube and I was like, "This is so cool, man!" I just love turning this up full blast. And then I was like, "I have to find this vinyl" and I found it in Rough Trade in London. It was the last copy and I was very pleased. In Berlin it’s weird with all these guys who have clubs and stuff where I’m DJing because they’re not into this kind of music so much, I don’t think, but I’ll just play it anyways.
12. Public Image Ltd - Poptones
This song is absolutely fantastic because of the way it goes "zhooooop!" They just press play on the tape and it goes "zhooooop!" into it. You can switch gears with this any time during your DJ set from any two types of music. I think it’s amazing but the thing that I wanna talk about with this song is, first of all, the PiL project – right there – is so much more than the ingredients, to me: Jah Wobble’s interest in dub and Johnny [Lydon] coming from forging this punk rock identity. You know, he claims he was into Can and dub and all this stuff before that when he was growing up, and Keith Levene’s approach on the guitar and then the polyrhythms on the drums and all that stuff coming together – I don’t think any one of those guys was smart enough to formulate what they actually created; the sum of its parts is so much more. To me, that is kind of like The Doors. They’re the only thing that I can see that’s kind of like that. In a weird way, it reminds me of The Doors because Johnny and Jim [Morrison] are both iconoclasts with their subject matter but with different pitches. And it’s a combination of different styles of music by talented musicians. When that stuff came out and I heard those records I was just like, nothing sounded better on acid. And going to see those shows! I saw all those shows as they were happening. I’m not talking about the ‘This Is Not A Love Song’ bullshit, I’m talking about those shows. They were just so amazing and the sound was so amazing. Back in the day, there was no indie section in the record stores, it was all imports from the UK so these records were all like, at the time, $25 – 30 which was like £50 a piece or something, and you really learned to like these albums. First of all, you learned that great records probably had great covers. You also learned that you better fucking like that record because there was no eBay then! So you got an open mind real quick. I would steal records from my older sister and stuff but that one really struck me and since that came out I must have had 25 or more copies of it. Every time I lose track of that record I buy another copy or if I see one for like £2 then I’ll pick it up because I’ll just give it to somebody because I find it that interesting. I’m not the only one. Alan McGee named his second label after this track, but all of these tracks were really interesting and inspiring in the post-punk world. Certainly more interesting than they knew and then Johnny just turned on everybody. It was like, "No, this isn’t a confederation of equals; this is a corporation and you’re my employees. Fuck you all!"
