Hey everyone. 

So, we just played our last show.  It was amazing, but I don't want this post to be the play-by-play.  Now that the door has been shut, I want to say a few things about this series of shenanigans and capers that we called Street Smart Cyclist.

In December of 2005 we were all standing in a freezing cold basement in Bethlehem, PA, intent on straight up ripping off Capn' Jazz and Braid.  I know for a fact none of us knew that this whole thing would turn out how it did.  What started off as murmurings between a few friends (actually, I didn't know Kevin at all), really turned out to be something special, and something that defined the past few years of my life.  I am so fucking proud of the music we wrote, and I can really say I was driven like a madman to write better music than I ever had for this band, to the point where I almost could no longer write music.

This band has made me laugh hysterically, want to rip my hair out, and, as of tonight, cry like a fucking baby.  I know I am still young, and have much to accomplish, but I feel like by the time my stint on earth has ended, this will be one of the great things I did with my time.  I came out of this with literally thousands of memories that I will always keep close to my heart, and 4 of my best friends.  Its definitely a cliché, but I would not trade these past 3 years for anything, nor would I do it differently if I had the chance.

Now for the important part of this post.  We are all really grateful for all the support we have received.  We have had so much encouragement, and so many second chances after fucking things up over and over.  People stuck with us through all the shitty times we had, and sang along loud during all the good times.  Thank you to everyone who booked us a show, let us crash on their floor, made us some food, and especially anyone that experienced our intense bouts with flakiness and somehow found it in their hearts to not hate us forever. 

Also!  All the fucking best band friends we made:  Algernon Cadwallader, Make Me, Know Think, Jacob and I, Lion of the North, Brainstorm, Yo Man Go!, Each Other's Mothers, Cheeky, and ESPECIALLY Slingshot Dakota.  Mad <3s for Tom and Carly forever for playing with us for what seems like half our shows, and being great, supportive, and inspiring friends.  Please continue to support all these bands!

We're almost done, I promise.

Thank you to the Lehigh Valley in general.  I can't name everyone, but thanks to Jordan for somehow booking 709832432 shows every year, Sam and Phil for always being there for us and putting on sweet shows at their house, and anyone that participated in wild, sweaty shows in the valley.

Just thank you in general to everyone!  We are all continuing to play music, so check this myspace out every once in awhile!

<3 Ross

HEY. We're going on tour in August with Algernon Cadwallader! We need some help getting a few shows, as we're visiting some new places this summer. Please let us know if you can help us out! If you see the word "HELP!" next to a date in our shows section, that indicates that we need help getting in touch with people. Get psyched!

love,
cyclist

kiss kitty on the lips

melissa, i found that smiths book you ordered. if i had some matches, i'd probably burn it. and i saw your sister slumping 'round borders with some older man. maybe stewart's father. melissa, if you made that move out to boston, i hope that you treat it well. better than you treated me. and i'm so scared. you are three blocks from me. what if you came in, what am i to do? we'd talk about nothing but being alone. (so much to explain. i'm glad it's lost on you, but thank you for the pity kitties. i'll repay the favor someday soon.) i'm so scared. (face it son, you've made up your mind too soon. i know it's wrong, but i wish you wouldn't have gone away.)

newz

in case you're wondering, the track we posted does not feature cody, our new singer. we recorded this while john galm was in the band. whatevz. we leave for mini tour in 14 days! get fucking stoked! and for the love of god, who doesn't exist, please find us a richmond, va show! shit is so tough! haha.

word.

xoxo
dave

hello internet.

i will take this precious time out of my boring friday night to inform you of what's going on in the universe of street smart cyclist.  i will deliver this information in a lightning-quick bullet format:

-we recorded 2 songs with our bud eric eisenberg.  actually, we still need to record backup vocals, and then do that mixing and mastering business.  we had recorded them for comps.  at least one will most definitely be on one, but the other one is up in the air.  fyi: these will end up being our last recordings with john on vocals.  the songs came our really really well, and we're stoked for everyone to hear them.

-the 7" is randomly available via the itunes store.  sweet!  it's only like 3 bucks.  nice!

-our glorious comeback show is october 20th at jon's apartment in the bushwick section of brooklyn.  know think and slingshot dakota are playing.  i probably could not think of two bands' worth of better people.  also, it's jon's birthday!  bring him a present, preferably alcohol.  this show is going to rule.

-if you can help with any of the dates on tour we still haven't booked, please let us know! 

-it seems our vocalist dilemma has been solved, at least on a short term scale, hopefully for the long-term however.  you'll probably just have to come to our next show to find out what we pulled out of our collective ass as a solution.  actually i'm sure someone will spill the beans before that.

-i think that's it.  take care everone!

<3 cyclist

we toured for 10 days at the end of july and met awesome people/beer. all of our friends have left for school and most of us are leaving too. the following thank you list is the last remaining piece of summer i have to hold onto (bring on the fuckin sweater weather, up the fall punx!!)

