Marian Joan Elliott Said, better known by the stage name Poly Styrene, is an English musician, best known as the singer of the punk rock band X-Ray Spex.
Poly Styrene in 1980 used her musical and poetic talents to create something different than X-Ray Spex' Germ Free Adolescents. This is acoustic, quiet, tranquil, tinkling, and bubbling. And Poly's delivery is not a "wail" as some had described her voice on the X-Ray Spex' album. Here she delivers her lyrics softly, at times almost in a whisper. The music is soothing, and the mood is peaceful. But don't get too comfortable.
For those who like to rock, avoid this album. For those whose tastes are a little more eclectic and aren't afraid of sampling new delicacies, than this will definitely be a tasty little morsel. The most striking element of the record is Poly's gorgeous singing, supported by the supple, jazzy arrangements. Clearly, not as aggressive or confrontational as her work with X-Ray Spex, but equally as rewarding. (Allmusic)
The Little Bicycles' debut album, Broken Hearts and Tired Legs, is packed full of energetic melodies paired with Nadia Kean's bittersweet reflective stories of young heartache, broken homes, and innocence lost. Every song gets stuck in your head--there's no filler on this album. Singer-songwriter Nadia Kean has been singing and writing music as a solo artist for most of her life. Andrea Hendel grew up playing violin and attended the Manhattan School of Music for five years. She started playing bass after meeting Kean through roller derby. Hendel's classical background, evident in her melodic & flowing bass lines, serves the pop-rock format of the band perfectly. Bryan Nelson is a seasoned and respected Austin musician/engineer who has worked at Austin's Sweatbox Studio for the past twelve years. He also currently plays drums for The Snake Trap, and guitar for Gorch Fock.
Beat Happening/Screaming Trees is an EP and a one-off collaboration between Beat Happening and Screaming Trees. No song is credited to any of them. It seems that they recorded the songs all together.
Originally released in 1988, it was later reissued as part of Beat Happening's box set Crashing Through in 2002.
"Tales of Brave Aphrodite" features some wonderfully wheezy organ and some of Calvin Johnson's best lyrics ever ("silver Aphrodite in her chocolate nightie" being the line that will always break you up)…
Songs:Bicycle Revolution, Great Vision of a People on Two Wheels, Tricycle Evolution Stampede
Album: Bicycle Revolution (2008)
Jazz, instrumental
Johnny La Marama is an extraordinary jazz guitar trio from Berlin. Here you will hear both avantgarde and rock influences melting into an African ethnic sound. Free improvisation has a lot of room in the music, yet the rhythm remains steady. A loose ostinato is often the backbone of the music.
The appearance of a new album by Johnny La Marama is always a rare event. The word “rare” has several meanings: 1. occurring or found infrequently; markedly uncommon: a rare disease; the rare gas station on that stretch of the road. 2. having the component parts loosely compacted; thin; rare gases. 3. unusually great: a rare display of courage. 4. admirable, exemplary; She showed rare tact in inviting them. All of these definitions might apply, as the case may be, to this remarkable trio of musicians. But in this case- their third recording- it’s not just a rarity, it’s a revolution: Bicycle Revolution. The word “bicycle” means: 1. a vehicle with two wheels in tandem, pedals connected to the rear wheel by a chain, handlebars for steering and a saddle-like seat. 2. to ride a bicycle. Could the bicycle, here, be a metaphor for a self-generating collective meta-conscious revolution in motion? Relevantly, the word “revolution” has several meanings: 1. a complete and forcible overthrow and replacement of an established government by the people governed. 2. a sudden, complete, or radical change in something: a social revolution caused by automation. 3. a procedure or course, as if in a circuit, back to a starting point. 4. turning around or rotating, as on an axis. 5. the orbiting of one heavenly body around another. 6. a cycle of events in time or in a recurring period of time. As to the possibilities of a “bicycle revolution” in a contemporary utopio-musical conception: this writer believes that if Antonin Artaud, Albert Ayler and Hermann Helmholtz were still alive- and clad in guerilla army attire- they would gladly join forces with Johnny La Marama in this meta-vibrational invasion of bicycles and rubber boats upon the shores of today’s jazz scene, re-revolving their way into the far reaches of the galaxy, the Tiergarten and the imagination.
