A San Francisco band that (in 1999) relocated to Los Angeles, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is a trio that established itself with the noise-pop of BRMC (Virgin, 2002), a descendant of Jesus And Mary Chain's sound, but purified at the winter of slocore. The album displayed little or no imagination, and only a few songs (Love Burns, As Sure as the Sun and especially the anthemic Whatever Happened To My Rock'N'Roll (Punk Song)) had any emotional content worth of notice.

Take Them On On Your Own (Virgin, 2003) is an impressive catalog of trivial cliches. Again, a few songs roar and hiss in the pop-psychedelic manner (Stop, Six Barrel Shotgun, Rise or Fall), but mostly this is well-executed but generic rock'n'roll.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club broke up, reformed and were reborn on Howl (Red Ink, 2005) as a (mostly acoustic) roots-rock combo. Mainly anchored to the tradition of country (Ain't No Easy Way, Devil's Waitin') and folk (The Line, Complicated Situation, Restless Sinner), the new sound betrays the band's fascination with the rural communities of the Midwest.

Baby 81 (2007) abandoned the acoustic detour and tried to recapture the band's original sound (Took Out A Loan). They failed, despite the jam American X.

Beat The Devil's Tattoo (2010) was still overflowing with filler, drowning the visceral Bad Blood, Conscience Killer and War Machine in a jelly of spineless litanies and lullabies.