They may not be quieter than the usual bikers, but the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is certainly more melodic. The group will perform its hook-filled garage rock tonight at The Majestic Ventura Theatre.

The Los Angeles band, named for the 1953-scary bikers in "The Wild One," is out and about in support of its latest CD, "Baby 81." So far, this is one of the best albums of the year.

The swaggering first song, "Took Out a Loan," might not be getting much airplay with the usurious blood suckers out there, but it's great driving music. Also, the catchy guitar hook on "Weapon of Choice" has the technology to allow it to live long and prosper in that CD player. These guys can play, plus it's not possible to hide any slackers in a trio.

The group includes a couple of old pals, guitar player Peter Hayes and bassist Robert Been, who met in high school. They sing while Nick Jago hits the drums. Under the "sounds like" category, the most frequent comparisons are Led Zeppelin, the Verve and the Jesus and Mary Chain, any of which is a good thing.

Hayes also survived the Brian Jonestown Massacre, a group that experienced a legendary meltdown in one of the funniest rock 'n' roll movies ever, "Dig." Hayes discussed the latest during a recent beyond-punctual phoner.

Wow, man, not only were you on time, but you were early. I'm completely blown away. I don't know what to say.

Neither do I.

Therefore the band always starts on time?

Depends whether things are broken or not, but we're having fun definitely — it's good.

How can a band "make it" in L.A.? Or can you only be a success there by leaving?

Well, we're not really too concerned about L.A., either, as far as making it. I think our sight is to make it out of wherever we're at. We started in San Francisco, then wanted to get out of there and now we're here and we've made it out of here as far as touring to a lot of other places. I don't think there's too many bands that dream of being the biggest band in their hometown.

So how long in L.A. then?

Since about 2001. I don't go see too many bands really. I don't really pay attention to it a whole lot besides friends, you know? Friends like the Warlocks or Sarah Beth Tucek or Magic Mirrors. I do keep track of them.

What's your take on the new CD?

We're just trying to blend everything from the other three albums together to make one — just try to learn from the past albums and put it together so it makes sense as far as recording styles, bringing different approaches to the songs to make an album that makes sense.

Works for me — I played it all the way down to Coachella and back.

Thanks, man.

So you actually named yourselves after that famous Marlon Brando biker movie?

Uh-huh, yeah. That's a cool story. That movie was banned for a while in England and was kind of considered a bad thing to have people see when it came out. A lot of people were thinking it was going to cause the youth to rise up and not listen to their parents.

Oh, man, that's never happened before.

Yeah, man, it was before rock 'n' roll even happened. It was sort of a true story in Hollister, Calif., with two motorcycle gangs involved in it.

And to you, the BRMC sounds like?

It's just psychedelic rock 'n' roll, I guess.

OK. I understand that you survived the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Any stories?

There was nothing too strange. It was just a good band and I was out on the first American tour with them.

Was that you, one of the guys in "Dig"?

Yeah, I was in that but I never considered myself part of that band. I was just trying to help out.

Can you describe that indescribable power that music seems to have?

No. I wouldn't want to condemn it to being described.

How do you survive life on the road?

I survive on the road by loving it and by setting up the gear and soundchecking and playing guitar in the back of the club or in the back of the bus, talking to people, trying to sneak people into shows, stuff like that.

Some things never change.

Yeah, you just try to keep yourself happy with stuff like that. You know, having fun and trying to get the club owners mad.

Who inspired you to become a guitar player?

Jimi Hendrix.

Ever see him?

No. I'm way too young for that.

Who goes to see your band play?

Our fans have been keeping us alive for the last several years, you know? It's slowly kind of growing, the amount of people that are into us. As far as people that don't have a clue about the band, we don't get a whole lot of that. Most of them know what they're getting into. And the name scares off the people that don't bother to question.

If you could have a dream gig, what would it be?

A dream gig, I guess, would be Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix.

What would you say to an aspiring musician?

Well, I'd say "Go for it." You find out real quick if you love it or not and that kind of weeds people out as far as how much you're willing to put up with.

What's the band plan? What will you be doing in a year?

Hopefully, we'll still be playing music, or who knows? We might be dropped in a week, but we'll still be playing music, hopefully. We're trying to make music that's respectful to the people that came before us — the people that showed us how to do it.