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March 21, 2007

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Take Baby 81 For A Spin

The Howl-meets-Weiland rocker "Weapon Of Choice" was a hit with you guys last month, and with little over a month before their fourth full-length Baby 81 is "officially" released, Nick, Peter, and Robert have revealed the details of their headlining tour to support the record. The first six dates are with Glaswegian rockers (and friends of Townshend) The Fratellis, but it's all BRMC from Idaho on (sorry, Boise!). We're just about a spin through the record, and it's a mixed bag so far. Easily their most broad ranging effort to date ("All You Do Is Talk" starts like a U2 ballad while "Need Some Air" is practically post-punk), but we're sticking to the ballsier Black Rebel of "Weapon" and "666 Conducer." Let us know if you've listened.

Check the dates, after the jump.

05/05 - Marquee Theatre (Tempe, AZ)*
05/06 - House of Blues (San Diego, CA)*
05/08 - The Wiltern (Los Angeles, CA)*
05/09 - The Filmore (San Francisco, CA)*
05/11 - Roseland Theatre (Portland, OR)*
05/13 - The Showbox (Seattle, WA)*
05/15 - The Big Easy (Boise, ID)
05/16 - In The Venue (Salt Lake City, UT)
05/17 - Gothic Theatre (Englewood, C)
05/18 - Sokol Underground (Omaha, NE)
05/19 - Granada Theater (Lawrence, KS)
05/20 - The Pageant (St. Louis, MO)
05/22 - First Avenue (Minneapolis, MN)
05/23 - The Rave (Milwaukee, WI)
05/24 - Vic Theatre (Chicago, IL)
05/25 - St. Andrews Hall (Detroit, MI)
05/29 - Avalon (Boston, MA)
05/31 - Webster Hall (New York, NY)
06/01 - Theatre Of The Living Arts (Philadelphia, PA)
06/02 - 9:30 Club (Washington, D.C.)
06/04 - Newport Music Hall (Columbus, OH)
06/05 - The Music Mill (Indianapolis, IN)
06/06 - City Hall (Nashville, TN)
06/07 - Roxy Theatre (Atlanta, GA)
06/09 - Culture Room (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
06/10 - The Social (Orlando, FL)
06/12 - Zydeco (Birmingham, AL)
06/13 - The Republic (New Orleans, LA)
06/14 - Meridian (Houston, TX)
06/15 - La Zona Rosa (Austin, TX)
06/16 - House of Blues (Dallas, TX)

Baby 81 is out 5/1 on RCA.

Posted at 4:13 PM in
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13 Comments

Actually, The Horrors are playing with them from Seattle through Dallas.

And the album is fantastic all the way through.

Posted by: Jasper at 03/21/07 4:34 PM | Reply
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i loved their first cd, but thought their second cd was uninspired...and really didnt like HOWL because i felt, being unadorned and acoustic, it showed how weak their songwriting can be. but so far this new one seems to be a "best of" from all three of their previous cds.
check it out.

Posted by: narrowexpanded at 03/21/07 5:32 PM | Reply
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I'm loving the new album...gotta be their best to date, and I thought the first three were each pretty damn good.

Posted by: frank at 03/21/07 8:14 PM | Reply
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It could be the best record of the year and it wouldn't matter. rca will still screw it up.

Posted by: systeme at 03/21/07 8:21 PM | Reply
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where's the leak?! link link! all i've heard is berlin, weapon of choice, and 666

Posted by: Rob z. at 03/21/07 8:39 PM | Reply
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of all the smaller indie bands to come out of nowhere BRMC are the most interesting.

Love Burns is the greatest rock song written in the last decade.

Posted by: cesar at 03/22/07 2:05 PM | Reply
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Baby 81. 666. Sounds like BRMC are making allusions to a certain well-known motorcycle club to which they'll never belong... any particular reasons for this? I like the music, but I'm just wondering how long it's gonna take for someone to cotton-on to the continual references and take it upon themselves to do something about it...

Posted by: Puck at 03/22/07 3:31 PM | Reply
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Actually, the Horrors are opening from Boise onwards, not Seattle.

Posted by: wax at 03/22/07 8:49 PM | Reply
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I am not sure how the title "Baby 81" would allude to motorcycle clubs... I believe the album title is a reference to the Indonesian tsunami in 04 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_81.

And Howl doesn't get enough credit.

Posted by: ben at 03/23/07 12:33 PM | Reply
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Puck- Baby 81 was a child who survived the tsunamis and was the center of a custody battle between a bunch of couples who claimed he was their son. You can see how a baby found alive, washed up on a wave with no identity is a powerful concept and why a record might be named as such. As for "666"...are you serious? That's from the Bible, and turns up constantly in art and music. I highly doubt the guys from BRMC are biker gang wannabes, and I'm not sure what you mean by saying someone ought to "do something about it," especially when your reasoning is as shoddy as it is.

Posted by: Greg at 04/02/07 4:09 AM | Reply
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This is easily their weakest album IMO. It's got a few good tracks here and there, but I find it to be pretty bland overall.

Posted by: Jonathan at 04/07/07 11:20 PM | Reply
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baby 81 officially hits stores tuesday for those of us who still enjoy the hard copy! :)

Posted by: michelle at 04/27/07 2:51 AM | Reply
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