"I'd like a time trial helmet, made out of hair, please"
We’ve remarked many times on the connection between the pained musician and the Cyclist. Layne Staley and Marco Pantani being a prominent example of a reflection in a pond of mental strife. Perhaps something about finding strength – or at least some kind of peace – through suffering is a personality trait that Cycling shares with being an Artist. But sometimes it is much more simple than that. Sometimes, you just want to get psyched to get out and ride. Or to stay in and ride, as the case may be. @blackpooltower lets us in on his own dirty little secret.
Yours in Cycling, Frank
Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee and the other assorted Ramones like Linda (yes, really, I checked) might not look like God’s gift to the performance-minded cyclist, despite Johnny’s quite aero hair, but in fact they’re practically a secret weapon.
I’d love to say that my training is all Man-With-Hammer-seeking epics and Moser hill repeats but frankly I live in central London, an hour from anything resembling countryside so, whisper it, I do also spend some time on the turbo. Filthy habit, I know. Sorry.
Although, you know what? Graeme Obree did a fair bit of indoor training and if it’s good enough for the JK Rowling of cycling (which is to say: made it with no one’s help, on welfare/benefits, therefore a total hero) then it’s good enough for me.
Of course indoor training is a bleak prospect without music. And it can’t just be any music. It has to be the right music.
So, if there wasn’t a band whose entire output was recorded at between 90 and 100 bpm, with irrepressible energy levels and just the right blend of anti establishment individualism (totally fake in Johnny’s case), catchiness and outright dumbness to keep an underperforming wanabe racer spinning those stupid fan blades round for one more effort … you’d have to invent them, no?
But no need. The Ramones, AKA punk rock pot belge, exist. Or at least their music does, and that’s the bit you need.
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
@ped
YES! And try like hell I've never been able to play that like Mr Cash did. And for YEARS I'd tried dammit. I still try! Folks, I don't care what anyone says but their latest, the freebee that showed up on my iPhone one day, is a DAMN GOOD album. No one plays music every day for decades and some of it doesn't suck. yea yea yea, so some U2 music sucks. But I gotta say, some of it all is gems beyond gems. My humble opinion but wtf do I know? Cheers all
@ped
Not to mention some of Negativland's finest work.
https://youtu.be/AVroc7RvNeU
@Frank - I just luuurve JCM800s. I had a master vol 2 x 12, 50W combo back in the day, run into 4 x 12 plexi cab. I was living in (very) Central London at the time with no neighbours (apart from a knocking shop downstairs.) Used to run a long lead from the living room to the kitchen and let the partition wall act as an organic powerbrake. You could hear it from an 4 blocks away - totally freaked out the crowd boozing outside the local downstairs.
I've always been more nihilistic grunge on the turbo. Numbing, grinding pain tunes. Fortunately not crept into that particular pain cave since the move....
@fenlander
THAT’S what i’m talking about!
@RobSandy
that JVM is the very tits. i toured the southern US with a couple JCM2000 DSL50s i modified myself, about 15 years ago. i am not a big fan of most JMPs, 800s, or 900s. the dsl2000s and jvm series, OTOH.. SUPER.
@frank
unlike (seemingly) most U2 fans, i LOVE that record, and the movie, too.
my interval training music tends toward Electric Wizard, Windhand, Sleep, etc. the deeper and slower i can get my mind working, the deeper i can suffer. this is a great thread, and one i missed when it was new.
@frank
are you quite sure you have enough dirtboxes? where’s the Rat, Frank?
@Cary
Wow, I posted that picture ages ago. Super ages, like, when Frank still talked to us.
My only regret with the JVM is that I don't use it enough. I had a few failed attempts to get a band together some years ago, and I put it all away when I found cycling. I really don't have time for both. And trying to find like-minded musicians in my area was draining my will to live.
But when you get that amp cranked up and the tubes start glowing...the sound is incredible.
Funny enough, I was messing with my pedalboard this weekend. The Bontragor Slow-Motion (the green pedal on the top row) was causing loads of problems, causing the signal to drop out for the whole board. So I took it out and now have space on the pedalboard for an extra pedal. Any suggestions? I don't really go in for modulating my sound much, like flange or chorus.
TBH I could probably do with the Big Muff and a Delay and nothing else.
@RobSandy
it’s not easy to maintain a balance between music and health. music is decidedly unhealthy, in 2017, too. as far as your board, i just got into using a sub-octave pedal, which i’ve never used. i have a good bit of experience with an Octavia, but as far as an octave down, none. either type of pedal is fun, and has loads of uses.