Black Rebel Motorcycle Club “Wrong Creatures” 2018. Darkly psychedelic, loud and emotional, BRMC’s eighth studio LP went to #35 in the UK and had super-respectable standings on a multitide of US charts (#24 on the Digital Albums chart, #6 on the Indie Albums chart and #38 on Top Album Sales chart). They released four singles prior to the album’s release (kinda weird, but whatever): “Little Thing Gone Wild,” “Haunt,” “Question of Faith” and “King of Bones.” I can’t say I’m too excited about this album – it’s actually been sitting in my “to do” pile for over a year. There is some good stuff: I like the shimmering, almost U2/Cure-esque “Echo,” the weird carnival funhouse organ on “Circus Bazooko,” the aforementioned “Question of Faith” with its stoner-rock vibe and spacious guitar and the hard-driving “Little Thing Gone Wild,” but on this very long album (2 discs) I found myself getting a bit glazed over for good chunks of time.

I think I had same reaction when we saw BRMC back in 2013 at Turner Hall in Milwaukee because while I do remember being at the show, I don’t recall much about it (it is possible I fell asleep at one point, it certainly has been known to happen), other than the slightly-older-than-us women standing next to us, one of whom was so overcome with emotion about seeing the band that she began crying. I mean they’re fine but not that good. An article by Thomas Michalski in The Shepherd Express (Milwaukee’s indie weekly) noted about the show that “A surprisingly large chunk of that fan base turned up at Turner Hall Ballroom, especially for a Tuesday night. Looking around, there was no shortage of the usual hipsters, but there were also a striking number of those middle-aged and older [ed: wondering which category we fell into – ugh]. That’s noteworthy, but not exactly surprising; there’s nothing the least bit cutting-edge or inaccessible about B.R.M.C.’s equal-parts formula of Stooges-style riffs, Love and Rockets’ quasi-Goth moodiness and the ’60s hero worship of the Brian Jonestown Massacre (of whom guitarist Peter Hayes is an ex-member), but if they’re not particularly original, they at least know how to put the pieces together well.”