Music / Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Left to right: Peter Hayes, Robert Levon Been and Leah Shapiro

I fell in love with the sweet sensation

I gave my heart to a simple chord

I gave my soul to a new religion

Whatever happened to you?

Whatever happened to our rock n'roll?

—"Whatever Happened To My Rock 'N' Roll"

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are a rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1998 by vocalist/guitarist/bassist Peter Hayes, vocalist/bassist/guitarist Robert Levon Been and drummer Nick Jago.

Formed by high school friends Hayes and Been, after the former's brief stint in The Brian Jonestown Massacre, they later completed the trio with English native Nick Jago, to record their debut album, B.R.M.C., later released in 2001, and later Take Them On, On Your Own in 2003.

Jago departed for a brief time in 2004 due to personal issues, leading Hayes and Been to record the Americana-influenced Howl as a duo for the most part. Jago later rejoined the band and he recorded one more album with them, the back-to-basics Baby 81, but later would be out of the band for good in 2008, being replaced by The Raveonettes' touring drummer Leah Shapiro.

The band would record three more albums by The New '10s, Beat the Devil's Tattoo in 2010, Specter at the Feast in 2013 and Wrong Creatures in 2018.

Discography

• B.R.M.C. (2001)
• Take Them On, On Your Own (2003)
• Howl (2005)
• Baby 81 (2007)
• The Effects of 333 (2008)
• Beat the Devil's Tattoo (2010)
• Specter at the Feast (2013)
• Wrong Creatures (2018)

Tropes

• Alternate Album Cover: Baby 81 was released in North America with a Minimalistic Cover Art, with only the band name and title and a vector drawing of an electric guitar◊. The European cover art is more elaborate, stylized in the same vein of monochrome noir movie posters and it has the band members on the cover◊.
• Cover Version: "Let the Day Begin" by The Call, featured in Specter at the Feast. Made as a tribute to Michael Been, Robert's father, since he also helped and mentored the band in the years prior to his death.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The cover art of all their 2000's albums are basically this.
• Epic Rocking: "Awake" (6:12), "Salvation" (6:06), "Heart and Soul" (7:15), "Windows" (6:06), "American X" (9:10), "Sedated with Sterilized Tongues" (6:37), "We're Not Welcome Alone" (7:20), "Or Needed" (4:38), "And When Was Better" (7:00), "Shadow's Keeper" (6:10), "Half-State" (10:18), "Fire Walker" (6:23), "Sell It" (6:46), "Lose Yourself" (8:39), "Ninth Configuration" (6:52) and "Calling Them All Away" (6:45).
• Heavy Meta: "Whatever Happened To My Rock 'N Roll (Punk Song)".
• Hidden Track: "Take My Time" from B.R.M.C. is an odd one, since in some editions it is tied at the end of "As Sure as the Sun" and in other versions it is tied before the beginning of "Rifles", the song after "As Sure as the Sun". "Open Invitation" is also an example, being placed after the last song.
• Limited Lyrics Song: Hidden track "Take My Time" contains the line "I'm gonna take time" being repeated in the forefront while the phrase "*Sure feels like I'm falling down again*" is being repeated in the background.
  • The lyrics of "Ha Ha High Babe" only consist of "You're ha ha high, babe" / "Can't keep it on the ground" being repeated a few times.
• Longest Song Goes Last: "Heart and Soul" from Take Them On, On Your Own, "The Line" from Howl,^note It has a Hidden Track right after, named "Open Invitation" totaling it to 8:14. Though the track on its own still qualifies being 5:09, longer than any song on the album. "And When Was Better" from The Effects of 333, "Half-State" from Beat the Devil's Tattoo and "Lose Yourself" from Specter at the Feast.
• Minimalistic Cover Art: Howl.
• New Sound Album: Howl switches up from their usual garage neo-psychedelia sound in favor of a folk-Americana-country-gospel-inspired by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. The band had elements of the sound prior to it, and the band would still do songs in this vein in later albums like the Beat the Devil's Tattoo's Title Track once they returned to their usual sound.
• Oddball in the Series: The Effects of 333, basically a full ambient album consisting only of instrumentals, barely resembling anything that the band has ever done before and since.
• Protest Song: "U.S. Government".
• Psychedelic Rock: A common element of the band, blending elements of garage rock, blues, noise pop and shoegaze, and having their sound early on being heavily compared to The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Brian Jonestown Massacre.
• Rock Trio
• Self-Titled Album: B.R.M.C.
• Shout-Out:
  • The band name is taken from the Marlon Brando's character-led bike gang from the movie The Wild One.
  • The cover art for Take Them On, On Your Own was inspired by the scene of 1949 film The Third Man, where the main character, Harry Lime, is chased in an underground alley.
• Stage Names: During the first two albums, Robert Levon Been used the name "Robert Turner", to distance himself from his father Michael Been, member of 80's rock band The Call. He dropped this moniker by Howl. Before joining the band, he had the "Robert Locke" during his tenure in a band called The Beggars.
• Textless Album Cover: Take Them On, On Your Own.
• Title Track: "Howl", "The Effects of 333" and "Beat the Devil's Tattoo".
• Vocal Tag Team: Peter Hayes and Robert Levon Been, as they both share the lead duties. Although you wouldn't be able to notice that on first listen due to how similar their voices are.