21.05.2010, Prague

The American band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (shortly BRMC), which is known namely in the USA and Great Britain for its style at the frontier of garage rock, blues, folk and psychedelic music, will perform in the Prague club SaSaZu on 21st May. The three-member formation, whose name comes from the title of a motorcycle gang from the film “The Wild One” with Marlon Brando, will come to Prague within the framework of a European tour to its fifth studio album “Beat the Devil's Tattoo” which will be released on 8th March, 2010 at the own label Abstract Dragon. The band wrote and recorded the compositions in the studio Basement in Philadelphia in the same room where the album “Howl” had been created four years ago. It is also the first album where Leah Shapiro is drumming, the former member of a concert group The Raveonettes, who replaced the original drummer Nick Jago. The BRMC have performed only once in the Czech Republic so far as a fore-band of Lenny Kravitz.

The BRMC was established in San Francisco in the year 1998 by Robert Levon Been and Peter Hayes, two friends and classmates from high school. They both shared love for British bands from the beginning of the 90s, such as The Ride, Stone Roses, My Bloody Valentine or Jesus and Mary Chain. Then they were joined by a British drummer Nick Jago. They started performing in public in November 1998 for the first time. They were originally called The Elements, but after they found out that many other bands were had the same name, they changed for the BRMC after the above mentioned film. In the year 1999 they recorded the first demo album which hitched in broadcast of the Los Angeles station KCRW. The initial interest was transferred over the Atlantic Ocean where BBC proclaimed their demo as “the record of the week”. Noel Gallagher from The Oasis heard it there and wanted the band for his new label Brother Records. At the same time he mentioned the BRMC as his favourite band in the magazine MOJO. In the end the band decided from many offers to record at the Virgin Records. After a short American tour, where they fore-ran for Dandy Warhols, the BRMC recorded an eponymous début which was released in March 2001. Two years later there appears the album “Take Them On, On Your Own”, on which there were several compositions criticizing the American politics and George Bush. Then the BRMC broke up with the Virgin Records in the year 2004 and the drummer Nick Jago left the band. At the new label Echo / RCA they recorded the acoustic album “Howl” in the year 2005, which received very positive critiques. Nick Jago came back to the formation as well. On the record “Baby 81” from the year 2007 they returned to the original rock sound which characterized their first two albums. In June 2008 the drummer Nick Jago was banished from the band for the second time and replaced by Leah Shapiro from a concert group The Raveonettes.