bicycle, tricycle is the band to watch for eclectic pop fans. Real As You Believe is no-boundaries, take-no-prisoners fun. And not just for intellectuals, either. |
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bicycle, tricycle
Real As You Believe
(2005)
This has been the year that saw the goose arm of reason slamming eclectic pop with a wet noodle summarily attached to a lifetime pass to Abandonville. Remember Caesar Bach, the take-no-prisoners studio wizard? How about the master of reinvention, the completely unpredictable Hussalonia? Well, bicycle, tricycle bears absolutely no resemblance to either gentleman, and yet...
I usually take my pop with two linears and a dash of cream on top, which is to say I most like bands that play it relatively straight. But there is a part of me that can't get enough of the risk takers, the people who grind their knuckles and pinch their toes until they're blue to create something that's just a little askew, that's just a notch north of normal. bicycle, tricycle, for which information is much less than sketchy, is just such a band. On Real As You Believe, they've thrown caution to the wind and taken the results to the streets. What they've come up with is a real kick in the pants.
IDing the references with bicycle, tricycle is the new parlor game of choice here at buhdge, but don't think I've come close enough to figuring out how the band is able to mesh them together without causing an implosion. I hear nods to OMD; Fleetwood Mac; Zacherle, the Cool Ghoul; and The Partridge Family weaving in and out of these songs. Sometimes, the weave is so strong that a pompadour or mullet can't be far away, as in the Mac's football field classic ("Tusk")-meets-OMD barnstormer "Selfish." Get your kid's school band to play this one at their next intramural football game, and the people in the stands will be shimmying and shaking like a tailgate party gone electric.
Which is to say that bicycle, tricycle is one plugged-in band, but not in the sense that they're loud and raucous and annoying--far from it, actually. They're pretty great. This is a band with versatility up its sleeve and melodic invention in its heart, as in the pop-topped rocker that leads off these proceedings, "Like Getting By," which features the unlikely combination of a Georgia Satellites kind of lead guitar riff and Partridge Family-styled background vocals. Like the weirdly-psychedelic "Far Out," a kinetic dance number of sorts with elastic background vocals that wouldn't sound out of place...on a bicycle, tricycle album.
If you're like me, you're sick to death of power ballads and don't own a single Bic, but you'll head out to the grocery store after hearing the powerful "Stuck in One Place," a song about the need to move on, seasoned with a pinch of Meat Loaf and a dash of OMD. "Knife for You," a poppy track about sharing the pain, rules: The chorus on this one is tres catchy. "Incoherent (Message from You)" is a short snap of pop 'n' roll that's topped off with a dash of bubblegum background vocals.
bicycle, tricycle bids listeners a fond adieu with a spooky treatise on desensitizing madness, "What An Island It Was," which is where the presence of Zacherle figures in. When the band sings "Built upon the intellect/turns out you need so much more," they might as well be referring to life in general, for without a little flash, all that intellect isn't going to do you a whole lot of good. Real As You Believe provides a lot of flash, an enormous amount of intellect, and a whole new level on which to place the the sub-genre of eclectic pop. It's electric, it's real, and you can believe.
Alan Haber
November 13, 2005
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