vic.gedris.org Never mind the blogs, here's the website.

Seriously, it may happen.  Sure, we’ve joked that we should send Obama a tikit, what with him being a cyclist anyways, but a tikit may find its way there in a totally different way.  It turns out that one of the people rumored to have a place in the seat of Secretary of Transportation is none other than Peter DeFazio, Bike Fridays’ own Congressman.

Being a supporter of local business (and subsequently NOT a supporter of the economic bailout), and a serious bike advocate (he’s got a bike/ped-only bridge in Eugene named after him!), Peter toured our factory two years ago.  Since, he’s been seen doing his commute on a custom built, all-American just the tikit.  Here you can see him with Alan and our dealer development dude, Michael Bennett, in front of the new Eugene courthouse with his favourite ride.

But hopefully soon you’ll see him in the White House.

The rain and cold are here at last, a perfect time to go a little slower and switch the iPod over to a more contemplative selection.  So I finally got around to listening to Nurse With Wound’s Angry Eelectric Finger series.  And that’s no small feat as there are five albums to deal with, all slightly different but based off the same material.  It’s an interesting story…

First, to the uninitiated, is something of a cult figure in the world of experimental music.  Stephen Stapleton has, with the help of a whole circus full of people, created a distinctive blend of free improv, ambient, noise, krautrock, psychedelic, dada, surrealism, musique concrète, and general weirdness since 1978.  His discography is insane in breadth, but perhaps even more remarkable is how he got started.  He was talking to this studio engineer about the guy’s frustration over either the trite nature of the business he got or the amount of money it was bringing in.  The guy decided he wanted to work with more experimental bands to shake things up a bit.  So Stephen said he had a band.  He didn’t, but the guy arranged a time for him to record.  So he got together a band and made it happen.  And the world hasn’t been the same since.

Fast forward to 2004.  Stephen with the help of droney Monos member Colin Potter samples some one of his inspirations, a krautrock group known as Xhol or Xhol Caravan or Soul Caravan.  They then manipulate these samples to create an homage to the death of Xhol saxophonist Tim Belbe.  The album includes some “apocalyptic” guitar work by neofolk god David Tibet from Current 93.  It was slated to be released by World Serpent Distribution (an awesome label and distribution center of some of the most fascinating avant-garde music) but they were going out of business then.  Luckily it was taken up by Beta-Lactam Ring, another remarkable label.  This leads us to the Raw Material - Zero Mix which is a total gem, even among Stephen’s vast range of impeccable work.  

Ominous blasts of ringing drones fight for dominance with what seem to be bike freewheels whirring; bells frolic among what sounds like Tibetian horns or tubas on nitrous; waves of processed digital static wash over rumbling synth whilst some nervous beast rattles its metal cage; then it all starts swirling and spiraling into a maelstrom; and yet we pop out the other side to blissful harmony.  And that’s just track 1.  Then we are faced with the moanings of a tortured upright bass, filtered through a haze of delusion, portentous cymbals, the cassette cogs again, some monstrous daemon groaning– then, shots ring out– a pig squealing at the edge of consciousness, a tumultuous sea of sounds churns backwards and forwards, the flotsam and jetsam rising up and being drowned; then it all begins to go quiet except for a faint heart beat rhythm and, at long last, the work of Tim Belbe and Hansi Fischer come into play whilst some shadowy sounds babble in the background, eventually taking precedence again; charcoal brushstrokes of weary ambience hobble along and then are turned inside out until they finally devour themselves.

But it’s only begun to get interesting.  Stephen then calls up his buddies irr. app. (ext.), Jim O’Rourke, and Cyclobe and asks them to finish and/or remix the work.  This is where we get the three main parts of the series, Mute Bell Extinction, Tape Monkey Mooch, and Paraparaparallelogrammatica, respectively.  There are also some outtakes known as Spitch’cock One which give a good taste for the tone of all of the above.  I must say, though, I found the first one to be pretty similar to the original with some extra speaker panning.  Jim does a little bit better with some spacey guitar bits, but overall maintains the same general theme.

And then there’s Cyclobe.  First off, one must understand that Cyclobe is one half Stephen Thrower and one half Ossian Brown aka Simon Norris, both ex-members of halluninogenic experimentalists Coil.  Now anyone that knows me knows I LOVE Coil.  Their blend of dark and light, experimental and accessible, electronic and traditional, yin and yang, just rubs me the right way.  I am only too sad that they are no longer.  Needless to say I’ve been looking very carefully into related projects so I can continue my Coil fix and of all the projects out there, Cyclobe, certainly comes the closest (with CoH being a close second).

