SXSW: Talking Psychedelia With The Black Angels
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It was a big day yesterday for MOG, Starting with Berlin, Lou Reed’s concert film. It’s simple and raw, filmed from an audience perspective during a 5-night 2006 residency at Brooklyn’s St. Ann Warehouse. But most of all it’s LOUD, drawing the audience into the emotions around the former Velvet Underground frontman’s 1973 concept album. In the film, designed and directed by esteemed filmmaker Julian Schnabel Lou Reed morphs into a storyteller, narrating a dark story culminated from his past experiences with love, and it’s bad side. The usual Reed sound-speak shows up throughout the film. His perfectionism is present as he orders around singers. But for those of you who might not appreciate Reed as much for his solo work as for his hits with Velvet Underground, the movie will quickly make any viewer a fan of his timeless masterpiece.The Black Angels couldn’t believe Reed got to watch their entire set during the MOG day party, Wednesday. 
“I am digesting it right now,” frontman Alex Mass told us after the band’s set. “I didn’t completely freak out. If I could play for a small handful of people to prove, he would be in that small handful of people to try to impress. We were going to start playing “Heroin” and see if he came and started singing. Fuck, we totally should have done that.”The Angels set began with an attention grabbing bass drum that filled in with the type of music movies peg to acid trips. Sporting a hot chick drummer, Stephanie Bail, the band channeled Beatles-like psychedlia at times, and even sounded like “Want Somebody To Love.” The band just finished working on their sophomore album, Directions to See a Ghost and gave MOG a little scoop about the record.“We were in some kind of bookstore when I saw this illusions book. You were suppose to look at the image for a long time,” explained Mass.“It was from the early 1700s,” guitarist Christian Bland adds of the old-school magic eye picture of the ghost.
Bland“You look at this image for a long time and then you look away from it and whatever you look at on the wall, the image is in there, on the wall,” Mass further elaborates. We were like, man, that sounds like a good name for the next record. It came back in when we started listening to the music, and the record. It fit in and felt right. We were like, “We should call it Direction To See A Ghost.” The Black Angels tried something new on Ghost. Although working with the same producer as their debut Passover, the band morphed the songs on the road, with the basis being jam sessions that Mass built his lyrics on. “I just write what I see in my head when I hear [the rest of the band] play.”“The last record was just songs we wrote,” Bland says. These were songs that have been growing and changing and evolving, so it was interesting to see the final meaning and how they you can see fit together. We definitely prefer developing as a band live.”The band also christened their own venue/ collective on the edge of town, dubbed the Red Barn, which also strikes a huge resemblance to former Austin staples the Armadillo and Vulcan Gas Company. The Black Angels, who helps book the venue, recently hosted and played a gig there along with bands like Stange Voice and Ringo Deathstarr.“We’re trying to have our own music venue where we can have all our friends from around the country in our own space,” Alex dishes about the Red Barn. “We want to bring our favorite music to town.” “Vulcan Gas Company was a very important venue out here with psychedelic music and all the bands coming out in the 60s,” says Bland. There’s this idea of trying to carry this heritage, because unfortunately those places were shut down and they shouldn’t have been. ““The word psychedelic means so many things to me,” Mass admits. “I think everything is psychedelic. Red Crayola, Silver Apples Suicide, Brian Jones town Massacre. I think Velvet Underground is psychedelic. I think 13th Floor Elevator claimed the word psychedelia.
“I am digesting it right now,” frontman Alex Mass told us after the band’s set. “I didn’t completely freak out. If I could play for a small handful of people to prove, he would be in that small handful of people to try to impress. We were going to start playing “Heroin” and see if he came and started singing. Fuck, we totally should have done that.”The Angels set began with an attention grabbing bass drum that filled in with the type of music movies peg to acid trips. Sporting a hot chick drummer, Stephanie Bail, the band channeled Beatles-like psychedlia at times, and even sounded like “Want Somebody To Love.” The band just finished working on their sophomore album, Directions to See a Ghost and gave MOG a little scoop about the record.“We were in some kind of bookstore when I saw this illusions book. You were suppose to look at the image for a long time,” explained Mass.“It was from the early 1700s,” guitarist Christian Bland adds of the old-school magic eye picture of the ghost.Bland“You look at this image for a long time and then you look away from it and whatever you look at on the wall, the image is in there, on the wall,” Mass further elaborates. We were like, man, that sounds like a good name for the next record. It came back in when we started listening to the music, and the record. It fit in and felt right. We were like, “We should call it Direction To See A Ghost.” The Black Angels tried something new on Ghost. Although working with the same producer as their debut Passover, the band morphed the songs on the road, with the basis being jam sessions that Mass built his lyrics on. “I just write what I see in my head when I hear [the rest of the band] play.”“The last record was just songs we wrote,” Bland says. These were songs that have been growing and changing and evolving, so it was interesting to see the final meaning and how they you can see fit together. We definitely prefer developing as a band live.”The band also christened their own venue/ collective on the edge of town, dubbed the Red Barn, which also strikes a huge resemblance to former Austin staples the Armadillo and Vulcan Gas Company. The Black Angels, who helps book the venue, recently hosted and played a gig there along with bands like Stange Voice and Ringo Deathstarr.“We’re trying to have our own music venue where we can have all our friends from around the country in our own space,” Alex dishes about the Red Barn. “We want to bring our favorite music to town.” “Vulcan Gas Company was a very important venue out here with psychedelic music and all the bands coming out in the 60s,” says Bland. There’s this idea of trying to carry this heritage, because unfortunately those places were shut down and they shouldn’t have been. ““The word psychedelic means so many things to me,” Mass admits. “I think everything is psychedelic. Red Crayola, Silver Apples Suicide, Brian Jones town Massacre. I think Velvet Underground is psychedelic. I think 13th Floor Elevator claimed the word psychedelia.
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