In 1995, Robert Levon Been, who also performed under the name Robert Turner, encountered Peter Hayes during their high school years in San Francisco, setting in motion the formation of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, later shortened to BRMC. Their early bond drew strength from a shared enthusiasm for early-’90s U.K. acts including Ride, the Stone Roses, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and My Bloody Valentine. Although their tastes aligned closely, the pair initially pursued separate paths—Hayes played with the Brian Jonestown Massacre around the time of Give It Back!—and maintained only sporadic contact through mutual shows for several years.
By 1998 the two musicians reunited and brought British drummer Nick Jago into the lineup. They began appearing onstage that November under the name the Elements, a title abandoned almost immediately once they realized how many other groups already used it. Their replacement name came from the Marlon Brando-led biker gang that rode into the California town in The Wild One.
A polished 16-track demo CD was completed in 1999, after which the group relocated to Los Angeles. Santa Monica’s KCRW became the first station to broadcast tracks from the demo, though attention soon crossed the Atlantic when BBC Sheffield designated the recording its “Record of the Week.” Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher publicly declared the band his favorite new act and floated the possibility of signing them to his Brother Records label in an interview with MOJO. After securing a publishing agreement with Warner/Chappell, the trio fielded multiple label offers and ultimately chose Virgin Records in March 2000.
A brief American tour alongside the Dandy Warhols preceded the release of their self-titled debut, B.R.M.C., which appeared in March 2001. Two years later the band returned with Take Them on, on Your Own, an album that reached number three on the U.K. charts and displayed a more refined sound. Eight months afterward they parted ways with Virgin. A contract with RCA followed swiftly, leading to the August 2005 release of the acoustic, Americana-tinged Howl.
The louder rock approach of their first two records resurfaced on 2007’s Baby 81, whose supporting tour was later captured on the concert DVD LIVE in 2009. After Baby 81, Nick Jago departed to concentrate on solo work. Leah Shapiro, previously the touring percussionist for the Raveonettes, assumed drumming duties, prompting another stylistic shift toward electronica and ambient textures on The Effects of 333. Issued independently on the band’s own imprint, the album met with little commercial or critical response, prompting a move to Vagrant Records for 2010’s Beat the Devil’s Tattoo.
While promoting that record, the group suffered the loss of their engineer and Robert Levon Been’s father, Michael Been—frontman of the Call—who suffered a fatal heart attack backstage in Belgium. BRMC remained active through 2012 and 2013, issuing their seventh album, Specter at the Feast, in early 2013. The first single was a cover of the Call’s “Let the Day Begin,” and Been sat in with the Call on several dates in place of his late father.
The concert album and DVD Live in Paris, filmed at the Theatre Trianon during the band’s sold-out 2014 European run, appeared in 2015. That same year Leah Shapiro underwent successful surgery to correct the brain condition Chiari malformation, which had been impairing her drumming. The band then entered Sunset Studios with producer Nick Launay, whose previous credits include work with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Arcade Fire, to record their eighth album. Wrong Creatures emerged in 2018 and was preceded by the singles “Little Thing Gone Wild” and “Haunt.”
