April 16, 2008 Music » Betta Listen

Pin It
Submit to Reddit
Favorite

Fueled by music, anger 

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club charges ahead without label

By
click to enlarge NOT HELL'S ANGELS: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

  • NOT HELL'S ANGELS: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

There's no telling what image will come to mind when you hear the band's name -- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. The average listener may expect something loud, heavy and, perhaps, leather-clad. The average biker may be pissed off -- that wouldn't be a first. Regardless of the visual, it's the music you should pay attention to.

BRMC take a no-frills approach in their music, often being compared to The White Stripes and The Strokes. It's energetic without being over-the-top. The songs are short and to the point, the way they like them to be (the nine-minute "American X" aside). There's also plenty of anger -- at least that's what singer/bassist Robert Levon Been hopes.

"[Anger] pointed in the right direction is the hope," he says by phone from L.A. shortly before heading to Phoenix for the first stop on the current tour. "It gets the kicking and screaming and questioning -- it makes me stronger for creativity."

The band is getting back on the road for a few months, fresh off of a break after a year-long tour in support of last year's Baby 81. No longer with a label, the band is taking a do-what-we-like approach. They started getting invitations to play and, tired of sitting at home, decided they'd be better off on the road. Seems like the best place for a "motorcycle club" anyway, doesn't it?

As for that name, the band was originally called The Elements, but decided on a name change after seeing the 1953 film The Wild One. Ten years ago, it almost led them into trouble.

"Different motorcycle gangs would see the name on the marquee and think it was some sort of motorcycle club," Been, son of The Call's Michael Been, says. "Some of them thought if you call yourself a motorcycle club, then you have to be sanctioned by the Hell's Angels and there's a lot of politics in motorcycle clubs. We kinda had to learn the hard way."

When the band would explain they weren't an "actual" motorcycle club, they'd buy the bikers a round of drinks, give them some T-shirts and all problems would be solved. Of course, the fact the band's manager was a Hell's Angel didn't hurt.

Been says the band has changed in different ways since those days. He says the band's first album, B.R.M.C., was a bit awkward and would have been better off being recorded six months later after touring and playing the songs more. He describes the second album, Take Them On, On Your Own, as more indicative of their live sound. 2005's Howl was a complete acoustic curve ball after drummer Nick Jago left the band (reportedly for in-fighting with guitarist Peter Hayes and substance abuse problems), while 2007's Baby 81 returns to form with the return of Jago.

"It was a really hard time when he left," Been says. "It was a pretty powerful thing for us to all be playing again. It felt like we were starting a new band again."

B.R.M.C. signed with RCA to release their last two albums, but both parties entered into the contract knowing they'd only go as far as they wanted to. Been says the split was mutual. "I don't think they think we're the kind of band that the next album is going to have a number-one hit single," he says. "We don't go about recording that way. If it happens, it happens. When you're a mega-corporation, you look at the numbers before anything else."

While the band stripped things down for Howl and put the album together piece-by-piece in the studio, they got back to the old ways of recording live for Baby 81. The next album, which they'll be writing for while touring, is likely not to be in the style of Howl, though they haven't ruled out a return to that sound in the future.

It's even a question mark of whether they'll play those songs live. Jago occasionally refuses to perform any acoustic songs. "It goes by our mood -- what we've eaten that day and how much sleep we got," Been says with a laugh. "Some nights you want to go full-on and other nights it doesn't feel that way."

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club will perform with The Duke Spirit at The Visulite Theatre on April 22. Tickets are $18 in advance and $20 on day of show.

More Betta Listen »

Pin It
Submit to Reddit
Favorite

Latest in Betta Listen

Calendar

More »

Search Events

all events
concerts
restaurants
movie times

Most Popular
Most Shared
Most Commented

© 2019 Womack Digital, LLC
Powered by Foundation