Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's new album, Howl, unveils a new blues, country and gospel-inspired sound. The mostly acoustic songs on the record, tinged with Americana, are an intriguing departure from the California band's trademark dirty rock sound.
With Howl, the three-piece — Peter Hayes, Robert Turner and drummer Nick Jago — are making a fresh start on RCA's Echo label, after things devolved on Virgin, which released their debut, B.R.M.C. (2001), and Take Them On, On Your Own (2003).
The progression of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club — whose sound has been cited over the years as resembling bands from Jesus and Mary Chain to the Stooges and My Bloody Valentine — has also coincided with the group's relocation from Los Angeles back to its home of San Francisco.
As the band has asserted, Howl, is, after all, an homage to legendary 'Frisco beat poet Allen Ginsberg, who wrote a book of poetry by the same name. It was in San Francisco that Hayes and Turner first channeled their influences into their own music. And that's where the band went to come up with a new approach to music.
Copyright 2006 XPN
