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Black Rebel Motorcycle Club rolls out spring dates

Alt-rockers Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have lined up a headlining US club tour this spring as the band continues to back its latest studio effort, last year's "Baby 81."

The San Francisco-based act will also hit the European summer festival circuit following the domestic dates, which kick off April 16 in Grand Rapids, MI. The group currently has 13 shows mapped for April and May before heading overseas.

Support on the dates will come from British garage rockers The Duke Spirit. All US dates are below; B.R.M.C.'s European schedule can be found at its website.

"Baby 81," released about a year ago, is the group's fourth studio album. The disc marks the recording studio return of drummer Nick Jago, who briefly left the band in 2005 and only appears on one track from the group's previous record, "Howl," which took a more folksy and acoustic approach at odds with B.R.M.C.'s more typical hard rock sound, according to the band.

"We had so many songs that were country, folk, kind of bluesy songs that didn't work as a whole band playing them, so we had to do what was right for the song itself and construct it for that sound," said frontman Robert Levon Been in an interview with LiveDaily last year.

"And then Nick came back around with the band, and that's when it made sense to go more full-on and the songs led the way again so ... I'd like to take credit for it, but you do what's right for the song itself and, at the end of the day, you look at all of them and go, 'Okay, I guess that's a record.'"

In December, the group released "American X: Baby 81 Sessions," an 8-song EP that collects B-sides and outtakes from "Baby 81," along with a new short film shot for the CD's title song.