BRMC founding member Peter Hayes first came to prominence at age 21 in the late ‘90s as guitarist and bass player for the now infamous Brian Jonestown Massacre. His stint with the BJM is featured prominently in the critically heralded award winning music documentary DiG! from 2004. Following his departure in 1998 Hayes formed the San Francisco based power trio Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (named after Marlon Brando’s bike gang from the 1953 film The Wild One) with high school friend Robert Levon Been on bass (son of Michael Been from The Call) and Nick Jago on drums (since replaced by Leah Shapiro). 20 years on Hayes & Co remain loyal to the cause of fuzzed out reverb drenched American gothic. Wrong Creatures, their eighth album in two decades and first in five years, is a sprawling 12 song epic almost one hour in duration featuring no less than 5 tracks in the 6-minute range. Perhaps a bit too lengthy and polished in places Wrong Creatures dares to stray ever so slightly away from the hard rocking psychedelic roots of previous BRMC records but not so far as to loose itself completely.
Rating: 7.5/10