B.R.M.C.
Take Them On, On Your Own
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For $7.98

Sometimes a band doesn’t have to evolve to get it right. They can just be all that they can be and manage to succeed in the end. Bands like Velvet Underground and The Jesus And Mary Chain were not transcendent musicians, but they simply wrote songs from the gut. They created a style, all their own, and made every music devotee jump for joy. Eventually they would make people (like me) learn how to write songs in a wholly unique fashion, sans standard verse chorus verse arrangement.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are nothing special really. They are background filler that doesn’t necessarily invade you in the way that they bands they mimic do effortlessly. However, there is good background filler out there that if you heard at a bar, you’d groove to. BRMC are not a bar band, but they might as well be. They don’t reach for higher power or stretch out their sound into computer-driven Korg rock like Radiohead did after OK Computer. They just wanna rock, and for the most part, they pull it off.

I liked their self-titled debut just fine. A song like “Red Eyes and Tears” was an anomalous pleasure that had a murky tone and a damaging riff which created some momentum as it progressed. As time went on, my interest in them had accelerated a bit. However, their 2nd offering, Take Them On, On Your Own, is more of the same which isn’t a bad thing. They turn up the vocals a bit, putting the mediocre lyrical content up front more, and even the bass plays a more prominent role in the proceedings.

The production sounds a bit less raw and much more glossier, meaning they actually took the time out to mix the album to their benefit. Opening number “Stop” is not a Jane’s Addiction cover unfortunately, but it sets the tone with its agile low-end intro like Primal Scream met up with MC5. It’s what you would expect from BRMC. Then there are a couple of cool Sonic Youth rip-offs such as “Generation” and even a song that sounds like it was a leftover from Disintegration. “Shade of Blue” is a delay-driven little slow number that is Goth-y and eerie that is almost too much like The Cure. But I like it when BRMC keep it simple and full of bar chords. “We’re All In Love” may sound like another The Dandy Warhols paying homage to The Stones, but it gets your motor running and the next thing you know, you are tapping your fingers even as the melody wanders out. The overlong “Heart and Soul” has a nice wall-to-wall guitar sound and serves as a nice closer that seethes into a fast and furious intensity.

In the long run, BRMC won’t prevail. They are not a band that everybody is going to identify with, at least not emotionally. Titles like “US Government” do hint at a dystopian perspective at authority, but what protest themes they have in mind really don’t resound here. Instead they are a decent example of indie rock that is visceral, which engages you for the time you listen to it, but leaves your mind when it’s out of your CD changer. If you play Take Them On, On Your Own at a party, people will dig it, but BRMC won’t make the kind of leap that neither The White Stripes nor The Strokes did because none of the elements are all that ear-popping or groundbreaking. Between their two records, they may even bore those that are more privy to heavier softcore/slowcore feedback drenched Mary Chain imitators. So it’s the same ole same ole, but at least it’s not an insipid imitation. Basically if your friend has a copy of the record, by all means, ask him to burn a copy for you.

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