B.R.M.C.

by

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

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First of all, yes, this band isn't very original and relies on a lot of stuff that seems to have been done before. You could probably say that about most -- if not all -- new bands and debut albums. But, hell, you could pretty much say that for most of the reviews and articles that have been written about this band so far, too. Almost every one that I've seen (and I'm talking about in the press, not the ones here) seems to mention at least three of the following four thoughts: (1) the Jesus & Mary Chain fixation; (2) the rap-rock and boy-band marketing strategies that've been raping popular music for the past few years; (3) "Whatever Happened to My Rock 'n' Roll" as an answer to its own question; and, (4) Black Rebel Motorcycle Club sounds like the name of a metal band.

In my case, when I first saw "Whatever Happened. . ." on the public access video show late at night awhile back, besides thinking that it was the most completely dead-on song I'd heard all year, I thought "B.R.M.C." (as the credit indicated) was a raw garage band -- along the lines of, say, the Makers or a less flamboyant Rocket From the Crypt. And when I later learned what the initials stood for and saw the Stooges, Joy Division and the Velvet Underground (two of my favorite bands and one that I should get into more) listed among their influences, I got even more excited. So it was a bit of a shock at first when I listened to some of their other songs off their website. (They have about half the CD and a live set from Milwaukee on there. It's great.) I'm not really that much of an aficionado of J&MC and their ilk, but to be honest, even though the songs didn't hook me right away, they didn't take more than a couple of listens to "grow on" me, either, so I bought the CD. Besides the one song, "Love Burns" has this melody, "White Palms" has this interplay between bass and guitar and "Salvation" has this . . . trancelike . . . feeling, and I can't get 'em out of my head. (They pushed matchbox 20 and Creed out of there finally, though, so I'm doubly thankful.)

Anyway, there's a lot of trippy atmospheric stuff fading in and out of most of the songs, and there's even more distortion and dissonance and . . . deconstruction, I guess. (There are also hintings of what may develop into a sound of their own, but that's something else.) If you're into J&MC, My Bloody Valentine, Ride and all of that, then maybe this will sound pretty familiar, yeah. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. If anything, it's something that will probably bring back old memories rather than bombard you with its presence on the radio or VH1 these days. (I guess that many of the kids who are into what they play on MTV were prenatal or too young to remember when this music first appeared.) And for people like me, who aren't too familiar with the music, maybe it'll get them interested and bring some of these bands back into cultural consciousness again.

Of course, even after all of this, I still go back to "Whatever Happened. . ." I'm actually tempted to call it an anthem, not only because it rocks so hard but also because so many people my age seem to be asking the exact same question. But, then again, that'd just mean that it'd be played every 20 minutes on the radio and maybe even on MTV, and everybody'd just get sick of it. So I won't say that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club will necessarily save rock 'n' roll. (No band has ever really done that on their own, and I don't expect this one to be an exception.) I don't even know if they're the start of something new in music, although I definitely hope so. All I can say is that this is a damn good record for this year, and that's saying something.

think

It's for records such as this one that self-styled music connoisseurs have coined dismissive comments like "over-hyped", "what's all the fuss about", "oh no, enough with the f****** BRMC", etc. BRMC's debut belongs to that brand of more-or-less-indie records that somehow manage to be more talked-about that your average indie release, eventually conquering a small degree of fame, even outside indie circles... In this they have much in common with the Strokes and therefore it's no wonder music snobs are reacting in the same way the did back when "is this it" hit the racks. Now, being a music snob myself I was relishing the idea of employing one of the aformentioned comments and dismiss this release as a derivative pile of pap. I was tempted but I have to admit that this is a good debut album, not great mind you, but definitely good! A couple of tracks clearly tower above the rest ("whatever happened to my rock 'n' roll" is clearly the highlight here...). The remainder of the tracks is generally good even if they don't attain the hip-shacking glory of the mentioned song. This is not cutting-edge stuff but it's a refreshing listen and people who like BRMC's obvious reference points (Jesus & Mary Chain, the Stone Roses...) may love this :-) My humble advice is to listen a couple of samples and judge for yourself...