Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Goes On Tour After Recording Latest Album in Northridge

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Goes On Tour After Recording Latest Album in Northridge

Tuesday, January 22, 2013 / 1 Comment

If you never heard of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, you will probably recognize some of their music from your favorite TV shows, commercials, movies, and video games. Their work has been featured in Six Feet Under, A Man Apart, The Cosmopolitan Hotel of Las Vegas commercials, The Twilight Saga: New Moon soundtrack, and Need for Speed video game just to name a few. These guys are no rookies and have been doing their stuff since 1998. 

Although Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC) is from San Francisco, they have a spent a good amount of quality time in the San Fernando Valley specifically Northridge recording at Dave Grohl's of the Foo Fighters secret Studio 606 West. 

Check out their first track, "Let The Day Begin" from their new album, Specter At the Feast at KROQ or the bands website. 

Press Release:

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club recently unveiled their sixth studio album, titled Specter At The Feast, is set for release March 19 on Abstract Dragon / Vagrant Records. The trio will be overseas during the week of release but are pleased to announce their first headline run in the U.S. since 2010, in support of Beat The Devil’s Tattoo. The tour kick offs April 22 in their original hometown of San Francisco at The Fillmore then heads east and stops in NYC at Terminal 5 on May 4 and winds back to the west with a final show in Los Angeles on June 1 at The Wiltern. 

Specter At The Feast has already garnered early praise from Rolling Stone who called it a “superb new album,” while NPR crowned the rock ‘n’ roll pioneers “ones to watch in 2013” and called the album “more direct, more heartfelt and more honestly beautiful.” 

The first single “Let The Day Begin” is actually a cover, and a thoughtful homage to beloved Michael Been of The Call, also Robert Been’s father and honorary “fourth member” of BRMC. This song propelled The Call into mass consciousness when it reached #1 in the US on the mainstream Rock charts in 1989 and became their biggest crossover hit, thanks to the big arena-rock hook. The song embodies The Call’s optimistic message and BRMC rip through the roaring track as if it was their own.

BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB HEADLINE TOUR

April 22         San Francisco, Calif. The Fillmore
April 23         San Diego, Calif. House Of Blues
April 26         Austin, Texas Psych Fest
April 27         Dallas, Texas House Of Blues
April 28         Houston, Texas Warehouse Live
April 30         Atlanta, Ga. Masquerade
May 1 Nashville, Tenn. Cannery Ballroom
May 2 Boston, Mass. House Of Blues
May 4 New York, N.Y. Terminal 5
May 5 Philadelphia, Pa. Theater of Living Arts
May 6 Washington, D.C. 9:30 Club
May 8 Montreal, QC. Corona Theater
May 9 Toronto, ONT Kool Haus
May 10 Detroit, Mich. St. Andrew’s Hall
May 11 Columbus, Ohio Newport Music Hall
May 13 Indianapolis, Ind. The Vogue
May 14 Milwaukee, Wisc. Turner Hall
May 15 Madison, Wisc. Barrymore Theater
May 17 Chicago, Ill. Vic Theater
May 18 Minneapolis, Minn. First Ave.
May 20 Denver, Colo. Gothic Theater
May 21 Aspen, Colo. Belly Up
May 24 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
May 26 Portland, Ore. Wonder Ballroom
May 27 Reno, Nev. Knitting Factory
May 29 Tempe, Ariz. The Marquee
May 30 Tucson, Ariz. Rialto Theater
May 31 Las Vegas, Nev. Vinyl at The Hard Rock Hotel
June 1 Los Angeles, Calif. The Wiltern

The Foo Fighters Recording Grammy Winners in Encino and Northridge

The Foo Fighters Recording Grammy Winners in Encino and Northridge

Wednesday, February 29, 2012 / No Comments

Image courtesy Google Maps

The Foo Fighters led by frontman Dave Grohl who rose to fame with Nirvana recently won an award at the 2012 Grammys for Best Rock Performance. During Dave Grohl's acceptance speech, he let the truth out and took a shot at the music industry.  However, he said one thing that I thought would interest San Fernando Valley fans.

This is a great honor because this record was a special record for our band...We made this one in my garage with some microphones and a tape machine. (skip to 1:30 to hear speech)

That garage he was referring to is his 4 Bed Encino home (shown above) which he purchased in 2003 for $2.2 million that was built in 1950. This home was also owned by the actor Doug McClure who is mostly known for appearing in the NBC western series The Virginian. He also owns a 4 Bedroom Sherman Oaks home that was purchased in 2001 shown below. Speaking of Encino and the Valley, Dave mentioned in a Spin Magazine interview from 2005 and here:

 "I grew up in suburban Virginia, and I'm no stranger to strip malls, but I love the Valley mostly because of the stigma. The Valley is not cool. I made a point of wearing an ENCINO T-shirt that I bought at the drugstore to the MTV Movie Awards, because I want Lindsay Lohan and fucking Hilary Duff to hate me because I live in Encino." Still, why choose to live in such an uncool place? Grohl shrugs. "There are some really good delis out here."

Image courtesy Google Maps

In addition to recording at his home, Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters also record their music in Northridge in a nondescript studio called Studio 606 West which is in a residential/industrial zone which I believe was built in 2004. Dave Grohl discusses how this site was chosen at FooArchive.com:

"Northridge is also the porn film capital of the world," says Grohl, trying to sound detached and informative, but succumbing to a big grin. "I looked at a lot of warehouses round here and thought, Do I want to record my album right where people have been taking it in the ass?"

In the end the answer was no. Grohl built his studio on a site on a residential street which has a macabre provenance all its own. It was, he says, the home of a woman whose stalker turned up one night and burned the place to the ground. The Foo Fighters bought the charred plot last spring with walls and foundations in place, and did much of the woodwork and decor themselves.

"You don't want to just write a cheque and say, OK, give me an Abbey Road," Grohl says, lovingly patting the wood trim of the studio control room. "You want to feel a part of it."

They've certainly made themselves at home: Studio 606 is a citadel to men and rock. Blokey trucks, SUVs and sports models line up in the car park. In the office is a ping-pong table and pinball machine. Brit model Kelly Brook offers up a bonanza of chesty delights from a calendar on the wall.

You can find pics of the interior here and here. You can see a 3 part video below of the interior and the guys hanging out. In part 2, Dave discusses how the video White Limo was filmed right outside the Studio in Northridge and you can see the mix of residential and industrial zones. I also included that video below (4th down).

Image courtesy Google Maps

Also, on a separate and related note, Dave Grohl is currently working on a documentary of Sound City in Van Nuys which was where the Nirvana record, Nevermind, was recorded in 1991 in addition to other artists who recorded there. Cant wait to watch that film!  This all reminds me of the Rumbo Recorders Studio in Winnetka where the Guns N Roses Appetite for Destruction Album was recorded..

Next time you are in Northridge, just remember that Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters are probably making another Grammy winner (if not recording in the Encino garage).

Sound City - A film by Dave Grohl from Sound City on Vimeo.