With 2010's superb Beat the Devil's Tattoo, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club found a balance between their muscular, fuzzed-out noise rock and rootsy if no less punk-inspired take on American blues and country. The trio, now featuring singer/bassist Robert Levon Been, singer/guitarist Peter Hayes, and drummer Leah Shapiro (who joined for Devil's Tattoo), seemed to have matured into a fully realized version of its younger self. BRMC's seventh studio album, 2013's Specter at the Feast, takes this musical maturation even further, as the band delves into a moody, sustained, and long-form dream pop aesthetic. Much of this introspection is most likely inspired by the loss of Robert Been's father, the Call frontman Michael Been, who suffered a heart attack and died backstage at the 2010 Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium.
13 Live, which was recorded live in front of an audience, has a beautiful Third-World blues sound with a whole lot of New Orleans swagger! Jimmy Vivino, Mike Merritt, Felix Cabrera, Catherine Russell, Danny Louis, James Wormworth, Fred Walcott, Mike Jacobson. Recorded live at Levon Helm Studios on December 1, 2012. "A record that celebrates impulsivity, virtuosity, and unbridled soul. Somewhere between the hottest Chicago jump blues, muscled garage rock, and a jazz-leaning rhumba, lies the sound of Jimmy Vivino's Black Italians-musical dexterity by way of pure, soul-digging inspiration"…