Darren Hanlon - The Kickstand Song

Artist: Darren Hanlon

Song: The Kickstand Song

Album: Hello Stranger (2002)

Darren Hanlon's debut full-length consists of 10 pop songs that bring to mind the whimsical, light-hearted music of the 60s with a modern bent. This Australian singer/songwriter evokes images of Billy Bragg, Jonathan Richman, and Evan Dando.

On the consummately enjoyable Hello Stranger, his first full-length release following on the heels of his Australian breakthrough EP, Early Days, Darren Hanlon delivers the logical follow-up, further refining his impressively accomplished pop hooks and lyrical wit. This is a perfectly vibrant mix, with the arrangements crackling with a live intensity and musical looseness, and Hanlon proves himself a songwriter and tunesmith clearly in the line of greats like Elvis Costello and Billy Bragg in his ability to pair memorable melodies with clever songwriting. Even with rather odd lyrical subjects, such as the man who invented the kickstand in the strangely earnest "The Kickstand Song," his songs rarely suffer from an overreaching sense of wistfulness.

From start to finish, Hello Stranger rings out with a true buoyancy and ultimately rates as one of the rare jewels in a rather ho-hum season of singer/songwriter releases. Matt Fink - www.allmusic.com

Up until now my ideas have been latent

The cycling world will never be the same

But come first light I'll be taking out a patent

And from that day

If a bike be found lying on the ground again

I'm not to blame

What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring

Bolted down by the back wheel, activated by the heel

What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring

What chicken laid the egg from whence inside an idea hatches?

From prototype to production lines to the first one hundred batches

I will do for parking bikes what anchors did for sailing

What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring

There's handle bars for steering and there's tyre tread for traction

A tiny bell for friends you pass and greet

But when they add my ingenious contraption

Mouths will fall

And eyebrows will rise and staring eyes will meet

The bike complete

What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring

Bolted down by the back wheel, activated by the heel

What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring

There'll be articles in newspapers and dinners at the town hall

My first cheque's for a thousand bucks, now that's one spicy meatball

But all the fame and fortune in the world will not compare

To the joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring

Spring

Now bikes around the world can stand alone without their owners

And I can get some cash on the side but that's just a bonus

When underneath their helmets I will see their smiling faces

What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring

Piece of metal and a spring

Bad Man - Cyclist Massive

Artist: Bad Man

Album: Cyclist Massive (2010)

“12 tracks of anger-fuelled dancehall ragga music, inspired by 12 years of cycle courierisationment. Nobody can test this ex-cycle courier’s temperament. This is the album of the year!” – Raggatisation Magazine

cLOUDDED - Ten

Artist: cLOUDDEAD

Song: Physiscs of a Unicycle

Album: Ten (2004)

Clouddead (styled as cLOUDDEAD) was a musical group consisting of the experimental hip hop musicians Doseone (Adam Drucker), Why? (Yoni Wolf), and Odd Nosdam (David Madson). Generally Drucker and Wolf provide the group's vocals while Madson produces the music. ignoring Doseone's request to "just call it hip hop".

Clouddead's first six 10″ singles were compiled in 2001 as a self-titled compilation album. Printed on the sleeve of "Dead Dogs Two" is "this is cLOUDDEAD number 9 of ten", indicating that as of Ten, Clouddead, as a group, have finished making music. In an interview around Ten's release, Drucker hinted that tensions between Madson and Wolf, as well as each member's heavy workload, had hastened the group's demise.

The group's name came from a nonsensical knock-knock joke Drucker's sister told him when she was five years old.

review

Orville and Wilbur
cold cut the anchor's from their ankle,
carving propellers from whale fins
in the back of a bicycle shop...
and thus begins the tale
of the thumb trigger cloud kill.

At last the Wright's reinvented the horse with wings,
another invention only fit for a mannequin.

Early time machine's
will have tended to leave you
left screaming
on a dinosaur's dish.

In da Vinci's "Bike Accident',
an outerspace whodunit?
monkeys play Magellan
as the next ex-Edison,
standing out in the crowd with a unicycle.

Physics of a unicycle...
twice the remarkable.

Turin Brakes - Pain Killer

Artist: Turin Brakes
Song: Pain Killer
Album: Ether Song (2003)

