FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Vice Blog

LONDON - STILL GOT IT

It's been a little while since the last time we talked to Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, so when we found out he was doing a press junket in London for the BJM's new album we hopped at the chance to get in a little catch-up. Evidently he started doing interviews at 11 AM, which is also when he started drinking double vodka tonics. While he never quite topped his Clapton zinger from a year or so back, during the 15 minutes I was allotted (this was at around 5 in the afternoon, by the way), he managed to call me an asshole twice, say a lot of garbled shit that I just didn't bother transcribing, and make a good point about Tom Hanks. That's at the end of the interview. Enjoy!

Advertisement

Vice: Is it true you play over 80 different musical instruments?
Anton Newcombe: Easily.

What's the weirdest instrument you can play?
I don't know, just weird shit that I make up. Give me a five-gallon bucket of water and I'll tie it to the ceiling with a rope and then play it with another bucket. I make instruments.

Did you make any of the instruments used on your new album?
We used a toaster oven. It looked really cool. I put it in a real handsome Samsonite toothpaste case. It was pretty good.

Really?
Do you know what this building that we're sitting in was? It was the headquarters of the OSS, which was the CIA before they changed their name, and they invented Scientology. Bingo! We're in the fucking temple. And see that park across the street there? That's a fucking Masonic burial ground. You see those obelisks? The big boner-looking things? There are people buried in those. Creepy shit.

What did you think of all that Da Vinci Code crap a couple years ago?
Amateur hour! Fuck Tom Hanks. I'll kick his ass in a second. He's probably licking Steven Spielberg's butt right now. What's that movie where he falls in love with a volleyball?

Cast Away.
Yeah that's it. They probably thought that one up when they were 69-ing each other.

KARLEY SCIORTINO

- _The Brian Jonestown Massacre's _My Bloody Underground_ is out March 31 on Anton's new A Records._