Walking Bicycles

29 July Free Monday at Empty Bottle, Walking Bicycles with Videotape as Headliner and Pamphleteers opening to me was like a meteor the earth sees from far. And once the weight of significance is placed I can fuck it up in all kinds of ways. This is gonna happen once, don't fuck it up. Anything can keep me from going. And that is a fleeting but recurring thought that plays slightly differently every time, even influencing my dreams.  I actually make it on time for all the bands and each one put me in a different stupor. It was a Monday night with a Friday night feel.  Hell I even forgot there was a Lollapalooza next on the horizon, and I didn't really care. The thought of smelling all that millennial sweat is just nauseating. At Empty Bottle it was a convergence of many friends in one night. TJ was there, oh and Dan The Fan bouncing about. Notable for me was the people from other bands in attendance. Oh, look thems over there. That's My Gold Mask! They sold out Schuba's this one night. And them....they are in Panda Riot. Oh and Rows Of Arrows! I can just go on! This first post is about Walking Bicycles.  It's a grand significance when you know their history, and as a friend it weighs even more. I go to support friends of mine, end of.  Wait, wait!!!! Not really. Let me go on about this for a while. It does blow my mind that I can call them friends. Having said......They were releasing their EP So.
 

Defiant, especially when you put it as a question. "So?!" As a kid that word had the forbidden power of every Mexican swear word in one syllable. I was careful never to say it to my dad. However, I would still get the belt, extension cord treatment for thinking it. What is it about the word.... hmmmm.  I guess it means defiance after knowing. Older, wiser, but not weaker. This maturity comes with its lean muscle that makes Walking Bicycles sound insubordinate, ambitious if wisdom gives special license.  If there is anger, it's old anger, so it can't help but sound articulate and deep. The drummer brings the maddening impatience. No surprise there, he used to be in Aleks And The Drummer. Awh, fucking hell, don't make me go back and explain them. Anyway, he urges everything onward. You forget that he has total control of that urgency. He can project it even when slow, and there is a slower brooding, simmering track somewhere. All the new material has this natural urgency to it no matter what pace they assume. I sited the drummer but its in every instrument, a live-wire desperation. Its in the bass too. Here and there you just notice it more when they allow it the first critical imprint. Like the coolest thing on stage. There is generous parking between the instruments so you can hear them clearly, including Jocelyn's voice.  There is no washing over each other. They fill natural gaps and provide a texture upwards including the voice. They make each other sound brilliant.  Indeed it often sounded like the bass and the lead guitar were answering each other back and forth. You will not want to stay on the right hand lane when you're on the highway listening to this. Jocelyn always with a slight rasp to her voice that reminds me of Lori Petty. Having said that, I hope Jocelyn does not despise said actress. I liked her on Point Break.....and on this one episode of Star Trek Voyager.
  As I listened all the new material, bouncing away to it with Dan The Fan next to me I could not but help to think of their last CD GO?. For me those songs represent the road not traveled. That path was paved and they were ready travel on it. When they debut it 1 December 2008 I believe on a Free Monday at Empty Bottle I took home the poster that actually said they were gonna tour on it. The road was right there! And then something happened to deny them that road. Julius went to prison for three years, I think. Now he is out and the band is back lean, angry and far removed from that path, too far to even want to tread on it. Whirling Dervish was the only track they played from their old catalog.  I am not saying this as a lament. I would rather hear what they are naturally inclined to perform. I am trying to put their new material in the context of Jocelyn's and Julius longer narrative. Something bad happened and they survived it and now their music sounds incredible. I find that inspiring and it makes me believe in my own small underdog narrative.
Zig