NEWS NEWS
Well, Its somewhat fitting that English Motorbike play their farewell gig at the same place they played their first gig almost four years ago. Jimmi Bak has been most magnanimous and generous over the years. Thanks for everything Jimmi!
English Motorbike in their hiatus has been working on a new set of recordings, some new songs and recorded interpretations of a couple of rock standards. If the stars are aligned correctly and all is well in the recording industry, there could be a new CD ready and available at the gig. But for that only the cosmos knows! Even if it is not ready, the songs will be and your beloved bikers will play all the songs from the CD.
Joining English Motorbike will be their friends Traphook. Traphook is led by fellow rocker (and architect) Ryan Flautz with one time EMB substitute drummer Chris Ramirez. This is the second show we've played with Ryan, Chris and Traphook, and it will be a blast.
Following the sets by EMB and TH will be a musician's jam starting 'round midnight (well probably before that) that will include members of the bands plus an assortment of fellow musicians and colleagues. You just don't know who will show up.
So please
come down to see and hear English Motorbike for the last time in Southern
California
Well, there has been some leather pants splitting news!…..Soon English Motorbike will no longer carry on as before. At least one of the members is moving out of the state to the land of Bob Dylan, The Replacements, Soul Asylum, and the-artist-formerly-known-as-The-Artist-Formerly-Known-as-Prince-now-know-as-Prince-again, plus others. For those who don't know where these great musicians came from, it's Minnesota. Billy will be getting married in February and moving to his brides homeland of southern Minnesota just south of Minneapolis.
The bittersweetness of this event brings great sadness but also joy. Sadness for the obvious fact that we will no longer be able to make the kind of noise we have all gotten used to, that we will no longer share the comraderie or microphone, experience all the gigs, recording, song writing, or beers as English Motorbike. But we can share the joy in knowing that Billy has found love.
There will be at least one last show and we promise to make it a good one, a celebration of the life of a band. Stay tuned...
EMB will be back in the studio working on several new songs to be ultimately compiled into their next CD release. Included in the sessions will be a couple of their favorite covers you've no doubt heard at their shows, the Yardbird's Heart Full of Soul and Pete Townsend's The Seeker. There are several new original songs as well. They hope to get it packaged and available shortly thereafter.
English Motorbike is proud to announce they will play the world famous Coach House in San Juan Capistrano with the one and only, Grammy Award winning DAVE ALVIN and his band, The Guilty Men. www.thecoachhouse.com
Dave Alvin 
Dave Alvin is considered by some to be one the greatest singer-songwriters to come out of Los Angeles. His music and songs strike a nerve that is purely Californian. He writes of scenes in and around the L.A. basin where he grew up and the great American road that he constantly travels. He is a musicologist and student Americana, an Alexis de Tocquville of modern roots music.
Dave was once the master songwriter (and lead guitarist) for Southern California's Blasters who were one of the best bands to come out of Los Angeles in the late 70's. Their soulful roots oriented sound was often inappropriately called rockabilly, but it was a sound cut much deeper into the soul of true American music with a sound that captured the eclectic influences that made Dave and his brother Phil pick up the guitar. It will be a real treat to share the stage with the great Dave Alvin. http://www.davealvin.com
Well, it happened quietly and quickly...English Motorbike has added to their line up of musicians, long time friend and keyboardist, Paul Warner. Paul has been associated with the group before we were a group. He was the piano player (don't call him a pianist for your own sakes) with a band Billy played in in another lifetime and even attended the same high school, junior high, and elementary school with Steve. Now that's OLD SCHOOL. But his playing is anything but old school. He has added a new dimension to our sound, adding a sonic blend of of sounds and rhythm to the purcussive and melodic sections. We are really happy Paul is with us. In the past few months he has played a few shows with us and has been recording overdubs on the current batch of songs we have been working on in the studio.
We look forward to a long and creative relationship. Welcome into the fold my brother.
Available on iTUNES 
Available at Amazon.com or from CD BABY
Available on April 15th at the CD Release Party at the Coach House. Get a free CD with every ticket. Email us for tickets. englishmotorbiker@yahoo.com.
Available April 15th
Yes, its true. Sitting on the drum stool backing up Steve and Billy and groovin with Mike to make one of the tighest rhythm sections this side of Wyman and Watts is the newest member of EMB, MICK ROSEN! Mick debuted with English Motorbike at the OCMA Finals at the Gypsy Lounge on March 12th. After auditioning dozens of would-be EMB stickmen, Mick was the standout and quickly fell right in. We look forward to a long and creative relationship. Welcome to the crew my brother.
