MewithoutYou - Four World Letter (Pt. Two)

Artist: MewithoutYou

Song: Four Word Letter (Pt. Two)

Album: Catch For Us The Foxes (2004)

A blend of experimental rock structures, punky energy, spoken-word melodies, and Judeo-Christian content characterizes the output of mewithoutYou, a Philadelphia-based band that formed in 2001. Having grown up listening to Jawbox and Burning Airlines, brothers Aaron and Michael Weiss initially cut their hard rock teeth as frontmen of the Operation. After releasing an album with the help of Takehold Records, the Operation's members decided to launch a side project in order to experiment with new sounds. The Weiss brothers subsequently formed mewithoutYou with help from bassist Ray Tadeo, guitarist Christopher Kleinberg, and drummer Richard Mazzotta. Tooth & Nail was taken by the fiery five-piece's raw appeal and inked them a deal, with bassist Daniel Pishock replacing the departing Tadeo. The Operation disbanded shortly thereafter, allowing the musicians to focus their efforts on the new band. more

I wrote a four word letter,
With post-script in crooked lines,
"Tho I'd lived I'd never been alive."
You know who I am - you held my hem
As I traveled blind
Listening to a whispering in my ear,
Soft but getting stronger,
Telling me the only purpose of my being here
Is to stay a bit longer.

Stealing a bicycle chain,
As the handlebars crashed to the ground,
The back wheel detached from the frame,
It kept rolling, yeah, but aimlessly drifting around.

Oh, doubters, let's go down,
Lets go down - won't you come on down?
Oh doubters, lets go down-
Down, to the river to pray?

"But I'm so small I can barely be seen - how can this great love be inside of me?"
Look at your eyes - they're small in size, but they see enormous things.

Wearing black canvas slippers
In our frog-on-a-lily-pad pose
We sewed buttons and zippers
To chinese pink silk
And olive night clothes
If you can someday stop by
Somehow we'll show you the pictures and fix you some tea
(see, my dad's getting a bit older now and just unimaginably lonely).

Oh, pretenders, let's go down
Lets go down- won't you come on down?
Oh, pretenders
Lets go down-
Down to the river and pray?

"Oh but I'm so afraid, and I'm set in my ways"
But he'll make the rabbits and rocks sing his praise.
"But I'm too tired, I won't last long."
No, he'll use the weak to overcome the strong!

Oh, Amanda, let's go down
Lets go down- won't you come on down?
Mama, Nana, lets go down, down in the dirt by the river to pray?

You struke the match - why not be utterly changed by fire?
To sacrifice the shadow and the mist
Of a brief life you never much liked - So if you'd care to come along we're gonna curb all our never-ending,
clever complaining (as who's ever heard of a singer criticized by his song?)
We hunger, but though all that we eat brings us little relief we don't know quite what else to do,
We have all our beliefs but we don't want our beliefs,
God of peace, we want you.

MewithoutYou performs their song "Four Word Letter (Pt. Two)" live for your listening pleasure from the "Come and Live Tour". A tour for charity, proceeds going to Samaritan's Purse. If you want to hear the studio version of the song you should pick up their CD "Catch For Us The Foxes" on Tooth & Nail Records.

Hugo and Treats - Keep Pedalling

Artist: Hugo and Treats

Song: Keep Pedalling

The worlds of hip hop and cycling finally collide in Keep Pedalling, the new film clip from Hugo and Treats. Filmed on one sunny day in Brunswick, North Melbourne, Australia, at the Brunswick Free Ride. No politics, just Bicycles. Directed by Colby Welsh, Josh Beahan and Hugo. Keep Pedalling, people.

"Hugo 1 is a freestyle/pre-written MC from the UK dedicated to coalescing the greatest level of skill available to his 4dimensional being. Based in Melbourne's North Side, he has become a close collaborator with Treats, a superb DJ of eclectic taste. Together they have constructed a blistering live show, which is moving as it is versatile. Hugo is also a regular feature on the city's stages, dropping rhymes with an array of acts including Miso, Editor, Elf Tranzporter, to name but a few. His mission is to raise consciousness and act as a conduit for direct communication with the source of infinite love and wisdom in the universe."

For more info about Hugo go to www.myspace.com/hugo1love

Video

Nazareth - My White Bicycle

Artist: Nazareth

Song: My White Bicycle

Originating in Dunfermline, Scotland in 1969 from the ashes of the semi-professional band The Shadettes, Nazareth -- Dan McCafferty (vocals), Manny Charlton (guitar), Pete Agnew (bass) and Darrell Sweet (drums) - made it big after relocating to London and landing a recording contract with Pegasus records. They released their self titled debut album in 1971 and a second album Exercises1972. It was their third release Razamanaz, in early 1973, that resulted in their first charting singles, "Broken Down Angel" and "Bad Bad Boy", both of which made it into the UK Top Ten. more

From Wikipedia: (…) A non-album song, again a cover version, this time of Tomorrow's "My White Bicycle", was a UK Top 20 entry in 1975

The original one, by Tomorrow

My white bicycle, my white bicycle

Riding all around the street
Four o'clock and they're all asleep
I'm not tired and it's so late
Moving fast everything looks great.

