Categories
Music News

Offspring go bluegrass?

Offspring are the latest band to be given a Bluegrass makeover by Cornbread Red.

Cornbread Red have previously reworked tracks by Linkin Park, Green Day, Franz Ferdinand and Van Halen and have recently recorded 11 Offspring tracks for the record which is due out at the end of this month. There are no samples online at the moment but the tracklisting can be found below:

All I Want
Self Esteem
Want You Bad
The Kids Aren’t Alright
Gone Away
Gotta Get Away
Jennifer Lost the War
Can’t Repeat
Staring at the Sun
Hit That
Something to Believe In

www.cornbreadred.net

Categories
Skateboarding News

Elementary My Dear Watson…

Element have announced the release of their new 2nd Summer program, due to be frontin’ in your local skate stores during late April. Like a double-edged sword, it comes equipped with two sides.

The first, loving attack on your clothing styles will be fresh and innovative designs from artists Don Pendleton, Matt Irving and Todd Francis. All of which have made a huge impact on the graphics side of the skateboard industry, and step up their game each time so keep a look out.

The second, potentially fatal blow for your lame ass wardrobe will come from the reintroduction of organics in the Eden and Men’s range of tees, polos and more. The natural feel of organically produced cotton on these threads is like no other. So when these bad boys drop, get on the scene like Charlie Sheen my friend.

www.elementskateboards.com

Categories
Music News

Arctic Monkeys single out now

The Arctic Monkeys are back with their new single Brianstorm which is out today on digital download. You can check it out by clicking here.

Also, make sure you keep your eyes peeled for an exclusive competition here on Crossfire where you can get your hands on the brand new album. It’s coming soon…

www.arcticmonkeys.com

Categories
Skateboarding News

The Old/New Fairytale Shit

The Harmony are re-releasing the special ‘black’ edition of their DVD “Once Upon A Time” to get you even more hyped on the upcoming project, “Wolfstadt“.

It’s only available during the months of April and May so no tomfoolery here, get it from the Harmony website ASAP. Perfect timing for some old/new shit to hype you up for the fucking gnarly weather we’ve been blessed with!

The video will sexually tease your television/computer/whatever with full parts from the entire team, including new Paul Silvestre and Danny Jack Sections. Also includes all the usual unused footage and lurker parts malarkey, and an alternative edit of Tom Harrison’s part.

A trailer for “Wolfstadt” is also available for your viewing pleasure over at the Harmony homepage vicinity. Don’t hesitate.

www.theharmony.co.uk

Categories
Music News

Mute Records farewell party

Mute Records threw the party of the year so far on Saturday night which saw hundreds of invite only special guests take a hammer to the old brick and mortar before it is demolished.

The famous Mute building had been vacated as the company moved to a new home and a massive party was arranged to celebrate their time there.

It all kicked off with a bar-b-q early afternoon and when dusk kicked in, the main rooms started to buzz with anticipation of a rocking evening. Cocktails (namely the Wrecking Ball!) drowned guests in each room where DJ sets from Arthur Baker, MJ (Slick Sixty), Mark Moore, Miss Kitten, Rough Trade DJ’s also great live sets from Rex The Dog & Christine.

People sprawled out in every part of the office on bean bags as the night turned to daylight. The remaining vampires, (us included!) left the building in pieces with a piece of the building in a polythene bag when breakfast was served.

Best party this year without a doubt, check www.mute.biz/photos/ this week for the evidence.

Categories
Skateboarding Product Reviews

The Harmony – Paul Silvestre 8.0″

7.65″ – 7.875″ – 8.0″

Now I know some of you guys will shun the idea of riding a deck wider than your wang. Myself, I can’t be comfortable skating on a Popsicle stick, so it’s about time a company have produced a deck wide enough to support my Sasquatch feet without sacrificing smooth flippery. Thankfully, the cheeky geeks behind The Harmony’s wood production have made just that. And it handles like a dream.

What strikes you first is the lightweight design. With every bigspin carving circles into the air like a samurai sword, the feather mass of the deck enables you to invoke rapid movements with just a wee scoop. This at first is a fucking nightmare when the last deck you’ve been skating was like a fat bitch at the dinner table. Immobile as an anchor and was like a sorcerer of cramp or some shit. Nuff o’that blad. But when grown accustomed to, it’s Christmas come early, providing of course you get your mitts on this deck before the next one.

So while this lightweight model will be any tech, ledge-nerd’s best pal, it may mean nothing for the Gnarly Barkley characters who add another step to every session. Not the case. I flung myself and Harmony’s secret weapon off a Mark Baines style kicker to flat. A good half hour of landing on rough council park floor from a head height ramp and it still took a beating like Rocky Balboa’s punch bag without wincing. Go take this to your local leap of faith, you might have no legs left, but the deck will be unscathed.

