SuperLiteBike

SuperLiteBike is named one of Austin's best of 2010, amongst Spoon, Black Angels, Roky Erickson with Okkervil River and more! Austin Town Hall:

Friday Top 10: Austin Albums of 2010

SuperLiteBike - Away We Go

"I wasn’t really sold on this fairly new band until I saw the guys perform live at The Parish. Their brand of psych, 60s throw back style rock n roll is a nice kick in the ass for the often times bland scene. This album can speed things up with the extremely catchy “Raise the Colors” and then bring you back down with a slow tripped out ballad like “The Rescue”."

- Austin Town Hall

Sometimes it’s hard for us to find artists worthy of featured posts on the site since we live in a town completely saturated with new and veteran bands. It is easy however when we are directed to bands with a unique and compelling sound like Austin boys Super Lite Bike. Somehow we’ve missed out on these guys since their inception a couple years ago, but we are now on board and driving the band wagon of hype. The Austin quintet known as Super Lite Bike have previously played in several bands around town with many names and many faces. With a new name and the search for their own sound, the band is ready to release their debut LP Away We Go later this week. What you’ll find on that record is what sucked us in from the get go: A band who understands what it means to try something new. Sure they’ve got the progressive rock label on them, and that’s cool. You would be wrong however to simply write them off as another “experimental rock” group. Their style is like nothing else going on in Austin right now… and of course we dig that. Be sure to pick up your copy of their new album on Thursday at your local record store.

You can also catch these guys live on Thursday at The Parish for their record release party starting at 9pm. I know we’ll be there!

- Austin Town Hall

The SuperLiteBike collective could all be ad men. Prior to their shows, they produced over-the-top video flyers with band members running from green screen explosions, reenacting television standards such as news programs and game shows, while referencing everything from “Lost” to the Keyboard Cat. Those media-savvy promotions reveal a band very much attuned to the information-saturated environment around them. Or, they’re just a bunch of guys that like hanging out. Either way, their debut release balances earnestness -- the “We can all live together” line from “Something With Spectrum” -- and pure entertainment.

Originally called A Pocketful of Deng, the band changed its name after a small line-up change with the addition of Chris Heckendorn of The War Against Sleep and All My Friends, an LCD Soundsystem tribute band. Away We Go is their redefinition as a band and a document of the plaintive realities of adult life. Opener “That’s A Lot Of Adhesive” volleys much like the ups and downs expected in life as drums crescendo every two bars in a Sisyphean attempt to trudge forward. Once the tempo quickens and the guitar turns plucky, Patrick Husband reminds us that “good times are coming.” Even when the huge boulder rolls back down the hill, he repeats the mantra as if he needed to hear it himself as the plodding drums return.

For an album concerned with the intricacies of life, it never looks back to romanticize what was lost or once was. Much is made about transition, which is inherently found in the transportability of the band’s namesake. “The Great Erie,” itself a one-minute transition, melds into the aforementioned “Spectrum,” a driving song that doubles as a pep talk: “You fall right down, gotta get up, this is your town. You worked too long just to get shot down.” Yet, much like Thom Yorke, Husband sounds unsettling when delivering these lines. Along with the chorus of trumpets, the song is empathetic, and reminds us that we’re not alone in our anxieties.

If life is a struggle to strive for happiness, then happiness comes in the form of the track, “Unbelievable Party!!! Cool.” Its objective is clear: dance. A bare-boned track of stripped-down elements, its bass-driven funk is all about letting go, getting low: “Open your mind for free…” As the album’s longest track, “Let’s See A Jet Plane” reaches skyward as instrumentation unfurls. Once it reaches it dissonant freak-out at the end, it closes the album with its grounded epiphany of allowing oneself to dream, but not to sleep.

by Joshua Barajas - Jupiter Blog Spot

Local five-piece SuperLiteBike doesn’t suffer for a lack of ideas. The band’s music flits freely among various electronic-tinged alt-rock styles, while its members have made a habit of promoting upcoming shows with non-sequitur-filled video flyers that transform frontman Patrick Husband’s hands into guns and the Music Lab into an endless hallway of haunted rehearsal spaces. The forthcoming Away We Go is the band’s first attempt at arranging all of its creative energies under one full-length banner, and for all its jittery rhythms, hushed balladeering, Queen-esque stacked vocals, and bizarrely claustrophobic party anthems, SuperLiteBike shows it has enough restraint over its eccentricities to keep the record from pulling itself apart. The band brings Away We Go into the world with this CD release show, accompanied by the similarly genre-unencumbered sounds of Fatback Circus and The Carrots’ half-winking girl-group throwbacks.