My white bicycle, my white bicycle

See that man, he's all alone
Looks so happy but he's far from home
Ring my bell, smile at him
Better kick over his garbage bin

My white bicycle, my white bicycle

The rain comes down but i don't care
The wind is blowing in my hair
Seagulls flying in the air

My white bicycle

Lead:

Policeman shouts but i don't see him
They're one thing i don't believe in
Find some judge, but it's not leavin'

Lift both hands, his head in disgrace
Shines no light upon my face
Through the darkness, we still speed
My white bicycle and me

My white bicycle, my white bicycle

Live

Delirious - Bicycle Gasoline

Artist: Delirious

Song: Bicycle Gasoline

Album: Audio Lessonover (2001)

'Audio Lessonover' is the fourth studio album from christian rockers Delirious. 'Audio Lessonover' sees Delirious utilizing their blend of modern rock and christian values to create another album of classic rock songs.

(…) Among the more obscure songs lyrically is another love song, "Bicycle Gasoline"; Smith has, however, explained it: "girls, they don't want flowers all the time, they just need telling that you love them, and vice-versa. A bicycle doesn't need gasoline and she doesn't need all that stuff really. She doesn't need 'things', jewellery or dresses, she just needs love. You know, love man!"

I'm a stranger with the one I love.
She's so beautiful, she's sent from above.
I'm in love with the beauty of my youth.
When I met you I was half a man,
I couldn't walk but together we ran.
I know we can.

She don't need no bicycle gasoline,
She just needs her violets.
She don't need no bicycle gasoline,
She just needs her violets.

I remember when it wasn't this way.
You were complete when you found me astray.
Thank you, you're here today.
In your arms I'm the king of the road,
In your heart I'm forever at home.
I'm alive when I lose myself in you.

Then you come to me sunlight in your hair.
A moment out of time, world with out a care.
And when it's crowding in, you take me far away.
When you're singing la la la la.

Paolo Conte - Silenziosa Velocità

Artist: Paolo Conte

Song: Silenziosa Velocità

Album: Psiche (2009)

Italian singer-songwriter Paolo Conte is famous for his gravelly voice – often compared to singer-poets such as Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen - his elegant and seductive rhythms, melodies and lyrics that sometimes veer towards hot jazz or bar-room tangos. It is a music of memories - half true, half dreams, poetic fragments of colors, images and fantasies.

Born in Asti, Italy, Paolo Conte’s lifelong passion for jazz and the visual arts began during his schooldays. A former lawyer, his performing career began on a small scale as a vibraphone player in local and touring bands, and his recording… Read more

"A gruff smoker's voice, a piano style that wanders from honky-tonk to tango palace to tony cabaret, and a weathered romantic's world view have made Paolo Conte a well-known songwriter in Italy." - The New York Times

Italian singer-songwriter Paolo Conte's long-awaited new album, Psiche is released in the US on October 1st 2009. His voice remains as hypnotic as ever - its gravelly timbre ofen drawing comparisons with North American singer-poets such as Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen. The collection of songs ranges from elegantly seductive ballads to up-tempo tunes - 13 sung in his native Italian , 1 in French and 1 in English - and the album is arguably one of the most important of Paolo Conte's career. Between Love and Psyche, the Maestro chooses Psyche because she is of this earth and has more tales to tell.... Understanding the lyrics is not essential - this is music to dream with, poetic fragments of colors, images and fantasies....

Paolo Conte on Rock'n'Bike 2 3 4

review

Una bella bici che va

Silenziosa velocità

Sopra le distanze le lontananze starà

Una bella bici che va

Silenziosa velocità

Rotolava biglie il giro d’Italia farà

Una bici non si ama

Si lubrifica, si modifica

Una bici si declama come una poesia

Jazz Butcher - Rebecca Wants Her Bike Back

Artist: Jazz Butcher

Song: Rebecca Wants Her Bike Back

Album: Conspiracy (1986)

Rebecca Wants… was the b-sides of Angels, the first single from Conspiracy.

Liner notes from Conspiracy:

He comes down the platform and talks to you. "Ever wondered what Max and I get up to away from the glamour of the modern stage? No, probably not, but let me tell you that there is nothing we like better that to get our teeth into those Big Questions. In celebration of which, we bring you this collection of tunes, recorded secretly in an obscure rural location, and positively busting with the authentic sound of disco dialectic."