And what do they do with it?  The absolutely obliterate it, turning it into a nightmarish daemon. At times the original sound source is apparent, but it’s constantly being turned over, fiddled with, warped, processed, scrambled, recycled, reconfigured, re-imagined.  It constantly walks a fine line between insanity and reverie, constantly threatening to fall too far on either side.  Where will we end up: dream or delirium?  There’s only one way to find out and it’s a bad trip well worth taking.  It’s an incredible remix of an already incredible piece of music.  Certainly Paraparaparallelogrammatica is a must have so go buy it!

Whether we have McCain or Obama leading the future of America, I certainly hope that they’re leading it towards this prophetic display in Christchurch, New Zealand, that a couple good friends found:

I am hopeful that both would move us in this necessary direction.  I just have a sneaking suspicion one of the two will get us there quicker.  Here’s hoping for the best.

A co-worker and I were riding home and talking about these fixed gear hipsters who showed up at the shop late in the day to borrow some air.  Maybe I just don’t like uniforms (fixed gear, messenger bag, rolled up pant legs, Pumas, track jackets, no helmet– come on, it’s a freaking uniform), maybe I’m just concerned for people’s lives (read: fixed gears are not for everyone and this is coming from a fanatic), but it just bugs me.  I mistakenly blurred the whole description together and created a new word:  hipsies.

Well, forget them, anyways.  In a year or two, when they get out of school, they’ll get an accounting job and a Volvo and never think back on that whole fixed gear craze anyways.  If you want to see some real hardcore fixie riders, check out this awesome Keirin video I gleaned from the fixed gear mailing list.  Man, I’m not even that cool.

A bit of trivia is that the song this video is for is by CLP, i.e. Chris de Luca vs. Phon.o.  The former artist was one half of the now defunct trip-pop meets IDM project Funkstörung.  Phon.o apparently did a crunky mix of techno and dub and the like.  Put the two together and you get CLP.  Heady, muscular, but not unapproachable, this will likely hit the dance floor hard.  Hopefully that doesn’t encourage any more hipsies.  Listen to the evidence here and you can buy it on Beatport.

They say you’re never supposed to keep pushing until you get to the finish line or the top of the hill.  This video puts that idea into a political context and even though it’s rightfully weighted to the left side, I’m sure that even those bicycling fanatic Palin supporters (*shudder*) could appreciate it.  Moral of the story:  don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched, it ain’t over until the fat lady sings, so get out there and help get those votes in.

Does anyone know what race this was and the riders involved?

Here’s two you may not know about. One is more of an update. Regarding that, we had a deal where we offered new custom frames with a selection of new, used, and new old stock parts on them. Well, they’re all gone. Kind of. The ones we didn’t pre-sell, we just set up with what we thought would be a sensible size and color and we now have them ready to buy right from the floor. They’re killer deals any way you cut it, way better than used bikes. They should be showing up on the used page shortly. Keep watching, or drop me a line and let me know what you want and I’ll get you taken care of.

The other one is more minor but very cool. From the same guys that brought you this beautiful green hub (I didn’t know they had THAT option!), we’ve got a small inventory of Phil Wood hubs that we’d like to get rid of for a special discount. So call up and get yourself 10% off these hubs when you build a Bike Friday around them. Here’s the list:

1. one low flange front quick release, silver, 36 hole (BF#11468)
2. one low flange rear Shimano cassette quick release, 36 hole (BF#9667)
3. two low flange rear fixed/free nutted, 32 hole (BF#11809)
4. one low flange rear fixed/fixed quick release, 32 hole (BF#12191)

Offer stands until they’re gone.

I would really suggest cashing in on these great deals, because if you haven’t noticed, the bike industry is booming and there is little need to offer deals right now, even despite the economic situation.

 
Let’s imagine a new tikit model.  We’ll call it the Not The tikit.  It comes in 5 varieties:

1. The one from Malawi.
2. The word for stitches or tricks in Finland.
3. The DJ from Istanbul.
4. The London company that provides IT consulting to legal and accounting firms.  These are the nasty folks that stole our domain name!  Boycott them now!
5. The Massachusetts record label Northeast, which once labeled itself Tikit (thanks, Malcolm).

First person to take their Bike Friday tikit to all of the above locations will get a special prize. 

By the way, the other Bike Friday continues to get tons of press, yet I don’t think I’ve heard of a Bike Friday bike on a Bike Friday ride.  Another prize for the first one of those.

Lastly, how about a third prize to anyone that sneaks their Pocket Crusoe onto the set of the new TV series Crusoe.

Don’t forget the proof!

That ought to get us some good stories!