INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Born to be my ‘Baby 81’

BRMC tours in support of new album

When the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club started making its 2005 CD, Howl, guitarist/singer Peter Hayes wasn’t sure whether the group would even exist once the album was completed. But by the time Howl was in stores, Hayes not only knew there was going to be another Black Rebel Motorcycle Club CD, he already had an inkling about the musical direction the band was going to take on that future CD.

What a difference a few months can make.

Hayes and bandmate bassist/singer Robert Levon Been recorded the majority of Howl as a duo after the departure of drummer Nick Jago in August 2004.

The duo didn’t know if they would continue as a band, but shortly before wrapping up work on Howl, Jago approached them about rejoining, and the band members mended fences in time for Jago to help record “Promise,” the remaining track for the album.

Things went so well that the group also decided to take a shot at two new songs: “Took Out a Loan” and “666 Conducer.” They left the studio already thinking ahead to what would become the newly released CD, Baby 81.

“They were done in one take, each of them,” Hayes says. “The power that came across within one take; it was really nice … We added some overdubs and things like that to stuff, but that was kind of the idea, to get that kind of feel.”

The healing process that began with doing those two songs (both of which are on Baby 81) continued on the tour for Howl, an album that brought a stark shift in the band’s sound.

The San Francisco-based group’s first two albums, a 2001 self-titled release and the especially impressive 2003 CD, Take Them On, On Your Own, were both fully plugged-in, glammy garage rock albums whose songs were built around dynamic ear-grabbing guitar riffs and surging tempos.

Howl was an altogether different beast. Drawing on a love of classic American music, Hayes and Been went mostly acoustic with a set of songs that touched on folk, blues, soul and roots rock.

As the Howl tour continued, the band’s thoughts turned toward doing a new album as a trio, and they began to jam out song ideas during sound checks as the tour progressed.

With Jago back in the band, the new songs took on more of the amped-up personality of the first two Black Rebel Motorcycle Club albums.

Songs such as “Berlin,” “Cold Wind” and “Lien On Your Dreams” deliver swaggering plugged-in rock, as the Baby 81 CD lives up to the stirring standard set by the band’s previous albums.

The influence of Howl, meanwhile, is felt on “Weapon of Choice” and “Am I Only,” which both feature acoustic intros that lead into full-on rock. Meanwhile, “666 Conducer” fully tips its hat to the preceding album. The largely acoustic track evokes comparisons to Led Zeppelin (think “When the Levee Breaks”) with its huge drums and swampy feel.

Hayes says fans who catch Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on tour this spring and summer will see the band touch on all four albums. But he says the set may evolve a bit as the tour progresses.

“As it goes along, you kind of just go with the crowd,” Hayes says. “If the crowd doesn’t seem to be digging a couple of songs, we’ll throw them out, and [plug in] other ones, be it from this [new] album or some other album. We kind of go with what people want to hear.”

What: NUVO and 92.3 FM WTTS present the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club with The Cobbs
Where: Music Mill
When: Tuesday, June 5, 7:30 p.m., $15