The Brian Jonestown Massacre

The Brian Jonestown Massacre is an American psychedelic rock band formed in San Francisco in 1988 and led by frontman Anton Newcombe.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre began as a shoegaze group in San Francisco in 1988. After their debut and sophomore albums, the group quickly turned to a broader style of psychedelic rock, incorporating folk rock and, later, electronica influences. The name "Brian Jonestown Massacre" is a portmanteau of The Rolling Stones' founder and guitarist Brian Jones and the infamous mass cult suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. The band have gained media notoriety for their tumultuous working relationships and the drug addiction of their leader, Anton Newcombe.

Releases

1993–1996: Early years

The Brian Jonestown Massacre's debut album, Spacegirl & Other Favorites was a vinyl only release in 1993 with a limited run of 500 copies. The album includes the song "Hide and Seek", the only single released from the album in 1994. The band's follow-up album, Methodrone, was heavily influenced by the shoegaze genre that had gained prominence several years prior to its release. The album's dreamy rock sound is comparable to bands such as Galaxie 500, Spacemen 3 and My Bloody Valentine. Two tracks from the album, "She Made Me" and "Evergreen", had been released as a double A-side single in 1992.

Jonestown

"Jonestown" was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project formed by the Peoples Temple, an American religious organization under the leadership of Jim Jones, in northwestern Guyana. It became internationally notorious when on November 18, 1978, over 900 people died in the remote commune, at the nearby airstrip in Port Kaituma, and in Georgetown, Guyana's capital city. The name of the settlement became synonymous with the incidents at those locations.

A total of 909 Americans died in Jonestown, all but two from apparent cyanide poisoning, in an event termed "revolutionary suicide" by Jones and some members on an audio tape of the event and in prior discussions. The poisonings in Jonestown followed the murder of five others by Temple members at Port Kaituma, including United States Congressman Leo Ryan. Four other Temple members died in Georgetown at Jones' command.

To a certain extent, the actions in Jonestown were viewed as a mass suicide; some sources, including Jonestown survivors, regard the event as a mass murder. It was the largest such event in modern history and resulted in the largest single loss of American civilian life in a deliberate act until September 11, 2001. In recent years, the Jonestown massacre has been the subject of several conspiracy theories.

The Brian

The Brian is the first solo album from Brian Joo (from the R&B duo Fly to the Sky). Originally scheduled for release in November, it was postponed until December 18.

Brian performed two songs from his album, "가지마" (Gajima, "Don't Go") and "바래! 바래!" (Barae! Barae!, "I Wish! I Wish!"), on December 7, 2006 on MNet Countdown, revealing them for the first time. "Gajima" is a slow ballad while "Barae! Barae!" has strong beats. The album incorporates various genres.

Joo performed his first single, "Gajima" (Don't Go), on Mnet Countdown on December 7. He revealed three songs from the album to music website Melon.com. The lead single "Gajima" became one of the most-listened song in various music sites.

Track listing

Chart performance

References

External links

Brian

Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word meaning "high" or "noble". For example, the element bre means "hill"; which could be transferred to mean "eminence" or "exalted one". The name is quite popular in Ireland, on account of Brian Boru, a 10th-century king of Ireland. The name was also quite popular in East Anglia during the Middle Ages. This is because the name was introduced to England by Bretons following the Norman Conquest. Bretons also settled in Ireland along with the Normans in the 12th century, and 'their' name was mingled with the 'Irish' version. Also, in the north-west of England, the 'Irish' name was introduced by Scandinavian settlers from Ireland. Within the Gaelic speaking areas of Scotland, the name was at first only used by professional families of Irish origin. It was the fourth most popular male name in England and Wales in 1934, but a sharp decline followed over the remainder of the 20th century and by 1994 it had fallen out of the top 100. It retained its popularity in the United States for longer; its most popular period there was from 1968–1979 when it consistently ranked between eighth and tenth.

Massacre

A massacre is a specific incident which involves the deliberate slaughter of people, although a tight definition has never emerged.

Origin and history of term

The first recorded use in English of the word massacre to label an event is Marlowe's (circa 1600), The massacre at Paris (a reference to the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre). The word ultimately derives from Middle Low German *matskelen meaning to slaughter.

Massacre is also a verb that means to kill (people or, less commonly, animals) in numbers, especially brutally and indiscriminately. The first known use for this meaning was in 1588.

The term is also used metaphorically for events that do not involve deaths, such as the Saturday Night Massacre—the dismissals and resignations of political appointees during Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal.

Definitions

Robert Melson's "basic working definition," reads, "by massacre we shall mean the intentional killing by political actors of a significant number of relatively defenseless people... the motives for massacre need not be rational in order for the killings to be intentional... Mass killings can be carried out for various reasons, including a response to false rumors... political massacre... should be distinguished from criminal or pathological mass killings... as political bodies we of course include the state and its agencies, but also nonstate actors..."