Calling out to all French heads, or those in need of quick inspiration for a cheeky holiday!
Rouen Skatepark’s King Of Wood begins its 6th year of all terrain carnage, BBQs and the inevitable drinking sessions on the 27th June.
That gives you a couple of weeks to get yourselves over there for what is guaranteed to be an awesome weekend of everything that makes skateboarding rad. Beer, BBQ and Bowls anyone?
Head over to www.king-of-wood.com for all the spiel.
In its fourth year now, Document‘s Big Push has always represented British skateboarding at its most pure – one weekend of unadulterated nonsense, and plenty of tasty skateboarding thrown in the midst of it all.
For the first time this year, everyone’s invited to get dirty with them! Just get a crew of 5 together, travel to 2 cities and in the time limit of one weekend, go nuts, then get your filming neek to edit all of it together, simple!
The winning team gets a Sony Cybershot camera each, not to mention being crowned Britain’s first winners of Document’s DIY Big Push. Regardless of winning or losing, taking in part of this should be more than just a laugh, get involved!
For further information and a list of all the rules head over here and then get those train tickets booked.
Francesca Gavin
Laurence King Publishing
Everyone has seen graffiti, from the tag on the street sign down your road to the pieces on high-rise buildings you’ve looked out on whilst getting the train into the city. But this book takes it that one step further, delving into the world of those artists who wanted to move away from the 2-D world of graffiti and take a step into new materials. This book showcases the brilliant artists who have produced some of the most original and eye-catching art around.
Cut Up are a fine example of using what’s around you to make art. The collective cut up [unsurprisingly] posters from billboards and proceed to re-arrange them into their own pictures. This might not sound like it’s likely to be that exciting, but when you see the results, with the angry youth being the prime example, you’ll have the breath taken away from you.
Eine is perhaps the most well known artist in the book, an artist known to everyone in London for his colourful giant letters which adorn shutters of shops all over the city. The giant letters are said to have turned the city into “one big sentence” with the artist saying:
“I’ve always vandalized things, I never thought it was a particularly bad thing to do.”
The Graffiti Research Lab, which has been labelled as “geek graffiti” takes a medium we know well, tagging, and adds that little bit something extra which is guaranteed to make it stand out. They use LEDS, balloon bombing and, perhaps the most well known of all their work, laser projectors. With these projectors they are able to write their groggy tag on many famous landmarks, including the Arc De Triomphe.
Three other fine examples used in this book are Invader, who puts his mosaic characters all over the world; Mark Jenkins whose incredible Embed collection makes people believe the art is actually a real person with their head embedded into a wall and Slinkachu, famous for putting his tiny people in huge settings.
The examples picked out above are just a fraction of the brilliant work in this book, with beautiful colour photos which give you an idea of the detail in the work and the environment they find themselves in. Street Art is often said to not have any boundaries and if ever there was a book to showcase this, it’s Street Renegades.
Abjekt
Bullet For My Valentine have announced their biggest UK tour to date.
The band will play a series of shows in November, at the following dates in November:
9th – Edinburgh Corn Exchange
11th – Plymouth Pavilions
12th – Birmingham Academy
13th – London Alexandra Palace
16th – Manchester Apollo
Their new single Waking The Demon is out today [June 16th].
Motley Crue have announced a UK release of their ninth studio album.
Saints Of Los Angeles will be their first new album in 10 years featuring all four original members of the group and will be released on June 23rd. Nikki Sixx explained that the record was based on their infamous biography The Dirt, saying:
[It’s] a tale of dirty needles, damaged minds, music industry battles and a whole lotta sex based on our stories from ‘The Dirt‘.”
The Lancashire Police may have to pay damages after being taken to court.
The Performing Rights Society have accused them of breaking copyright laws saying they have been playing music in their stations, gyms and on the phone to callers without possessing the right license. The matter has been taken to the High Court after Lancashire Police and 11 other police forces refused to pay them.
We wonder if they played N.W.A…
CSS have explained the meaning behind the title of their new album ‘Donkey’.
The band revealed that the name relates to them and how they were forced to tour by their old management. The group’s Adriano Cintra said:
“It’s a Brazilian expression… like ‘you idiot’. Like, ‘we got new management; we’re not donkeys any more’.”
The band then suggested titles for their next album which included Horses, Tigers and My Little Pony. Donkey is released on July 21st.
This one has been a long time coming now, but Savoir Faire has made the final boarding call and is ready to be unleashed upon us!
The film will feature monumental skateboarding from such known abusers as Div Adam, Dave Snaddon, Chris Oliver, Stephen Roe and Hold Tight London ripper, John Tanner (just check the latest edit from Henry and Morph to see what you should be expecting from this gentleman), amongst a blinding array of both British and international wood-pushers. Ooof. Énorme.
London premier is booked for the 20th June, so pop down and get yourselves hyped for Go Skateboarding Day, as for Manchester, you guys can relax after a GSBD shredding as your premier is on the 21st. Peep the trailers for guaranteed goodness!
More Skateboarding Videos >>
More Skateboarding Videos >>
More trailers to come on Monday!
I don’t even know how to begin introducing this item.
Straight up, just look at this thing – is it not the baddest and raddest thing you have ever seen? In amongst the b/s smithers, self-indulgent mega rampers and woop-de-woo bankle wankers, the contemporary skateboarding world was desperate for a banana board comeback to even up the scales.
And not only is this new offering from Creature – in all its trademark green flavoured glory – perfect for cruising through crowded streets, bombing hills and throwing in a frontside grind whenever and wherever you possible can, but this shit is shaped like a shitting COFFIN.
Do you know what this means? Coffin rolls/grinds/whatever will finally be appropriate, all day, everyday! Coming with its own deadly home, this monster is shipping out on July 15th. Best get those wills written by then.
Ok kids, listen up, it’s time for a Crossfire history lesson – and a damn fine one at that. (Hell, I should know, this album came out the same year that I did). The Replacements were arguably one of the most gloriously ragged, untamed bands to hail from the fertile post-punk scene of Minneapolis, Minnesota; and now that those fine folks at Rhino Records have re-released the band’s first four albums, it’s about time that singer/guitarist Paul Westerberg and his merry men were given a re-appraisal.
‘Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash’ is the band’s 1981 debut, and it still sounds remarkably fresh by today’s standards. A haphazard concoction of Ramones-style punk rock vigour, squalling garage rock guitars and Westerberg’s raw-throated vocals, the likes of ‘Customer‘ and ‘Kick Your Door Down‘ are the work of a band that sound almost constantly on the verge of drunkenly collapsing. And therein lies their charm. That said, the Replacements were never just a bunch of booze-addled noise addicts, as proved by the sparse melody and plaintive vocals of ‘Johnny’s Gonna Die‘. Truly, if punk is unpredictable by nature, then this lot were about as punk as they come.
Have a listen to ‘Hangin’ Downtown‘ on the link above, and decide for yourself. You might also like to check out the other re-releases; ‘Stink’, ‘Hootenanny‘ and ‘Let It Be‘ – all with bonus tracks included. Not a bad deal, all told.
Alex Gosman