Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Howl [20th Anniversary Edition]
PIAS
Hype of rather immense proportion surrounded Black Rebel Motorcycle Club when they broke through 25 years ago during the Interpol hysteria. Both bands shared a penchant for chic listlessness and intriguing aloofness, religiously dressing in black and finding the beauty in melancholic indifference. But longevity didn’t appear to be in the cards for either band’s buzziness—BRMC in particular, even after they blindsided fans of psych-garage with their eyebrow-raising self-titled debut in 2001 and its sophomore-slump-silencing follow up Take Them On, on Your Own. Why was the writing on the wall, despite those transfixing gems? Perhaps because a smattering of other bands in similar niches had already become the next flavor of the month: The Black Angels in psych rock, The Ravonettes in noise pop, and The Black Keys in garage rock, just to name a few.
Now, the West Coast trio are reminding us of their staying power with a 20th anniversary reissue of their third album, 2005’s Howl. While it may appear ironic or even clumsy that the band picked Howl as the vehicle for looking back on their now-formidable career, they firmly made the case that their lowest-charting album at the time was misunderstood and unappreciated. BRMC tipped their cap to Allen Ginsburg by naming their third release in homage to the poet’s best-known work, and in the spirit of Ginsburg, it presented a version of BRMC that was full of conviction, outspoken and unabashed in their performances of the album’s 13 tracks. BRMC reinvented themselves with Howl, quelling their instinctual shyness, gloominess, and even egocentrism in favor of a brash and bold capital-R Rock record.
Howl found the band retiring the style that had gained them notice and praise—an adherence to grandiose white noise and a heavy reliance on guitar—and instead exploring a reverential appreciation for the world around them. Thanks to the band’s decision to explore blues, gospel, folk, Americana, and country music, Howl gave them a second wind, and without it, they might not have survived the aughts. BRMC are dusting off the record not as a flimsy reissue with a bonus track or two, but rather in the form of a deluxe box set effectively doubling down on their belief in the strength of a record that divided critics and fans due to its lack of intensity for intensity’s sake. The package houses three LPs that contain the Howl Sessions EP they released in 2006, even more ancillary Howl-era goodies in the form of five demos and alternate mixes, a photo album featuring unearthed photos from BRMC’s Howl days, handwritten lyrics to songs featured on the original release, and a poster to boot.
Underscoring their pride in the record and in celebration of the reissue, BRMC will play 25 gigs in North America beginning in September, and while they won’t be playing Howl from start to finish, the fact that the jaunt will mark the band’s first headlining tour in five years drives home the fact that this record transformed BRMC into a band that let their imagination run free—and maybe even kept them alive.