THANK YOU:
birth screams, all the kids who came back to the carhole after the show was over to see us, rota, army of kashyyyk, the nerve center, little jimmy, jimmy's brother, that killer bong i smoked out of while we waited for the rice to boil, the massage therapist, bloom, jasce, jasce's mom and her delicious vegan baked goods, jasce's dog that jumped like fucking 30 feet in the air when you spied on him through the mirror, emily, sarah, chancellor's ruritan club, cici's pizza, goats at the gas station, spazzatorium galleria!, the dude who booked the spazz show, kidcrash, will, sam, jesse, and sheina, knoxville dude whose house we played at, all the kids who came out in the pouring rain to his house after the venue switch, jake who rode on the floor of our van to louisville, the brickhouse, ben sears, his girlfriend?, the chips and salsa they provided us with, teesa, brainbanger, nice people, ooh da lally, black bear lair, the occupants of said house, kroger's, huge fucking cement skate park, erik, anne, mac, hannah, the guesthouse, fuckin doyle and lion of the north, announcement, the dude in wicker park who sold us the best weed i've ever smoked, millenium park, exchequer deep dish fuckin pizza, flash tacos, dudefest, fuck indianapolis that place sucks, lauren goik, fucking gatsby!, sketchy indiana campgrounds, jesse, jordan, europe gyro, gatsby's grandparents, storm the bastille, somehow omar romero, and fucking LORAIN!

lazer summer. it's been fun.

xoxo
cyclist

So...

We find ourselves sans John Galm once again, and this time, for good. I gotta be honest and say it wasn't the most amicable split, but we are all friends, and we'll all get over it. Friendships are often strained by being in bands together. It's life. Friendship always needs to come first, no matter how pissed you find yourself at someone, or at a group of people. I also think amazing music is sometimes made when bands are in their most tense stages, and I think the songs we've written since the original 3 on the 7" go something along the lines of that. I'm not saying they are amazing songs, I'm just saying we are really really fucking proud of them.

With that said, I wish John the best of luck in his musical endeavours, and although I'm really sad he couldn't put his heart into this band as much as I wanted him to, I hope he finds something he can.

This is such a bummer.

The Cyclist is not breaking up, and we will be actively pursuing a new vocalist. I mean shit, dudes, we fucking love this band. We love playing shows and going on tour. Ending this would be unbearably depressing. I feel like this is the first band I've ever been in that would actually bum people out if it broke up. This is really weird, but if you live in our general area, which would basically mean in the lehigh valley area, NYC and its surrounding areas, or anywhere in between (northern/central NJ), and would like to give singing for us a shot, please get in touch.

A few criteria (besides location):

1. be into playing a few shows a month, and be into going on tour over school breaks.

2. be into what we are doing/trying to do.

3. just have a general good attitude and like to have fun.

we recorded 2 songs with our good bud eric eisenberg. They are both for compilations at this point. John is recording vocals for them, but we will also get versions without vocals if anyone wants to record some sketchy vocals over them to send to us.

So I'm going to bring this to a close. Personally, this band is one of the few things in my life that I still really enjoy with all my heart. It sucks I can't share this experience with one of my best friends any longer, but I can't give it up, and Dave, Jon, and Nate feel the same way. We will continue to write songs in the meantime, simultaneously searching for a vocalist So I'm going to pray that we find someone and we can start playing shows again sometime in the fall, because we all look fucking adorable in sweaters.

love,
ross + jon, dave, and nate

our first show of tour is 4 days from now. we are stoked.

we are in the process of recording 3 acoustic songs with some wacky percussion and wurlitzer organ which will be available at our shows on tour in some form. we love doing everything at the last minute.

we only have one more show scheduled after that at this opint, which is andrew's festival in august in brooklyn, but hopefully we can play a few LV shows before the summer ends.

take care, and we hope to see you on tour!

love,
cyclist

ssc got some h0tt new emo jamz cookin 4 deez june showz, r011in out tha gate like some bullz wit they nuttz cut off! kiss kitty on the lips, girlz feet, and the human map says were fucked

also about to present some buuuurrnin new pins too featuring some baby bottles and blocks, berfday balloons, and some of my parents knick knacks askin some pertinent QUESTIONS

(i just broke up with my girlfriend i'm so bum drunk holy shit)

yo. we played a show in burlington, VT with storm the bastille. it was supposed to be a 2 or 3 day weekend tour, but shit fell through. we said "fuck it, let's go anyway", and made the long trek in two sedans. here are some pictures.



dave, ross, brooklyn, and vitamin water.







an elusive sighting of storm the bastille during morning hours.







some nice bridge somewhere in new york.







hope you don't encounter any trouble in this taco bell bathroom in connecticut.







directions. sketchy handwriting courtesy of myself.







beautiful view from this gem of a chinese restaurant we ate at in vermont.







dave looking fucking creepy on some throne.







kevin and lewis doing some bonding.







merch table budz







state street residential, featuring our gracious host, johnny. he took us to a weird supermarket, then we watched youtube videos and the botch dvd in his attic.







storm the bastille. this was not long before joey would stick his fingers into the eye sockets of a skeleton.







matty yelling something







skeleton in a coffin, which was taken from a trap door behind a bench. don't ask.







joey sticking his fingers in the eye sockets of a skeleton.



lake champlain. where the fuck is champ?







jon, kevin, and champ. check out jon's awkward photo smile.






sweet mountains






more sweet mountains.





the trip fucking ruled. play music and travel with your best friends. nothing beats it.

hey. thanks to everyone who came to our release show. it feels real good when you all sing along. also, double thank-you if you bought a 7".

check this out for some pics from the show taken by phil and chrisxxxxxxxthomas:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/streetsmartcyclist/sets/72157594563918055/

if you search for us youtube, you'll find three videos from the show, also provided by phil, but not by chrisxxxxxxxxxxxthomas.

we still have lots of records left. go buy one! go to www.ourneighborhoodrecords.com to order one via internet, or we'll have them at our shows coming up.

as you may know, john galm has parted ways with us. we still love him, and will probably hang out and play video games with him a lot. the singer from fall out boy will be filling in. or not. isn't it sad i don't know his name, but i know pete wentz? but i digress...

we are thinking of recording 2 songs for a split with a unconfirmed band, but the band's name rhymes with blow shrink. these songs will be our last recordings with john.



that's it!

-ross