- AV Club Dever/Boulder

Venue: The Parish

Ticket Link: $9.50 (WHAT A DEAL!!!!) @ The Parish

Reviews: ”I noticed this video while checking out my comments on my MySpace page. The band is called Super Lite Bike, they come from Austin Texas, they write amazing tunes, and they make kick-ass video flyers for their gigs.” -The Gigdoggy Blog

(said VIDEO WORK by: Jose Jones Films)

“Radiohead’s early guitar-based records removed the genre shackles from a lot of rock-oriented minds, five of which clearly belong to the members of Super Lite Bike. But though the band often blurs the lines of songwriting conventions while frontman Patrick Husband sings in the same disquieting upper register as Thom Yorke, Super Lite Bike puts a greater emphasis on rhythm than those lads from Oxford, with songs like “Unbelievable Party Cool” and “Raise The Colors” moving along basslines a touch more nervously funky than what Colin Greenwood usually commits to tape.” -A.V. Club

MySpace

Sample Music

- Ya Heard Austin

Rising from the ashes of A Pocketful of Deng (a band who never had to fight for the rights to their name with anyone else) SuperLiteBike are tonight (5/13) celebrating the release of their new album Away We Go at the Parish in the company of The Carrots & Fatback Circus.

- The Deli NYC

Before we couldn't tell / Our thoughts were all dispersed / Experience the inner body at its worst / But we called out for the signs / and they showed us they were there/ And that they're all around us / telling us that good times are coming. - "That's A Lot Of Adhesive"


SuperLiteBike
Away We Go


A band born from the melding of two local bands, Pocketful of Deng and The War Against Sleep, SuperLiteBike has taken a big risk. They’ve put together a concept album to serve up as their first effort. According to the bio, the songs on Away We Go describe “the story of a girl leaving the planet only to come back and realize that’s her home.”


I’ve got to say, this style of concept-ethereal-sonic-indie rock isn’t usually by bag. It’s got that sound that would be very appealing to the scene in Austin known as the “hipsters.” And, I’ve been told very poignantly that I am not in that crowd (thank you hairstylist at Beauty Bar). All that aside, I’ve got to say, good music is good music.


The songs are all fully realized with sonic guitarwork and percussion providing the backdrop for the creeping lyrics of Patrick Husband. The entire outfit gives a Talking Heads-meets-Spoon-meets-Ghostland Observatory vibe.


Away We Go leads off with 2:30 minutes of sonic pleasure building up to the kick-off of the chanting “That’s A Lot Of Adhesive.” Carrying on is the organ-meets-guitar jam of “Raise the Colors” then it slows down for instrumental track “The Great Erie” that serves as the intro to the horn-infused “Something With the Spectrum.”


My favorite track on Here We Go has to be “Home.” It’s the seventh track and kind of serves as the epicenter of the journey. Its got a really interesting Queen “Bohemian Rhapsody” type breakdown in the middle. “Can I get back to where I’m from? Will I get back everything I’ve known? Can I tell you everything I’ve learned? Will I ever find my way? ”


From there the story winds down with the very Spoon-esque mind-opening jam “Unbelievable Party!!! Cool” followed by the retrospective “See Change” and the 8-minute dream-finalizing “Let’s See A Jet Plane.”


SuperLiteBike will be releasing Away We Go on May 13 at The Parish. I’d be interested to see how this sound is pulled off live. It has got some really complex technical riffs and mood swings throughout. If they can capture live what they captured on Away We Go the release party will be an epic event not to be missed. I know the album is one that should be heard by anyone who appreciates good music… hipster or not.


For more information on SuperLiteBike, visit http://www.superlitebike.com.
- Notes From The Cubicle - Sean Clae

I didn't know a thing about SuperLiteBike going in but they really impressed me. Their disco-demolition modern rock style, pitched somewhere in between the extreme dourness of Interpol and the utter ridiculousness of the Killers, isn't exactly my cup of tea. But as I hope some of you may have picked up on by now, I don't judge Austin bands based on whether they listen to the exact same records as I do at home. SuperLiteBike put on a dynamic, quick-moving show, hardly pausing between songs and showing the full range of possibilities available within their style. They continued to surprise me with new ideas I never would have expected from them after their first two songs, all the way to the end of the set. Trumpet melodies? Fingerstyle guitar? Latin-flavored percussion rumblings? They had a lot going on, and tied it all together with persistent strong harmonies and vigorous movement from their floppy-haired frontman.

