SHORT HISTORY 1999-2008

When and how did INNOCENT BYSTANDER begin?
I guess it all started sometime in 1999 in Cedarville/Millville, NJ.
My brother JD and I grew up riding our bikes on dirt jumps in our grandmom's backyard sometime around '96-97 with our neighbors and cousins. We later picked up a "sweet" S-VHS camera and started filming cheesy barspins over bonfires and random nonsense. FBM's "Live Fast, Die" and LITTLE DEVIL's "Seek & Destroy" videos were our inspiration at the time. Our group of friends quickly grew. We later took our bikes into town with pegs and started grinding ledges as street riding progressed. More friends who we met on the streets joined us. Things just got more fun from there. We started throwing shows in our backyard after building a mini ramp behind the garage. We had 6 Jams over the course of 3-4 years with local friends and bands playing each.
On 06/23/03 our friends from Small Brown Bike, The Casket Lottery, and Rocky Votolato
played our 4th Backyard Jam. Definitely a highlight of my life for sure. (read article).
- Rick W.

As time passed, some of us moved out of NJ, to different parts of the country.
Our friends once again grew, leading to IB's representation in 3 states:
New Jersey, Tennessee, and Arizona.

So are you a bike company, clothing company, a band, a terrorist organization?
I think we currently only have one t-shirt design for sale and we all ride bikes and some of us play music, so technically yes, but we mostly just sell DVDs in limited releases. We never really wanted to be a company. That's why we've never added "clothing" or "co." to our name. We're just a group of friends who hangout and document the good times.

... MORE TO COME...