BRMC Down Here

A Black Rebel Motorcycle Club fan website

‘Sound of the Cities. Eine popmusikalische Entdeckungsreise’.

Where was Punk invented? How did Drum ‘n’ Bass evolve? What was the atmosphere in Hippie-paradise San Francisco like in the Sixties? Music cities have a special vibe and are the birth place of legends.

German journalists Ole Loeding and Philipp Krohn have visited the 24 most important pop capitals and asked 160 artists, producers and experts why these places are unique.

Music pioneers like The Velvet Underground, Can, Tortoise, Allen Toussaint, Kurtis Blow, Eagle Eye Cherry, Faith No More, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Urge Overkill provided some deep insights into the music scenes of their city.

24 portraits of cities like NYC, London, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris, Chicago etc. and their musical legacy are the content of Loeding’s and Krohn’s new book:
‘Sound of the Cities. Eine popmusikalische Entdeckungsreise’.

It was released on Wednesday, September 23rd, and costs €22,95 (*Only available in German so far. They’re doing their best to get an English version out there as well.)

More info: www.facebook.com/soundofcities.

“I love San Francisco and I love L.A. Great places. They have romanticism for music and art in their own way. But I can give a shit about giving them credit for what we do. I don’t think they deserve it.” (…)

“San Francisco is a very cool city to be in. The problem with cool cities – if it’s Austin or New York or San Francisco, those are particularly cool cities – the top five places in the world are usually incredibly cold to a local band in trying to get something going.” (…)

“The most credit I can give the city is that we were doing the opposite of anything it wanted us to do. That’s the nature of your environment when you are growing up and you fucking hate everything around you. And your parents, school, teachers and the cops on the street: You just want to push it all away.”
— Robert Levon Been

‘The end of Chapter 7.’

BRMC recently ended their summer festival tour at TURF – Toronto Urban Roots Fest and left us with these parting words:

‘I see for miles and miles and miles, the beauty of this country like rapturous music, snow blind on expired medication and peel hearted blues. There’s a strange neon demon that comes out at certain hours, minutes in disguise, once lavished with time, now in and out of space. This is the end of Chapter 7.’

We will be returning in 2017 with a new record. We must change the vibration, repo the frequency, slice up some eyeballs, ’til a sight never seen makes us jump and say, ‘look a golden winged ship is passing my way’. 

We’ve been blessed by so many friends who came from all corners – not only to tonight’s show, but from the beginning. We don’t know how to express our gratitude for your time and enduring support, in good times and in the bad, for those of you who traveled from all over the globe to be with us for the final show in Toronto – we love you all – thank you so much – and we wish you safe travels back home.

With Love And Respect
~BRMC

A long time to wait, but it’s something to look forward to.

Charity auction update

Yesterday, BRMC posted this update on Facebook regarding the guitar auction for charity-

While we believe this would already be known, we just wanted to be clear why the guitars up for auction each have a listed value of $5,000.

That’s a purely arbitrary number, but the site conducting the auction requires that some amount be posted there. So please feel free to ignore it when determining what you want to bid.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in this auction. It’s already gone beyond our own expectations, and we’re grateful to everyone for helping to aid Sweet Relief Foundation.

P.S. Also it’s recently come to our attention that there was an error in the listing. Peter’s black Mitchell acoustic guitar that is currently up for auction was in fact not the same guitar he played on our David Letterman TV appearance. That one was actually a rental guitar we had for a short while, which seems to have caused a lot of confusion, as they looked nearly identical (both being black acoustic guitars and all).

Thankfully all the other information listed on the Mitchell guitar auction page is correct (just not the ‘David Letterman’ performance part).

Thanks,

BRMC

UPDATE: A message from Robert about the auctions posted on September 12:

Hey, we just want to say thank you to everyone who took part in the ‘Howl Anniversary Guitar Auction’, which we were just told managed to raise nearly $15,000 for ‘Sweet Relief Foundation’, so that a musician who finds him or herself in a situation similar to that of Leah’s can be helped in the future. We’re really grateful to you guys.
And we’re actually glad to know that both guitars will be going off into very loving arms (please take good care of them and keep them out of the sunlight, and no matter what you do… never feed them after midnight).

From
Robert / BRMC

Bid on BRMC guitars for Sweet Relief

From BRMC’s mailing list earlier today, details on the charity auction mentioned in the previous post:

Hey everyone, so since this is going to be the 10th Anniversary of the release of the album ‘Howl’ on Saturday, we decided it’d be a good occasion/cause to donate two of our acoustic guitars to the Sweet Relief charity foundation.

Come morning both acoustic guitars (each with a signed copy of the ‘Howl’ on Vinyl) are being put up for auction and you can bid online if interested. The auction apparently lasts for two weeks and will raise money for the cause.

For those of you who may not know, Sweet Relief Musicians Fund provides assistance to all types of career musicians who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability, or age-related problems. The people that run this organization were incredibly supportive, amongst many others, throughout Leah’s recovery this past year. They are really a godsend though for so many struggling every day, and we hope they are able to carry on for a long time to come.

From,
BRMC

Click here to view Peter Hayes’s Black Mitchell Acoustic Guitar

Click here to view Robert Been’s Gibson Sunburst Acoustic Guitar

Here are some photos of them playing the guitars:

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HOWL 10th Anniversary + charity auction

BRMC has been posting some photos and treats for fans on Facebook in preparation for the 10th anniversary of HOWL:

This Saturday August 22nd, marks the 10 Year Anniversary of the release of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s album ‘Howl’!!!

We’ll be posting rare howl photos and special treats for fans throughout the week.

Please feel free to share with us a story of your own though, where were you 10 years ago, what show did you attend, what songs have still stayed with you?

Lord knows it’s been a wild ride-

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Also, BRMC announced an online charity auction:

There will be a very very special online charity auction this Saturday August 22nd… (stay tuned for details)

 

Win a Flashback Mini Delay signed by Peter Hayes and Robert Been

Sign up for TC Electronic’s newsletter for a chance to win a Flashback Mini Delay signed by Peter Hayes and Robert Levon Been of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

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Peter Hayes opening for The Black Ryder in SF on 8/21

The Black Ryder @ The Independent

poster designed by Gerardo Pinzón I DiseñadorGráfico

Join Black Ryder with very special guest Peter Hayes from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club for an acoustic performance at The Independent in San Francisco on 8/21. http://ticketf.ly/1Txp53F

If you’re unfamiliar with The Black Ryder, check out the video for “Seventh Moon” from their recent album The Door Behind The Door: