Emerica’s Wild in the Streets day out last Sunday was a massive success. Enjoy this video with Emerica pros Braydon Szafranski, Aaron Suski and Kevin ‘Spanky’ Long with Euro riders Eniz Fazliov & Ante Aiello and UK riders Tom Knox & Chris Ault and a host of other riders captured on film by Dan Magee and Mike Manzoori.
Emerica Wild in the Streets London 2010 from Emerica Europe on Vimeo.
The Stand Up Skate Shop has landed at Bay66 Skatepark and is open now. Enjoy some fresh footage of the team from session at Stockwell’s concrete, with team riders Nico Del Sarto, Aaron Sweeney and Kevin McKeon plus guests Salar Kooshki, Joe Greener and Simon Burlo.
Ode To Illmatic
Free Mixtape
www.myspace.com/fashawn
It takes a brave man to do what Fashawn has done on Ode To Illmatic. The Fresno MC has taken beats from Nas’ seminal 1994 album and states in his introduction aimed to “pay homage to one of the greatest MCs in our generation” rather than bite the album. As great as his debut album Boy Meets World was, he could easily have fallen flat on his face by trying this, but, to his eternal credit, he makes a great job of it.
It can be quite hard to pinpoint why Fashawn is so good. His voice doesn’t have that distinctive twang of a Lil Wayne or Blueprint, he doesn’t try and be a punchline rapper nor does he aim to impress with verbal gymnastics. But when going in over these classic beats, he just seems to fit perfectly into the music. CA State Of Mind, his own take on NY State Of Mind and The World Is Yours highlights his ability over Premo and Pete Rock production and sets the benchmark for the rest of the mixtape.
The proof of his ability is that this mixtape doesn’t make the listener want to turn it off and put on the original. In fact, it makes the listener ride Fashawn’s version out and then play the original because it has come as a reminder of what a brilliant album it is. He even brings in Talib Kweli for a little cameo, replacing AZ on Life’s A Bitch. Fashawn doesn’t just hold his own, he takes another step up on the hip hop pedestal. All this fun for free? Baller. You can grab the entire thing, absolutely free, here.
Check out CA State Of Mind below for a taster while the mixtape is downloading.
Abjekt.
The hotly anticipated new EP from enigmatic emo-powerviolence supergroup United Nations was released today.
The band who are rumoured to contain members from Thursday, GlassJaw and Converge have entitled their new EP ‘Nevermind The Bombings, Here’s Your Six Figures’ and is the exact noise minefield reminiscent of early 90s screamo many had been hoping for from the group.
You can pick up the 7″ EP here. Each purchase includes one of three limited coloured vinyls and a free high quality mp3 download.
The new Black Mountain video for ‘Old Fangs‘, a cut off their upcoming third album ‘Wilderness Heart‘ was posted online this week.
The album will be released through Jagjaguwar on the 13th September in the middle of the band’s UK Tour. The band will be playing T In The Park and Latitiude Festival as well as the following dates in September and one London date in October…
Oxford Academy – 4th September
Birmingham Hare & Hounds – 5th September
Brighton Concorde – 8th September
Isle of Wight Bestival – 10th September
Larmer Tree Gardens, Dorset End Of The Road Festival – 11th September
Leeds TJs Woodhouse Club – 12th September
Glasgow Oran Mor – 14th September
Manchester Academy 3 – 15th September
Nottingham Rescue Rooms – 16th September
London Shepherds Bush Empire – 7th October
There are certain things in life that we take for granted. Things that, if taken away from us, would gently sap the joy from our souls, the very part of you that you don’t always notice, but subconsciously makes you want to get up in the morning and fucking get some. I’m talking about the stuff we label as simple things, because they’re simply too overwhelming for us to understand. Like weights being lifted from your chest after just one sip of coffee, the chance of seeing a cat in the street, a good drum beat, the sound of a football commentator losing his shit when his country score and what I got up for this morning – the feeling of skating downhill with brand new wheels.
The wheels that helped get that inner smile beaming like a Cheshire cat on the smoothest, grooviest acid trip were made by Momentum. A company renowned for making smooth, cool wheels that don’t rile the environment. In today’s ever-greyer landscape making environmentally friendly skate products can only be encouraged by someone who wants to see cats roam the streets every day and my coffee to taste bloody delicious.
These wheels are advertised as not only kind to the environment but gentle on your wallet which – if for some reason does put you off – shouldn’t cause any doubt about the quality. These are the wheels that smoothie drinking, smoothie skating Rick McCrank has on his board and are you to question that dude’s taste in wheels? Momentum Rebates are ultimately a solid piece of recycled urethane that won’t hurt your bank balance, so whack on some green clothes and get ready for that smooth ride that makes everything you see in the street instantly life-assuring.
Stanley
It has been confirmed that experimental hip-hop collective The Herbaliser will be playing as a full ten-piece in a live show at Camden’s KOKO in London.
The show will also feature performances from another progressive hip-hop outfit, the Thom Yorke recommended Anti Pop Consortium as well as sets from Lazy Habits and P45.
The show is on the 24th July and you can order tickets here.
‘Herbal Tonic‘, a best of compilation from The Herbaliser will be released on the 28th June. A free mini-mix is available from Ninja Tune’s website.
Copenhagen and everything going down there with the CPH Pro is this week’s hot topic. Yesterday saw David Gonzales and Luan Oliveira ruling the double stair Burning Of The Witch comp, while Chris Pfanner did his stuff and knocked out a serious NBD down an enormous 19 stair. Who says throwing yourself down stairs isn’t trendy any more?
Check out this video from Transworld’s Blair Alley and get your mind blown.
Pfanner is pfucking pfantastic like pfwoah.
Royksopp have announced that the follow up to last year’s blogosphere favourite ‘Junior‘, will be released on the 13th September.
The fourth studio album, entitled ‘Senior‘ is confirmed to be an instrumental LP that serves as a binary opposition in sound and style to last year’s ‘Junior‘. In an official statement from the Norwegian duo, they spoke about the relationship between the two releases…
‘‘Junior’ [has] emphasis on vocals, accessible melodies and harmonies, [it] has the energy, the inquisitive temper and confident “hey-ho, let’s go!”-attitude of youth, whereas ‘Senior’ is the introverted, dwelling and sometimes graceful counterpart, brimful with dark secrets and distorted memories, insisting ‘I’m old, I’ve got experience…‘
The albums tracklist has been revealed and is as follows…
…And The Forest Began To Sing
Tricky Two
The Alcoholic
Senior Living
The Drug
Forsaken Cowboy
The Fear
Coming Home
A Long, Long Way
Every year the CPH Pro proves itself to be a contest that fully deserves your full-attention. If Torey Pudwill’s performance in last year was anything to go by then you can be rest assured that all your favourite skaters will be opening up the superb CPH Skatepark just to shut down all over again.
Unfortunately, Copenhagen isn’t so easy for a lot of us skate-rats to travel to. But don’t fear, DVS will be streaming a live web cast of the event so you don’t miss a single trick.
The street and vert competitions will be kicking off this weekend so keep your eye on the DVS website as the live stream will begin on Saturday 26th June to cover the street qualifiers, concluding the following day when everyone’s sweated out.
Here’s last years highlights to get you going…