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Every performance is kind of like a religious experience or a ceremony. We don't get to church on Sunday but it's church every night when we play. -Christian Bland |
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Maas and Bland have been friends since they were children. "We were always into doing creative things and creating different stuff," Bland recalls before detailing how he and Maas went their separate ways after graduating high school before meeting up again in Austin in November of 2002. "We tried to form bands and we probably went through about 50 different people before we came upon The Black Angels, which started in May of 2004".
 The Black Angels by Dave Vann |
18 months and a little over four dozen revolving door members later, The Black Angels were formed. It was only a year later, after long bouts of practicing, that Seattle's Light in the Attic Records came calling after being blown back by a gig at Trophy's Sports Bar in Austin. After releasing an eponymous EP late in 2005, Passover was released the following spring and proved to be the greatest album that no one saw coming in 2006. Accolades of critics and bloggers along with heavy rotation on KEXP, Seattle's premiere public radio station which rakes in some of the largest amounts of listeners throughout the world via streaming internet broadcasts, helped spread the word. "Besides the internet, KEXP did more work for us than some other people that are working for us," snickers Maas.
Passover's lyrical themes of war, collusion of the mind and paranoia touch on the Vietnam "conflict," the Cold War and the political fear mongering of today. "The First Vietnam War" is the most potently shocking song on the subject since Alice in Chains' "Rooster," which was inspired by AIC guitarist Jerry Cantrell's father's experiences in the service during that war. The "first" in title of "The First Vietnam War" suggests the rote of history and serves as a painful reminder that many have forgotten the socio-political lessons of the '60s. The song is a stark walk through the frontlines, capturing the fear when thing are a little too quiet, waiting while not knowing who is your enemy or where they are lurking. The correspondence between Vietnam and the present Iraq conflict becomes clear when Maas sings, "Sixty thousand men died/ While you were here/ You came into our homes/ And you took our kids/ And you ask for more now/ For this new war."
 The Black Angels |
"However the music feels I think it produces the lyrics," offers Bland. "The feeling of what these guys do is what creates the lyrical images," adds Maas. Emitting all over internet radio like an unspecified energy field, Passover is a vivid paradigm of desert charred psych rock sifted through greats like the Velvet Underground, Silver Apples, Can, My Bloody Valentine, Joy Division and the 13th Floor Elevators, with nods to contemporaries such as the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Each individual band member has divergent musical tastes that are, for the most part, shared. "We all have different influences but we're pretty much rooted in the same stuff," offers Maas. Bland adds, "The 50 members it took for us to get to this point, those members didn't dig the same kind of stuff that we did. We stumbled upon the right people that had the same interest as us in music so we draw from the same influences but add our own twist on everything."
The Angels spent the better part of late 2006 and early '07 touring with The Black Keys through America and Europe, where they were warmly received. "They loved us," grins Bland, speaking of the European fans. "It's pretty amazing playing to sold out crowds on a first time tour."
So far this year, the Angels have toured with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, VietNam, opened shows for the Smashing Pumpkins and Queens of the Stone Age. They already have 13 songs recorded for their follow-up album and are cutting a split EP with Black Mountain on the Ace Fu label. The Black Angels may be channeling spirits of the past, but this is a band set on conquering the future.
JamBase | Texas
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