by CHRIS YURKIW

TOURSVILLE, USA The little Bran van has suddenly become one of those big juggernauts of a rock 'n' roll tour bus. You know, the kind you see parked out front of the Spectrum, windows blacked out with a groovy airbrushed mural on the side--just like the airbrush painting on the cover of Bran Van 3000's Glee. Indeed, as BV3 wind up a two-month run through the States in the bus that just a few weeks ago was home to Bob Dylan, the band have watched themselves turn into a budding international phenom with the worldwide release of Glee.

You can see it happening from mothership Montreal. Just head down to your local newsstand, pick up a copy of of Spin or Billboard or Details or the Village Voice, and check the American reactions to Glee--not much different from the Canadian ones of last year, which culminated in Glee going gold and winning the Juno Award for Best Alternative Album. Or ring that friend in London to confirm that "Drinking in L.A." was recently BBC Radio One's Song of the Week.

But let's not get carried away with talk of the props Bran Van's been getting from the likes of Thom Yorke and Peter Buck. We knew all along that BV3 were the shit, and we'd be just as Glee-ful if they'd stayed big only within the Canadian star-system that's bred Blue Rodeo and the Tragically Hip, right? WRONG! Because BV3's genre hip-hopping is just too much a part of the spirit of the day to be contained.

"It's freaky," says Bran man James Di Salvio. "We're getting a similar buzz to what was happening in Montreal. At home, I always thought in the back of my mind, 'Well, there's probably a bit of homegrown padding going on.' But then you get the same kind of reactions and press buzzes in people who couldn't care less!"

Oh, they care. Like the gang of fans from Tucson who painted "BV3" on the windshield of their car and followed the band to Seattle. Or the Beastie Boys, who invited Bran Van to play the artists' party at this year's Tibetan Freedom Concert in Washington, D.C. Or Capitol Records president Gary Gersh, who personally signed Bran Van to an international deal now that he's done directing the breakthroughs of Nirvana and Beck, which he did when he was at Geffen.

Of course, fueling all of this is the revamped international version of Glee, which home label Audiogram also saw fit to release in Canada back in March. It's the same album but it's tightened up, and rabid Bran Vannies might well lay out the cash a second time for what amounts to four new and remarkable songs not on the original. All of them show the influence that playing live has had on Bran Van's songwriting (live drums, power chordage), and "Rainshine" and "Carry On" open up yet another stylistic vista that fits well in the Bran Van: reggae and dub. But a krazee little metallo-disco-hop-hop number called "Old School" is the showstopper, and it just might be Bran Van's next big ticket, if Di Salvio has his way.

"I'd like to do some remixes of 'Old School,'" says James. "Me and E.P. [Bergen], some Montreal remixers, and Daft Punk--we sent it to them. Put it out on vinyl and then come on with the big-budget bomb video! I think that would really blow the band out of the park."

But along with being in the big leagues comes the segregation of the ballpark, especially in the States. "You can really see the two solitudes of America," says Di Salvio. "Some radio stations find certain songs on the album too black, which is interesting. But I think it really shows that we are somewhere right down the middle. We're not a totally alternative act like Beck. We are a little more 'urban'--and proud of it."

So the Bran Van is rolling and that big tour bus will be seeing a lot more miles this summer. The group is off to Europe soon; dates have been confirmed with Pulp in New York and Boston; and two summer homecoming shows are in the works but are not yet confirmed--a headlining gig at Metropolis and an opening slot with the Prodigy at Jarry Park. There's talk, too, that the Beastie Boys and Massive Attack (both with new albums) are looking to have BV3 tour with them. Di Salvio, though, would rather rock 'n' roll all night than be party, every day, to the genre debates that the crossover milieu inspires.

"I almost feel that we should be doing things like the EdgeFest, or the Vans Warped Tour," says James. "As much as I love Massive Attack, we don't want any more people analyzing our music. I mean, I love the discussion about music after the show, but then there's the kids going nuts when you're on stage. They're rocking, and it makes you rock more. I want more of that."