Turin Brakes are a modern folk duo, comprising Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian, hailing from Balham, London. They had a UK top 5 hit with their song "Painkiller (Summer Rain)". Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian were friends in elementary school and decided to try out for the cathedral choir because it would perform in front of the Queen of England, which it eventually did. The two childhood friends formed a band together and would record their freewheeling jam sessions. One of those sessions became their first release, the EP The Door, which was released on Anvil Records in 1999 and only in the U.K. Among the influences of Turin Brakes' early years were Sebadoh, Truman's Water, Prince, and the Black Crowes. The State of Things EP followed in August of 2000 (U.K. only). Turin Brakes began playing full-band live shows at the Reading and Leeds festivals. A third U.K.-only EP followed in October when the band opened for bands including Kathryn Williams, Doves, and Lowgold. The band's debut full-length album, The Optimist LP, was released worldwide in May of 2001 on Astralwerks. EMI released the LP, which includes some songs from the earlier EPs, with a bonus disc in France. The successful Ether Song from 2003 brought the group more fans and was followed by the more polished Jackinabox two years later. Turin Brakes has often been compared to such quietcore bands as Coldplay, Travis, and the Norwegian band the Kings of Convenience, whose 2001 album entitled Quiet Is the New Loud describes Turin Brakes well too. ~ JT Griffith, All Music Guide

Ether Song

review

video with bicycle

Batten up the hatches, here comes the cold

I can feel it creeping, it's making me old

You give me so much love that it blows my brains out

You need something better than the bacon and eggs

The creeking in the walls and the banging in the bed

You give me so much love that it blows my brains out

Summer rain dripping down your face again

Summer rain, praying someone feels the same

Take the pain killer, cycle on your bicycle

Leave all this misery behind

My love giving me head

Feeling very guilty, breaking the bread

Losing my attention, I'm taking the world on

My love, my loveMy love, oh, my love

Summer rain dripping down your face again

Summer rain, praying someone feels the same

Take the pain killer, cycle on your bicycle

Leave all this misery behind

XTC - I'd Like That

Artist: XTC

Song: I’d Like That

Album: Apple Venus Volume 1 (1999)

The first XTC album after a six-year hiatus opens with the plink of a water drop, just a hint of the musical downpour to come. Add an interplay with a plucked cello and the low pulse of French horns, and soon Apple Venus Volume One bursts into a festival of symphonic excess. Wedding Andy Partridge's impeccable, overtime-working pop senses to the warmth and lushness of acoustic orchestral arrangements is an inspired move, not only recasting XTC's long career, but resulting in one of the year's most splendorous recordings. The single “I’d Like That”, a catchy love song, has fun with wordplay and a good chugging beat.

"I'd Like That" - a lusty dream of a more salicious and delicious sort - bangs in the acoustic instruments and innuendos.

music

review

I’d like that if we could cycle down some lane
I’d like that if we could ride into the rain
No macs, getting wet
I’d be your albert if youd be victoria, hah hah
Wed laugh because each drop would make me grow up
Really high, really high like a really high thing
Say, a sunflower

Id like that

Id like that (what would you like? ) if we could lay before my fire
Id like that (what would you like? ) if you could slide me from this wire
Toasting fork, Ill be done
I wouldnt hector if youd be helen of troy, oh boy
Wed laugh because each flame would make me grow up
Really high, really high like a really high thing
Say, a sunflower

Id like that

Id smile so much my face would crack in two
And you could fix it with your kissing glue
Id like that
Yes, Id like that

Id like that (what would you like? ) if we could float away in bed
Id like that (what would you like? ) if I could row your heart and head
With you laid on one arm
Id be your nelson if youd be my hamilton, what fun
Wed laugh because each stroke would make me grow up
Really high, really high like a really high thing
Say, a sunflower (repeats)

Say a sunflower I became
Id be growing in your lane

Belle and Sebastian - Fox in the Snow

Artist: Belle and Sebastian

Song: Fox in the Snow

Album: If You’re Feeling Sinister (1997)

There are several schools of thought about Syd Barrett, the early leader of Pink Floyd. Some think he was a genius songwriter, even when he was utterly whacked out. Others think he was just a druggie tosspot (those people are wrong). If you subscribe to the former school, you need to hear Belle and Sebastian, who seem to inhabit a musical universe close to Syd's. Songs seem to fly off the cuff, as attractive as a summer day when you were 16. We're not talking self-conscious strangeness here, but just natural, organic weirdness with melodies that make these songs work. --Chris Nickson

The Scottish group Belle & Sebastian has delivered an impressive amount of high quality music in the decade or so that they've been around, and most people will argue that IF YOU'RE FEELING SINISTER is their best work to date.

music

video

Fox in the snow, where do you go
To find something you can eat?
Cause the word out on the street is you are starving
Dont let yourself grow hungry now
Dont let yourself grow cold
Fox in the snow

Girl in the snow, where will you go
To find someone that will do?
To tell someone all the truth before it kills you
They listen to your crazy laugh
Before you hang a right
And disappear from sight
What do they know anyway?
You’ll read it in a book
What do they know anyway?
You’ll read it in a book tonight

Boy on the bike, what are you like
As you cycle round the town?
You’re going up, youre going down
You’re going nowhere
It’s not as if theyre paying you
It’s not as if its fun
At least not anymore
When your legs are black and blue
It’s time to take a break
When your legs are black and blue
It’s time to take a holiday

Kid in the snow, way to go
It only happens once a year
It only happens once a lifetime
Make the most of it
Second just to being born
Second to dying to
What else could you do?