But I can’t finish the review without subjecting this harmless piece of wood to the snap, crackle and pop test.

Snap – Week of skating, solid as a rock. I can see this one living outside the month barrier. Good choice!

Crackle – No deep pressure cracks emerging yet, hard as you like son.

Pop – Claims the trophy like Andrew Brophy.

Not much more to say really, other than this Art Drop series is out now with other pro models from Joe Gavin and Danijel Todorovic.

I rate The Harmony’s efforts here. Click here to see all.

9/10 Boyyyy.

Joe Moynihan.

Categories
Skateboarding News

Almost…May

Just over a month until the Crossfire Gap Jam at Meanwhile 2 with the Almost team and it still seems too far away. One things for sure, it’s gonna be fucking mental!

To help pass the time, instead of twiddling your thumbs head over to www.strangenotes.com and have a gander at Haslam ripping it up over these here shores!

www.almostawebsite.com

Categories
Live Reviews

TTC – Live

JME
Radioclit
Scala
24.03.07

Walking into the Scala and being confronted by a floor full of boys wearing girl’s hoodies and skin tight jeans, topping the look off with a bowl cut, isn’t the perfect way to start a club night I’d been looking forward to for weeks. Still, they’re good to laugh at. Am I elitest? Course I am, but at least I don’t look like some kind of pseudo-barbie eunuch.

Onto the music then, and Radioclit dropped bassline after bassline with their ghettopop anthems, throwing the likes of Bonde Do Role, Dizzee Rascal and other selected bangers into the mix. Apparently the two rudeboys who dropped by obviously to see JME weren’t feeling it, posing as they were like pissed off bouncers. My name was on son, I was in. Gutted.

JME then came out to do a short set sporting his pink “Boy Better Know” t-shirt. Now, I don’t mind a bit of grime here and there, but I was never a big fan of JME and didn’t expect anything special from him. That said, he basslines sounded heavy as hell and despite his constant bigging up of MySpace [seriously mate, its bad enough that I’m addicted to that site, I don’t wanna brag about it in public], he was a good way to pump up the energy for the French electro-hip hoppers.

TTC took to the stage with DJ Orgasmic on the decks and immediately blew the ear-drums out of my head with their glitchy tones. They kept the crowd entertained from the first minute til the last, knocking out old jams like Du Sang Sur Le Dancefloor [tastefully waving tampons around the stage] and Dans Le Club and playing out some of their 3615 TTC album, like the grimey Une Band De Mec Sympa, Paris Paris and the awesome single [Pas Le Peine D’appeler Je Ne Reponds Pas Au] Telephone.

Amongst all their own stuff, they threw in some absolute classics to keep everyone dancing non-stop. I’m talking about All That She Wants by Ace Of Base, the Outhere Brothers, Pump Up The Jam and Orgasmic’s reworking of Justin’s My Love. With Teki doing his solo track Les Matins De Paris and Cuizinier and Tido knocking out Only You it was definitely a showcase in how the French get down.

Right at the end, they invited girls up onto the stage for a bit of a boogie and one thing become immediately clear to me – The lego haircut chicks are the human anti-viagra. Seriously girls, stick to listening to Hadouken, there’s a good trendie. Them aside, the French contingent in the crowd helped out by singing every word, and dancing around like people possessed and ensured I felt right at home. Une bande de mec sympa indeed.

Abjekt
Photo courtesy of www.damagecontrolradio.org

Categories
Music News

Lemonheads play UK and Ireland

The reformed Lemonheads will be hitting the touring trail in May and have announced the following gigs:

3rd – Cork Savoy
4th – Galway The Warwick
5th – Dublin Ambassador
6th – Belfast Mandela Hall & Shine
7th – Newcastle The Cluny
8th – Edinburgh Liquid Room
9th – Aberdeen The Lemon Tree
10th – Sheffield The Leadmill
13th – Cardiff Solus
14th – London KOKO
15th – Birmingham Carling Academy

www.thelemonheads.net

Categories
Music News

Ben Kweller’s new video online

Ben Kweller has posted a video for the song Penny On The Train Track.

The video features Kweller’s grandmother, Marilyn “Bubbie” Kweller doing a jazzercise routine along to her grandson’s new tune.

If you’re desperate to see an old girl bop about in spandex then click here. Even if you’re not, and you wanna hear the tune, click there and close your eyes.

www.benkweller.com