Dangerously Creative: This Bike is a Pipe Bomb

What’s in a name? This Bike is a Pipe Bomb is a three piece band from Pensacola, Florida, who play a style dubbed or maybe duped “punk-country” and What’s in a name? This Bike is a Pipe Bomb is a three piece band from Pensacola, Florida, who play a style dubbed or maybe duped “punk-country” and “folk punk.” TBIAPB was treading the boards of basements, garages and small town pizza parlors in the respectable D.I.Y. tradition long before former label mates Against Me? and present Plan-It-X Records’ cohorts Defiance and Ohio—two bands to whom comparisons are often made.

They are another classic American tale of a band who has worked their asses off year after year touring in less than road worthy vehicles and playing in black molded basements in Cooterville, Iowa for nothing other than shits, giggles and occasionally gas money while more “marketable” bands find commercial success with a style that they themselves did not create or even popularize.

In fact, This Bike is a Pipe Bomb are better known for their merchandise than they are for their music. They are notorious for their little black stickers which adorn bicycles worldwide and are infamous for the controversy these stickers have caused.

In the Spring of 2006 the owner of a bike bearing the band’s sticker was arrested and charged with “inducing panic” in Athens, Ohio. The bike was later destroyed in a controlled explosion by Athens police. The police eventually dropped the charges and the bike was replaced, but not before making complete jackasses out of themselves nationally.

Later that month, a similar incident at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia led campus police to evacuate the Art and Sciences building.

In February of 2009, a bike with one of the stickers parked at the Memphis International Airport raised a passing pilot’s eyebrow which subsequently led to the entire terminal being evacuated. The owner was arrested, but soon after released.

The name was chosen because of the bands affinity for bicycles and because it was “long and stupid” according to them, but if the band were marketing masterminds it wouldn’t surprise me. Here is an interview with TBIAPB:

How long have you all been friends?

Terry: We have been friends for over 15 years! Teddy is living in San Francisco now, and Modee and I both own vegan restaurants, so we don’t get to see each other much - but these are two of my oldest and greatest friends! I love them and would do anything in the world for both of them. It’s family.

Ted: Since before the Night Owl Closed.

Rymodee: Ah Jesus, that’s a tough one. I met Terry in 1990? Ted I probably met in ‘92 or ‘93. We all looked GOOD back then.

What’s the smallest show you’ve ever played?

Terry: The smallest place we’ve played I would say was the shed behind a trailer in D’iberville, Mississippi. We played there a bunch and it was awesome - it was so small it was actually called the little house (although a kitchen we played in Berkeley once rivals it closely - there were people folded up on top of the fridge and Modee played most of the show standing on Teddy’s bass drum! I couldn’t stop laughing).

Ted: Stanton Street, Berkeley.

Rymodee: Definitely the four-plex apartment kitchen in Asheville.

What’s the strangest venue you’ve ever played?

Terry: the Fairview Inn in Talkeetna, Alaska - a roadhouse that president Mckinley stayed in when he was stealing Denali from the indigenous people and maybe that bad juju is still there… and maybe it’s not actually the strangest venue, but definitely one of the strangest nights we’ve ever had. The Fairview’s claim to fame in my book is that Mckinley got food poisoning there and almost died!

Ted: Joplin, Missouri. They made us sign forms saying we wouldn’t preach or swear.

Rymodee: Another impossible correct answer is: we have played bathrooms, on top of stoves, auto junkyards and just too many odd places.

If you were playing in any town at this very moment what would that town be?

Terry: It would probably be one of the amazing squats in Germany - do we get to manipulate space and time, or just space…?? I think I’ve had too many great times and made too many good friends in too many places - it’s ridiculous to choose - I would love to have ONE MORE NIGHT in mission records in San Francisco or relive that magic night in Miami, but that’s that time thing… sadly.

Rymodee: We love so many cities, it’s hard to say. It would be really awesome for me if we could all play here in Pensacola just once.

Where will you never play again?

Terry: The one city we’ve boycotted since the first time we played there and had a terrible experience with a local band we played with called “The Boyfriends” (They wanted to fight us and accused us of stealing money when we didn’t get paid a dime, and then their super mall girlfriends showed up and wanted “a piece” of us too…). It was weird and sad and we’ve never gone back to the city of Sarasota. All the kids who showed up to the show were awesome though - thanks for having our back that night!

Rymodee: I will not ever again willingly set foot in Danville, Illinois.

Ted: What Modee said.

Your band has chosen not to network by way of Myspace or Facebook. Could you shed some light on your choice to do things the old fashioned way?

Terry: For different reasons I guess… it’s fun to tour and to visit friends and see the planet in a way that I could never have if not for this band, BUT when you are driven by popularity or the struggle for a larger and larger audience you start making bad decisions and what do you want really - a wax figure of you in some weird side show after you die… c’mon… just play music and have a good time!

Rymodee: Actually i think Teddy finally broke down and made a weird Myspace thing. I personally hate Myspace and kind of think of it as the Walmart of the music scene. The death of the flyer, the exact looking page for every band, the death of the demo tape, the death of having to physically search for anything of value, the way they magically know everything about you and your real friends. It’s all too much for an aging technophobe like myself.

Ted: I did finally do a Myspace page for two reasons: The first is that most people only hear about shows on the internet and we can’t remember when the shows are anyway. The second is that someone did a TBIAPB page which had a lot of fans and people thought it was our page and we had no way to answer the questions people had for us. I do still prefer making flyers and handing them to humans.

Has there been any benefit from the controversy surrounding your bands stickers?

Terry: There have been so many questions about our stickers (which, of course, are much more popular than we are). Every band makes band stickers - it’s not that weird, but these things have a life of their own. (oh, and i am pretty sure they have both Myspace and Facebook!) - can you Twitter a sticker?

Ted: Uh, not really. I was excited that Al Frankin talked about us on his radio show though.

Rymodee: You mean besides us being filthy rich with new record deals being offered every month and clothing lines? No.

Which one of you is the best cook? Which one of you is the best dancer?

Terry: Teddy and Modee are better cooks - but I am BY FAR the better dancer!

Rymodee: Actually we are all incredibly competent in the kitchen. Both Terry and I own two completely different vegan restaurants here in Pensacola and Ted is no stranger to the skillet. I’d like to think of us as food lovers. Touring with absolutely no money for years forced us to cook all the time, sometimes cooking for the promoter, the other touring bands, and even people at the show.

Which one of us is the best dancer? We’re kind of like the Voltron of dancing. Separately we’re all right, but put us together and we’ll make you go blind. Just ask the citizens of Germany.

Ted: Let the size of our tummies decide. Dancer? Depends on who drank the most. Well, I guess all of us.

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Come see This Bike is a Pipe Bomb and get them drunk enough to dance this Wednesday, 9.9.9 at the Aquarium at 9:30 for $3-5 with Sweet Destruction from Brooklyn, Frozen Teens from Minneapolis and local heavyweights The Guys and The Babysitter’s Club. Yay!

Visit http://www.plan-it-x.org/ to peruse their catalog.

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