Bonus: Read about how the Brian Jonestown Massacre nearly broke up Oasis in my book “Keep Music Evil: The Brian Jonestown Massacre Story”

The best thing about the 4th of July was the reunion of the UK’s greatest band. 

Man, it brings back some memories.

Foremost among them is I think it's obvious that Oasis’s influence is all over Gorky, for better or worse. 

When I joined the Army, I had three CDs which I listened to on repeat: Arctic Monkeys’ Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, Abbey Road by The Beatles, and Be Here Now by Oasis. 

I knew very few people at that time who liked the Arctics or Oasis, much less Britpop, but Britpop was everything to me. Not because of an Anglophile thing, though that was certainly part of it, but because it was already a part of my mental fiber growing up. 

Back in the 90’s there was this thing called Cool Britannia, and America ate it up. Princess Diana. Spice Girls. Goldeneye 007 on the N64. Austin Powers. And yes, Oasis. I remember seeing Champagne Supernova on MTV and blowing my 10 year old mind out. 

My deeper gateway into Oasis, Blur, and the rest of Britpop musically didn’t happen until the later 90s, when The Verve exploded with “Bittersweet Symphony.” I went that direction as a young teen because I couldn’t get into what was big in the US. Sure, we listened to Green Day and Red Hot Chili Peppers and the like, but American rock was just plain goofy compared to Britain, because Britain was cool, and we wanted to be cool. Thank God The Strokes came out when we were sophomores. Otherwise, American rock would have ended up all sounding like Creed or something. And we hated all that stuff. 

Playing music like Oasis in a small Southwestern mountain town was a hard sell, and we struggled at first to get shows. Jimmy Eat World was who was popular then, and we couldn’t quite get that crowd. But Ben and I definitely saw ourselves as a kind of Gallagher brothers. The American heirs to Oasis and the American answer to the Arctic Monkeys in one. But most of Arizona didn’t care about the Arctic Monkeys musically in 2005. 

2005’s Don’t Believe The Truth is my favorite record of theirs and 100 percent influenced the Gorky sound. So heavy was Oasis in the Gorky orbit that I remember when Oasis broke up, thankfully after I’d seen them, I felt a strong calling to level up my songwriting, to fill the void they’d left. By that time, I was heavy into writing the Brian Jonestown Massacre book, and learning about the recording process.

I think I might have simply stayed in that spot, artistically, because by the time all our biggest songs came out and really started working for us, it was the latter half of the 2010’s, and it’d already been a decade since that kind of rock and roll had been popular. “Action Pants” and “Super Drunk” would have had a lot different impact in 2005 than 2015, when the dawn of Trumpism had all but ruined comedy, parody, and satire itself.

As for the rest of the Gorky catalog, “Be In The Now” and “You’ve Got To Learn To Be Lonely” sound like Oasis songs. There’s Oasis in “Roll With Me,” “Boogie Machine”, “Brave New Animal”—I hear it all over the place. I can hear me and Ben filling that void for ourselves in a lot of these songs. There’s more than Oasis going on. There’s some Strokes, some Libertines, some Weezer, but definitely a lot of Oasis.

Yet now, with Oasis back, suddenly it’s like a standard has returned for guitar music, even though it’s been that long. Especially in the age of AI, someone actually playing the guitar has to mean something. 

It seems like now, people need to support local bands and artists more than ever. The point of music isn’t just the sound itself, but the experience required to make that sound, and that song. 

Oasis appealed to us because they were working class like us, because their songs are the bollocks, and because they are hilarious. 

Welcome back, lads! 

-JMGV

After months of development, I am ready to announce my new film project, “AMERICAN DREAMS”! 

This project has been several years in the making…

It began as my thesis at the David Lynch film school while I was attending there, 2018-2020, and was once called “IN THE LAND OF GOOD OAKS,” as readers of my book “KEEP MUSIC EVIL: THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE STORY” will remember.

“Good Oaks” was not without success, as the controversial Sitgreaves County publicity stunt which propelled Gorky to the cover of the Arizona Republic two weekends in a row (and helped flip Arizona blue in 2020) began to attract attention from important industry players.    

The script then went through a period of development with some of the creative team behind Purple Rain before I had to split from those guys for their sheer disrespect and unprofessionalism on tangential projects. They say never meet your heroes. I say don’t trust them either.

Then, in January of 2023, my creative partner and Gorky co-founder Ben Holladay died of Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Disease, a rare genetic lung disorder, a week after our dream producer agreed to produce the soundtrack. 

“In The Land Of Good Oaks” died with Ben. I tried to get another version of the film going, but it just wasn't working out. 

I moved to Portland, Oregon, to be closer to my family and network. In December of 2023, my friend Zia McCabe of the Dandy Warhols invited me to a music policy forum where I met then-city council candidate Jamie Dunphy and joined the incredible organization MusicPortland.