SuperLiteBike songs are very much bass-driven, with the guitarist filling in the gaps. His use of effects was really creative, more geared towards making strange percussive noises than trying to make boring melodies sound interesting. Their drummer had really good volume control, saving his full blast power only for when it was needed. They were able to hold audience attention even when very quiet, and they took advantage of this with songs that often stripped down to one or two naked parts. I was surprised to find out after their set that they were a five-piece until quite recently, with a keyboard player added. Maybe that was why I liked them so much! A lot of bands over-layer their music to the point where the main ideas are lost. By keeping it spartan the SuperLiteBikers kept things progressing and left the really fine singing combination of their bassist and frontman prominent in the mix. I dig them -- and I don't think they should hire another keyboard player. Upon reading that their debut Away We Go is a full-fledged concept album, my enthusiasm for SuperLiteBike grew even more. I'm excited to hear more from this band! -Westy, BWF

- Big Western Flavor

I'll be honest, a lot of the submissions I get for this blog just don't fit, but every once in a while, something comes through that I absolutely love. Austin's Superlitebike impressed me. This track, "Unbelievable Party!!! Cool" not only impressed me with it's title, but also with the fact that it's an upbeat party track a la LCD Soundsystem. They have a new record coming out in May called Away We Go. Follow them on Twitter to get updated when the record drops.
- The Bomarr Blog

The latest “video flier” from Austin quintet SuperLiteBike — the band’s clever solution for a world where nobody pays attention to fliers anymore — starts humbly enough. The band members stroll through a residential neighborhood in South Austin, lead singer Patrick Husband crooning at the front of the group. Guitarists Jackson Ellis and Travis Larrew follow close behind, contributing strumming and harmonies, and Rob Edmiston brings up the rear with a snare drum.

In the soft afternoon sun, they parade down the street, performing as they pass a succession of standard South Austin sights: girls jumping rope, neighbors drinking beer in lawn chairs, children riding bicycles. As the song builds, the band stops in the middle of the street, and the cast of background extras encircles them and joins in singing. The cameraman moves to the top of a ladder for an overhead view, a sort of low-budget, DIY take on a crane shot.

It’s catchy, and impressive, and sort of inspiring. And it’s all done in a single take. Alfonso Cuarón, eat your heart out.


“We were watching OK Go videos, and they have one with them and a marching band going through a field, all in one long shot,” says Ellis. “And I thought it would be great if we did that shot where they get on one of those cranes and the camera lifts up, And we were like ‘Well, we could find a ladder.’”

That anything-goes, throw-it-at-the-wall spirit epitomizes SuperLiteBike. The progressive pop band — what other moniker could describe a band fusing ska-evoking trumpets, wall-of-sound guitar histrionics and Husband’s Thom Yorke-channeling wail — brings that enthusiasm to the Parish tonight, when the band plays a release show for debut album “Away We Go.”

Superlitebike will throw a dash of the oddball into its live show, with a group of dancers and a brass band on hand and plans to throw the odd glow stick or two into the audience.

“In Austin it’s become all too familiar — just a set,” Edminston says. “You go to see a set by a band, you might go for 45 minutes and probably you’re going to leave. We wanted to bring back the idea of making it a big production.”

The band wasn’t always that ambitious. Starting as Pocketful of Deng in 2004, SuperLiteBike’s members — sans new addition Chris Heckendorn, who alongside Edmiston plays in the LCD Soundsystem tribute band All My Friends — had a more low-key approach to performance. And that’s putting it charitably.

“We were getting stale with Pocketful of Deng,” says Ellis. “We used to be terrible back when we started, even. We just projected ourselves as cool. We would play shows and not even care to talk to anybody afterward. We were just a bunch of young little punk (expletives).”

Pocketful of Deng was born out of a Joe’s Crab Shack, where Husband met friends since childhood Larrew and Ellis. Edmiston joined after meeting the band at a party, insultingly asking band members if they played their guitars or merely wore them to look cool.

After five years, they brought on Heckendorn and changed their name when their more straightforward sound evolved into something new, blending the diverse interests of the band’s members, from bluegrass and gospel to opera.

Newly rechristened and enthusiastic, they’re a little less concerned with looking cool these days.

“None of us are Eric Clapton so we can’t just stand there and do this and look cool,” Ellis says. “You have to make an effort to make it appealing to people.”


SuperLiteBike celebrate their CD release tonight at the Parish, 214 E. Sixth St. with openers the Carrots and Fatback Circus. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $10 at the door, with proceeds from the event benefiting Grounded In Music.

