Should I be listening to the BRMC?

Their music's good -- though not wildly original. Their lead singer looks like Syd Barrett, their bass player is the son of the fat guy in The Call who looked like a beardy Fred Flintstone, and their album is basically wholly co-opted from the first two discs by the woefully superior Jesus & Mary Chain.

BMRC: Sounded GRATE on instore play, so I bought it. Sounded, eh, at home. It's in v. infrequent rotation for me, but not a complete write-off. Plus, I never owned that much JAMC, so now I have an substitute.

My brother keeps telling me that this is good, but I can't figure out why. The single ("What Ever Happened to My Rock and Roll" or something like that) is an exciting, for the moment, disposable rock song, but the rest is just plodding and boring, like they listened to the right bands (The Cure, JAMC, Ride) but they didn't learn anything from them. Overhyped not really worth the time.

Actually, Ride was an amazing band. 'Nowhere' is stellar; it's one of the best albums of the 90s. BRMC are just horrifically dull imitators of the superb Jesus and Mary Chain; they seem presqueezed from some Virgin factory mold; they're a rather weak attempt to copy some Creation magic (that's Creation the label), but they fail miserably. Ah, the Strokes; so dull, so much hype. They're a little bit fun here and there, but not worth a second thought or any more words from me. So, back to the original question. I wouldn't waste time listening to BRMC. Just put on some Jesus and Mary Chain... you can't go wrong with 'Darklands' or 'Psychocandy.'

Interesting though how what is essentially a post-shoegazer album is being grouped in with the current US garage rock invasion; the song about rock'n'roll is pretty much the Trojan Horse on an album that would much rather drift than snap (The Strokes) or bludgeon (The White Stripes).

OTM with the trojan horse comment. The song sticks out like a sore thumb compared to everything else on the album.

Actually, if you can track down the first album demos, they make a much better first album than what was actually released. And best of all: no "Whatever Happened to My Rock'n'Roll".

The drummer?

Weird.