Bicycle Music Festival » BMF 2008

BMF musicians, roadies, and fans scaling a large hill

fossilfool — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:27:02 +0000

2nd Bicycle Music Festival grows 200% over last year

fossilfool — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 07:30:04 +0000

Cruising from Precita Park to Dolores Park at Saturday’s BMF

photo: Adam Aufdencamp

Cruising from Precita Park to Dolores Park at the first annual BMF in 2007

The largest crowds at Dolores Park showed similar growth.

Photo captain Adam Aufdencamp posts initial shots from yesterday’s festival

fossilfool — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:29:43 +0000

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

MANICATO lined up for Dolores Park

SHAKEYOURPEACE — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:45:21 +0000

San Francisco’s hottest salsa/reggae/hip-hop/rock band, MANICATO, has been added to the Dolores Park stop at the Bicycle Music Festival!

Rolling with 88 weighted keys on the nighttime cruiser ride

fossilfool — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:26:52 +0000

Some interesting scenes from the workshop this week. The musical part starts at 3:05. It was awesome to see the expressions on our neighbors’ faces as we cruised around West Berkeley with Janaysa singing and playing.

Folk / Soul singer Janaysa came by the workshop on Tuesday to test-ride the piano mount on the Mundo. She was initially ‘concerned’ but left on a high after a good try out.

Come see Janaysa perform on Saturday as part of the cruiser ride! Don’t miss out on the night time festivities. Bring a bike to Dolores Park! Catch BLO, Stitchcraft, Ginger Ninjas, Manicato, La Malamana, and BMX flatlander Pete Brandt. And then join the BMF cruiser ride.

Bicycle Music Festival is a community supported busking festival. Bring Cash!

fossilfool — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:57:39 +0000

BMF does not pay bands to perform. Instead, we pass the bucket amongst the crowd after each band plays. Some bands go to great lengths to be part of the BMF, and all of our bands have spent years developing their musical act. So show your support for the bands you like by throwing some cash in the bucket. It’s not cool to support bands early in the day, then run out of money for the later performers. Please bring plenty of ones and fives, or tens and twenties, high roller! As co-organizer Gabe says, “please take a few bucks out of your pocket, then put the rest in the bucket.”

Big thanks to this year’s Golden Goose, Kathy Rose, who’ll be leading the charge on our busking efforts.

Folk / Soul singer Janaysa set to Rock the Bike this Saturday at BMF

fossilfool — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:18:32 +0000

We had a great practice ride tonight in the neighborhood around the Rock the Bike workshop in Berkeley. Passersby applauded as Janaysa serenaded the quiet streets at dusk. The new aTractor Seat and custom bamboo piano mount were both strong and comfortable, allowing her plenty of leg room. She practiced about 5 songs, giving me time to see how the bike handled. The handling was difficult but manageable. Even the slightest uphill made it noticeably harder to maintain a straight line, because her weight is so far behind the rear axle. The frame was up to the task, but the front end just felt light. I had to really maintain focus and keep my arm muscles tensed at all times.

The sound of her voice and piano playing made it all worth it, though. I’m really excited to help bring her unique music to the streets at BMF, live!

Mounting a piano on a bike for mobile performance at this year’s BMF

fossilfool — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:45:10 +0000

Soul singer Janaysa will be going mobile, performing at the nighttime cruiser ride (beginning at Dolores Park). She’ll be playing piano and singing. The piano will be rigidly mounted to the back of a Mundo Utility Bicycle, using a custom bamboo piano mount. The red tractor seat is another recent mod designed to turn this bike into a serious mobile performance venue.

Other mobile performers in the nighttime cruise will include Mafiosa Felice and Joel Elrod. Joel (shown below street performing at KFOG Kaboom) will be backing me up on the Roland 808, and Mafi will be playing cuatro and singing.

Moon will be 87% full on the night of BMF

fossilfool — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:42:36 +0000

Just checked the lunar schedule for BMF. We’ll see moonrise at 11PM, hopefully while cruising to the afterparty!

The moon will be 4 days past full, or 87% full.

Fossil Fool’s BMF performance to be a street performance / mobile performance this year.

fossilfool — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:42:15 +0000

My favorite part of performing at last year’s BMF was leading the call and response section of the Boda Boda rap as we cruised down Valencia. At the time, I thought I was just doing the ride to lead people to the biker beer bar, but once we arrived at the bar, the energy fell. I now realize that my art form is rocking the mic as I rock the bike. There aren’t too many other bike rappers out there who would even really try it. So this year, I’m just going to celebrate it. I hope you’ll be part of my performance, which will begin after Pete Brandt’s BMX performance.

Fortunately I won’t be alone. We just finished this new aTractor seat for the Mundo, so I can have Joel and Mafi play percussion for me.