treadmill classic

(Treadmill Trackstar in Major Label mode)

 

 

Any time Angelo Gianni deigns to release music under the Treadmill Trackstar banner is cause for celebration, and today a tune was unceremoniously dumped in my email inbox from the band's Bandcamp page under the heading "Random Finding".

It's not a 'new' song, but rather one that Gianni found in his archives--I imagine those archives are probably a closet or storage room piled high with outdated media like cassettes and 2-inch tape that may never see the light of day; that this tune surfaced is a minor miracle.

"Our Ride Down" appears to be, as Gianni himself notes on the song page in Bandcamp, written after the band got dropped from their Breaking/Atlantic contract back in the late 1990s, a scenario which pretty much caused the group to shut down soon after--hence the reason this recording wasn't officially released until now.

I remember this tune vaguely from seeing Treadmill shows back then, mostly for the memorable line "Mona Lisa's on the rag again." The gist of the lyrics are Gianni's typical self-flagellation over perceived inadequacy:

For my part I'm not drinking to celebrate

breaks my heart

penalty is its own reward

for my part I'm not drinking to celebrate

our ride down

Hear the track for yourself here: