Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
The Elements. It's not much of a name. Fortunately, group members concurred, changing their moniker to the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, which they lifted from the '50s Marlon Brando movie, The Wild One.
B.R.M.C. formed in '98 with high school pals, Peter Hayes (guitar/vocals) and Robert Turner (bass/keyboards/vocals). They, in turn, recruited Englishman Nick Jago (drums). The group built a solid San Francisco base before extending their reach to the L.A. club circuit. In '01, they released their self-titled debut, which won high praise from fellow musicians (including Noel Gallagher and Johnny Marr).
Immediately they were opening for the Dandy Warhols. '03 saw the release of "Take Them On, On Your Own" featuring the title track. They were on a roll. Another album and successful tour and who knows? But it was not to be.
It's extremely risky for a group to abruptly change its sound from one album to the next. They are rarely rewarded for their efforts. More often than not, existing fans are disappointed and depart in droves while there is little opportunity to attract new ones. Still, that's what B.R.M.C. did on '05 release "Howl."
Seems Jago had a tendency to miss shows forcing Hayes and Turner to do acoustic sets. And since B.R.M.C. had long talked about doing a Folk album, here was the opportunity. They stripped their neo-Punk sound down to acoustic guitar, bass and harmonica on several tracks. Amid this change Turner dropped his stage name returning to his real one, Robert Levon Been. Also, Jago only managed to contribute his talents to one song, "Promise," out of 13 on the album.
The band's fourth album, "Baby 81," had it's U.S. release in May of '07 (just a day after the set was issued in the U.K.).
Much of "The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club" is an acoustic/electric blend of songs sung in a haze (and processing). There is a dream-like quality though the album does feature the brilliant protest song "Whatever Happened To My Rock 'n' Roll (Punk Song)" - with the guitars cutting like well sharpened knives. But "Awake" sounds dead on its feet. This CD got B.R.M.C. compared to the Jesus Mary Chain. That didn't hurt but it didn't help much either.
"Take Them On, On Your Own" amps up the energy and drills down. From the opening track "Stop," a bare-bones Rocker, to the hot guitar licks on closing track "Heart + Soul," this album represents a major step up for B.R.M.C. "Six Barrel Shotgun," with the mixed down vocals and dense sound, and "We're All In Love" have an undeniable power. This is an album to get.
"Howl," the name taken from the famous Allen Ginsberg poem, shows what happens when your drummer takes a hike. There's no need for an "Unplugged" B.R.M.C. album because this is it. People will either love or hate the album's raw intimacy.
"Howl" starts agreeably enough with the boppin' acoustic tune "Shuffle Your Feet." "Ain't No Easy Way," the first single, is appealing with its harmonica and slide guitar arrangement. Had they stayed in that vein the album might have worked. Hayes, sounding like a Dylan impersonator on No-Doz, tries to give the songs some emotional energy but the arrangements don't support him.
Now we're back on track. B.R.M.C. use grit and muscle to power their way through "Baby 81." Swaggering vocals and dirty guitars dominate "Take Out A Loan," " Berlin" and "Weapon Of Choice." "Window" sounds like Siouxsie & The Banshees (circa "Dear Prudence") backing John Lennon. The mid-tempo "Cold Wind" is effective through "Lien On Your Dreams (nice pun) is, as might be expected, dreamy, and a bit of a waste. That slight misstep aside, "Baby 81" scores with the dense and haunting "Killing The Light," "Need Some Air" and "American X."