Featured Essay: The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request

by Case Cockrell

Nearly half a decade before they ever produced a chart-topping hit, The Rolling Stones were a different animal. Multi-instrumentalist and co-founder Brian Jones was the group’s leader, and the Jagger-Richards team had not yet taken its outsized stadium form. Before the merchandising machine of the Londoners took its ultimate shape, the 1967 release of Their Satanic Majesties’ Request was a blueprint for a world of psychedelic rock, a sound so potent that The Stones never touched it again. If you revisit this one, you might catch a secondhand trip of your own, suddenly registering into the “No Jones, no Stones” camp. Even if he was found belly up in his home swimming pool in 1969. After all, Jones did employ sitars before George Harrison conceived such a notion.

A long trip through three decades later, San Francisco’s The Brian Jonestown Massacre released their fourth LP, their second of three in 1996, Their Satanic Majesties’ Second Request. A spiritual sequel to the forbidden British record, the Eastern-influenced neo-psychedelia made a statement for the ages, a piece that fills the record stores and shelves of music nerds of a plethora of generations of music lovers. For this album, the trip it will send a first-timer on lasts a lifetime. The pacing of Second Request gives you a handful of interludes to ruminate on the barrages of the mind-bending sessions, leaving room for thoughtful meditation as the soundscapes unfold to their glorifying climaxes. 

This album is the second to feature tambourine auteur Joel Gion, a percussionist with so much swagger that he wrote an entire book chronicling the first decade of the Newcombe-songwriting vehicle. We’re not going to talk too much about Ondi Timoner’s documentary “Dig!” as it might land you in a bed of misconceptions that the chief singer and songwriter somehow fucked up his music career with various tumultuous antics. This is one of those things that only time will tell the truth, but for The Brian Jonestown Massacre, the real story is in the record grooves. And before you know it, you’ll want to find the hundreds of soundalikes the The Jonestown outfit has. “How many copycats do I have now?” Newcombe ponders when being compared to rivals The Dandy Warhols at the film’s conclusion. 

The answer is a lot. But even if the sprawling revivalism of The Black Angels, Wooden Shjips, The Dolly Rocker Movement, and The Warlocks tries to channel the methodical madness of The BJM, the poignant channeling of their 60s forefathers still feels unrivaled. It is cemented in stone by the non-existent inclusivity of the bandleader’s process, which has devolved to him living in Berlin and pushing whoever the hell he wants into his studio to commit his still revolving carousel of tunes to tape. A lot of bands can break up, but as long as Newcombe’s heart is beating, the fierce do-it-yourself ethos remains in the limelight. 

On opening track “All Around You,” a mysterious conductor greets his audience in a whimsical presentation of the “fabulous journey” the listener is about to experience. This is where you’ll need to bear with him, as this album stretches a lengthy dose of 75 minutes. Sit back, grab a beverage, and take it all in as the music flows through with a freewheeling but menacing intensity. When I first hit play on a university computer, I was deep in a college final essay during a daunting finals marathon. Upon this Neverland greeting, the vortex pulled me inside, and the pulsating production began. 

“Cold To The Touch” starts with a 1-2-3 punch of staccato acoustic guitars before giving way to the hypnotic tambourine clacks from Gion, which are a staple throughout the entire record. Gion took a couple noted touring disappearances, but when he does show up, the results are a driving force within the ensemble. A noble truther for Newcombe’s gang of misfits, you can just listen to the jingling and jangling and allow yourself to be entranced by it. “Donavan Said” continues the trend, with a hopeful Newcombe, declaratively claiming birth in the 1969 “Summer of Love,” penning songs of longing and unrequited love connections. Every mental hardship turns into song for him, and the feelings never appear to be lost in translation. 

Early-era Singer and songwriting contributor Matt Hollywood appears to unleash the seven-and-a-half minute “Miss June 75.” If you’ve watched the film, the countoff he utters is instantly recognized as his voice, a piece of royalties-related intellectual property he sued for and was settled for an undisclosed amount. Supposedly, he was living in Austin for a time but was never seen in the public eye, not even at the annual Black Angels-produced Austin Psych Fests or Levitation Festivals to see the touring acts that hold his work so near and dear. His voice can also be heard on Dandy’s diss track “Not If You Were The Last Dandy On Earth,” on top of many other just as iconic BJM cuts. His whereabouts beyond a few sporadic side projects are unknown and speculated after his second departure with a two-record stretch in the 2010s.

The storybooks that tell of onstage fighting, frivolous drug use, and shows cut short due to the chaos are part of the fable and only add to the problematic genius and make you want to dig deeper. So, if you keep listening, you’ll eventually run into the setlist staple “Anemone,” starting with an organ fade-in and then a fluttering tambourine that sends you into the blip of the two-chorded “hit” that serves as a wakeup call that ride is not over yet. This features vocalist Mara Keagle, whose voice is all over the formative days of the Bomp! Records era. Newcombe replaces her iconic voice in a live setting, but some cameo appearances at their live shows have sprouted up over the years. An instrumental reprisal of the record opener brings the dense adventure to a victorious close, leaving you to want to turn the pages and keep yourself even busier with a recorded catalogue that can fill hours of repeated listening. 

Despite being decades removed from the instrumentalist lineup that thrusted them onto the indie rock underground map, The Brian Jonestown Massacre rages on. Even if it means overcoming the worst. The man himself even had a heart attack after an onstage brawl caused a tragic end to their 2023 Australian tour as a part of their longest stint around the world yet. Nonetheless, the touring party of Newcombe’s band continues to flourish with even more musical offerings and packed tour itineraries. The mythology of a discography that spans a legacy-long 35 years could seem intimidating at first, but as Roky Erickson would say, “Open up your mind, and let everything come through.” 

Case Cockrell is a music journalist located in Austin, Texas. His work first appeared for local publication The Cosmic Clash, later publishing his works on Post-Trash.com on top of covering the local scene with live music reviews, interviews, and coverage of the vibrant Central Texas music sphere, which is still running strong to this day. Case resides in South Austin and loves the diviest bars he can find, along with seeking out authentic tacos and straying away from the joints taken over by wealthy developers that threaten to dismantle what makes the city the artful place it continues to be. 

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