"mEMOries" Part 31 feat. Bicycle Inn

9 years ago, back on the old site, we did start a series called mEMOries. It was all about asking new Emo-bands or other scene affiliates about their all time favourite (Midwest-)Emo-record. It was about nostalgia. And it was about connecting the new with the old. I had big plans for this series, wanted to collect 20 parts and then release some sort of a sampler with an XL-booklet attached, that features all of the text pieces...

...after 7 parts the series was buried, when the end of borderline fuckup 1.0 was on the horizon. I'm still in love with the idea and tried my best to start a relaunch in 2021, but it mainly was a chore. However, I got back on track somehow, with a lot of support by some lovely people. Now, here's part 31 for your reading pleasure!

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// The band // Bicycle Inn

Hailing from Attleboro, Massachusetts, BICYCLE INN formed in the Mid-2010s. Since then they've recorded three EPs and a full legnth album and played lots of gigs. For "mEMOries" Part 31, their singer/guitarist Noah picked a record that had a major impact on his life.

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// The record // The Hotelier - Home, like NoPlace is there

Release: 2014 // Label: Tiny Engines

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Noah on "Home, like NoPlace is there" by The Hotelier

For many, NoPlace is a seminal record. A starting point to the Emo genre. So many people have a reason why this record changed them, and for good reason. When I heard this record my senior year of high school, it changed a lot in my perspective of emotion an album can contain. Essences of true heartbreak, brutal introspection and dealing with mental health buried in every line. The songs on this record were hand-crafted and delicately strung together to embody such a glimpse of a person's pain and emotion during quintessential pieces of their life. It was refreshing to say the least; it changed me. 

The track list spoke with different voices as each song played. I remember sitting in the parking lot of a movie theatre alone, with this record on. I listened full through, missing my curfew because I was utterly transfixed. Losing a friend, gender identity and an absent parent eloquently portray through meter and melody. I broke down. This record is well known for a reason. It proved to me at that curcial point in my life: questioning everything that had made me, me and where I was heading after high school, that nobody has it figured out. Your journey is your journey and being hurt, experiencing loss and doubting the minutia of your being was just as much a struggle for someone else as it was for me. It opened my eyes truly to a much bigger world. 

Now, I could not ignore honesty as long as I write music, and I could not see beauty in my life without tragedy holding hands. Care for those in your life, and never stop loving those around you, even when you're hurting, because if they're gone, you'll never get that chance to tell them you're sorry. 

Each and every song packs so much reality and its weight, into minutes of melancholy riffs and throat tearing vocals. It's no wonder this record holds such a high place in hearts of thos who've experienced it. From, An Introduction to the Album we are transported into the moment of realizing life teeming around you; the world moving outside of control with each person living life simultaneously. Realization hits within the dichotomy of life experience. How fragile we are with our attempts at figuring life out. This theme follows through each track with an ebb and flow of tension all the way to the final track, Dendron. Although each song touches the same vein, they are drastically different in subject and framing. 

However, The Hotelier manages to gracefully weave these tracks into a narrative masterpiece of emotion and true thought provocation which still inspires artists within the genre years later.

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"mEMOries" Part 1 feat. Mosey Jones
"mEMOries" Part 2 feat. Daniel Becker (Time as a Color Records, Amid the Old Wounds)
"mEMOries" Part 3 feat. Former States 
"mEMOries" Part 4 feat. Edie Quinn (Middle-Man Records, Coma Regalia)
"mEMOries" Part 5 feat. Human Hands 
"mEMOries" Part 6 feat. Alex Miles (Is this Thing on?)
"mEMOries" Part 7 feat. Boys' Club
"mEMOries" Part 8 feat. Keith Latinen (Mt. Oriander, Parting) 
"mEMOries" Part 9 feat. Villain of the War 
"mEMOries" Part 10 feat. John Szuch (Deep Elm Records)
"mEMOries" Part 11 feat. Flight Mode 
"mEMOries" Part 12 feat. Comic Sans
"mEMOries" Part 13 feat. Joe C (What Price Wonderland?, Plaids, Zochor)
"mEMOries" Part 14 feat. Mentah 
"mEMOries" Part 15 feat. Walking Race
"mEMOries" Part 16 feat. Against Realism
"mEMOries" Part 17 feat. Klaus Axmann (Goddamn Records) 
"mEMOries" Part 18 feat. Atlanta Arrival 
"mEMOries" Part 19 feat. Mary's Letter
"mEMOries" Part 20 feat. Sinking 
"mEMOries" Part 21 feat. Lakes
"mEMOries" Part 22 feat. Downhaul
"mEMOries" Part 23 feat. About Leaving
"mEMOries" Part 24 feat. The Arrival Note
"mEMOries" Part 25 feat. Letterpress 
"mEMOries" Part 26 feat. Mr. Princess
"mEMOries" Part 27 feat. Tragwag 
"mEMOries" Part 28 feat. soccer. 
"mEMOries" Part 29 feat. c.h.point (Summer 2000, Elder Jack)
"mEMOries" Part 30 feat. Time Spent Driving