Bicycle Sunday

 

Bicycle Sunday was (or maybe still is) a band from Michigan, active from 2010 to 2016. The band was the semi-solo project of East Lansing's Joe McAndrew. I've been hedging my bets in talking about the existence of the project because its future is still uncertain. Following the release of Bicycle Sunday's second album, McAndrew was posting on Facebook about the early pre-production stages of a theoretical third LP before going radio silent. In the years since, he seems to be focused on creating custom dice with his company Pour Over Gaming. Admittedly, those dice are awesome, but some new music would be even better.

If the song titles from most of Bicycle Sunday's releases weren't giveaway enough, the point of comparison here is Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate). McAndrew's played midwest emo revival of a specific type, the kind that avoids the extremely heavy Kinsella influence that runs through most midwest emo revival music in favor of the other mainstays of that 90s movement. Empire! Empire! is a near match, but McAndrew puts his own spin on the sound, and he would eventually evolve towards a more lush, emo pop-influenced take on midwest emo for his second album.

I don't know for certain why Bicycle Sunday isn't counted among the more well-known emo revival bands, especially given he was releasing his music at around the same time, but the fact he was never associated with a core emo label might have something to do with it. While Bicycle Sunday did play live, I don't know if the project ever went on extended tour. This is a shame, because I think Bicycle Sunday should be listed along with all the other emo revival greats of the 2010s. His music gets at something essential in 90s midwest emo that I think a lot of other emo revival artists missed.

Outside of a few rare physical releases, Bicycle Sunday's discography is primarily digital. The project's first release was 2010's Nothing's All Right, an EP whose title and sound serve as a statement of purpose (check out the Mineral homage at the opening of "Yeah, I Know, I Blamed Her When I Should've Blamed Myself.") This was followed in 2011 by a split 7" with fellow emo revival greats Park Jefferson. In 2012 the band released another single, City Sidewalks b/w Jon Gielgud. 2013 saw two releases: the Sarah, Just Ask EP, followed by the absolutely fantastic first LP, Remnants of Past Lives. The next year saw another EP, Scores of Minor Verses. Two years later, Bicycle Sunday would put out 2016's Pale Marble Movie, another excellent LP and sadly the last release from the project.

You may be wondering why I've decided to make this post given that Bicycle Sunday's discography is digital. There are two reasons. The first is that the Japanese physical release of Remnants of Past Lives has a bonus track that is not available anywhere else. The second reason is far more troubling: Pale Marble Movie has disappeared from Bandcamp and streaming. I assume this is due to some manner of rights issue, though as far I as I know the album was self-released, so its vanishing is a mystery.

Remnants of Past Lives + Pale Marble Movie

Bicycle Sunday on Bandcamp

Andherson

Andherson were a band from Arizona, active from the mid-90s to somewhere around the year 2000. Over the course of their relatively long but strangely unprolific career, they went from playing midwest emo to something closer to emo pop. Each progressive release sees the band sanding off some rough edges and growing more melodic.

Their first release was in 1995, …this great cobalt moment…, which is a midwest emo 7" but pulls a lot from emocore. The band wouldn't release another record until 2000, a gap possibly explained by their relocation to Berkeley, California, and then subsequent return to Arizona. The five-year absence of recordings is suspicious—it feels like they must have recorded something during that time. If they did, it's currently lost.

After going back to Arizona, they released a three-way split with Fivespeed and Before Braille on Sunset Alliance. The description on Amazon claims this is the band's only studio release, which is obviously false, and only casts more doubt on the nature of their discography. For whatever reason, this obscure split from an indie label has its own Wikipedia entry, which is the only reason I know anything about Andherson at all. The band would close out their career with a contribution to The Emo Diaries, Chapter Six, in 2001, which sees them moving somewhat towards emo pop. I imagine a theoretical full length would have sounded like that song.

I have labeled these assembled tracks as the band's discography, but in this case especially it should be stressed this is the band's known discography.

Andherson Discography

Palentine

 

This will be a short post. Palentine were a band active for an unknown period in the early 90s, and may have been from Maryland. That's all I know about them.

They played a fusion of emo and noise rock and put out one release, 1994's File .004. With four songs, I think it's technically an EP, but with a meager play time of seven and a half minutes it's basically a single. Based on what can be heard on it, it's a shame we never got File .005 or whatever their next release might have been called, because it's genuinely interesting music. Noise rock has always been an influence on post-hardcore and emo, but usually a distant one. Here, it's fully half of an experimental mix.

File .004

Red Eye Nine

 Red Eye Nine were a band from Boston, active in the late 90s. They were on Lunch Records along with fellow Bostonian emo\post-punk band Helicopter Helicopter. This review on AllMusic seems to indicate they went through some lineup changes during their brief existence. I know very little about them, to the point the preceding sentences sum up pretty much everything outside of their single release.

The band's only release appears to be 1999's Standing On Ceremony, a shouty blend of emocore, post-punk, and a couple dashes of post-hardcore and emo pop. The result is more easygoing than you'd probably expect. They sound kind of like a more laid back Life at These Speeds. I really enjoy this album, it's surprisingly relaxing for something so obviously rooted in emocore and post-punk (emocore-lite? post-emo-popcore punk?). Sometimes it reminds me of The Van Pelt, though not as focused on spoken word and without as much midwest emo. At other points it's more reminiscent of something like The Lapse.

Standing On Ceremony

Midwest Blue

 

Midwest Blue were a band from Chicago, active from 2001 to 2005. They were an emo pop band, with an output that runs the gamut from almost pure pop punk to third wave emo pop and everything in between, with plenty of influences from post-hardcore, midwest emo, and indie rock. They were pretty diverse; this review calls them out as being possibly too diverse, though I don't agree (I'm also not sure what the reviewer's problem is with the first four tracks of the LP, which are perfectly fine). 

The band's first release in 2002, The Columbus Conspiracy EP. In 2003 they released their only full-length album, Remembering to Forget, which was released by Post-436, which also put out two releases from emo pop contemporaries Woke Up Falling. 2004 saw the release of the Alarm Clock EP, which was their last release before breaking up. In 2006 the band put out a posthumous compilation of rarities which included the Alarm Clock EP. The archived Midwest Blue website claims there was an unreleased song called 'What Can I Say' intended for the In And Out Of Love compilation, which was never released. But this page from vocalist Sam Swanson's site says the song is called 'Kangaroo Style' and is included on the Sides compilation, so perhaps the name of the song changed at some point.

Remembering to Forget and Sides are available through Bandcamp, but the page omits The Columbus Conspiracy EP.

Midwest Blue Discography