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 Review by: Scott See others by this writer ![[staff]](/images/icons/staffsticker.gif){kind=icon}
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Published on September 16th 2003
In my review of Small Brown Bike's Nail Yourself To The Ground EP a few months ago, I tried to be clever and compare this band's career to that of Cursive, another band who has been around for roughly the same time and put in roughly the same amount of legwork to get to their current level of popularity [selling out thousand person venues, getting consistent plays on M2, and raking in critical praise]. I said that with Small Brown Bike's upcoming full-length, they'd be poised to make that same jump into spotlight that their friends had already completed. People who liked this also liked:        ![Alkaline Trio - Remains [CD/DVD]](/images/covers/thumb/alkaline_trio-remains.jpg)   Please login or register to post comments. What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?
This is one of the best albums i own, those of you who have given less than 5 stars need to revisit this. If i knew what those dudes did to get this sound id kill for it. A lesson to remember is one of the most anthemic tracks of all time adn every track is pretty much the same. Best small brown bike without a doubt too much talk, not enough rock. In my humble opinion that is. the idea that 'the river bed' is a safe album seems a bit absurd to me. if it was safe then all of us fucks wouldn't be complaining about the lack of gruf in the vocals blah blah blah. in this sense, dead reckoning is a much more safe album considering the lack of obvious progression from 'our own wars'. they could have just made 'our own wars pt. 3' and the majority would have shit their pants in excitement. but they didn't make the same safe album. instead, they made an amazing new album with more layers and cleaner vocals but with as much sincerity and heart as ever. don't get me wrong, i love their first 2 albums, and still listen to them regularly, but i am just glad to have another great option to choose from. the one point you are forgetting is that there was a gap inbetween burst and bloom and the ugly organ. good you give a shittier review?....of course your not gonna like it if your stuck on their old albums(from 3 years ago imight ad). you have to come at this album with a whole new perspective. this is a different band. they're not 20 years old anymore and i personally think this album shows it..maturity...something the other albums didn't have(i do love them though). great album in my opinion. its good but slow, definitely for rainy days. not enough screaming, but still passionate. its basically a safe record. their next record will either be extremely good and maybe groundbreaking or will pretty much end their career. this is like a last chance for them kind of. the production on our own wars sucks. Well they no longer sound like HWM to me. this is my favorite sbb album, good stuff. "A Scream in Silence" is one of the best songs they've ever done. They've been doing it live for over a year now, and each time I heard it live, it blew me away. It took me a few listens, but I've gotten really into this record. You pretty much said exactly what I was thinking, too, Scott. I was absolutely blown away by how good the EP was (minus that country shit), so my expectations may have been too high for this. But I've had this for a good month now, and I still can't get into it. Word to Ramo, though, SBB live is definitely where it's at. Since I've lived all over MI, I've had the pleasure of seeing them all over the place, and they never ever disappoint. I'd agree with most everyone (sorry wyzo) that this is not SBB's best work. i will listen to it probably about as much as i listen to Dead Reckoning, but not nearly as much as i listen to Our Own Wars and Collection. they seem to lose the intensity and fierce edge on too many tracks. There are a few gems on this record however. the aforementioned Scream In The Silence is great, as is Safe In Sound, Deconstruct/Rebuild, and, my personal favorite, A Lesson To Remember. This same album, however, contains one of the worst SBB songs ever written, that being Sincerely Yours. I can't stand that song. anyways, i was gonna write a review on this but you beat it to me Scott; i guess i'll just have to settle for this comment. oh, and No Idea doesn't make bands, they just discover great ones... this review captured my sentiments 100% exactly. it almost catches what nail yourself to the ground did, in a totally different manner than dead reckoning, but it gets dull as it progresses. it's not what i was hoping for and i hope the next one comes out soon to wash this all away. --citizen exactly! Ya'll are dummies! I'll be getting this LP in the mail shortly (I hope, anyways) released by No Idea Records. How stupid! I only spent $6 on it, too! BWAHAHAHA! That's what you lame-os get for buying CDs instead of LPs. Plus, I think it's dumb that you think this record would be better if they'd stuck with No Idea. At least, I hope that's not what you're actually saying. Youd b prety dum. your right sweetsugarpez. it could be their worst album they did but it's still better than all the rest of the shit i'm hearing right now. SBB live is where it's at though. travis is mad funny. i went through my used to dead reckoning phase, for the first couple days of this album, but its a very cohesive and self contained record like reckoning, and in a week you'll all love it. although i havent spun this enough times to give a completely fair judgement, i was a bit dissapointed with "the river bed". it just seems to lack the intensity of "our own wars" or "dead reckoning". granted, both those albums grew on me more and more the longer i listed to them; hopefully "river bed" will too. i suppose i will come back in a few weeks with a fairer review/comment. i agree that maybe SBB should have stuck with no idea a bit longer... great label. dont get me wrong, this disc is better than 99% of all the other shit out there, but may be SBB's worst* album. either way, these guys rock and i cant wait till they come to atlanta. This album really sucks record of the year. Ill shove a spoke in your ear. Phenomenal record, amazing progression, huge bigness. Fix the MP3 links assclown! i agree with your review of this album scott. i too was a lil disappointed when i receive this in the mail early yesterday. "scream in the silence" is one of my fav tracks along with "safe in sound" but you're right about the whole album. the songs don't stink but they are more or less the same song. not as diverse as "dead reckoning" or "nail yourself to the ground" for that matter. hopefully they would come back strong for their next record but for now i wish they stayed on No Idea for a lil while. i like this album a lot. |