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- Austin360.com

I noticed this video while checking out my comments on my MySpace page. The band is called Super Lite Bike, they come from Austin Texas, they write amazing tunes, and they make kick-ass video flyers for their gigs. Found this second promo vid produced for one of their previous shows (it’s not on youtube so I can’t embed it in wordpress). Check it out here.

Yeah, I think it’s an awesome idea too. I sent a mail to Super Lite Bike asking them how they got the idea and how long it took to edit the whole thing, and here’s what Jackson (bass and backings) responded shortly after:

The video game one took us about 4 hours. It was loads of fun. We ended up putting it out 2 days before the show, but we got a great response from it. The effects were all done by Jim Jones, a friend of ours who does the videos. The green screen was a fun shot: I had to run in place for about 2 minutes making weird faces. The guy that gets shot had to stay dead on the couch for about 30 mins.

The idea was really just to find a different way to get our shows out to as many people as possible. We all decided that the usual paper flyers are cool at the venue you’re gonna play at, but putting them up all over town is a waste of time and money.

We can get a video-flyer done for cheap and then just put that up on the net. We get way more people to see it than a normal flyer (about 1200 views for each video). If someone could guarantee us that a 1000 people would see our flyers on the street, we still probably wouldn’t do them. We’re in a more visual world nowadays: people just like to sit at their computers and take note of random crazy stuff. It’s also like giving someone a little gift from us. Our fans get to see something different – they get to see who we are, what we look like and get an idea of our personalities. It creates a much stronger bond with people than them just seeing a poster or a flyer on myspace.

Our good friend, Jose Jones got the idea for the videos. He films and edits (the editing process is usually a day or so). The guy is an up-and-coming director/genius here in Austin. He’s great and we’re just lucky to be good friends with him.

Yup, although traditional gig promotion is still a must in some respects, we are indeed in a visual world now, and interactive content is key to attract the increasing number of geeks on this planet.

Check out Super Lite Bike on MySpace: www.myspace.com/superlitebike

and Jose Jones on MySpace at: www.myspace.com/josejonesfilms

And while I’m on cool promo vids, here’s one from the very talented hip-hop/music 2.0 activist Wax (from www.myspace.com/waxandherbalt). Also check out his youtube channel – the dude has made around 20 handy-cam home-made vids and generated around 800 000 views (rough estimate), probably more. - The Gigdoggy Blog

"You have to give props to a band that would make the extra effort to actually film a video skit to promote their show. Plus, it's pretty funny. That last part cracks me up every time. Three cheers for SuperLiteBike.

It would be great more local bands embrace this kind of technology to get the word out about their shows. I'm sure that everyone has seen enough flyers already, and this just gives things a little more spice. In case the video was still not informative enough, you can find out more about this show at the link." - Mr. Curiosity

Radiohead's early guitar-based records removed the genre shackles from a lot of rock-oriented minds, five of which clearly belong to the members of Super Lite Bike. But though the band often blurs the lines of songwriting conventions while frontman Patrick Husband sings in the same disquieting upper register as Thom Yorke, Super Lite Bike puts a greater emphasis on rhythm than those lads from Oxford, with songs like "Unbelievable Party Cool" and "Raise The Colors" moving along basslines a touch more nervously funky than what Colin Greenwood usually commits to tape. - The Onion/ AV club

"Known for high energy live shows, SuperLiteBike debuts its reported sound with concept album, Away We Go. In order the songs sell “the story of a girl leaving the planet only to come back and realize that’s her home,” which serves as a metaphor for the offical launch of the band. Do yourself a favor and forget the back story just listen to the album. It’s good. The quintet mixes rock, indie and progressive/experimental sounds for a musical journey that may remind you of Radiohead, down to singer Patrick Husband’s vocals."
4 out of 5 Stars - Austin Monthy

I'll be honest, a lot of the submissions I get for this blog just don't fit, but every once in a while, something comes through that I absolutely love. Austin's Superlitebike impressed me. This track, "Unbelievable Party!!! Cool" not only impressed me with it's title, but also with the fact that it's an upbeat party track a la LCD Soundsystem. They have a new record out in May called Away We Go. Follow them on Twitter to get updated when the record drops. - Bomarr Blog

The Mohawk offers a uniquely Austin triple bill Wednesday evening, with headliners SuperLiteBike bringing the guitar-saturated,hook heavy progressive rock. Bouncy, groovy and eclectic, they offer plenty of evidence- if anyone needed it- that rock can be intriguingly experimental and accessible at the same time. With the nautically themed indie pop of Mermaid Blonde and the spiky post-punk of Perfect Pants.
Patric Caldwell, Austin 360 - Austin 360