The Brian Jonestown Massacre was formed in San Francisco in 1990. The band has had over 40 members since then, but its driving force and main songwriter is Anton Newcombe. Prominent ex-members included Matt Hollywood, Dean Taylor, Jeff Davies, Brian Glaze, and Joel Gion. Their sound is heavily influenced by the psychedelic sounds of the 1960s, but also carries influences from shoegaze, jangle pop, garage rock, and lo-fi sonorities. The band is probably most famous from their mid-90s friendship/rivalry with The Dandy Warhols, and ensuing documentary, DiG!.
Over its decade-long history, the band has undergone a large number of personnel changes. Multi-instrumentalist and main songwriter Anton Newcombe is the only member who has stayed with the Brian Jonestown Massacre since its beginning, when it was founded by Newcombe, tambourine player Joel Gion (who stayed with him the longest), and guitarist/bassist/vocalist Matt Hollywood. There are at least two dozen musicians who have been in the BJM at one point or another.
Ex-members include: guitarist Jeff Davies; Matt Hollywood, a founding member of Portland band The Out Crowd; Peter Hayes, founding member of San Francisco rock trio Black Rebel Motorcycle Club; Joel Gion, a founding member of San Francisco band, The Dilettantes; Rob Campanella, a Los Angeles producer and engineer who has worked with The Tyde, Beachwood Sparks, Dead Meadow, Mia Doi Todd, Frausdots, Scarling., and his band The Quarter After; Bobby Hecksher, founding member of Los Angeles band The Warlocks; solo recording artist Miranda Lee Richards; Matt Tow, founding member of the Australian band The Lovetones.
Current long-term members include Collin Hegna (bass), Frankie Teardrop (guitar,noise,etc), and Dan Allaire (percussion). Long-time guitarist Ricky Rene Maymi was recently replaced by Irina Yaikowsky for a short tour, who was in turn, replaced by Ricky Rene Maymi.
Much has been made of the fact that Newcombe is head strong and has just one vision in mind: his own. However, many of the musicians who quit his band have stayed in his orbit and continue working with him in some capacity. Newcombe was, at one point, a drummer in Hecksher’s Warlocks. Campanella produces or engineers many of the records on Newcombe’s record label, the Committee to Keep Music Evil and has also been on the last 2 highly successful European tours, playing keyboards and on occasion, guitar. Gion is forever showing back up shaking the tambourine at BJM shows. Even the Dandy Warhols appear to have buried the hatchet with Newcombe, as he joined them onstage at Lollapalooza in July of 2005.
In 2005 the band released the EP We Are the Radio, on Newcombe’s record label The Committee to Keep Music Evil.
The band announced the release of a new studio album, tentatively titled My Bloody Underground, which was released in 2008. On September 3, 2007, the band released rough recordings from the album for download from their website. Music videos of the songs on the album have also been released, including a music video compilation DVD entitled ‘Book of Days’. Songs from Brian Jonestown Massacre was specially adapted for use in the score to the critically acclaimed independent film, “Four Eyed Monsters.”

"Original", "innovative", "fearless", "ambitious", "propulsive", "a marvel of emotion and razor sharp focus"....These are the words of those that have had a chance to hear and witness the sound that has been reverberating out of Texas from one of American music’s most compelling bands, Cadillac Sky. Their chosen instrumentation that imitates that of Bill Monroe’s classic bands belies the depth of sound that these five young men create and becomes simply the canvass that they paint from. Their music draws inspiration from many diverse wells of creativity and artistry. But somehow they manage to create a sound that is completely Cadillac Sky: one that rejects the straitjacket of labeling and instead looks to make transcendent music and ultimately to
paint its masterpiece. The five sincere young men of Cadillac Sky recognize that there are few things that have not been said musically over the past 500 years of creativity and are of the belief that their only chance in becoming special is in the sharing of their own personal experiences and perspective whether they are of the rest of the world’s momentary opinion or not; musical or otherwise.
This summer Cadillac Sky started discussing plans to take another step in that direction, to go back into the studio to make their third full-length album of music. Dead set on capturing once and for all who they were on tape, the ideas on who would captain that ship began to surface. Unbeknownst to them their last record had fallen in the hands of guitarist/producer Dan Auerbach of the acclaimed rock band, The Black Keys, who had heard something in the acoustic upstarts that incited his musical ear. That led to five days in September in Dan’s own studio, Akron Analog, where they recorded what Mr. Auerbach at the end of session would call “their
first record”. A recording that is truly a “record”, a “sonic time capsule”, of who they are and what they sincerely sound like, not a product of studio manipulation. Set for release in the spring of 2010- it’s a record that’s relentlessly honest in message, spirit, and sound.
But as we know, the place where the rubber meets the road for any band is summed up in the question: can you touch an audience with your music face to face on a nightly basis? The boys ever-increasing following solemnly attests to the fact that the ferocity and grace that are the staples of Cadillac Sky are best understood when witnessed first hand. Folkwax wrote about a recent live performance “they completely blew me away, they were jogging around on the top of their strings, sniffing out new territory with rampant curiosity.” Obviously, the relationship between artist and audience can change from night to night. But it does not take even the most lethargic of audiences long to be propelled to their feet with enthusiasm once they start to feel the transfer of honest energy that occurs every time Cadillac Sky takes the stage. The road for a young band is not easy. It is steady diet of humbling moments, seemingly endless sacrifice, and a lifestyle that doesn’t seem long for this Earth. Bryan, Matt, Ross, Panda, and David all agree that playing music for money, or fame, or any reason other than the simple fact that you believe music is what God has put on your heart to do would be a unrewarding waste of a life. They play from the heart because it is their heart.

As the great thespian Patrick Swayze once said, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner." The same is true of Sarah Borges. On the basis of her critically-lauded early work, particularly Diamonds in the Dark (2007), some pundits decided they know exactly where the Boston-area rocker and her cohorts, the Broken Singles, belong in the musical spectrum. They were mistaken. Her new record, The Stars Are Out, is about to stun them with a more vibrant, far-reaching display of what Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles are all about. And yes, there will be dancing.

"We always want people to dance," enthuses Borges. "That's the best way to get a show going." After months of touring in support of Diamonds, she knew the character of her third album needed to be more upbeat than its contemplative predecessors. "I was trying to think of songs that would fit really well into our live show." The results include the slinky, '60s stroll of "Me and Your Ghost" ("That's about going out and dancing, all the things you used to do with your loved one"); the flirtatious, guitar-driven kickoff, "Do It For Free"; and "It Comes To Me Naturally," a hip-shaking tale of a girl-about-town, originally recorded by bar band supreme NRBQ.

Diamonds and Borges' 2005 debut, Silver City, often found her work filed under the Americana banner. But the time had come for Borges to explore different terrain, both as a writer and performer. The Stars Are Out is a soundtrack for Saturday nights, not Sunday mornings. "When I say I explored country music as much as possible, that doesn't mean I became perfect at it," she quickly qualifies. Borges just felt ready to take a break, until she had something new to say in that realm. And rock has always been her first love. "This is a style of music I've always listened to, and been really excited about."

The ten selections of The Stars Are Out-five new originals, and five covers-were winnowed down from a list of dozens of candidates. Possible songs were put forth not only by Borges, but also her band mates-guitarist Lyle Brewer, bassist Binky, and drummer Rob Dulaney-and producers Paul Q Kolderie (the Pixies, Lemonheads, Radiohead) and Adam Taylor. "Every day, we'd sit down at the table, drink coffee and listen to records," she explains. "In the end, we had way too many songs, and had to pick the best of the best. We held ourselves up to high standards, so I think we got the cream of the crop."