In part because of a recent documentary, "Dig!," Brian Jonestown Massacre mainstay Anton Newcombe has a reputation as a wild man. The California band's neopsychedelic rock, however, is not such a crazy trip. The 38 songs compiled on "Tepid Peppermint Wonderland: A Retrospective" validate the two-CD set's title. "Tepid" is a harsh verdict on the Massacre's synthesis of circa 1966 Byrds and circa 1967 Rolling Stones, but, hey -- they said it, not me.
The collection includes such attention-getting titles as "Prozac vs. Heroin" and "Not if You Were the Last Dandy on Earth," a reference to the Massacre's supposed feud with the Dandy Warhols. The music, however, is more of a giggle than a shock. Connoisseurs of the period that inspired most of the Massacre's style will be amused that the band draws so heavily on "Their Satanic Majesties Request," the '60s Stones album that Stones diehards tend not to like. Newcombe and his ever-shifting crew of collaborators also borrow from the rootsier Stones, the Velvet Underground and -- just to prove that they didn't sleep through the '80s -- the Cure. Whatever its sources, the group's woozy mid-tempo rock is reliably skillful, melodic and secondhand.
