Black Rebel Motorcycle Club biography
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC for short) is an American alternative 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 The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Rolling Stones, John Lennon, The Velvet Underground and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Its name was likely gathered from the movie The Wild One.
History
Formation and first years: 1998-2003
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 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.
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, Loop, 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 Bay Area city 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.
Middle era: 2004-2006
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In 2003, a concert in Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK had to be cancelled half way through the set, after Leeds City Council officials suspected the 150 year old floor of Leeds Town Hall might collapse. This led to the band sometimes being referred to as 'the band who broke the floor'.
After conflict with the label, the band was dropped by Virgin Records in 2004. Nick Jago became estranged from the band in 2005, reportedly due to drug problems that became publicly apparent when he remained on stage for a full nine minutes, completely silent, while accepting a 2003
NME Award. A year later at the 2004 V Festival, Jago walked out when asked to sign an inflatable penis. Things came to a head in Scotland, when after a tense gig Jago and Hayes came to blows and before long, Jago quit. As such, Jago did not take part in the
Howl sessions. Instead, he went through various rehab attempts, eventually rejoining the band in time to record one track on
Howl, the ballad "Promise". Some fans believe the lack of Jago's presence, and the encompassing drug problems the band had faced, lead partly to
Howl's stripped-down folk style, a departure from the traditional B.R.M.C. sound.
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.
Possible influences of the band include the beat poet generation, notably of the Denver scene, and particularly in Allen Ginsberg. This is evident in the title of their third album:
Howl is the name of Ginsberg's most celebrated work.
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