Bad Brains have officially signed a deal with Megaforce.
The band are currently finishing up the work on their new album, which will come out on the label and will see Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys on production duties.
The band, which now feature the original line up, have reportedly decided on the title Build A Nation and are looking to release the record in May.
Jeremy Donaldson and the Stockwell Skatepark locals have been busy working with the local council to ensure that the resurfacing of the legendary London park goes smoothly (pun intended).
There are talks about stripping the entire site to have it resurfaced by specialists. Jeremy has posted up possible designs here. Have a look and feel free to make any useful suggestions. Your feedback is needed.
Adidas have stepped it up a knotch by adding Massachusetts powerhouse Dave Bachinsky to the Three Stripes team. US team manager, Bryce Kanights explained his choice of Dave for the team:
“Dave carries some rather big guns in his daily skating regimen. He’s a solid fit to our team and you can expect lots of progression and great things to come from him.”
Another development for Adidas, but this time in Europe is Neil Chester becoming team manager. Well done to both of them.
Funeral French dropped us a mail to inform us about his haunted new site, Taped Copies.
Definitely worth checking out!
100 Club
As a live act, Grace are a sure soon to be discovered British gem. Their relentless set at London’s 100 Club provides perfect energy for the 21st century indie-pop gig goer. And most importantly, they play like a band that are here to prove to London that they have arrived, that they are ready, and that their music is worth repeated listens.
Charismatic frontman JP Jones owns the stage, moving enthusiastically to his band’s music, passionately relishing the sold out crowd’s rapturous cheers and outstretched hands. He captivates in his mission to entertain, and delivers the goods exuding confidence in bucket loads. The crowd sway to Grace’s elegant, harmony laced slower sonics, and jump ecstatically to the gloriously frenzied faster numbers.
Last year’s indie buzz single, the irresistibly catchy “Stand Still“, which makes you want to do anything but, is greeted with raucous excitement, and the strong chorus explodes with the kind of vibrance many of their contemporaries can surely only dream about. “Pillars“, “Slowly” and “Alive” sparkle with sublime melodies, driving guitar hooks and crashing drum beats. What makes Grace so special is their accessibility – forget self indulgence pretension, each track showcases the band’s unashamed ability to perform fresh, uptempo indie pop to perfection.
As they end the night by launching into their forthcoming single with verve and vigour, JP proclaims ‘We’re Grace. And this is Wonderful’. They are. And it is.
Ali Norris
Photo by Kat Norris
Photos courtesy of the lovely Droidy
Somehow I found myself in a position of minor responsibility, something I generally spend my life trying to avoid, when I was asked if I could pull together a skate comp over at Sk8 Goa in India.
I guess it wasn’t that much of a big deal but nonetheless I’d never even been to India and there’s never been a skateboard comp there before. It seemed pretty daunting at first but I soon realised it was pretty much same shit different continent!
Thankfully Vans and Nueu had blind faith in my ability to pull it together so massive respect to them and thanks to all the knobheads that took the time to come out. I think everyone who was there would agree it was a pretty unique experience. Enough back slapping…
After a fairly painless 8 hour flight it was a beautiful feeling to walk out of the plane into bright sunshine and searing heat in the middle of our winter! The ride from the airport was a little surreal, like we were watching it on a film, it certainly takes a day or two to find yourself at ease with the place but when you do it’s a wonderful feeling.
I can honestly say that after a few days I felt like I’d been there weeks, it’s just so easy to drop into the lifestyle and relaxed pace. I wasn’t sure what to expect of the park as it’s always hard to tell from pics on the internet but it is amazing (although fairly compact) and it’s fair to say a lot of stuff got done that week that will never get done again.
Our average day was: get up, chill by hotel pool, moped convoy to beach, breakfast, chill, moped convoy to skatepark, skate, moped convoy to hotel, shower, moped convoy to restaurant, food, moped convoy to bar, booze, drunken moped convoy to hotel.
It doesn’t get much better than hanging out in the sun with some of your best mates, add to the fact that beers in a bar cost about 30p or something and you’re living the dream.
The day of the comp was pure comedy, possibly the most relaxed (dis)organisation ever “Powley, when’s the comp?” “Later, whenever everyone shows up, whatever, let’s go to the beach”. Obviously in the end everyone showed up , the sound system materialised and things got underway.
The Saturday evening was a jam affair and started off pretty mellow (many were still dying from jet lag having only arrived that morning or the day before) but soon got fired up especially after Zarosh aired into the pool of a bench on a ledge.
I’d heard rumours that Woody ‘owned’ the bowl and that was no lie, his runs lasted about 4 minutes on average and included all the essentials like back smiths and tailslides but also some surprises like frontside late shove its.
My travelling companion Olly Tyreman had been wowing everyone all week with his speed and crazy style but stepped it up a gear for the jam and pulled some screaming backside crailslides and smiths as well as some of the best backside bonelesses around.
Churchill, as ever, was running at 110% with all his usual gnarl tricks including f/s bonelesses and some beautiful f/s feeble grinds. The comp ended when everyone was fucked and the results came out of my mouth like this:
1: Woody
2: Marc Church Hell
3: Zarosh Eggleston
4: Olly Tyreman
5: Steak
6= Everyone else!
Unfortunately India didn’t field any skaters so it was a UK victory! Technically I guess that makes Woody the Indian skateboard champ! It would be rad if we went back next year to find a crew of Indian skaters tearing it up though.
