My Bloody Underground

My Bloody Underground is the eleventh studio album by The Brian Jonestown Massacre, released on April 15, 2008 on A Records, a label set up by the band’s leader, Anton Newcombe.

Background

It was recorded at first in Liverpool, England in August of 2007; however Newcombe found that the album wasn’t working out the way he’d hoped, and so, then decided to record the rest in Reykjavik, Iceland in October 2007.

The title of the album was originally believed to be a homage to the bands My Bloody Valentine, The Velvet Underground, and The Jesus and Mary Chain, being a combination of first two names and a play on track name “My Little Underground” by The Jesus and Mary Chain. However, in an interview, Anton mentioned that the word “bloody” is used in place of the word “fucking”. Rough mixes of many of the songs from the sessions were first made available on the band’s MySpace page, and then as a pre-release download from the official website on September 3, 2007.

My Bloody Underground contains more experimental sounds than previous BJM albums, especially with a collaboration with Mark Gardener, formerly of Ride, who co-wrote the song ‘Monkey Powder’. The album is a more avant-garde approach to producing and recording. The space-rock/neo-psychedelic sound of the album can be attributed to Newcombe’s large intake of psychedelic drugs and adopting a “no talking in the studio” policy whilst recording.