| Beat the Devil's Tatoo: BMRC Finally Get it Together |
| By Chris Klepac | |
| Wednesday, 03 March 2010 | |
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Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is nothing if not contrarian. After leaping onto the scene with 2001's BRMC and getting crowned the new kings of shoegaze, the band took a hard left into boot-stomping back-porch blues (2005's Howl) before releasing an all-instrumental album (The Effects of 333), which was greeted mostly with shrugs and head-scratches. In between wrestling with their sound and struggling internally (original drummer Nick Jago is out again after a rocky reunion), BRMC has grown into a respectable middleweight rock act, and their new album, Beat the Devil's Tattoo, is the most coherent record they have made to date. All the band's various tangents intersect here: Over the rustic balladry of "The Toll" floats an ominous strain of blurry feedback that almost but never quite breaks into snarl. "Shadow's Keeper" disintegrates from a gritty bass-driven squaller that would have been at home on 2007's Baby 81 into a sound not unlike a freight train derailing into a sheet metal factory. Maybe the band's career has finally smoothed out - Vagrant Records is supporting them and has given them the nod to self release Devil's Tattoo, which benefits from the fresh air of new drummer (and part-time Ravonette) Leah Shapiro. Then again, maybe it just took five albums for the various pieces of the BMRC sound to make sense together. The ubiquitous heavy reverb, too-cool vocal sneer and endless leather vampire menace can, admittedly, be wearying, and Beat the Devil's Tattoo may not be a record you play every day, but if you crave that old-school evil rock band sleaze, BRMC has it in bucketfuls. Friday night's Showbox gig is already sold out, and it's bound to be a sea of red light, fake fog, and heavy, sweaty rock and roll. ---- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club play the Showbox at the Market on Friday, March 5 with The Whigs and The Hounds Below. (0) Comments |
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