“Fellow earthlings- you six-Billion-plus CO2 exhalers- Join the Bicycle Revolution!” JLM introduces us to Bob Denard (the former French legionnaire soldier who found his true calling organising coupes in minor African states), played here by the band’s Franco-Finnish friend Charles Gil. Afro-beat flavour accompanies the troops pumping up rubber boats and oiling their bicycles. We can hear the two-wheeled guerrillas getting into sonic combat with the bomb-bass-tic explosions in Dahlgren’s solo. They ride ever-onwards, taking over the capital with their polyrhythmic bicycles and set up base-camp upon the ruins of the automobile factory headquarters. “The revolution won’t eat its children as long as they keep riding their bicycles. Let’s ride as long as our butts can take it!”
Yann Tiersen is a French musician and composer known internationally for composing the score to the Jean-Pierre Jeunet movie Amélie. His music is recognized by its use of a large variety of instruments in relatively minimalist compositions, often with a touch of either European classical music or French folk music, using primarily the piano, accordion or violin together with instruments like the melodica, xylophone, toy piano,ondes martenot, harpsichord and typewriter.
Le Phare is a very good place to start if you're looking for more music from Yann Tiersen. Almost all instrumental, three vocal tracks, this album is not completely the same style throughout as Amelie was, but is obviously related. If you're looking for something similar to that, this has it in spades. But, songs like the third Track, Monochrome, which does have vocals quickly became one of my favorite tracks, it has that bittersweet buildup going on that hooked me to begin with. This is somber, celebratory, joyful and sad all at once. Lots of accordian, string arrangements, guitar, drums, piano, etc. highly recommended.
I found a girl yeah she's so pretty But my pretty little girl lives in a different city She's so good yeah she's so sweet With a pretty little name that starts with a 'B'
B-B-B-B-Bonnie! B-B-B-B-Bonnie!
She asked me for a record i said you gotta be patient It's not just a band it's a mode of transportation And honey when you hear it you're gonna freak It's the greatest little thing and it starts with a 'B'
B-B-B-Bicycles! B-B-B-Bicycles!
Bonnie don't you cry if i'm not by your side One day you'll understand your happiness is your hands
B-B-B-Bonnie! B-B-B-Bicycles! You g-g-g-g-g-g-gotta believe Bonnie and The Bicycles is all i really need Two little things that start with a 'B'
Indie popsters, The Bicycles perform live at the first ever Bunch Rocks - indie for kiddies, a rock concert for kids and their parents featuring cool indie bands!
This impressive debut from the Washington, D.C.-based quartet offers all the qualities sorely absent from so much of popular music in the 90's: tight, intergrated musicianship; careful, yet imaginative songwriting and arranging; and, believe it or not, a singer who can really . . . yes, SING.
Album: Hyacinth Threads: The MorganBlueTown Recordings(2004)
The first ever CD compilation of this revered English psychedelic harmony pop group. Covering their classic period from 1967 to 1969, this 33 track set includes their five singles for UK Columbia (including the rarity 'Early Pearly Morning'/'Go With Goldie'), eight tracks previously only issued on vinyl, along with 15 previously unreleased songs.
(…) Another lost british pop group of the late 60s,who relesed a load of singles but failed to chart in britain but did rather well in europe.This 2 cd compilation is more like an anthology covers all their a and b sides plus other recordings they did as well plus alternative tracks.Comes with a precise history of the group plus some rare photos,also includes pictures of their records and sleeves.Only thing that lets it down is the remastering could have been done better on some of the tracks.
The Icicle Works were one of those U.K. groups of the '80s that scored one fluke hit in the U.S. despite a somewhat lengthy and more successful run in their homeland. They released a number of albums that, while regularly inconsistent, featured scattered moments that helped define the type of big-sounding guitar rock -- prone to chest-beating bombast -- that set them apart from fellow Liverpool-based groups like Echo & the Bunnymen, the Teardrop Explodes, and (somewhat less so) Wah!
The group formed in 1980.
The Icicle Works second album, The Small Price Of A Bicycle, is another gem. It starts off with the unbelievably great Hollow Horse, one of their best songs ever, and ends with the emotionally powerful Conscience Of Kings. But that's not all. In between these two songs are eight unforgettable songs. Songs that I keep singing to myself long after the music has stopped. The Small Price Of A Bicycle creates its own atmosphere and maintains it throughout. This is an exquisite album and one that any Icicle Works fan will want to have in their collection.