He grinds out a cigarette on Platform 2 of Rugby Railway station and shugs: "You'll be all right". Yours ever

Other Jazz Butcher bicycle song: Bicycle Kid

You don't look like a hero
Of the Soviet Union to me
You look more like a fish
Come walking down the street
And you can tell that everybody agrees
You oughtta be on a dish
You've got your mind made up
Like you've got your head in a bush
And to move it around
Just hurts too much

And it's no good saying you're in love With the modern world
When those streets are all filled
With those impossible
Red-haired girls

You don't look like the spokesman
For a generation to me
I've got a postage stamp here
For what you know of Philosophy.
You're like Thomas Hobbes:
Nasty, brutish and short

He's drawing back the curtain
It's a brand new day
There's rubble on the carpet
Cause his friends came to stay
I'm over on the carpet
10 years on other peoples' floors
And you learn a little something
You learn a little something
That you can't ignore

And it's no good telling me
You're still in love
With the modern world
When those streets are all filled
With those impossible red-haired
Impossible red, red, red-haired girls

Whip on, Jim.

You betcha'

Watch that spaceman drive that car
Where he's going ain't too far

And Rebecca wants her bike back

Here it comes

Radiohead - There There

Artist: Radiohead

Song: There There

Album: Hail to The Thief (2003)

I think the video does some justice to the true meaning of the song. everyone should check it out.

beautiful song, i read somewhere that thom cried when he heard the album's final cut of the song.

Directed by Chris Hopewell, the music video shows singer Thom Yorke enter a forest and find many creatures involved in human-like activities, like a pair of cats getting married, two squirrels sitting by a fireplace and smoking pipes, etc. He goes from one scene to another, each one increasing in luminosity. Finally, he arrives at a clearing where a golden jacket hangs from a tree. He puts the jacket on and also a pair of golden shoes hidden inside the tree. Doing so, he awakens the crows, who chase and attack him. The shoes appear to give him extra speed, but become tangled on the ground. When the shoes fall off his feet, his feet become tree roots, as the rest of his body turns into wood as well. Yorke becomes a tree in which the crows rest on the branches. The video was filmed at one-quarter regular speed; it looks jumpy, as if some of the frames are missing. The video received an award for art direction at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.

"there there" is a soothing, comforting thing to say, the whole song might have to do with uncomfortablness of life and with oneself. alot of the times people believe things, hear things, interpret things in ways that arent' true, in fear or anticipation. i think this song has something to do with that. "just because you feel it doesn't mean it's there" not everything you believe is true is actually true. not everything you believe is happening around is you is really happening. buyt there's really no one else who can see things for you because everyone sees things in a different light.
If you see the video, thom is walking nervously through a thick forest, encountering tiny mice smoking pipes inside a tree, a frog riding a bicycle, a big family of rabbits eating dinner, and then a cat wedding. Then he stumbles upoin a clearing where there is a glowing blaser and a hidden pair of shoes on a tree. almost tempting. when he tries on the shoes and the blaser (steals them from the forest) he notices a group of black crowes and they chase after him. he is running away, and right when he's about to be pecked to death by the crowes his shoes glow he runs faster and gets away. with a face of delight, you finally see a smile on thom's face. then ironically, when he finally thinks he's away, his shoes fall off and roots grow around his feet,, he is caught by the forest and he grows into a tree. and the crowes land on his branches as you see his shrieking face inside the bark of the tree. the end.
hail to the thief! he steals the blaser, the nice shoes tries to run away and bam right when he thinks he's lost the crowes, the forest catches him.
i dont know where i was going with this it's late
ill finish up tomorow
i need to sleep on it
but basically, due to the video, i dont think it has anything to do with a love story. too many love songs out their anyway.

review

Neko Case - Duchess

Artist: Neko Case

Song: Duchess

Album: The Virginian (1997)

Neko Case's solo debut is a delightful collection of heartfelt originals and vibrant covers ranging from traditional country fare (Ernest Tubb's "Thanks a Lot," Loretta Lynn's "Somebody Led Me Away") to more eclectic material (Scott Walker's "Duchess" amazing cover). The highlight is a rip-snorting rendition of the Everly Brothers' "Bowling Green," a duet with Zumpano's Carl Newman.

music

It's your bicycle bells
And your Rembrandt swells
You're children like
And still breathing
It's your look of loss
When you're coming across
Makes me feel like a thief
When you're bleeding

Duchess, Duchess
Light up your candles for me
Duchess, Duchess
Put all the love back in me

It's the Persian sea
Running through your veins
You shed your names
With the seasons
Still they all return
With there last remains
As they lay them before you
Like breezes

It's your shimmering dress
It says no
It says yes
It says i've nothing left for concealing
It's your shapeless flesh
And your old girl's grace
It's your young girl's face
That I'm breathing

Duchess, Duchess
Light up your candles for me
Duchess, Duchess
Put all the love back in me

I'm lying
She's crying

Faces - Had Me A Real Good Time

Artist: Faces

Song: Had Me A Real Good Time

Album: Long Player (1971)

Artist: Faces

Song: Had Me A Real Good Time

Album: Long Player (1971)

This raucous Ronnie Wood rock tune was sung by Rod Stewart. About as close as it gets to a Rolling Stones bicycling entry.

