This one's been on the back-burner for a bit, and it's really difficult to discuss ANYTHING bicycle related when there's another dump of snow on the ground here in Winterpeg, but what can you do? Mother Nature made April Fools of us and we'll just have to grin and bear it.
Perhaps as you dream about pedaling on pavement and not ice, you can listen to one or more of a clutch of great little records that came out earlier this year on Olympia, WA label Bicycle Records. Mid-February we received five very interesting records that went for radio adds throughout the month of March.
The first of these, and my personal favourite is For Now, For Then, For Them from Lily Maring who records under the moniker Yes Please. Maring moved from Olympia to Oakland, but continues her association with the label on this, her first full-length. There's a swirling mixture of lo-fi, pop and tiny orchestrated pieces layered bit-by-bit on this album. Take a listen to the lead-off track, "Love Probe," a sweetly winning number.
Next up is the Nextdoor Neighbors - who, it turns out, are actually neighbors. Their album Magic vs. the Machine is described as "folktronic or electro-folk-hop," the former descriptor bringing to mind Beth Orton and the latter some of Beck's earliest work but for my money, the band that comes to mind when listening to Jessie Hill and Kathy Cote is Depeche Mode. Listen to the title track and you'll hear the sinister edge to the keyboards and the breathy vocals...
Oventoucher is a pretty affecting (and hilarious) album from Jenny Jenkins. There are some great acerbic lyrics and some very coarse ones as well. Jenkins doesn't pull any punches, particularly on songs like "Bus Angel" and "Chance" where her lovelorn heart is on full display. She's a romantic who has taken off her rose-coloured glasses but who hopes in her heart of hearts to one day don them again. 
June Madrona would likely go over pretty well with fans of The Decemberists - and not just because Russ Cowman's voice is vaguely Meloy-esque, but also because the lyrics to their sprightly folk-pop tunes read like little novellas. "Contents Of A Bus" from their record Battlegrounds demonstrates this pretty well (on a related note, there's a curious fascination with public transit amongst the material from Bicycle Records artists - is there a clause in their contracts?)
Love Letter To New Zealand from Polka Dot Dot Dot is the quietest record of the bunch so it's the one that takes a more dedicated listen to reveal its charms. Consider "Gold Watch" which is propelled by finger-snaps and features breezy harmonies from band members Jordan'O Jordan, Onyx of Olympia and Twig Palace. The trio came together while touring New Zealand (thus the album title) and their material has the whimsical quality of three different but not disparate artists thrown together to create something new (which is sort of like Mike Petkau's Record Of The Week Club project which I'll likely write about in the next little while...)So those are the Bicycle Records records I wanted to talk about back when the snow was still falling and my lady was still 'with child.' He's here and the snow is gone and baseball season (real and fantasy) is in full swing so I'm a happy guy.
Thanks for reading, now start listening...