Named for Vittorio De Sica's groundbreaking movie, The Bicycle Thief formed when singer/songwriter/guitarist Bob Forrest's previous groupThelonious Monster disbanded (…)
Bicycle Thief's debut album You Come & Go like a Pop Song features plenty of skewed yet coherent songwriting from Bob Forrest. His high, weedy voice adds more character to songs like "Tennis Shoes" and "Cereal Song," both of which use slightly hip-hop tinged beats and fractured guitar lines to create an updated version of the wry, diverse musical viewpoint Forrest first communicated in Thelonious Monster. A low-key, enjoyable first album, You Come & Go like a Pop Song gets Bicycle Thief off to a strong start.
John Frusciante, from Red Hot Chilli Peppers, appears on "Cereal Song". He plays one of the solo-guitars. This song is sometimes on the internet credited as a John Frusciante solo effort, it's titled "John Frusciante - Heroin" because of John Frusciante's history with the drug and the similarities to his solo work.
Livingston Taylor's musical career has been marked by numerous highs and lows. The younger brother of folk-pop superstar James Taylor, Taylor has had a more modest career. His best selling single, "I Will Be In Love With You," went no higher than the thirtieth position on the Billboard charts, while his last Top 40 single, "First Time Love," was released in 1980. Taylor's exuberant personality and warm charm as a performer has allowed him to maintain a busy concert schedule. read more…
This is one of Liv's best works! The songs sound clean and fresh. "I Believe" is an optimistic song which sounds great on cd. The tune "Boatman" done with brother JT is better than the one from Hourglass. A 'healing' album with jazz, blues and pop influences. I really enjoyed Bicycle. Liv Fans embrace this one it is something special.
I ride my bicycle to work each day It's not so far It's better for me than my car. I wear a helmet that is made of Rigid Styrofoam Inspected by a French guy named Guillaume. I downshift my Shimanno gears I pedal hard and I'm out of here Glad I am that the coast is clear Glad I am to be My bicycle and me.
Some Saturdays at six a.m. I get up With Bill and Flo In the parking lot of Ho Jo's west of town We ride light bikes that cost big bucks We curse at smelly trucks Mile after mile 'til the sun is almost down. What a ride, what a life Maybe I'm crazy, don't ask my wife I've been in love with these spinning wheels Since I was maybe three My bicycle and me.
Pedal that bike, pedal that bike Don't open that door 'til I go by.
Pedal that bike, pedal that bike That little old lady in the Dodge Diplomat I don't think she sees me I hope she don't teach me how to fly.
I wear Lycra, it fits really closely to my skin White to purple is the place where it begins I pad my butt and I'm careful To stay out of ruts Wrap around sunglasses, I'm an alien Feel my heart go pit-a-pat Hello big hill good-bye fat Life goes by just like that A forty something spree is My bicycle and me.
Restless sonic chameleons the Fiery Furnaces revolve around the brother and sister duo of Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger, whose prickly childhood relationship and musical family set the stage for their playful, unpredictable music.
The grammatical inequality in the band name She & Him is significant, even if it's a joke or a mistake: The female with the nominative pronoun is Zooey Deschanel, the actress whose credits include Elf, All the Real Girls, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The male with the objective pronoun is Matt Ward, the John Fahey and Hank Williams acolyte who in eight years has risen from indie label obscurity to, arguably, the three or four spot in the active Merge Records rotation. Both Deschanel and Ward have their own successful careers, but on Volume One-- the first offering from their new collaborative band She & Him-- him is less than she. Although Ward produced the record and closet songwriter Deschanel only started sharing her songs at his request, the album succeeds mostly because those songs feel like familiar AM radio classics and because her voice offers instant emotional empathy. Ward's tasteful playing and sparse arrangements just serve to make something good that much better.
(…) The him in question changes throughout Volume One, but she relates to the masculine through a consistently naïve romanticism, whether it's riding a tandem bicycle alone on the somehow upbeat "Black Hole"
(…) Deschanel writes old pop songs built around black-and-white, simplistic emotions and dotted with vintage sexual innuendo (see "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" and "Black Hole")
My eyes are so bleary I guess I'm young but i feel so weary I've tried to express it But I think its all a bore Its at the heart of me, A very part of me
Speak slowly, I can't hear you My mind keeps spinning closer and closer to the rain on the roof, And the rain in my head, and the things that you said People take it further ahead And it just gets so foggy It's nowhere in here And its everywhere else that I don't wanna be, But I'm stuck here getting misty over you I'm alone on a bicycle for two.
