The Brian Jonestown Massacre will release Fire Doesn’t Grow On Trees, their nineteenth album, on June 24 via founder Anton Newcombe’s A Recordings. This is the BJM’s first album in three years, a long time for the very prolific group, though Anton regularly shares work-in-progress songs via his YouTube channel.
“The Real,” which opens the album, was the first song he composed after period of writer’s block. “All of a sudden, I just heard something,” Anton says. “And then it just didn’t stop. We tracked a whole song every single day for 70 days in a row.” He also says he knew “The Real” had to be the first song when he wrote the lyric “Fight the beast until it dies, raise your sword up to the sky.” “That line is like fantasyland! 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.”
With its swirling organs and crashing drums “The Real” is some Grade-A BJM-style psych. You can listen to that and its b-side, the dreamy “Where Do We Go From Here?,”
The Brian Jonestown Massacre
The Fat Angel Sings 