The Black Angels (band)

The Black Angels
Background information
Origin	Austin, Texas, U.S.
Genres	Psychedelic rock, Neo-psychedelia, Garage rock
Years active	2004–present
Labels	Light In The Attic Records, Blue Horizon Records
Website	Official Website
Members
Christian Bland Alex Maas Stephanie Bailey Nate Ryan Kyle Hunt
Past members
Jennifer Raines
Notable instruments
"Drone Machine"

The Black Angels are a psychedelic rock band from Austin, Texas.

History

Formed in May 2004, the band's name derives from the Velvet Underground song "The Black Angel's Death Song".^{[citation needed]}

In 2005, the Black Angels were featured on a dual-disc compilation album of psychedelic music called Psychedelica Vol.1 from Northern Star Records. This, along with the growing popularity of their MySpace page, gave the band a big jump in popularity in the underground scene.

On Friday, August 5, 2007, they played at Lollapalooza in Chicago. Among other venues, they have also played at SXSW 2006 & 2008 and All Tomorrow's Parties 2008. Touring partners have included the blues rock band The Black Keys, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Warlocks, Roky Erickson, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Queens of the Stone Age, The Raveonettes and Wolfmother.

The group's debut LP Passover was generally well received in the underground independent rock community and was noted for its dark tones and lyrical content. A review of Passover described them as "Walking in the shadows cast by Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized mastermind Jason Pierce" and compared them to The Warlocks and Black Mountain, also invoking "dirges" reminiscent of both The Velvet Underground and the 13th Floor Elevators. Passover included a quote in the liner notes from Edvard Munch; "Illness, insanity, and death are the black angels that kept watch over my cradle and accompanied me all my life."

The band was featured on the soundtrack of the 2007 Kevin Bacon movie, Death Sentence, on the second episode of FOX's "Fringe" and in the ninth episode of Californication. Songs from "Directions to See a Ghost" were also featured in The History Channel's 2009 documentary, Manson. More recently, their song "Young Men Dead" was featured on the March 17, 2010 episode of UFC Primetime, "St. Pierre vs. Hardy", on Spike. "Young Men Dead" was also included on the soundtrack for the 2011 snowboard movie "The Art of Flight".

Between October 28, 2008 and November 2, 2008, the band performed as Roky Erickson's backing band on the West Coast; future plans between Roky and The Black Angels are in the works. The band featured on Unkle's May 2010 release, Where Did the Night Fall, collaborating on a song called "Natural Selection".

On April 23-25th, 2010, The Reverberation Appreciation Society and The Black Angels presented their third annual music-and-arts festival, Austin Psych Fest 3. Bands topping the 43-band bill included The Raveonettes, Pink Mountaintops, The Warlocks, The Gaslamp Killer, Warpaint, Night Beats and vintage psych legends Silver Apples.

The band's third album, titled Phosphene Dream, was released on September 14, 2010. The group played the ATP New York 2010 Music Festival in Monticello, New York in September, 2010.

On Record Store Day a 12" LP 'Another Nice Pair' was released, a limited edition red pressing on vinyl LP collecting the first two EP's.

The 4th annual Austin Psych Fest ran April 29 - May 1, 2011 and was held at The Seaholm Powerplant (the last event to be held inside the building) and featured Roky Erickson, Spectrum, Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group, Atlas Sound, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Prefuse 73 and A Place To Bury Strangers topping a 55 band lineup.

Logo

Logo

Besides the band's name, the Velvet Underground are also referenced by the band's logo, which incorporates a high-contrast negative image of Velvet's vocalist Nico.

Band members

Current

• Stephanie Bailey — drums, percussion, bass
• Christian Bland — guitar, bass, drums
• Kyle Hunt — keyboards, percussion, bass, and guitar
• Alex Maas — vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards,

Former

• Jennifer Raines — drone machine, keyboards and percussion
• Nate Ryan — bass, guitar, occasional drums

Side projects

• The Viet Minh
• Christian Bland & The Revelators
• The Shine Brothers
• Ghost Songs
• The UFO Club (Christian Bland, Lee Blackwell of Night Beats & others).
• Sweet Tea

Discography

Albums

Year	Album details	Peak chart positions
		US	FR
2006	Passover Label: Light in the Attic Records	-	-
2008	Directions to See a Ghost Label: Light in the Attic Records	-	108
2010	Phosphene Dream Label: Blue Horizon Ventures	52	52
2011	Another Nice Pair (collecting the first two EP's) Label: Light in the Attic Records	-	-

EPs

• The Black Angels (Light in the Attic Records, 2005 EP)
• Black Angel Exit (Light in the Attic Records, 2008 EP)
• Black Angel Dead (Light in the Attic Records, 2010 EP)
• Phosgene Nightmare (Blue Horizon, 2011 EP)

Singles

• "The First Vietnamese War" b/w "Nine Years" (released August 21, 2006)
• "Better Off Alone" b/w "Yesterday Always Knows" (released May 28, 2007)
• "Doves" b/w "Drone in G# Major" (released May 20, 2008)
• "Telephone" (released August 3, 2010)

Soundtracks

• Alan Wake (Video Game) (Track 2, Limited Edition Soundtrack)

• Trailer for Fable III (Young Men Dead)

• Trailer for Darkness II (You on the Run)

• Art of Flight (Young Man Dead)

Guest Appearances

• "Natural Selection" from Where Did the Night Fall - UNKLE (2010)
• "With You In My Head" from The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (soundtrack) - UNKLE (2010)

TV/Film Appearances

• Manson (TV Movie Soundtrack)
• Beautiful Noise
• Fuel TV's The Daily Habit
• Numb3rs
• Fringe
• House
• Californication (TV series)
• The Limits of Control
• Death Sentence (2007 film)
• Dirt (TV series)
• No Country for Old Men (Trailer)
• While She Was Out (Movie Soundtrack)
• True Blood
• Fable III (Trailer)
• Darkness II (Trailer)
• Mountainbike movie ROAM
• Bones (Background music for a house of horror)
• Nice Try (2010 Snowboard Movie)
• The Art of Flight (2011 Snowboard movie)

External links

• Official site
• Austin Psych Fest - official site
• The Black Angels collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive (Download full concert audio recordings)
• The Interface with The Black Angels - interview & performance podcast on Spinner.com
• The Black Angels on Myspace
• Live Vidéos from Intimepop.com
• The Art of Flight