Chalk up Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's resilience to good timing if you want -- their debut album B.R.M.C. hit in the dead center of 2001's "rock is back" frenzy, when any shaggy-haired guitar-wielders who looked even vaguely classicist were treated as gods who strode the earth by British music tabloids. But a dozen years later, the San Francisco band that gained its fame by asking "Whatever Happened to My Rock 'n' Roll (Punk Song)" have mutated from straightforward, heavy garage-psych through phases that touch on R&B and Americana, culminating in this year's Specter at the Feast. In the wake of the death of Michael Been -- producer, frontman of The Call and father of BRMC bassist Robert Levon Been -- their new album is ruminative and mournful, but its power should be well amplified in concert. With thenewno2. (Photo by James Minchin III)
