The Misbelieves

There's no glamorous way to put this: Bicycle Thieves is just Brian after his band left him. While you're wiping away the tears we should clarify that Brian didn't start using the name Bicycle Thieves until he saw Vittorio De Sica's Ladri di Biciclette in graduate school, sometime during 1991 or 1992. Through a complex series of legal maneuvers, Brian was able, retroactively, to gather the entirety of his post-Next Window work under the Bicycle Thieves umbrella. It is still unclear whether the enormous expense of this action was justified, especially in light of the fact that at any given time there appear to be no less than 5 different bands named after Vittorio De Sica's Ladri di Biciclette.

Here, then, is the entire Bicycle Thieves saga, presented to you in vivid Reverse Chronological Order® !

Continue reading "'Lieves Roots: 1984-2001 - Bicycle Thieves" »

Posted by Drew at 4:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Popsicle Thieves were formed, in part, as a way for us to try to make some sense of Bicycle Thieves' demise. Although Popsicle Thieves released only one single in their year of existence, that single effectively puts a lid on the Bicycle Thieves era and forms an essential bridge to the upper 8th ward sound of The Misbelieves.

You can download the a-side, Touch You Natalie Jane (5MB mp3) and the b-side, FYNJ (5.5MB mp3). Both songs were recorded on Music Street and are © 2003, Music Street Music.

Posted by Drew at 1:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In the moist days before the beginning, before what was became what should never have been, there was a band with an even worse name than Next Window. No, we're not kidding. This earlier band had a name that was at least 5 crap units crapper than Next Window. So bad, in fact, that it just barely beat out Phase 3 and Starchild in our hunt for the perfect band name. The name I refer to shall never be mentioned on these pages (at least not by official Misbelieves personnel) but for the perversely curious we'll offer this hint: The name was an object found almost exclusively in Roadrunner cartoons. Falling.

One of the most frequent comments we get about Next Window is that their sound is somehow more corporeal than the later Misbelieves-related bands. That's weird, right? It's a strange thing to say about music, which after all is just a bunch of waves floating through the air. All we can figure is that it has something to do with the spirited and melodic bass playing of Ron Schmidtling and the truly brilliant and sometimes frightening drumming of JimmyO, both of whom gave the core Misbelieves line-up a raw energy that we've never quite managed to recapture.

Here, then, is the Next Window story presented in searing Chronological Order® !

Continue reading "'Lieves Roots: 1978-1984 - Next Window" »

Posted by Drew at 2:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)