Hailing from Washington, DC, the trio Motherfuckers JMB & Co. specialize in contemporary psychedelia with an equal emphasis on atmosphere and rhythmic drive. The members are Jim Thomson (the J) on drums, Marc Minsker (the M) on harmonium, bass, and guitar, and Brian Weitz, aka Geologist (the B), on hurdy gurdy. All three have extensive experience on the scene, but this is no shallow supergroup gesture. The lack of vocals reflects an absence of overabundant egos in favor of focused tandem attention to the titular elements of their debut album, Music Excitement Action Beauty, which is out on vinyl July 4 through the label Via Parigi.
The roots of Motherfuckers JMB & Co. reach back to the fertile soil of the 1980s underground. Jim Thomson played drums in Alter-Natives, a Richmond, VA band that landed on the roster of SST Records for three albums as part of that label’s quest to quash punk/hardcore genericism by signing a certified metric fuckton of bands, all with a common expansionist trait. More famously perhaps, Thomson was an early member of Gwar, and was later in the outfits Hotel X, Bio Ritmo, Tulsa Drone, CSC Funk Band, Chain & the Gang, and Time Is Fire, along with running Electric Cowbell Records.
Marc Minsker was in Third Eye Lounge, a band that carries the distinction of backing the great avant-folk-C&W-jazz-rock-psych guitarist Eugene Chadbourne. Although videos of Third Eye Lounge exist online, the group is fairly obscure. Decidedly not obscure is Brian Weitz’s work in Animal Collective, where he sported the handle Geologist.
Animal Collective dished out a particularly robust and quickly identifiable strain of boundary-pushing contemporary psychedelia, but Motherfuckers JMB & Co. are onto a sound with stronger connections to established psych forms such as space rock, motorik, and even post-Syd pre-Dark Side Pink Floyd. Music Excitement Action Beauty begins with a “classic” Eastern-tinged drone, “Rise,” that quickly bleeds into the spacy groove of drum showcase “Breakers Part 1.”
“Strange Planet” thrives on Eastern dervish guitar licks amid a wash of hazy scorch that suggests a belly dance fiesta gone beautifully off the rails, a fine mess that flows into a reignited rhythmic platform of “Breakers Part 2.” From there, “Studio B” is a murkier dose of drugged-up echo and swirl, the track hissing and aching toward dissolution and a segue into “Metro 29” and its fresh blend of incessance: drums, riffs, and drone.
Closing the record without a hitch is the pulsing gush of “Keep the Temp.” For fans of Gong, Guru Guru, Bardo Pond, and Acid Mother Temple, Music Excitement Action Beauty should get the job done. Motherfuckers JMB & Co. can bring it in a live setting, and hopefully this recording is just the beginning of their collective journey.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
