#@antonnewcombe

[radiolewes]

The Slightly Smart Radio Show (19th May 2021)

[ccohanlon]

Anton Newcombe, leader of the psych-rock band The Brian Jonestown Massacre, was one of my more unlikely acquaintances in Berlin. His recording studio was just a few blocks from my apartment, north-west of Nordbahnhof, where affluent Mitte began to meld with the predominantly Turkish, working-class neighbourhood of Wedding. I sometimes cycled there for a late afternoon tea with him.

Anton’s studio was a converted, single-storey coach house at the rear of an altbau, on a quiet street that was once the northern-most of East Berlin’s city centre, a block from the old Chausseestrasse/Reinickendorfer Strasse border checkpoint.

Set at the rear of a courtyard cluttered with bicycles, the studio itself was weird and Tardis-like but welcoming, especially in the middle of a dismal Berlin winter. The walls of the large living and dining area were blood red. Antlered skulls and a gilt-framed painting of a nativity scene framed the sky blue walls and yellow door frames of the adjacent hallway. A large, sculptural collage that suggested an American flag hung on the longest wall, alongside a commemorative plate featuring a head and shoulders profile of Pope John XXIII, and a framed portrait of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union. There was also a large blue butterfly under glass. On a wooden trunk beneath the collage there was an ornate but tatty faux-mother-of-pearl accordion and an ugly piece of taxidermy — a stuffed weasel baring its fangs on a length of desiccated tree branch. Opposite, the narrow window ledges were like voodoo altars, filled with pot plants, wax skulls, kitschy statues, toys, African and Arabic-like busts, Polaroid instant photos and odd bits of bone, shell, and porcelain.

There were a couple of worn-out replicas of a ’60s Scandinavian-modern sofa but most visitors sit at a pine table that took up half the room.

The last time I was there, on a dull, rainy afternoon last week, the Canadian singer, Tess Parks, was putting the finishing touches on an album. Tess was at the table, sipping tea, and leafing through pages of handwritten lyrics in a notebook. With her was Joe Dilworth, a Berlin-based English photographer and bookshop proprietor, also well-known as a musician, who was waiting for the rain to stop so he could photograph Tess for the album cover. Anton, and his engineer, a large Liverpudlian woman named Andrea, fussed over a detail of a mix in the sound-proofed room next door. When Anton took a break, he chatted with Joe about instrumental effects on obscure mid-’90s recordings and fingered through the clutter on the table — scraps of notepaper, discarded biscuit wrappers (chocolate digestives), Indian bead necklaces, and coiled, unused guitar strings — to find crumpled packs of cigarettes. They were usually empty.

A couple of hours passed, during which, somehow, random strands of a four-way conversation were started, discarded and picked up again as Anton dubbed a new guitar track, Tess laid down her vocals and Joe loaded 6×6 black and white film into a vintage Rollei twin lens reflex before leading Tess out to the courtyard for her portraits.

When the rain eased, Joe and I took our leave. I risked the rush-hour traffic on nearby Chausseestrasse to take a round-about route home. The bike lane was blocked by construction work outside the foreboding 30-acre complex that is the new headquarters of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (Federal Intelligence Service). I was forced out into the road to cycle close, too close, alongside an accelerating tram. At the cobbled turn-off into Tieckstrasse, opposite the Dorotheenstadt cemetery, where Bertolt Brecht lies beside his second wife, the actress Helen Weigel, just a few feet from the philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a too-sweet scent of shisha wafted from a gaudy Turkish bar. It hung in the damp air like cheap gauze.

First published (in a slightly different form) in The Learned Pig, UK, 2017.

[eelbergine]

With cover of The Soft Machine, first edition, William S. Burroughs

[chrishoggephotography]

Tess Parks...Stereo...Glasgow

[thedandywarholspdx]

forgot - saw this salty character last week in #pdx. #antonnewcombe #bjm #brianjonestownmassacre #thedandywarhols #thankspete . . . #Repost @theweirdscenes ・・・ Me accidentally #photobombing @antonnewcombe of #brianjonestownmassacre and #peterholmstrom (@peteinternationalairport) of @thedandywarhols at the Crystal Ballroom the other night. A nice surprise before an awesome show! #supergroup #portland #pdx #antonnewcombe #thedandywarhols (at Portland, Oregon)

[wearethelastbeatniks]