(…) On LONG PLAYER the Faces sound more bluesy, more British (as opposed to the Irish tilt of A NOD'S AS GOOD AS A WINK...) and at times more like Rod Stewart's handpicked touring band. Ronnie Lane stands out with a couple of great tunes, a shared vocal with Rod on a great cover of McCartney's classic "Maybe I'm Amazed," and his always wonderful bass, the spine of all Faces records.

This was back in the days when Rod Stewart still had some soul and could sing English Folk, Rock, R&B and Pub tunes all on the same album without missing a step. He's in fine form here, as he was on most Faces records, all his Jeff Beck stuff and all of his own stuff right up to FOOT LOOSE & FANCY FREE. He couldn't pull off a fun-time gem like "Had Me A Real Good Time" today to save his life; it remains one of my all-time favorite Faces tunes. (…)

review

Thought i was lookin' good
So i cycled 'cross the neighbourhood
Was invited by a skinny girl
Into her high class world

Left my bicycle under the stairs
Laid my coat across the kosher chairs
Made my way across the crowded room
I had nothing to lose

My reception wasn't very keen
So turning on a friendly grin
Stood on the table with my glass of gin
And came straight to the point

(chorus)
I was glad to come
I'll be sad to go
So while i'm here
I'll have me a real good time

(repeat)

Dancing madly round the room, yeah
Singing loudly and sorta' out of tune
Was escorted by a friendly slag
'round the bedroom and back
Wandered across to the door
Missed my step and i fell on the floor.
Said one word and was asked to leave
Kinda' wish i was dead.

(chorus)

The skinny girl made it clear
That she only came here for the beer
The vicar simply reeked of gin
On my way home i happened to fall off my bicycle
(good party)
I was glad to come, but i was also glad to get home

Beautiful South - Pockets

Artist: Beautiful South

Song: Pockets

Album: Quench (1998)

Following the disbandment of the British indie pop group the Housemartins in 1989, vocalist Paul Heaton and drummer David Hemmingway formed the Beautiful South. more

QUENCH, the Beautiful South's sixth album, finds them a little more musically introspective and somewhat more melancholy than before, though the songs still maintain the band's twin obsessions: singing about drunks, about drinking, and about being drunk; and disguising brutal and often cruel lyricswith deceptively sweet (verging on sad) music. From the slide-guitar tinged "How Long's a Tear Take to Dry", through the miniature epic-weepie "The Slide", to the jaunty snipe-fest of "Your Father and I", the album swings on a number of intriguing contradictions.

"Dumb" introduces an oddly introspective mood before breaking into a Motown-influenced chorus. "Window Shopping for Blinds" swaps its string-saturated opening for something that mixes a German beer hall and a Western saloon, while "I May Be Ugly" is a track that, other than its explicit drug references and crass juxtapositional jokes, wouldn't sound out of place being sung by Jim Croce. The best cut, however, is the piano-driven "The Table", which obliquely examines a familial relationship from the perspective of a table.

Pockets starts with a nice little Red Hot Chili Peppers esque funky guitar hook.

music

Here comes Pockets

His trousers hold a thousand deadly sins
The maddest things we ever found in bins
He clutches them and looks at you and grins
Here comes Pockets
The children wary of what they may contain
The linen may have changed, the contents same
A trouser-treasure island with no name

And socially at the platform that the timetable forgot
Picking up used tickets in a station of have-nots
When you're on that train of thought
You pass some pretty funky stops
When you're on that train of thought
You pass some pretty funky stops
That's the Pocket, let him be - That's the Pocket, let him be

Here comes Pockets
Picking up the things we cannot see
A bicycle, a dame, a Christmas tree
Things of no value to you or me

Here comes the Pocket
Reduced through history to just a crawl
History turns the tall into the small
But natural born trawlers love to trawl

And the guitar of his dreams hangs upon some wall
Or laying underneath the staircase in a hall
We can carry dreams but we can't hold them all
That's why we learn the Blues before we actually fall
That's the Pocket, let him be
That's the Pocket, let him be

And he's clinging on to hope
Like the oak tree to the gale
'Cause finding one love letter in a sky high jumble sale
Is one single reason, why the Pocket will not fail