McBean Erupts Again With Pink Mountaintops

The ball just keeps rolling for the colonel of the Black Mountain army, Steve McBean. Seemingly incapable of rest, the man has released three albums — one every year — since 2004 (two as the Pink Mountaintops, one as Black Mountain). He's also toured extensively, culminating in a much ballyhooed opening slot for Coldplay last year.

McBean just doesn't seem to want to stop. Case in point: the new Pink Mountaintops record, Axis Of Evol. After coming off the road with Black Mountain, he easily could have used the downtime to relax and collect his thoughts. Instead he wrote and recorded a new record.

"I think it was the kind of thing where you can't stop what you're doing," says McBean in his slow, quiet fashion. "Y'know, when you're on tour all you do is play music.

"And when you go to Europe, it's such a different place it feels like such a daydream where you're just wandering around. You're in that routine of playing music all the time. And then when you come back home, all of a sudden it's over. So it was just that thing of going down to the basement every day as opposed to going to a club and just having fun. Sometimes things work out nice."

Axis Of Evol is quite nice in its own right. While still retaining that now trademark stoner vibe that McBean's music is beginning to get recognition for, Evol draws more from some of music's avant-garde outsiders like The Velvet Underground and Spacemen 3. Album closers "Lord, Let Us Shine" and "How We Can Get Free" are glorious odes to the latter, with McBean preaching in a sly drawl that compels you to convert to whatever religion he's hawking.

"Cold Criminals" is the kind of song that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club could have written if they'd wanted to keep both their white noise Jesus And Mary Chain selves and their stripped-down, soulful side intact on the same record.

"There's usually always a couple of things I'm working on in my head," says McBean. "And then there are times when it's nice to tour them and you can forget about all that and just play the songs live and party and have fun.

"Right now we're getting ready to start recording a new Black Mountain record and also the Pink Mountaintops band is getting ready. We tour in March until probably June or something."

This man must simply love to tour.

"Oh yeah, it's great," emphasizes McBean. "I mean, it kind of drives you a bit batty sometimes, but we all just love playing music.

"C'mon, we got to go to Europe twice this year, and we're going again in May for All Tomorrow's Parties [as Black Mountain]. I guess it will be Mudhoney's day to curate ATP, and that's just cool cuz I grew up on Green River and Mudhoney records. And so 15 years later they're saying, 'Hey, come play with us.' It's like, 'Fuck yeah.' So I can't complain about touring."

McBean's prolific songwriting comes from a wide range of influences. It's not hard to see his appreciation for folk music and even soulful gospel despite all the feedback and fuzzy noise incorporated on so many of his songs. When asked which songwriters he admires, McBean admits that he's simply prone to whatever sounds good.

Lyrically, McBean has a knack for startling imagery ("I have been wrestling a dead angry deer/And she is still with me after all of these years" from "Comas") and stream-of-conscious ramblings. They add a certain air of mystery to his work, which suits the man just fine.

"I don't like trying to explain lyrics or what they're about or anything," says McBean. "I like the mystique and the mystery of things. Make your own explanation. Everything doesn't have to be portrayed.

"I went and saw that Johnny Cash movie that's out. I shouldn't have gone to see it, I knew I didn't want to see it, y'know? But everyone's saying it's great. But I don't want to see some reinterpretation of Johnny. Sometimes you want there to be a whole fucking mystique. When I was 18 my friends and I were totally obsessed with Dinosaur Jr. We didn't even know what they looked like, y'know?

"It's that whole thing of too much information. I get obsessed with that. Look at pop stars today. You know everything about them, and some have their own reality show. That's no fun. I remember the first time I actually saw an interview with J Mascis — I think it was on City Limits or whatever. My friends and I were like, 'Oh my god, he's a fucking ween bag!' I mean it was great that he was like that, but it was like, 'Oh, that's him? Fuck.'"