We can’t help but share favorites covering favorites. Above, Megafaun, The Tallest Man on Earth & Jaw Lesson cover Bon Iver’s “Creature Fear” at FabrIQ Festival.

News:

Video: She & Him – “In The Sun” | She & Him perform the new Milwaukee Verve Music Festival on Friday, June 4th that was announced today.

NPR SXSW Preview: Featuring Peter Wolf Crier & Milwaukee’s Kings Go Forth

A.V. Club Milwaukee: South By Midwest: Where to find Milwaukee bands at SXSW

MP3: MGMT – “Flash Delerium”

By Pete Donahue

Since I latched on to their 2001 single “Whatever Happened to My Rock ‘n’ Roll (Punk Rock Song),” I’ve always held Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in high regard. I don’t own a motorcycle or a leather jacket, but when I listen to the band’s ragged amalgam of rock and roll, blues, americana and folk, I get a glimpse of what it must have been like to roll with Velvet Underground in Manhattan back in the late-60s. To have been right there with people like Lou Reed who helped shape rock and roll into the coolest kind of chic I can imagine, decked out in black leather jackets, heeled boots and sunglasses, regardless of what time it is.

For me, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are today’s embodiment of proper rock and roll. The kind carried with just the right amount of vintage swagger that doesn’t reek of hipster irony. There may be a long list of younger bands one could use to remind me that rock and roll hasn’t gone anywhere, but those bands haven’t come close to mastering the ability to make you fantasize about living in an era when rock and roll was just an insubordinate, snotty teenager who didn’t give a fuck if you liked it or not? The kind of rock and roll that lives on embedded in the tattered cement and bricks of cities like New York, Detroit, San Francisco and London.

Beat the Devil’s Tattoo is the sixth and latest LP by the band and is probably one of, if not their most complete record to date. And with over 10 years in the rock and roll rat race, B.R.M.C. have done so right in the face of some pretty unsettling events for a band. After a reluctance to license their music for commercial use (ahem, but “Spread Your Love” in a Miracle Whip commercial was a terrible idea, RCA), they were dropped by their major label – for the second time. With the departure of original drummer, Nick Jago, and a grueling tour schedule that eventually left the band without permanent addresses, some bands would call it a day. But if rock and roll is all you know, then you do the only thing you know how.

Recorded in a house/recording studio owned by The Cobbs in Philadelphia (making a record while squatting – very rock and roll), B.R.M.C. sound as if they’ve actually welcomed all the shitty things that’s happened to them over the last couple of years. From the first verse of the title-track that opens the album, it’s clear the band will be damned if you’re not going to listen up this time around: “Your body’s aching, every bone is breaking/Nothing seems to shake it, it just keeps holding on.” Sounding like a Wild West-meets eastern European gypsy death march, equal parts twangy acoustic guitar leads backed by fuzzy electric guitars and a maddening rhythmic stomp, the song sounds more like a band’s declaration of survival than lead single, but either way, it’s a proper way to start an album.

The up-tempo “Conscience Killer” impressively rings like a frenzied ensemble of buzzsaw guitars and thick, pounding drums, with bassist/vocalist Robert Levon Been and guitarist Peter Hayes trading blazing statements like “It don’t mean all that much, does it boy?/We never really had a choice” with a cocky snarl that almost dares any music industry bigwig to stand in their way. If the music industry machine was set on rolling over Black Rebel Cycle Club, to band shows two songs into their new album that they’re not interested in being just another major label casualty. It is equal parts furious, desperate and awesome.

Fans of the band’s stripped-down, Americana/folk Howl and Howl Session EP are not to be disappointed, either. As the band have eeked out a living effortlessly dabbling in various roots music genres, “The Toll” is a damned near perfect personal statement about life. Based around a sole acoustic guitar, Hayes takes the mic with an unsettling honesty, lamenting “Everything is taking its toll, it’s a moment we carry alone/With a cause there’s a cure for the soul, but, oh, everything is taking its toll.” The haggard sentiment is the tune of a guy giving it everything he’s got, and that’s something that no Pro-Tools plug-in or social networking marketing campaign can re-create, for this is very real. Alongside “The Sweetest Thing,” Hayes’ voice sounds as best as it ever has throughout the band’s career, even if his heart seems like it’s going through the worst.

On “Aya,” the band takes a sludgey, hypnotic jam approach, letting a minimalist drone of fuzz bass provide the foundation while new drummer Leah Shapiro wheels the song along over a seemingly rough terrain, letting no more than absolutely necessarily through in the verses before the exploding choruses. “Aya, we’re alone and there’s no room here anymore!” Been howls, as if it’s the last love song he’ll ever sing.

One of the best elements of Beat the Devil’s Tattoo is the band’s ability to take the slower, atmospheric songs like “Aya,” as well as 10-minute-plus album closer “Half-State,” and intertwine them among mid-tempo cuts like “Shadow’s Keeper” and “Bad Blood” without lessening the quieter moments like “Long Way Down.” The album has phenomenal balance, never wavering towards too loud or quiet, and never getting too caught up in the longer tracks. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club has always displayed the cunning ability to take on various sonic avatars, and they’ve shown again the importance of flawless sequencing.

