Small Brown Bike :: Smallman Records

Small Brown Bike

Intelligent punk rock with honest sweetness thrown in.

Small Brown Bike was born years ago in a small garage located in Marshall, Michigan. Four lifelong friends using parts of old and new bikes created one ‘frankenstein’ bike that would take them further than they imagined. Today Small Brown Bike has taken on a whole new meaning.

Small Brown Bike is composed of brothers, Mike and Ben Reed on guitar and bass, respectively, Travis Dopp on guitar and Jeff Gensterblum on drums. After two self-released seven-inches, the band was offered a helping hand from No Idea Records (Gainesville, Florida). Nothing short of astounded and flattered, the band immediately went to work on the new songs and recorded their first full-length entitled, Our Own Wars (July 1999). From then, they haven’t stopped.

In the spring of 2001 they released their second full-length, Dead Reckoning on No Idea. The album was recorded at Red House Recordings in Eudora, KS with Ed Rose (The Get Up Kids, Coalesce,
Casket Lottery, Reggie & The Full Effect). It was instantly praised as a ‘…powerful and enormous’ step for the band.

In the spring of 2003, Small Brown Bike moved from their long time home at No Idea Records to work with Lookout Records and Smallman Records for their upcoming releases. As their final No Idea release, the band wrote 5 songs for the Nail Yourself To The Ground EP (released by Smallman in Canada). Mixing the intensity of Dead Reckoning with a new found song writing maturity, the five songs on the EP moved punk rock in a whole new direction and were just a hint of the brilliant songs that were yet to come.

Their last album - The River Bed - on Smallman/Lookout! was hailed as one to watch for by the indie press. The 10 tracks were recorded at Tempemill in Detroit MI and subsequently mixed in Omaha NE at Presto Studios - the home of bands such as Cursive, Bright Eyes and the Faint. It is these influences that are clearly evident on this amazing album.

Upon it’s release, the band did two months of intense touring to critical acclaim, only to unfortunately break up in early 2004. If you close your eyes real tight, and tap your heels together, they might come back from time to time as they have in the past couple of years. Spotted doing one-off reunion shows at The Fest and various ports along Lake Michigan.