Keeping music evil

As far as I can tell, the marvelous Brian Jonestown Massacre has made all of its recorded output (excepting the new We Are the Radio EP) available as free-and-legal downloads on the band's website. What a refreshing example of putting art above commerce. I still recommend buying the CDs because I'm "that guy" who's a sucker for packaging and liner notes, but this is a great way to make sure you like what you're paying for.

I've been a fan since '98 when "Wisdom" from Strung Out in Heaven was in heavy rotation on Boston College's WZBC (90.3 for those of you in eastern Mass.; and I mean eastern Mass., because you can't tune it in much past 128). Picked up that album and a few others since. Anton Newcombe may catch a lot of heat, most of it earned, but goddammit if he can't write a great song. Full-on chaos surrounds his band like skin but that shouldn't affect how someone feels about the music. He probably agrees.

I'm not one to hype a "best of" compilation but you can't go wrong with their double-disc retrospective Tepid Peppermint Wonderland. It's well sequenced and highlights everything you'd want in an introduction while encouraging more thorough exploration. Good liner notes too, even if the cover looks like it was designed using PageMaker in 1996. As it happens, just like all three albums they released in 1996—"Come and get me motherfuckers," indeed!

(Aside: it kills me that the Eagles' Their Greatest Hits is one of the best-selling "albums" of all time. Shouldn't a collection be disqualified from this hackneyed achievement? Give me something a band constructed, preferably with liberal distortion, instead of a record company chump picking and choosing from a Billboard hit list.) (Full disclosure: I own The Best of Mountain. But it's fucking Mountain.)

While browsing the catalog on Amazon you might as well pick up Dig! as well. I enjoyed watching Anton single-handedly write and record a track—guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, tambourine and sitar if I remember right—while the rest of the posse was off getting messed up. He'll outlive all of us.