If any band has ever stood the test of time in my music library and respect, it would be
Small Brown Bike (named for a sentimental 'Frankenstein' bicycle that they had pieced together from parts as kids.) If you ride BMX and don't know who they are, they had the final song in Little Devil's "Criminal Mischeif" video. My brother J.D. and I drove 13 hours in 2007, from NJ to Chicago, to see them play a benefit reunion show for a friend of theirs who had leukemia. They also played right beside the mini ramp in our own backyard with The Casket Lottery in 2004 and did an interview for Ryan Navazio's "Standpoint 4", because they are just that down to earth. Just awesome dudes all around.
From listening to the words on their albums, "Our Own Wars", to "Dead Reckoning", and their last one "The River Bed", I've always felt that I shared the same views of family and friends that the two brothers, Mike Reed (vocals, guitar) and Ben Reed (bass, vocals) have wrote about in their projects. Some of those albums have made me forgive my brother when we might not see eye to eye on things, or maybe just get burned out on life and this project we do called IB!
I suppose if we were in any way ever to be remembered the way a great band is,
I would only hope that we were the 'Small Brown Bike' of BMX.
Lifelong friends traveling through hard times with low budgets, staying loyal to friends along the way, and just doing what they loved to do... making something unique in the end... even if it meant that sometimes you have to take a break or "call it a day"... and staying close enough friends and brothers, that you could jump right back into it and start working on something new. Always keeping it simple, so it doesn't lose the fun. When it loses the fun, just step back and take a break. Never quit what you love to do.
Well anyway, I received news the other day that they have decided to join forces again, have wrote some new songs, and are playing a few shows again this year.
www.smallbrownbike.com
Small Brown Bike
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Amped