The Brian Jonestown Massacre

The Brian Jonestown Massacre is an American psychedelic rock band formed in San Francisco in 1990, led by singer, guitarist, and multi-instrumentalist Anton Newcombe. The name honors both Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones and the notorious Jonestown mass suicide, signaling from the start a band steeped in dark mythology and 1960s psychedelic reverence. Newcombe has reportedly played dozens of instruments across the group's sprawling catalog.

Musically, the band channels the fuzzed-out guitars, droning sitars, and layered vocal harmonies of classic psych and garage rock, filtered through a lo-fi, hypnotic production style. Songs like «Anemone» and «Straight Up and Down» became touchstones of the neo-psychedelic revival, prized for their trance-like grooves and vintage textures.

The band's turbulent internal dynamics and Newcombe's well-documented struggles were captured in the acclaimed documentary «DIG!», which chronicled the band's fraught relationship with fellow psych revivalists the Dandy Warhols. Despite years of lineup upheaval, The Brian Jonestown Massacre has remained a prolific and influential force in psychedelic rock, with Newcombe as its constant creative center.