Sunday, March 19, 2023

"I'm a fucking genius, like one of these Mozart guys"

In a 2016 live review for Nightshift, I set out my rather mixed feelings about The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Anton Newcombe personally. On that occasion, my conclusion was charitable: "[I]n an era of carefully stage-managed plasticky automatons delivering precision-guided product and platitudinous soundbites to a target demographic, Newcombe is arguably just the sort of entertainingly cantankerous, hubristic, uninhibited, unpredictable rock star we need."

While I stand by those words, they came back to me when reading Daniel Dylan Day's recent interview with Newcombe for the Guardian. Wray notes that he is "prone to bursts of boastful proclamations", which is putting it mildly. Sure, he can write a half-decent song and remains an ungovernable maverick - but it must be wearying to find yourself in Wray's position, having to spend a significant amount of time with someone who clearly loves the smell of his own farts and nod along to all of his delusional guff.

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