The Connection

Every story needs a soundtrack. Just ask Mike Getches of Fort Collins-based Ride Your Bike who penned an imaginative screenplay to serve as the foundation for his addictive brand of indie pop....as well as his band's debut album. The musical companion to a wartime story, Bad News From The Bar is a lush soundscape that finds childhood friends Elliot and Lillian drifting apart due to Elliot's big city dreams. It's only through encounters with drug-addicted neighbors, police interrogators and fiery plane crashes that the pair ultimately discover what's really important. Getches' narrative sensibility and songwriting ability is innovative, unique and simply unforgettable. He boldly rejects pop's routine formula, seizing instead the genre's affinity for melody and injecting it with unpredictability and whimsy. Getches' voice is warm, soaring but tempered with fragility. But unlike so many bands, Ride Your Bike avoids overwrought emotionalism, instead creating indie anthems peppered with unusual instrumentation like horns, strings and gang vocals. The album overflows with catchy hooks and airtight sing-along choruses, proving Getches to be a true pop craftsman with more than a few eye-opening tricks up his sleeve. Produced by Andrew Berlin and Chris Jak (A Wilhelm Scream, Suicide Machines, Lemonheads, Rise Against), engineered by Johnny Schou (Good Riddance, Comeback Kid) and mixed by Jason Livermore (Rise Against, Less Than Jake, The Ataris).