Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

About the band:

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC for short) is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, now based in Los Angeles. BRMC is known for its brand of garage rock, blues, folk revival, neo-psychedelia and often religiously inspired lyrics, and its influences are groups and musicians such as Oasis, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Rolling Stones, John Lennon, The Velvet Underground and The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club formed in 1998, taking its name from Marlon Brando's motorcycle gang in the 1953 film The Wild One.

The band's first two records were indebted to classic hard rock influenced by Led Zeppelin and also encompassed slower paced psychedelic rock, space rock and Noise Pop influences from bands such as The Verve, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr and The Jesus And Mary Chain. Recently, with their fourth record Baby 81, they developed a more concrete sound and style; encompassing blues, folk, and rock, while remaining angst-ridden in theme.

The vocals are shared between Robert Levon Been (Bass) and Peter Hayes (guitar). Been and Hayes met at high school in the San Francisco suburb of Lafayette and quickly formed a band, Hayes having recently left The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Looking for a drummer, they met Nick Jago, from Devon, England, who had moved to California to be with his parents after spending some time at Winchester School of Art, where he was studying fine art. Been used the pseudonym 'Robert Turner' on the first two records, in an attempt to not be linked to his famous father (Michael Been of The Call.) He later dropped this identity when promoting Howl.

The band was originally called The Elements, but after discovering that another band had the same name, it changed the name to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Their second album Take Them On, On Your Own has several songs such as "Generation" and "US Government" that are critical of the United States government.

After conflict with the label, the band was dropped by Virgin Records in 2004, with Nick Jago leaving the band at the end of their summer tour of the same year due to 'internal conflict' (later revealed to be a drug addiction and drinking problem). He was briefly replaced by The Verve drummer Peter Salisbury. Hayes and Been then recorded their third album.

In 2005 the band signed to Echo in the UK, and RCA in the U.S. Their third album Howl was released to widespread critical acclaim. Several of the songs on Howl are said to have been written long before the idea of BRMC was conceived. Jago returned after most of the album was recorded but plays on track 7, "Promise". On tour for this album the band also employed a temporary fourth member, guitarist Spike Keating, on stage during performances.

The band's fourth album, Baby 81, was released on April 30, 2007 in the UK and Europe and May 1, 2007 in the U.S.. The band has posted several songs of Baby 81 album on their MySpace page.

Band's website

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