By It’s our Bandcamp Pick of the Week, featuring Motorbike’s excellently brash punk record KICK IT OVER!
Motorbike – KICK IT OVER
Genre: Punk, Post-Punk
Favorite Tracks: “Quite Nice,” “Ceremony”
With 2023’s self-titled LP, Motorbike gave us the keys to a wild machine. The nine-track LP was basically “music for escaping”—big, brash jams for embracing life’s open roads. Yet even Motorbike themselves evidently needed an exit, and so KICK IT OVER features “greater song structure and scrutiny.” Has the band departed their musical HQ for grander pastures? Or, did the dang thing instead break in the driveway?
Fortunately, Motorbike’s latest leg sees them arriving at a distinctly robust sound. “Quite Nice” has sprawling, Tom Petty-esque vibes, a road-faring banger marked by intent and sharp emotionality. “Afraid of Guns” is a deliberate anthem, and its simple message exudes socio-political heft (without feeling off-brand). Meanwhile, the Polish language track “Nie Wrocimy” shakes things up and demonstrates the road’s true unpredictability. These tracks represent Motorbike’s efforts to grow without abandoning what worked on their debut. They’re solid steps, and there’s a certain deliberateness and excitement informing each track. You can’t jump from a scooter to piloting a rocket (right?!), and the band step up in ways that matter. That mostly means focusing on the clarity of their messaging, having ample time to let ideas play out, and making decisions that show deeper sentiments (again, even if it’s singing in Polish). They’re not going to disarm listeners, but then that’s not the point—it’s to prove a level of change can be intriguing and wholly sustainable.
Even tracks more overtly aligned with MOTORBIKE still sparkle. “Scrap Heap” is a direct enough slab of rollicking garage rock, but its clarity and sharpness are a statement, too. “Cold Sweat” is equally driven, and yet that vaguely droning guitar adds some compelling structure. Even the sneering “Ceremony” is more intense and lively for minor production tweaks. These offerings aren’t any less significant (even as that first group o’songs surges with more raw might). Rather, it’s solid proof of the band’s increasingly strategic nature. Not every song has to feel obviously massive and revitalized, and more familiar offerings provide a groundwork to let Motorbike purr in other ways. A band like this doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel, and in establishing varying levels to their growth process, they’re bringing us along in a significant way. It’s as if we’re still very much in the driver’s seat in consuming and synthesizing the LP, an active experience that’s all about connecting with Motorbike on all cylinders.
Once again, there’s no great leap forward, but the band banks hard left instead of right at key moments, and that shift makes all the difference. It’s less about gimmicks and the rush of pure novelty and instead about making Motorbike feel entirely more human. There’s an intellect and heart under all that punk rock horsepower, and KICK IT OVER demonstrates that in a way that’s exciting while demanding our eager participation. In some ways, it’s just as thrilling as their debut even as it’s a slower, steadier process to crack open this bad boy. Once you figure out how it runs, though, this’ll take you where you need to be. Listen to it now over on Bandcamp.
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