Greg Hunt, the man behind the lens of three Transworld videos, the DC video and now Alien Workshop’s upcoming Mind Field, has a really good, in-depth interview over on the Slap site.
Read what he has to say about making money in the skate video industry, growing up with Sean Sheffey, and filming polar bears in Alaska by clicking here
Girl Skateboards have collaborated with AIDS charity (Red) to produce a limited series of Eric Koston endorsed decks for their latest catalogue.
Designed by Girl art director Andy Jenkins as a double deck piece of artwork, the majority of the profits will be given to the charity which helps people with AIDS all across the world.
You can see a video interview about the ideas behind the project with Andy and Eric by clicking here
On April 10th, Supreme are releasing a series of decks featuring the artwork of photo-realist painter Marilyn Winter.
The artist who became famous for her fashion designs using pornographic images and beauty advertisements has made it’s way onto this series of decks, with stark images of models in less than glamorous conditions.
Bush Hall, London
07.04.08
A night of contrasts for the French synthpop group, as they took to the stage at Bush Hall after some recent rebooking of venues. One guitarist in a ‘I Love Fall Out Boy’ tshirt, the bassist in an AC/DC one, it’s hard to know what to make of this band from the start.
Originally formed as a joke on MySpace by friends three years ago, things have moved on quickly and The Teenagers found themselves recording their debut album ‘Reality Check‘, released last month, and a string of gigs across the world. They have a die-hard following of young fans, who sang along to tracks ‘Love No’, ‘Fuck Nicole‘ and ‘Feeling Better‘, throwing hands in the air and dancing like, well, teenagers.
Having said that, the average age of the crowd was in its 40’s, so it made me wonder if they’d turned up expecting some kind of Serge Gainsborough style, French-accented, spoken word singing about love, women, booze, drugs and casual sex. Well they got part of that.
Frontman Quentin Delafon pointed angular hands around the glitterball lit room, elbows tucked in like he was trying to dance whilst holding a tray of drinks, and spoke/sang about the sordid lifestyle of fucking your step-sister, girls who he’s going to kill for stealing his Jazzmaster, and being young and carefree.
The camp exterior and looks, combined with the poppy-go-lucky music meant the subject matter of the songs is somewhat lost on the younger members of the crowd, who smile and sing along obliviously to the lines, “This fucking bitch deserves to die” and “I fucked my American cunt”.
It’s all tongue in cheek, but the girls who got on stage to help out on vocal duties on ‘Homecoming’, the song that gave The Teenagers their break through track (and with a great video by Kinga Burza), it was a wise decision to keep a backing track of the original female lyrics going, as not only did they seem about 12 years-old, but they didn’t really know any of the words.
Good on The Teenagers though for really engaging the crowd with the show, as best the limited set would let them, and by the end the seemed to have warmed-up from their ‘we’ve only been a band 5 minutes’ personas, to really going for it and cutting themselves on guitar strings from playing too hard. Next time I see them, there won’t be any conflicting messages coming across from the band. They have the songs to back up the hype, they’re young and painfully cool, so let’s just wait until the angst stage has passed and The Teenagers have grown up.
Moose.
Daedelus is to release a new album in June.
The producer’s latest record Love To Make Music To will be put out on Ninja Tune on June 16th. The single, Make It So will also be released with a video and a remix by Spank Rock’s XXXChange.
To support the release, a launch party will be held at Corsica Studios in London on May 23rd with Cadence Weapon, Capitol K, Rustie, Zilla, Etan, Patchword Pirates and a special guest MC.
The Raconteurs have announced two UK shows.
Jack White’s side project will be playing the following dates:
May 14th – Hammersmith Apollo, London
May 15th – Carling Academy, Liverpool
The Replacements will have four of their albums re-issued and remastered with new and rare material added.
Check out their 1981 performance of Goddamn Job at Minneapolis’ 7th Street Entry:
The Xynthetic Carbon & Chemicals tour is now over, but don’t fret, you can re-live the magic with this video filmed and edited by Johnny Clooney.
Xynthetic Carbon & Chemicals retrospective from Xynthetic on Vimeo.
Oxford Academy
05.04.08
It’s been a heck of long time since the Buffalo hardcore rock ‘n’ rollers in Every Time I Die last hit these shores (the sweaty summer of ’05, to be exact). In those long three years they have written, recorded and released one of the most exciting releases of last year in the form of ‘The Big Dirty’, a colossal slab of intense riffery that has taken more nods to southern rock and less nods to manic hardcore (which used to be their forte). And in a wait that hasn’t just seemed far too long (it has been far too long) the band are now bestowed upon us in the sweaty confines of the Oxford Academy.
Before this though, the Oxford faithful have to be subjected to a bill containing a support act that just doesn’t suit and a support act that is just plain terrible. The former, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, aren’t half bad, it’s just that their keyboard-infused pop metal would never sit well with an Every Time I Die crowd (as is apparent from the lukewarm reception that greets the end of every song).
Drop Dead Gorgeous do probably suit this bill a bit more but that doesn’t mean to say that they are any good. Watching a band and being convinced that they are never going to end isn’t a good sign, but then again this is no surprise as every song of in-coherent and indecisive beatdown-screamo increases many heart rates to speeds that would indicate signs of a heart attack caused by furious and unrelenting anguish and boredom (breathe…)
This would be enough to probably send punters home from any gig, but then not many gigs have a headliner that bring the party as much as Every Time I Die do. Mixing tracks off of ‘The Big Dirty’ such as We’rewolf, No Son Of Mine and the quite glorious Rendez-Voodoo alongside older material from ‘Gutter Phenomenon‘ and ‘Hot Damn‘ means the fans who have waited so long to see their bearded heroes in the flesh get the chance to sample the delights of a vast range of the bands back catalogue.
A bit of a dead crowd doesn’t stop Every Time I Die from being an absolute blast tonight. Ridiculously pro, insanely tight and with a sound as massive as this, you would be a fool not to catch them on this UK jaunt.
www.myspace.com/everytimeidie
www.everytimeidie.com
Nick Calafato
Atmosphere have announced their UK tour dates.
The duo will be teaming up with labelmate Brother Ali for their “3 The Hard Way” tour which will hit these shores in June. Atmosphere and Ali will be playing together in one giant mega-set in support of the upcoming album When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, out on April 21st.
The dates are:
15th – Liverpool Academy 2
17th – Edinburgh Voodoo Rooms
18th – London KOKO
19th – Brighton Komedia
20th – Dublin Crawdaddy
21st – Galway Roisin Dubh
22nd – Bristol Thekla
23rd – Nottingham Rescue Rooms