The Bicycles Launch DVD Board Game

Toronto's preeminent bubblegum popsters are in for the biggest challenge of their lives, and only you can help them. This August, The Bicycles will unveil their own DVD board game — which is so awesome it hurts.

While the band continue to work on the follow-up to their highly touted 2006 album The Good, The Bad And The Cuddly, fans can get up close and personal with the fivesome thanks to some decidedly retro inspiration. In 1991, children everywhere were being told to "turn the volume up and the lights down" as they gathered around their television sets for a chilling round of the state-of-the-art VHS board game, Nightmare. In 2007, The Bicycles were pretty much doing the same thing, only they played the infinitely cooler Party Mania.

"Well, Nightmare was the hit of the genre," says frontman Matt Beckett. "See, in Party Mania, you're a girl and you're trying to make it to a party in time; of course you run into all these obstacles like getting dressed or putting on your makeup to look pretty."

Holly Prazoff, Inessa Fratowski and Jared Sales (some of Toronto's best sketch comics) hunkered down with Beckett and the Bikes and studiously took notes while Party Mania provided glorious inspiration.

"Holly and Inessa wrote the whole script and Jared shot all the sketches," Beckett says of the Bicycles adaptation. "It's kind of like Party Mania, only you have to get the band to their show on time, and there's all these obstacles like renting the van, getting ready to look cool, getting your B shirts on."

While other obstacles include Bikes' arch rivals, the villainous Motorcycles (possibly played by The Bicycles wearing fake moustaches), Beckett admits that the real problems were in actually putting the game together.

"It was a lot harder than making an album. We're musicians, not board game makers. And I'm terrible at acting, even though I used to be a child actor."

When pressed about his biggest role, Beckett brightens.

"It's actually pretty cool. I played Kris Kristofferson's son. I was a Vietnam war era love child. But I kind of stopped because I was really terrible."

In addition to the game — the board part of which serves as the packaging for the DVD — the disc features new videos for "Gotta Get Out," "Paris Be Mine" and "Homework." There's also hidden Easter egg bonus material throughout.

"We didn't really do a good job of hiding them though," Beckett says. "There are comedy shorts and clips from a performance we did while on tour when we had a show in a courtroom in Victoria."

To see who played in the stenographer's booth, check out the DVD.

The game will be revealed on Aug. 10 at Toronto's Tranzac with a big screen display, multiple "play stations" and a live Bicycles set.

"And there might just be a special one-time appearance by The Motorcycles," says Beckett. "It'll probably just be us with fake moustaches."