Also on the bill will be the roots rock legends and purveyors of their brand of American music, The Blasters
All the pre-planing and tireless efforts by our blues partners in this endeavor, The Mudflaps, has for now resulted in a postponement of the recently promoted English Motorbike CD Release Party at Martini Blues April 2, 2005! Too bad, because for us it was going to be a cathartic night of electric blues, and sharing the culmination of our holed-up existence for the last three months in the recording studio, paining over the most subtle nuances in the mixing of the 12 songs contained within the disc. We were so looking forward the CD release at this show. But alas, complications conspire to prevent us from sharing this work with you, this way for the time being. For this we are truly sorry to you all and will be scheduling a make up show and soon.
The Coach House is becoming English Motorbike's home away from home. The shows are always good and they get to play with some of the best acts in the industry. This time they will be opening up for that little band from Downey California, The Blasters. The Blasters and the members of English Motorbike share many things. They both emerged at about the same time from about the same area outside of Los Angeles with a love for real American music. EMB will be playing many of the songs from their new CD that they have been spending much of the past few months working on. It will be a great show, one not to miss and will not tax your wallet on that day of sharing with Uncle Sam.
Check out the UPCOMING SHOWS section for all the info on the show and venue links.
The 2005 Orange County Music Award nominations are underway and your beloved bikers have been nominated for best live band. This will be the third year in a row that EMB has been involved in this competition. The 2004 OCMAs had English Motorbike going to the second round of the competition. The first show in the Best Live Band competition will be held at The Gypsy Lounge in Lake Forest on Wednesday night January 19th at 8:15PM. Please come out to support your bikers.
The Coach House is turning out to be a home venue for your beloved bikers. This time we have been asked to play with the Beat Farmers, one of the famous alternative bands to emerge from San Diego in the 90's. Also on the bill will be handsome BILLY ZOOM, the guitarist who gives the Los Angeles veteran punk band X its distinctive sound. JUST ADDED to the bill is the one the only DAVE ALVIN, the brain of those boys from Downey, The BLASTERS. Email for tickets.
The 2005 Orange County Music Award nominations are underway and your beloved bikers have been nominated for best live band. This will be the third year in a row that EMB has been involved in this competition. The 2004 OCMAs had English Motorbike going to the second round of the competition. The first show in the Best Live Band competition will be held at The Gypsy Lounge in Lake Forest on Wednesday night January 19th at 8:15PM. Please come out to support your bikers.
After completing all the summer shows, the band prepares for their next recording session. Bill and Steve have been working on some new material that they will fine tune with the band before heading back into the studio to record the new songs. The rest of September and first few weeks in October will be devoted to rehearsing for the coming sessions. The sessions will be held at TRU-One Studios, the site of their last recordings. The band may invite some "guests" to join them in the studio. All the songs recorded will be complied with the five songs they finished in January this year to make up their first CD package. Look for it to be complete for Christmas.
A few months ago Dave Davies suffered a stroke but was soon feeling well enough to resume his U.S. tour. He was scheduled to play at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on October 29th with English Motorbike. However, as of Wednesday September 15th he has cancelled his tour "to be on the safe side" according to spokesman Robert Rowland. He is recovering and is "almost 100% recuperated" but the tour was cancelled as a precautionary measure. Get well Dave and come to California soon. Your fans and English Motorbike will be waiting for you!
The boys will be playing a gig at the Coach House on October 29, 2004...Opening for the founder and lead guitarist of the KINKS, Dave Davies!
Check out the UPCOMING SHOWS section for all the info on the show and KINKS links.
VIDEO NEWS
The Born
Under a Bad Sign video we introduced on the site since last month has had
a fair amount of problems. For those of you who have tried to see it in the
GALLERY section but could not, do not fret.
We will soon have the problem worked out. It is a problem that we are trying
to remedy by having it displayed in the more pc friendly Windows Media Player.
If you have a Mac with Quick Time installed, you should have had
no problem. However, if you have windows and want to view it, you can down load
Quicktime by now clicking on the Quicktime logo. This will allow
you to see a postage
stamp version of this fine video. Within the next week or so, we should have
the problems worked out and have a WMP version up and running for all to see.
Stay tuned.
The video was filmed
at our show we did at the Boogie in Anaheim on June 18th. Masterfully filmed
by our webmaster, JC Preuss, it really captures the excitement of the song and
shows why it is one of our favorite live songs.
Stay tuned for more EMB buzz...
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