They were fighting Live Nation at the time, and I'd never experienced a music community quite on this scale before. I would be lying if I didn't say my initial reason for joining the fight was to try and pull off another “Sitgreaves,” but as I learned how wonderful and good-hearted Portland's music community was, I laid aside my aspirations and learned to serve without an incentive. This time, I fought for what I felt was the right thing to do. 

We fought valiantly, but then the land was stolen. We didn't ‘lose’. 

We were bullied into it, and because of the rules of performative political correctness, some were forced to apologize for things they didn't do. 

I refuse to acknowledge a ‘loss’ in that fight. To do so is to admit that the opposition defeated us soundly, and I believe they--the Portland Metro Chamber and Prosper Portland, who conspired with Live Nation on the steal--are among the worst civic organizations in the United States. 

While falsified accusations of racism led to the land theft in Portland, that isn't where everyone should be focusing. The racism is a smokescreen, a fluke, a distraction to keep Portlanders' eyes averted from the grifting by the city's corporate elite.  

Racism is just one part of a larger toolkit that Live Nation, really and truly one of the worst organizations in the world, uses to justify its land grabs. 

Avoiding the truth, that the developers manipulated racism, empowered Live Nation to completely dominate the proceedings, and we were bulldozed. 

These good people at MusicPortland and the Music Policy Council who I consider friends were the targets of a coordinated attack, and I watched helplessly as they wrestled with the consequences of these falsified accusations. It was like one after another, they felt some manner of guilt or responsibility about it. To me, it was plain as day what was going on around me, and it made me sick to think that a group of people could do this and get away with it so easily.      

So I worked as a canvasser for Jamie Dunphy's campaign, knocking on doors and talking to folks throughout Portland about how they'd like to see the city change. At the same time, I lobbied with MusicPortland to engage every candidate we could on music policy and fighting Live Nation.

During this period, Gorky became a policy think tank and lobbying org instead of a band.  

In the end, co-organizing with MusicPortland and knocking on doors for Jamie not only got Jamie elected, but it got an entire pro-music city council elected for the first time in the city's history. Our efforts were so successful, that the city's political class were embarrassed to admit that we'd outshined them.

Notably, the Gorky PDX Music Voter Guide was the most accurate voter guide released last year, in terms of endorsed candidates-to-election ratio. 

However, unlike my experience in the Arizona Legislature, none of what I did for the City of Portland during this time was bullshit. This experience, which has been an adventure, taught me that community can heal grief, and now that we have a pro-music city council, and the Live Nation fight here is all but over, it is time I take what I have learned, what I've experienced, and do what I actually do.

I am not a policymaker. I am not a politician. I am an artist. And yes, sometimes I use shock. Because it works. 

When David died earlier this year, I remembered everything he taught me about being true to my ideas and I realized that the truest idea I have now was to show the people of Portland, the country, and the world the truth of my experience through my art. 

It was time to return to the film Ben and I were going to make together, and give it a new birth. A new life. 

As David Lynch taught and believed, a disruption of consciousness is sometimes necessary for evolution. 

More soon! 

When it comes to the end of any year, or the beginning of a new one, it is said that we choose to remember the good things. In no particular order, here's mine---

I saw old friends. Met new ones.

Rode public transportation, weaving through the city like a thread in its fabric.

Saw a bunch of killer bands and DJs—most of whom are now my friends.

I DoorDashed around town, hitting up every neighborhood I could, exploring and mapping it out like an Assassin’s Creed game.

At one point, I went to every record store I could find and discovered something fascinating—1 out of every 4 neighborhoods in Portland has at least one neighborhood record store.

I saw Madonna in Las Vegas with my best friend.

Went to the movies with my mom.

Sang karaoke. A lot of it.

I loved animals. I lost animals.

I shot guns in the woods and discovered Banh Mi and Shawarma.

I befriended goats. I saw more cacti than I did living in Arizona.

I experienced the surreal pride of inspiring another author’s memoir—while also anticipating a new cut of the award-winning film that first inspired me to write mine.

I joined MusicPortland. I became a member of their Music Policy Council.

I fought Live Nation. I stood up to corporate bullies.

I gave speeches. Was a guest on podcasts. Hosted podcasts.

I joined a city councilor’s campaign—and we won. Just like we said we would.

I introduced Portland’s new mayor to a rock star.

I met incredible musicians and started rebuilding my band.

I met my grand-nephew.

I bought a new guitar from an artist I admire—my first piece of vintage gear.

I wrote scripts. I wrote books. I read books. I prayed. I cried. I meditated.

And I am sure there is more, but for now, I will leave it at this: community heals grief. 

And if you want to heal yourself, you must first practice selflessness.

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