Sunday was a best trick jam in the bowl and went off way harder than Saturday, partly due to MC Phil getting really pissed and dishing out some serious abuse. No one was spared, you didn’t even have to be skating, the crowd got it as did Percy from Document!
Habgood had obviously recovered from his jet lag and went crackers, in fact everyone did. Woody was black and blue from the day before and had spent the whole day whining and saying he wasn’t going to skate, obviously he was straight in there!
Judging this was going to prove to be a nightmare so I just split the prize money between all the best of the best trick, really there were thirty contenders for best trick. There was also a “Biggest Heart” award aka The Hippy Award which was for the person who put in the most effort and made the most stuff – Greg Nowik was the unanimous winner! He skated non-stop for the whole time and made about 10 tricks which could have won including a double flip fakie in the deep end of the bowl.
So here’s who got cash for what:
Greg Nowik – Flip Indy fakie, blunt flip in over the deathbox
Olly Tyreman – Backside Crailslide revert, Frontside 5-0 revert
Churchell – Indy transfer out of the bowl into a quarter, manual roll round the bowl to pivot fakie.
Zarosh – Lipslide roll in, Wall stall to disaster in.
Habgood – Frontside nose pick and blunt fakie on the nastiest thin vert quarter pipe.
My last night there coincided with Olly Tyreman’s 18th Birthday, what a place to celebrate! After a few mellow drinks on the sea front terrace of a particularly beautiful bar we headed to a club with a mechanical bull, Churchill shut down the locals with a powerful display of dancing and Rogie lost his mind.
When we got kicked out of there we went to a mellow beach bar and Olly disappeared only to be found later in a pool of puke on the beach while the rest of us laughed the night away with bright red faces.
I’ve been on a lot of trips but this was one that will go into the ‘legendary’ chapter of my memoirs, I feel honoured to have been there with such an amazing crew. I look forward to getting back out next year and doing it all again. Obviously thanks to the sponsors Vans and Nueu who made it possible and to Nick Smith who owns the place and did a pretty good job of making everyone feel welcome and getting them acclimatised!
I’d heard all kinds of horror stories about travelling in India and I’m sure some of them are true. However the area of Goa where the park is located is very touristy and so much of that doesn’t apply, indeed my experience of India was not marred by a single incident although a few of the crew suffered from “Ring of Fire” but that’s a small price to pay, don’t let hearsay put you off the trip of a lifetime. Book your flight now.
TIPS: Although flights out there are around £300 once you get there you can pretty much live for free, a £5 per day budget for food and drink is more than ample. Visas were a bit of a nightmare as we sorted them out last minute, do the sensible thing and apply for yours by post and save yourself a lot of trouble.
Finally, the most important holiday accessory is a moped, essential for getting round independently as everywhere is too spread out to walk and catching cabs is a hassle. Around £4 per day will cover it, plus laughing at idiots crashing really adds to your holiday memories!
Nearly everything described here was captured on film so be sure to check it out HERE on the Vans website – my feeble attempt at journalism couldn’t do it proper justice!
Visit www.sk8goa.com for the full experience and click here for a full feature with video from last years visit by Death Skateboards.
Nic Powley
Is this real or is someone having a giraffe?
Emo [short for Emotional, in case you didn’t know!] kids are the subject of a news piece, which is looking at the scene points you get from having cuts on your arms, hair over your eyes and all that bollocks.
One girl sees it as people “expressing their pain through their actions“, but Crossfire HQ reckons emo pains the ears of everyone listening to it.
The poor old sheriff wants us all remember that there’s a difference between looking emo and being emo. Remember kids, the more depressed you look, the more points you get. So get out those black clothes, get scribbling shit poetry and whatever you do, look miserable!
What’s the point of cutting your arm a little bit? Just go the whole hog and chop your arm off!
Click the image to have a laugh at the stupid buggers.
Joe Beats, the producer behind the beats on Non Prophets’ Hope and the brilliant Indie Rock Blues, is coming back with new material.
Firstly, he and Blak will be teaming up with their new 8 song record Strategery and will be taking it on the road when they tour together. The tracklisting is:
1. Intro
2. Black Market (Remix)
3. Sing My Song
4. Strategery
5. Just Music
6. Me Talk Pretty
7. Kiss Of Life
8. Brothers
In addition to this, Joe will be bringing out another mix, Diverse Recourse, on Bully Records. Described as “hard, gritty, psych-infused hip hop instrumentals”, it is one not to be missed!
A show to support the family of Brent Liles will take place next week.
Liles, who was the original bassist for Social Distortion, was killed by a truck whilst riding his bike recently and the gig, taking place on March 8th at The Galaxy venue in California, will help put money towards his burial costs to help his family.
The bill will feature JFA, Agent Orange, D.I, and more with Jack Grisham from TSOL potentially singing some TSOL songs with JFA.
Graham Coxon has recently been discussing going back to Blur.
The guitarist quit the band in 2002 during the writing and recording of Think Tank to concentrate on his solo material, but lately there have been reports that he might make a return to the group. Coxon said that a return has gone through his mind, adding:
“When you go and get yourself straightened out after a period of abuse, it takes you longer than you think to get over it. It’s been five years. There were things that I really really needed to do for my own good. Personally and musically I had to do some things to see if I was capable.”