Ride Your Bike - The Connection
Record Label: Deep Elm
Release Date: April 20, 2010
There's a good chance the California quintet Ride Your Bike will find favor on this Web site. After all, their urgent splash of indie rock is the kind of thing many users find alluring. Yet, bestowing ample amounts of praise on said quintet is probably foolhardy and a bit premature. The group's sophomore EP The Connection is not lackluster by any stretch, it's just not the kind of stuff that deserves widespread acclaim.
Album opener and title track "The Connection," opens with pleasant guitars, a cello and vocalist Mike Getches' less than sonorous voice. Reedy with a penchant for melodramatic whine, the strength of Ride Your Bike draws mostly on the band's arrangements and not Getches' timbre. That's not to discredit him at all, he's a capable vocalist for certain, he just doesn't annchor the songs with the same kind of swagger and conviction than that of his contemporaries.
On urgent cuts like "Spark," and "Bus," there's a wanton disregard for pop conventions that's both alarming and also enticing. On the desperate "Coat Rack," he sounds haggard, despondent and worn out, while on "Firefly," he chases down light-hearted breezy pop with aplomb. For all its highs and lows, the EP's zenith is undoubtedly "Time We Took Those Chances," a song that is the quartet's most complete composition to date. Lyrically compelling, sonically cohesive and
sung with more passion and control than any of the prior four, "Time We Took Those Chances," is the kind of song that points towards a promising future.
Produced by 20-year-old Matt Regean at Clear Lake Audio (Crosby and Nash, Dwight Yoakam, No Doubt), The Connection is the latest chapter in Ride Your Bike's ascent towards super stardom. Having relocated from college town Fort Collins, CO to Los Angeles, the group released their debut Bad News From the Bar in 2008 on Deep Elm and met wide acclaim. While The Connection doesn't share that same fate, it does point to the fact that something is certainly brewing. Though they remain at least a release away from making a dent, there's no reason why Ride Your Bike shouldn't be on your radar.
Editor's Note: This CD came out in the spring and I inadvertently misplaced this review. For that I apologize. Hopefully some of you can forgive me and dig this. Hopefully more than I did.
I like how their songs tell stories and they're not afraid to mess with the standard song structure. They could get pretty big if they keep writing quality songs like "Time we too those chances" and "This Car Is Hot as Hell"
i highly recommend running over to myspace.com/researchmaterial and seeing whats up. this isn't a shameless plug for a band. this is a shameless plug for this band :) Ride Your Bike disbanded this spring, and from the rubble, rose Research Material. The same quintet with much greater focus and purpose.
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