Desperate Bicycles - Cars

Artist: Desperate Bicycles

Song: Cars (7”) (1978)

The Desperate Bicycles were an English punk group who released a series of independent recordings in the late 1970s and inspired many other bands to do likewise. The Desperate Bicycles pioneered the do-it-yourself ethic of punk, adopting a proselytising role exemplified by their ardent exhortation: "it was easy, it was cheap - go and do it!". The group have been described as "DIY's most fervent evangelists"

The music of the Desperate Bicycles has been described as: “Spindly, fuzzy, guttural guitars through puny amplifiers, reedy, wheezy organs, out of tune electric pianos, cardboard box drums and monotonous declamatory yet somehow utterly reasonable sounding vocals”. Another reviewer described them as “a shambling wreck of a psychedelic post-punk band”. The writer Simon Reynolds states that the group's music "was almost puritan in its unadorned simplicity, its guitar sound frugal to the point of emaciation".