If you’re a fan of college radio then you need no (or little) introduction to Long Beach’s Bikeride. If you’re not aware of them, imagine the band Beulah on a trip to central America while dropping Prozac as their drug of choice.

A brave concoction of instruments and influences come together on each song to create something completely derivative and yet completely new. There is no better example of this than their latest effort, “The Kiss”. It’s not officially released until March 6, but official releases be damned - it’s already available on iTunes and CDBaby seems to be selling out of copies on a weekly basis.

It’s not just the new album that’s kept Bikeride busy as of late. They recently appeared performing “Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite” on a Mojo magazine compilation commemorating the 40 year anniversary of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonley Hearts Club Band. They’re the feature in the premier issue of the video magazine Ground Control and despite a history of rare live performances (the only official date in support of the last album, 2002’s “Morning Macumba” was at a festival in Japan), Bikeride is taking the stage again with a home town gig on March 3 at Di Piazza’s.

Their revamped website is launched today (full disclosure: I’m heavily involved with this site in many aspects. -TJ) at Bikeride.info and the blitz has begun. What would a blitz be without answering Superstarcastic’s Five Questions? Or offering a free MP3 off of the new album for download? Here, for your pleasure, are both.

Download Hideaways from “The Kiss” - released officially March, 6. (2.8 MB)

1. when historians listen to your most recent CD 1000 years from now, what will they say?
“Take this off and put on that Justin Timberlake CD again.”

2. if you could play a show with any band/musician living or dead, who would you pick and why?
Probably The Beatles. It would only last for a couple minutes though because I’d probably try to take over. I’m worse than Paul.

3. what is the strangest band-related dream (one of) you have had?
I dreamt Sean worked for Heidi Fleiss and he was the biggest male prostitute in LA. That’s why he was so busy on the weekends. This may or may not be true actually.

4. what do your fans look like?
Usually short and Asian but really everybody. Bikeride represents all colors and creeds, all languages and lands. We are Internationalists. Mostly short Asians though.

5. what bullshit do you run into at most every show that makes you think “man, this bullshit again?”
That’s easy- they always forget to remove the green M&M’s from the bowl in our backstage catering.

bonus question: why won’t you forget to tip your bartender?
My bartender lost his arms in Nam so what the hell is he gonna do with a tip?

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