Labels: No Idea Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
This is awesome! A comp of a bunch of 7″ and demo tracks laid down by a band that will shortly have a full length out on No Idea. And if these songs are anything to go by, then that’ll be the bees knees, oh yes. Hearing this, it’s no surprise at all to learn that No Idea will be giving them the LP treatment, the Bike totally display the No Idea sound, having heaps in common with Clairmel. Panthro UK United 13, and Hot Water Music. Yet only sounding like Small Brown Bike when all is said and done.
Pretty much everything on here is great, even the demos. And there is a good progression in sound. “Mouth of Madness” (which cropped up on the last No Idea sampler) is a real bludgeon – the perfect exhibition of how to squeeze both chunky hardcore and melody out of ya guitar and then screamy sing like Clairmel over the top of it. A perfect example of how adept this band are at being heavy without resorting to metal.
As an aside, I’m still trying to figure out of they are an emo band. After all, the artwork is of a dismantled old telephone. That’s pretty emo. The lyrics are pretty emo. The singing is pretty emo. But on some e-zine the other week, I saw a list of the “top 10 emo records of all time”, and there was nothing before Sunny Day, and none of the records had a hardcore element like this one. So I guess it just isn’t emo. My mistake.
Anyway, the tracks on here are in chronological order, and hearing the first 5 songs you can see how the band have progressed from the excellent, Jawbreaker-y melodic hardcore of the likes of “Red Light” to the expansive, bruising, monsterous emotional blasts of the newest stuff. The forthcoming album might just blow you away. In the meantime, ‘collection’ will do that instead, as songs like “Expecting Confidence” and “No Place Like You” or the genius dual vocalled “Bad Anthem” kick you into the middle of next week, then pick you up gently, and place you back in today again.
Devestating, I can’t recommend this enough.