Portland Police Recover $50,000 Worth of The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Stolen Gear during Nationwide Tour
(April 29, 2022 Portland, OR) – The incredible news has just come out of Portland, OR, that more than $50,000 worth of gear belonging to legendary psyche rockers The Brian Jonestown Massacre has been recovered by police there. The stash included custom made guitars and effects pedals, which have long played an essential role in the band’s utterly unique, inimitable sound – and have “enormous sentimental value.”
Like just about every other music artist on the planet, BJM had just wanted to get back on the road, after two years of lockdowns and quarantines. Frontman, songwriter, composer, studio owner, multi-instrumentalist, producer, engineer, force of nature Anton Newcombe had survived a pair of bouts of COVID in his current home of Berlin, and the band had intrepidly written and recorded two entirely new albums, including the highly anticipated Fire Doesn’t Grown on Trees, which is due to be released digitally on June 24.
In a recent interview Newcombe enthused, “For me to get the chance at my age to go off on another world tour for two years and play bigger places, grand theaters, and be at the top of my game, is an honor as well as a challenge. We are very excited.”
A 38-date North American tour (with Mercury Rev opening) kicked with fitting fanfare off at Philadelphia’s Union Transfer on March 27. But COVID intervened one again, and recent dates in Vancouver, Tacoma and Seattle had to be cancelled. The band – who currently boast more than 800,000 monthly listeners on Spotify – returned to the stage on the 18th in Portland with new gear that they purchased.
The city’s KATU reported at the time that crew had discovered the gear missing sometime between 4am and 5pm, and Newcombe tweeted that the theft included a rare Vox ultrasonic 12 guitar, as well as a Vox Starstreamer 12, Gibson ES 12, Fender Jazz bass, Harmony Sovereign 6 acoustic with Dean Markley, Eko 6 string acoustic with built in pickup, and one guitar tech tool kit.
Newcombe also tweeted thanks for the “unbelievable kindness of the Portland music community” in getting the word out, and praised the police for their skillful and swift detective work.
BJM and their recovered gear take the stage at Dallas’ Granada Theater tonight, before moving on to Houston’s The Heights Saturday evening, the continuing on next week to Lawrence, Saint Louis, Nashville and beyond.
“We are all eternally greatful to the portland police department for their help in finding our stolen equipment. It has been said that it had great sentimental value, however, I am not very sentimental, I use my gear to create music 6 days a week, to feed my family and employ my friends. These are the tool of my craft, no different than a truck full of tools used in construction or any other trade. I also wish to thank everyone for their outpouring of concern, and for spreading the word, especially Dan at KATU TV. ” -Anton Newcombe
On March 25 The Brian Jonestown Massacre released “The Real,” the lead single from their forthcoming album “Fire Doesn’t Grow On Trees”.
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, explosion of fuzzy guitars, thrumming organs and rolling drums collide around Newcombe in the middle of it all, conducting the chaos.
Listen to “The Real” HERE
“Fire Doesn’t Grow On Trees” To be released Digitally on June 24.
On tour Newcombe is accompanied by:
Ricky Maymi (guitar)
Hakon Adalsteinsson (guitar)
Ryan Carlson Van Kriedt (keyboards)
Uri Rennert (drums)
Collin Hegna (bass)
Joel Gion (tambourine)
Live photos courtesy of Jake Barlow/ CBS News
For all media inquiries please contact:
SiouxZ@Magnumpr.net
About The Brian Jonestown Massacre:
Back in the middle of the 1990s, as the British music press descended in the US to anoint the next US guitar band as flavor 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.”
When BJM released their tellingly titled debut album Methodrone in 1995, rap metal was about to push grunge off the main stages at Lollapalooza, the Britpop party was still carrying on across the Pond, and the whole world was still off their heads on cheap rave drugs. At the time some lumped BJM in with the waning shoegaze movement – but there was something much more sonically sinister and substantive about tracks like “Evergreen” and “Wasted”.
Their visceral, often confrontational psychedelic drone rock culminated in the quite cleverly named Their Satanic Majesties Request the following year, with songs like “No Come Down” and “Anemone” exhibiting the range of frontman Anton Newcombe’s considerable songwriting talent. A year later they had signed to “major” independent label TVT, and 1998’s Strung Out in Heaven shot them straight to the forefront of the indie hierarchy.
And now, over 30 years since he first founded The BJM, Newcombe is still finding ways to forge ahead sonically with songs from the forthcoming album and giving fans the kind of exhilarating sound that made them love the band in the first place, and that will make their 2022 tour a truly unforgettable live music experience.
Brian Jonestown Massacre – 2022 Tour Dates
Mar 27 | Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer w/ Mercury Rev
Mar 28 | Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel w/ Mercury Rev
Mar 29 | Jersey City, NJ – White Eagle Hall w/ Mercury Rev
Mar 30 | Baltimore, MD – Rams Head Live w/ Mercury Rev
Mar 31 | Providence, RI – Columbus Theatre w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 1 | Boston, MA – Roadrunner w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 2 | Montreal, QC – Le National w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 4 | Toronto, ON – Queen Elizabeth Theatre w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 5 | Detroit, MI – Majestic Theatre w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 6 | Indianapolis, IN – The Vogue w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 7 | Cleveland, OH – Agora Theatre w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 8 | Chicago, IL – The Vic Theatre w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 9 | Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall Ballroom w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 10 | Minneapolis, MN First Avenue w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 12 | Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 13 | Salt Lake City, UT Metro Music Hall w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 15 | Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 16 | Tacoma, WA – McMenamins Elks Temple w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 17 | Seattle, WA – Showbox w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 18 | Portland, OR – Roseland Theatre w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 20 | San Francisco, CA The Fillmore w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 21 | San Francisco, CA The Fillmore w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 22 | Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 23 | San Diego, CA – The Observatory North Park w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 24 | Santa Ana, CA – The Observatory OC w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 25 | Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 27 | San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 28 | Austin, TX – Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater Mercury Rev
Apr 29 | Dallas, TX – Granada Theater w/ Mercury Rev
Apr 30 | Houston, TX – The Heights Theater w/ Mercury Rev
May 2 | Lawrence, KS – The Bottleneck
May 3 | Saint Louis, MO – Delmar Hall
May 5 | Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl
May 6 | Birmingham, AL – Saturn
May 7 | Atlanta, GA – Terminal West
May 8 | Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
May 10 | Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
May 11 | Washington DC – Black Cat