Small Brown Bike - The River Bed

Through no fault of its own, The River Bed is the Small Brown Bike record I listen to the least. The main reason for that is that it didn't come with a download code; it misses out on all those times when I'm out and about and have a craving for SBB and has meant that I've found myself listening to the other records much more.

On top of that, I bought it in a flurry of SBB purchases that, in hindsight, I should have spread out better. In 2008 I got Dead Reckoning on cd and listened to it a lot. Three years later I bought their comeback album Fell & Found, which I got into pretty well. Then, just two months later I bought their debut, Our Own Wars and then another two months later this album and the Nail Yourself to the Ground EP at the same time. I got these two at Fest, two days after seeing them play an incredible set in the Florida Theatre (the very first set we saw at Fest); I was on a SBB high and wanted to complete my collection. The downside was that I also bought 14 other records in three days and couldn't play any of them until I got back to the UK. Between that and the lack of mp3s, it was a perfect storm of neglect.

It's a shame because The River Bed is an excellent album. It doesn't hit as hard as Dead Reckoning does (that's a very high standard to reach), but is a strong album. Deconstruct / Rebuild, Safe in Sound and A Declaration of Sorts all have huge choruses, which is unexpected after an album with no choruses at all - they make a great way to open the album. Sincerely Yours is another great song and The Outline of Your Hand Still Remains on My Hand is an unusually slow number that works surprisingly well. I feel that this album and the first have the most in common of all their albums (or maybe it's just that Dead Reckoning and Fell & Found are the only ones I got into well enough to truly tell apart).

This appears to be the black vinyl from the first pressing, but it seems unlikely that No Idea would still have copies of the original run eight years after it came out, so perhaps the Discogs listing has incorrect data. Either way, it's on black vinyl and pre-dates the 150g reissue in 2015. Also, they all list Tragically Ending as the first song on Side B, but here it closes Side A, so maybe it's all wrong on there. Doesn't really matter I suppose. No Idea used to keep a really detailed list of their pressing runs, but that appears to have fallen off the internet, which is a shame.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 10
Cost: £4.96 new
Bought: Fest
When: 30/10/11
Colour: Black
Etching: Side A: "When in doubt, floss" Side B: "Quadruple the garlic"
mp3s: None