Did you ever have a small brown bike? Well, if you did have one -- or a bike of any other color -- this band is unlikely to remind you of it. That's because Small Brown Bike is a gritty hardcore band whose music raises the bar quite high for melodic expressions of post-adolescent anger. And there's just an obvious disconnect between that kind of thing and nostalgic icons of childhood like small bicycles. But that dissonance was probably exactly what this Michigan four-piece intended. Well, anyway. Their sound is raw, bloody, and intensely tuneful, with bands like Avail and Hot Water Music offering clear stylistic reference points.
They came out of a basement in Lansing, Michigan, these four young men called Mike and Ben Reed (they're brothers, and play guitar and bass, respectively; both sing), Scott Flaster (guitar), and Dan Jaquint (drums). They found a home on Florida's No Idea Records, which released their first two seven-inches and both of their LPs, Our Own Wars and Dead Reckoning. "Unsung Zero" comes from the Slowdance Records comp, Slightest Indication of Change.
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