The Black Rebel Motorcycle guide to being completely awesome
Topic: Articles & Interviews
The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club guide to being completely awesome
by Troy Reimink | The Grand Rapids Press
Thursday April 17, 2008, 5:32 PM
A photo from Wednesday's show by fan blizzock99 uploaded to the band's Web site. More photosBlack Rebel Motorcycle Club on Wednesday night was one of the best shows I've seen at the Intersection. Man, these dudes rule. Any bands aspiring to Black Rebel levels of face-melting awesomeness should observe the following notes.
1. Image, it turns out, is key.
I know, I know, it's all supposed to be about the music, but these are easily the coolest-looking people in rock. Bathed in fog, lit from behind and dressed entirely in black, this band makes me want to dye my hair and wear fingerless gloves year 'round.
2. Crank it up
Spinal Tap's amps go up to 11. The Black Rebel amps go past 11 to a setting labeled "bowel-shaking." The Intersection's sound system is no slouch when it comes to delivering loudness, so stage volume really isn't an issue there. Regardless, the band members had stacks and stacks of Fender amps and cabinets.
3. Sound amazing.
For only having three members, Black Rebel makes an ungodly racket, combining elements of my favorite genres -- shoegaze, garage, blues -- into a sharp, melodic ball of noise.
4. Don't say peep.
Aside from a few scattered thank-yous at the end, none of the members (Robert Levon Been, Peter Hayes, Nick Jago) said anything to the crowd. Which is fine. We're not there to feel special.
5. Play all night.
Despite it being a club show and there being two openers, Black Rebel played for at least two hours. Two hours! And they didn't even play a couple of the songs I really wanted to hear. Which is no problem, because two hours of rock is two hours of rock. By which I mean rawk.
E-mail Troy Reimink: treimink@grpress.com
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Q & A with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - The Grand Rapids Press
Topic: Articles & Interviews
By Troy Reimink
Watch for Troy Reimink's story on Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in Tuesday's Grand Rapids Press in the Your Life section, or on mlive.com/grpress.
I recently interviewed Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's Robert Levon Been about the band's newest album, "Baby 81," and its divisive previous record, "Howl." We spoke as the band was gearing up for the first show on its current tour, which stops Wednesday night at the Intersection.
Press: How do you get ready for a new tour?
Been: I'm still trying to figure that one out. I didn't sleep much last night, and I'm surprised how much I've lost my golden touch for road life already. It's bizarre. I'm sure it'll come back to me. There's some part of you that doesn't want to let go of the guard rails at home. I think it'd be different if we were just going to follow this one out, but the fact that we're going back to LA tomorrow, and then flying again. It's very cruel and unusual.
Seems like you're hitting some smaller markets on this tour. Do people respond differently between the coasts?
It ends up that the big cities end up dragging you along to foot the bill, but whenever we can, it's a lot better (playing smaller cities). People seem like they actually care, and their heart's in it more than city slickers. It's like quality over quantity.
How have fans responded to the new songs?
We started touring this record before it came out. The biggest challenge is always before it comes out. Our music's not instantly accessible for a lot of people. Sometimes it's a lonely couple of months on the road when a record first comes out. It's still soaking in. We've got a chance to hear it for nine months or something, and we're waiting for them, like, come on, come on, catch up.
It's really surreal having four records. I never imagined writing this many songs, and having people know them. Now, they kind of come for all different reasons. Some people just like the second one, or the third or the first.
With four albums, you're probably in the position where you can't put together a set list that pleases everyone.
That's the Catch-22. You can't make everyone happy. We've released four albums, but it's probably about eight albums when you count up all the b-sides. And we've released most of those, and we play a lot of them. That adds to the madness. I'm actually working it out right now, and I have no (expletive) clue.
In retrospect, how do you feel about "Howl"? (The band's third record was a roots-based, largely acoustic album that startled a lot of fans and critics.) Have people started to re-examine that album?
That one feels like it's gonna stand the test of time, maybe the most slow-burning of them all. I think it'll live on. It's got something to it that takes longer for people to sink inside of. But once they do, if you want to go to that place, there's a lot there. I don't like to look at it as one album being better than another. But it just means different things at different times. That's the nature of music.
