April 5th, 2006
The Black Angels
Key release: Passover (2006)
Hometown: Austin
Drone-rockers The Black Angels borrowed their name from a Velvet Underground song, and they back up the homage with a V.U.-indebted sound and presentation. The Texas quintet specializes in dirge-y rhythms and fuzzy guitars, topped with lyrics about desperation and violence; live, The Black Angels support their heavy, trippy music with a stage show that includes films and psychedelic light effects right out of Andy Warhol's "Exploding Plastic Inevitable." Even the cover of their electrifying debut Passover is a beautiful piece of retro design: a two-tone op-art wonder reminiscent of Lance Wyman's classic 1968 Mexico City Olympics poster. Clearly, this is a band more comfortable in a world that died before they were born.
Bassist Nathan Ryan on whether it's hard to make an impression in a crowded Austin music scene:
"No, because there's so many different types of music going on in Austin. There's really a bunch of different scenes, and they aren't necessarily associated with each other. There's not really anyone doing what we're doing, or pulling off the influences we're pulling off."
Guitarist Christian Bland on the tone the band's going for:
"Kind of serious. We sing about the truth of this world, and everything reflects that, from the imagery to the sound. Music is our outlet. We actually all have pretty good senses of humor. We're pretty entertaining people. But music lets us voice our opinions and create a dark landscape. Our subconscious is pretty evil, I guess." [Laughs.]
Singer Alex Maas on whether they ever worry about being considered pretentious:
"Some people are always going to not like what you do. Because we didn't fight in the Vietnamese War but we sing about it, they'll think we're poseurs or something. We don't really give a shit what they think. That's the truth. The people that don't get it probably aren't our types anyway."
Maas on how a young band markets itself:
"Everything starts with the music. That's where most of the energy goes." To which Bland adds, "We do concentrate on the music, but you know, I studied advertising in school, and I get to use my skills in advertising and graphic design to help out with the band, which I find to be pretty fun."
On who's the New What's Next:
Psychic Ills and The High Dials, both, according to Bland, making "stuff that has that '60s spirit from when the creative revolution was going on, but modernized and brought to the present day." —Noel Murray
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