There’s no manifesto, no big reveal. Just another record, another tour, another turn in the long and winding story of The Brian Jonestown Massacre. For frontman Anton Newcombe, that’s more than enough.
“Nobody can stop me, I’m not asking somebody, I’m not making the rounds at Warners, saying ‘please put out my record!’” Newcombe says. “It’s just for me.” That self-contained fire still burns bright. “I would love to see more groups, people playing music in the UK and everywhere else because I really enjoy it. That’s the only reason I need. It’s the only reason to do stuff.”
He’s a man of his word. This autumn, The Brian Jonestown Massacre head back to North America for a coast-to-coast tour spanning 40 dates. It starts September 3 at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina, and ends with two nights at Los Angeles’ Teragram Ballroom on November 22 and 23. In between: Chicago, Nashville, Montreal, Seattle, New York, and a return to Austin’s Levitation Festival. The tour also includes a rare treat: two joint dates with Britpop stalwarts Cast, playing U.S. shows for the first time in nearly thirty years.
More than three decades have passed since the band’s debut single, She Made Me / Evergreen, hit in 1992. That was the year the industry descended on America in search of the next grunge goldmine. Major labels wanted fast answers, easy hits, and artists willing to play along. Newcombe wasn’t interested. By the time offers started rolling in, he had already made up his mind. He wouldn’t be another name in someone else’s plan.
“I just knew I would be more successful in a certain way by saying no,” he says. “Just being contrary because I figured that if people liked me they were gonna like me anyway. Or dislike me. It doesn’t matter.”
When Methodrone dropped in 1995, it introduced a band that bent light and time through shoegaze distortion and psychedelic fog. The lineup would shift constantly, but the compass stayed fixed. Twenty albums later, Newcombe’s drive hasn’t softened. He’s still the engine behind it all, blending psych, garage rock, noise-pop, drone, blues, and the occasional strange beauty that defies categorization.
In early 2023, the band released The Future Is Your Past, a woozy, blistering LP delivered on Newcombe’s own A Recordings imprint. As 2024 closed, he released Don’t Look at Me featuring Aimee Nash, an intoxicating shoegaze reverie built on the hushed insistence of a single line: “Do no harm.”
For Newcombe, there’s no neat arc or final chapter. It’s not about where it ends, but how it feels in the moment. And right now, it still feels like the right thing to do.
Get your tickets here.
- Sept. 3 – Cat’s Cradle – Carrboro, NC
- Sept. 4 – Variety Playhouse – Atlanta, GA
- Sept. 5 – Basement East – Nashville, TN
- Sept. 6 – Orange Peel – Asheville, NC
- Sept. 8 – 9:30 Club – Washington, D.C.
- Sept. 9 – Webster Hall – New York, NY - with special guests, Cast
- Sept. 10 – Union Transfer – Philadelphia, PA – with special guests, Cast
- Sept. 12 – The Sinclair – Cambridge, MA
- Sept. 13 – Beanfield Theatre – Montreal, QC
- Sept. 14 – Danforth Music Hall – Toronto, ON
- Sept. 16 – Globe Iron – Cleveland, OH
- Sept. 17 – Majestic Theatre – Detroit, MI
- Sept. 18 – Mercury Ballroom – Louisville, KY
- Sept. 19 – Hi-Fi Annex – Indianapolis, IN
- Sept. 20 – Majestic Theatre – Madison, WI
- Sept. 22 – Metro – Chicago, IL
- Sept. 23 – Slowdown – Omaha, NE
- Sept. 24 – recordBar – Kansas City, MO
- Sept. 26 – Studio at The Factory – Dallas, TX
- Sept. 27 – Levitation – Austin, TX
- Sept. 28 – White Oak Music Hall – Houston, TX
- Oct. 31 – Music Box – San Diego, CA
- Nov. 1 – Pappy and Harriet’s – Pioneertown, CA
Nov. 2 – Observatory OC – Santa Ana, CA - Nov. 4 – SLO Brew – San Luis Obispo, CA
- Nov. 6 – Swan Dive – Las Vegas, NV
- Nov. 7 – The Van Buren – Phoenix, AZ
- Nov. 8 – Tumbleroot – Santa Fe, NM
- Nov. 10 – Gothic Theatre – Englewood, CO
- Nov. 11 – Fox Theatre – Boulder, CO
- Nov. 13 – Metro Music Hall – Salt Lake City, UT
- Nov. 14 – Shrine Social Club – Boise, ID
- Nov. 15 – The Showbox – Seattle, WA
- Nov. 16 – The Pearl – Vancouver, B.C
- Nov. 18 – Revolution Hall – Portland, OR
- Nov. 20 – Regency Ballroom – San Francisco, CA
- Nov. 21 – Rio Theatre – Santa Cruz, CA
- Nov. 22 – Teragram Ballroom – Los Angeles, CA
- Nov. 23 – Teragram Ballroom – Los Angeles, CA
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