We'd always written those kinds of songs, like more rootsy, acoustic, blues-country songs. We kind of kept it a secret because I think we were afraid maybe people wouldn't like it or wouldn't know what to take from it. But I think the reason it actually did pretty well and was worth its salt was because they were songs we'd been writing for maybe ten years, so they had time to mature. Writing rock songs as a band, we kind of throw and go, just feeling an impulse. But those songs were more storytelling and relied really heavily on lyrics. There's a different tempo, a different beat that they work at, and a different time that they kind of come to people.
They say you have your whole life to write your first record, and with our first album I guess that was true. But by the time we got around to "Howl," we'd had our whole life to write those songs too, because we didn't think anybody wanted to hear them.
As different as it sounded, it was still recognizable as a Black Rebel record. A song like "Weight of the World" could have easily been on any of your albums, and a song like "666 Conducer" from the new one wouldn't have been out of place on "Howl."
People get fooled a bit by the wrapping paper. It's more kind of toe-tapping than boot stomping. Even though some of those songs you mentioned could have been on other albums, they would have been pushed harder and further and become more of a stomp. And had more of a bite than a howl, for a really bad pun (laughs). Or a scream rather than a howl. There's actually a big difference.
How did the process of making "Howl," and the reaction to it, influence the direction you took on "Baby 81"?
"Baby 81" was a matter of time. We had a falling out with our drummer (Nick Jago), so we made "Howl" without him, so by the time we came back together as a band, we had itchy trigger fingers to kind of turn up really loud and scream again. It takes some restraint.
Where do you see the band heading musically from here? Have you been working on new songs?
It's going everywhere. The floodgates opened, and we're not restraining new songs. We're writing in every different style and form. Everything's kind of coming out naturally. Sooner or later you'll feel a twinge, and it'll pull you in one or two directions rather than 60.
How do your songs develop, writing-wise?
Sometimes we write as a full band, sometimes it'll be one guy on acoustic guitar. I'll write acoustic by myself or Pete will write acoustic by himself or we'll kind of write it together. It's sometimes more fun as a band to turn off your mind and jam, and it kind of takes shape without any one person doing anything
How do you look back on the early part of your career, specifically the British media swarm? Is there still a difference in how you're received overseas versus here?
It was like a big boom over in the UK in early 2000 with the White Stripes and the Strokes and us and the Vines and the Hives. The British press felt like they discovered something no one else knew about. That takes a certain amount of skill. It was cool. It was an open door to get to a lot of people fast, so we snuck in there quick.
But the whole time, you know the other shoe's going to drop, because it's the British press and it's fickle. We got it for what it's worth and got out of it while we still had our self respect. The States took a little longer to come around, but I guess a band like us that doesn't have one hit video or song, that's just the way you've gotta do it.
It kind of sucks and it's hard, and a lot of the time you're frustrated, but now it's kind of sweeter because the people who come out really do care. They're there for the long haul, not because they've liked you for six months because of one song.
Even though I couldn't really admit it at the time (laughs)... it's a nice surprise to have people there for good.
So it's been to your benefit that you've never had a huge hit?
It's always like a double-edged sword. If you get a lot fast, you lose a lot fast. We've kept things pretty even. It feels like we're left to our own to make our music and not really bothered by all the other bull----. At the same time, there's always that twinge of wanting to have what the other guy has and wanting that recognition. We still have those same gripes, but we're learning that there's something to what we have.
Each of your albums have been released by major labels. Given how the industry has changed in the past few years, do you think that would be the case if you were just starting out now?
That's a (expletive) good question. The record industry is different. I have a feeling we'd be able to find a deal and get our music out. But we've had a lot of luck in different ways, being in the right place at the right time. It could be a lot harder. Doors are open to us that I really don't even know about.
I don't want to make it sound like, 'oh, it'd be easy because look how great we are'. It's (expletive) hard out there. I know a lot of friends of mine that are in bands that are unknown or are starting up that are (expletive) great, and it's like, we're not really that much better.
I know it's hard out there, and that's just a reality. It does have to do with having good music and having something to say that speaks to people. But at the same time, that's not everything. I know there's some saying like 'it's 90 percent rock and 10 percent talent'. Maybe it's the other way around (laughs). I hope we're 90 percent talented.
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