Beat the Devil’s Tattoo appeases every fan’s taste, an impressive feat considering the band often dabbles in more than one genre. The thick, distorted bass lines and furious, thunderous drums, soulful blues licks surrounded by massive walls of sound, and melancholy acoustic moments are all present. And then some. Considering all the rough times the band have endured lately, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club make it sound so damn good. With their backs seemingly against the wall, it’s as if the trio took those heavy odds stacked against them, thrown them onto the highway, and ran them over. And they probably did it on the way to the next gig.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club upcoming tour dates:

3/24 – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – High Noon Saloon (Madison)
3/25 – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Metro (Chicago)
3/26 – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Turner Hall Ballroom (Milwaukee)

Buy: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Beat the Devil’s Tattoo

By Alex Schaaf

I first became familiar with the morning benders – lowercase intentional — through a video they posted of themselves performing “Excuses,” the opening track off of their new album “Big Echo.” The video was shot live in-studio, as the band assembled a group of friends – including John Vanderslice and one of the guys from Girls – and tore through the retro-pop masterpiece with an overwhelming dose of positive energy. Never before have I been so converted by a single video, but after watching the clip over and over at least ten times, I shook myself out of the haze I was in to go check out the rest of the new album.

Of course, it would be almost impossible for the rest of the album to live up to that first track. After listening more closely, I can say that it indeed fails to maintain that kind of momentum throughout the entire thing. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. The feeling that comes from “Excuses” is a special one; it’s innocent, it’s warm and fuzzy, it’s sensual, as lead singer Christopher Chu sings “We are so smooth now” over a bed of strings, drums, and strummed acoustic guitars. The rest of the album is a little less innocent, a little more slick, but it had to be – without this kind of diversity, the album would not be as listenable and interesting as it is.

“Big Echo” was mixed by Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear, and boy, can you tell. The sounds of Grizzly Bear are all over this album: the guitars, drums, and bass all sound like they were borrowed from the yellow house down the block. But the impressive thing about the morning benders here is that they manage to sound so much like Grizzly Bear, yet so different at the same time. Chu’s vocals do the most work to set the two groups apart, both in the timbre and style of his delivery and in the words he sings. The morning benders are a decidedly young-sounding group, but one that is wise beyond their years – “I can’t help thinking we grew up too fast,” sings Chu on “Promises,” the second track and first single.

Throughout the rest of the album, the group manages to cover a wide diversity of styles, all under the general retro-pop umbrella that characterized the first track “Excuses.” Chu sounds like a completely different singer on songs like “Wet Cement,” with a slick, almost-whispered delivery, and “All Day Daylight,” which has more of an assured swagger. Songs like “Pleasure Sighs” are great examples of the solid production and arrangement that went into “Big Echo,” as it starts with a quiet, barely-there guitar and vocal melody that eventually becomes a fuzzed-out group chorus, reaching an impressive peak before falling back down into a laid-back groove to close out the song.

Overall this is a very impressive album, one that is being led by opening track “Excuses” but also features a solid back-end. Just when you think you’ve got the morning benders’ sound nailed-down, you hear a song like “Sleeping In” at the end of the album, which simultaneously sounds like nothing before it and like it fits in perfectly. That’s a good way to describe the band in general – seemingly conventional on the surface, but once you dive in and notice all the intricacies and hidden treasures that rest below the surface, you’ll be hooked.

Buy: The Morning Benders – Big Echo
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MP3: The Morning Benders – “Excuses”
MP3: The Morning Benders – “Promises”

We’re big fans of My Morning Jacket. A couple weeks ago we download a free “Best of Bonnaroo” compilation from Music For Action supporting new legislation for Clean Energy and Climate Change. We can get behind that. The said collection isn’t bulletproof, but does contain some nice gems, none finer than My Morning Jacket’s cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Oh! Sweet Nuthin’” culled from their legendary marathon performance at Bonnaroo 2008.

MP3: My Morning Jacket – Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ (Bonnaroo)

Download: Morning Jacket Live at Bonnaroo June 13, 2008 (whole show)

We’re throwing a free backyard bbq in Austin on Friday, March 19th from 12pm – 7pm with some of our favorite bands during SXSW. The event will be held at a private residence, with limited admittance. Please RSVP (full for now) for the address. Food and beverage will be provided. Bring your friends and let’s hang out.

Muzzle of Bees Backyard BBQ Line Up:

12:30-12:50 | Juniper Tar
1:00-1:30 | Roadside Graves
1:45-2:15 | The Lovely Feathers
2:30-3:00 | The Love Language
3:15-3:45 | Still Life Still
4:00-4:30 | The Loom
4:45-5:15 | Odawas
5:30-6:00 | The Rural Alberta Advantage
6:15-6:45 | These United States

Elsewhere: Muzzleofbees.com SXSW Thursday Day Party

We’re pleased to co-present Peter Wolf Crier + Conrad Plymouth at the Rathskeller in Madison on Friday, April 9th with our friends at WUD Music.

Having just signed to Jagjaguwar, Peter Wolf Crier are taking SXSW by storm, including our showcase on Thursday. Also on the bill is one of our favorite Milwaukee bands (who will also be playing our SXSW showcase), Conrad Plymouth, who played our 5-year anniversary show. They’re currently in the studio crafting their next release.

MP3: Peter Wolf Crier – “Crutch & Cane”
MP3: Conrad Plymouth – “Fergus Falls” (Live at WMSE)