Phosphene Dream, the third album from MAGNET faves the Black Angels, marks a big step forward for the Austin, Texas, psych quintet. The band signed to the Blue Horizon label (run by industry bigwigs Richard Gottehrer and Seymour Stein) and worked in L.A. with veteran producer Dave Sardy (Oasis, Rolling Stones), marking the first time the group recorded an LP outside of its home base. The Black Angels also recently upped their profile with a collaborative appearance with UNKLE on the soundtrack to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. (We hear the track, “With You In My Head,” is played at a pivotal scene in the film, but when it comes to movies, we are more Black Swan than Bella Swan.) The band also backed Austin legend Roky Erickson (though the fruit of that labor is still up in the air, release-wise) and is still working hard on its annual Austin Psych Fest. And if that wasn’t enough, the Black Angels will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Alex Maas.
Maas: It had to hit rock bottom before it got better. With the surge of sound and musical information available on the internet, there has never been a better time to be a music listener and never a worse time to be a band. That being said, there are tons of musicians daily filling their minds with profound sounds of the past and present, currently creating an obvious surplus of amazing bands. This cycle of re-emergence of psychedelia and other vintage sounds has without a doubt been sped up by this free information. Granted, more people hear about your music, but it just doesn’t translate into money that the artists can live off of. Let’s watch the music economy grow without the help of government bailouts and stimulus packages. Let’s watch it grow because of social change, just as it became “cool” to recycle. A social change occurred here because without a doubt it makes the world a cleaner, safer place. What would the world be like with out recycling?
I’ve seen people disassociating themselves with people who don’t recycle, people who give their friends and parents a hard time about not taking the five minutes to separate their trash. Educating those people around them, demanding change in their social circles. So how would this social change occur in the music industry? It will come from the same type of people who ask themselves, “What would the world be like without music?” These people who don’t purchase music are obviously smart and computer savvy and they spend thousands of hours finding cool, rare music or popular music that makes them feel good for free. These would be classified as intelligent music listeners because they actively seek out musical knowledge for whatever reason. However it does not make them intelligent music supporters! I don’t want to imagine what the world would be like without (good) music. The trend is the same. I have started to see people in my friend circle, musician or not, who have started to lecture and educate the music ripper and generally have more in common with people who spend the dime on the music therapy. Be an intelligent music supporter, not just a listener. Oddly enough, most of these same people who actually buy music also recycle their trash! So, understand the value of music as therapy. Support the music economy or watch the world get filled with trash.