Well, I think by now you all know the story of Anton Newcombe, the godfather of a mad bunch psych bands that sound currently , No one in their right mind would dare dispute Anton's role as pioneer, and eventually Dig! documentary will have throngs of muggles in the know as well. So, I'm sorry, but if anyone here doesn't love Anton Newcombe simply just turn around and get the fuck out , 'cause, there any coolest venerable psych wizard than him ? The man is Psychedelic fiercest loyalist with more twenty years of uncompromised balls-out rebel rock under his well-worn belt, who never surrendered to bullshit mediocrity for achieve the filthy lucre of success. He's like a weird beggar that breezes into our town, hands us some arcane trinket, and imparts upon us some classic pearl of wisdom with the dignity and refinement befitting a true monarch . Anton and his BJM visit me in my dreams and guides me through landscapes rife with metaphor and subconscious meaning, he is the Triton of my nocturnal Argonauts, and often I awake with some song from the rich tapestry of his work in my head, and I ´m ready to take on any demon that seeks to impede my path. Happy Birthday and Long live to Anton Fucking Newcombe! #antonnewcombe #birthday https://www.instagram.com/p/CEep8E1pfRh/?igshid=cwpvjjvsvb7j

[entclic]

Tess Parks - Blood Hot (2013). It’s taken over four years to actually get a hold of this vinyl. Thanks to Optic Nerve for reissuing this. Beautiful album but not many seems to appreciate its greatness, what a shame. Her works with Anton Newcombe of Brian Jonestown Massacre is also good. I thought she would become big but didn’t go down that trail. I hope she continues with her music cause just this one album is really not enough. #tessparks #bloodhot #antonnewcombe #brianjonestownmassacre #somedays #opticnerve #limitedvinyl

[shoegazekid]

@antonnewcombe #

[fottutodigitale]

Something that we like #thebrianjonestownmassacre #denimjackets #denimjacket #denim #jeans #vintage #patches #ethicalfashion #conscious #reclothestyle #skull #regenerated #antonnewcombe https://www.instagram.com/p/B9EGVYOC5uv/?igshid=iju91p1shfag

[goodmorningkeith]

The Brian Jonestown Massacre

[ch-dld-bft-brit-omm]

Homeland - Eleven Is Waiting

This is Homeland, one of Anton Newcombe's bands before The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Ultraviolet Compilation LP (Sketch Records 1989).

[echovoice17]

#nowspinning #primalscream #mixomatosis #rsd2017 #recordstoreday2017 #12inchep #antonnewcombe #brendanlynch #stephenmallinder #jagzcooner #andrewinnes #bobbygillespie #scrumrecords #2017 #northeastohiovinylclub #echovoice17 #recordcollection #records #vinyligclub #myvinyl #vinyl #vinylcommunity #vinylcollection

[sugaredge]

From Berlin to LA antonnewcombe nice to meet you man. Thanks for hanging out. great show last night

[animeraider]

New music! Journey's album is finally out, plus a gloriously messy single from The 1975. Also featuring new music from Amythyst Klah, The Mars Volta, Dropkick Murphys, Kings X, La Luz, Metrics and much much more! Enjoy!

Here is a listing of this week's artists by twitter handle (unless otherwise marked):

@JourneyOfficial @the1975 @DropkickMurphys @DaveHaynesRocks @CabelaSchmitt @JohnMic94731419 @YardActBand featuring (?) @eltonofficial @broken_bells @amythystkiah @antonnewcombe aka @BJM_Band @themarsvolta @Built_2_Spill @stereolabgroop @FirstAidKitBand @kingsx @ThirdEyeBlind @Weezer @ffflasher @laluzers @lmadrt @Metric @lauraveirs @KatyJPearsonnn @hellomushband @scarypockets featuring @ItsKenton and @itsbeckpete

[mediamonarchy]

#PumpUpThaVolume: April 15, 2022

#PumpUpThaVolume MP3: #April15 w/@pinkfloyd, @antonnewcombe, @bellesglasgow & more! ♬

https://mediamonarchy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/20220415_PumpUpThaVolume.mp3 Download MP3 Media Monarchy plays Pink Floyd, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Belle & Sebastian and more on #PumpUpThaVolume for April 15, 2022. ♬ Jarvis Cocker – “Cunts Are Still Running The World” (Vinyl) https://twitter.com/PumpUpThaVolume/status/1515042938077822977 Pink Floyd – “Hey Hey Rise Up” (w/Andriy Khlyvnyuk of…

[wearethelastbeatniks]

#nowplaying #recordscollection #vinyl #thebrianjonestownmassacre #antonnewcombe #thankgodformentalillness https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxx-bU3Agn9/?igshid=nrn9g5nm0o0o