Bikeride
- Summer
Winners, Summer Losers
 Artist:
Bikeride
Title: Summer Winners, Summer Losers
Catalog#: AHA!020
Price: $10.00  |
Tracks
on this CD: |
| Here Comes
The Summer |
|
Leah
& Nikki |
| Meghan |
|
A
Summer Song |
| New
Years Girl |
|
Handlebars |
| Carl
Wilson Suite |
|
Country
Driving |
| You
Stepped On My Guitar |
|
Bean
And Nothingness |
| Shawna |
|
The
Four Of Us In June |
| El
Roy |
|
Estate
D'Amore |
| Continental
Divide |
|
Endless
PCH |
| Grady
Moseley |
|
Our
Lips Are Sealed |
| Fine
And Dandy |
|
|
|
"Satellite photos from high
above California have revealed a strange and wonderful new talent
with the unlikely, Scorsese-character-like name of Tony Carbone.
As leader of the unwieldy
Bikeride collective, Carbone’s assembled the latest in a line of uncategorizable
Golden State pop masterpieces. Employing elements of country, lounge, spaghetti
Western and space-rock, with added orchestral flourishes and sweet, pithy lyrics
(“I got skinny ‘cause she broke my heart”), Bikeride cruises through
19 songs and as many styles in the course of and album. As the title suggests,
the theme is summer, and nearly half the tracks settle in the middle months,
rejoicing in the sun’s bright glare and lamenting the vicissitudes of romance
that the season induces. Carbone’s
scope is wide. He’s straight-up reverent on the aptly named “Carl Wilson
Suite,” the carefree “Country Driving” and the
wonderfully whimsical “A Summer Song,” which plucks out a singsong
melody on acoustic guitar. And he’s decidedly more complex elsewhere, crooning
country-style about how “his baby’s got the nicest
butt” on “Fine And Dandy,” evoking Bacharach on “Continental
Divide,” and straying into a punkier punch-with-a wink reminiscent of Thinking
Fellers Union Local 282 on “You Stepped On My
Guitar.” Summer Winners merely collects previously released (though rare)
material from 10-inches, Japannese B-sides, and the like-surprising given the
gently cohesive thread that holds it together." >>>RICHARD A.
MARTIN CMJ - January 2001
"(Bikeride) is going to continue planting seeds in
a sunny garden patch of its Southern California backyard,
fertilize it with fish emulsion and a few shakes of powdered
Apples In Stereo and Smile-era Brian Wilson and see what
comes up."-Magnet
The
arrangements are impeccable. Mid-fi, not overly produced.
The influences are sometimes
obvious-Beach Boys, Bacharach-sometimes not. The center around
which the Bikeride top spins is Tony Carbone, and he's as
likely to "borrow" from the Mary Tyler Moore theme
song ("Jennifer" from Bikeride's 1999 release 37
Secrets I Only Told America) as he is to get "a little
help from his Beatle friends" (ditto). A little Bossa
Nova here, Style Council-esque horn section there. And wasn't
Paul Weller occasionally trying to be like Curtis Mayfield
anyway?
The pressure was off Tony as he
wrote, and put to tape, the songs that comprise this long-awaited
collection. Unlike the recording sessions for Bikeride's
first two albums (Here Comes the Summer was released
in 1997), the tracks on Summer Winners, Summer Losers were
written one at a time, with no specific use in mind. Eventually,
most were released as extra (non-album) tracks from Bikeride's
Hidden Agenda vinyl releases: the America's Favorite Omelettes 7" EP
(out-of-print), the Dogs EP 10" (out-of-print)
and the most recent Raspet EP 10" (still available).
The CD leads off with a brand new, unreleased and exclusive
gem, "Here Comes the Summer," a spectacular six
minute epic anthem, a song that'll have you searching the
far side of the room for your socks ('cause they got blown
off), unbelievable sonic wonderment! What follows does not
come off as a collection of odds and sods, but a continuous
stream of pop consciousness from one of indie-music's most
meticulous purveyors of the genre.
For completists, SWSL also includes
two songs that appeared as Japanese release bonus tracks.
The band played in Japan during the Summer of 2000, and will
be returning for more shows this Winter.
Enthusiasm for BIKERIDE
"The pop renaissance of the
'90s owes much of its success to talented, young indie artists
like Tony Carbone…a zany but effective mixture of Beach
Boys, Burt Bacharach, Prince, Squeeze and the Pixies..."-Amplifier
"Creamy
Anglophile indie jazz pop, with Moog, Wurlitzer and Latino
beats." -MOJO
"The boys at Elephant 6 should
check out this sunshine jamboree right>away." -Rockpile
"Bikeride
have fun and it's infectious." -Bucketfull of Brains
Hello kids and thanks for your
endless support. We hope you like Summer Winners/Summer
Losers as much as our other stuff despite the fact
that it's just an outtakes comp. It's our favorite Bikeride
record yet. Some of the songs were done on my old 8-track
as Christmas presents because I was too poor to buy real
presents. Some of the songs we just couldn't finish because
we didn't have enough time. Some of the songs we just thought
sucked so we pulled them from the real albums. We hope this
one will carry you through until next Summer when we get
a new album out. If it's cold where you live put this record
on and think of California. Maybe it'll warm you up. Until
next time... XOXO, Bikeride
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