Speak slowly, I can't hear you My mind keeps spinning closer and closer to the rain on the roof, and the rain in my head, and the things that you said People take it further ahead And it just gets so foggy It's nowhere in here And its everywhere else that I don't wanna be, But I'm stuck here getting misty over you I'm alone on a bicycle for two.
On her debut recording Murmurs, Okinawa-born singer Caroline Lufkin has, and features, a voice which a British critic would likely characterize as twee -- that is, a sweet, choirgirl voice which is decidedly on the ethereal end of the vocal spectrum.
Following the critical and fanatical praise of last year's otherworldly "Where's My Love" single, Tokyo's Caroline releases her enchanting debut. "Murmurs" is a thing of blessed beauty that defies easy description, and it's nearly impossible to attach words to the supernatural brilliance of Caroline's songs. No samples were used. Dozens of live acoustic instruments (pianos, harps, bells, guitars, strings, and hand drums) are shaped around Caroline's crystalline voice and threaded together by warm bass and dense beats. With a transcendence that could give you chills on a blistering summer day just as easily as it could warm your body on a bitterly cold night, it's no wonder Caroline has developed a reputation as queen of the "snow jams."
(…) Many of the songs are slow, peaceful mixtures of electronic and real instruments. Stand out tracks are the opener "Bicycle," which opens with a trumpet playing softly and peacefully.
Album: In The Russet Gold of This Vain Hour (2000)
The Autumnswere an ethereal and emotive dream pop group who sometimes wore their influences on their sleeves. However, the fact that they won the admiration of some of their heroes proves that they were no imitation act bent on replicating their precursors. The Los Angeles band -- Eric Crissman, Frank Koroshec, Matthew Kelly, and Jon Santana -- came together in the four members' senior year of high school in 1992. Through frequent gigging in their area, numerous labels became interested, some of them with large budgets. Always putting creative control above everything else, the band opted to sign with the independent Risk, a label run by former Concrete Blonde and INXS manager Frank Volpe. The Suicide at Strell Park EP was released in 1997, with full-length The Angel Pool following later in the year. Winter in a Silver Box, a four-song EP that featured two remixes, saw issue in 1999. The Autumns hooked up with Cocteau Twins bassist Simon Raymonde (a major influence), who produced 2000'sIn the Russet Gold of This Vain Hour.
Bike For Three!'s More Heart Than Brains is an impressive debut of smart pop, roiling downtempo, and introspective rap that finds its two architects embracing the romance inherent in their unique circumstances: Separated by an ocean and having never met in person, Buck 65 and producer Greetings From Tuskan share a startlingly powerful connection that unfolds through their music.
(…). Shrouded in strange magic, anchored by the heavy stuff of life, and lifted by a mutual magnetism still uncharted, their music is a bright/stunning combination of downtempo textures, smart pop, and exposed lyrical bones.
Album: Monster Walks the WinterLake (1986), Monster box set (1997)
David Thomas has been the bizarre and wonderful voice of Pere Ubu since the band's emergence from the Cleveland underground in the mid-'70s. In that capacity, he's attracted critical accolades from every quarter, if not teen idol status or platinum sales -- which isn't completely puzzling, given that he tends to write songs about birds, dinosaurs and hats, that he sings in a sort of strangled warble, and that his early stage name was Crocus Behemoth.
Monster Walks the Winter Lake is David Thomas' fourth solo album. The album is noted as being the most personal album in David Thomas' canon. The album was included in the 1997 David Thomas anthology box set Monster.
(…) Toward the end of one of Pere Ubu's many periods of inactivity, singer David Thomas made this album with a pickup group he named the Wooden Birds, members of which included bassist Tony Maimone, synth player Allen Ravenstine, and percussionist David Hild -- in short, a band suspiciously similar to Pere Ubu in makeup. Monster Walks the WinterLake is something of a song cycle
Under the moonlight, a woman on a bicycle floats - carefree & buoyant, balanced in the air. She drifts between the curves of a quiet street, between the banks of a slow deep stream.
Under the moonlight, the night breathes and enfolds us. Its scent of warm skin is fragrant & fine. It binds us together, suspended in time, we drift with the current of a slow deep stream.
