The Death team have confirmed their annual visit to Revolution Skatepark in Broadstairs, Kent for Sunday 28th March from 4pm-8pm.
The team scheduled to arrive includes Dan Cates, Moggins, Ronny Calow, Horsey, Steak, Rob Smith and more depending on injuries.
Gorillaz are set to play massive gigs in the UK this summer, Damon Albarn has revealed.
The animated band is set to release their hugely anticipated third album, Plastic Beach, on 8th March, and Albarn spoke to NME.com about their plans for the summer.
Albarn revealed, “”At the moment I wouldn’t want to play Glastonbury or something because I’d be setting myself a very high benchmark, but we’re definitely going to play some big gigs in the UK or in England or in London this year.” He went on to add, “The band is sounding really good, I’m really excited.”
Reformed indie rockers Pavement have announced details of a greatest hits compilation due for the release next month.
The record, entitled Quarantine the Past: The Best of Pavement, is set for release through Domino on March 8th.
The tracklist spans the band’s entire 10 year history, featuring the following songs;
1. Gold Soundz
2. Frontwards
3. Mellow Jazz Docent
4. Stereo
5. In The Mouth A Desert
6. Two States
7. Cut Your Hair
8. Shady Lane / J vs. S
9. Here
10. Unfair
11. Grounded
12. Summer Babe (Winter Version)
13. Range Life
14. Date w/ IKEA
15. Debris Slide
16. Shoot The Singer (1 Sick Verse)
17. Spit On A Stranger
18. Heaven Is A Truck
19. Trigger Cut / Wounded-Kite At :17
20. Embassy Row
21. Box Elder
22. Unseen Power Of The Picket Fence
23. Fight This Generation
Heroin rider Chris Ault and newly acquired Blueprint rider Tom Knox have added to the Emerica UK team this week.
Good work lads!
Words: Adrian
Photos: Sam Barker
February 20th 2010 was the date set for the 5th annual Bondi Bowlarama. For the uninitiated, the Bowlarama is a World Cup of Skateboarding competition held at the skatepark next to Bondi Beach in Sydney, one of the most famous beaches in the world. These events are always good as they attract a lot of the best pro, amateur and master skateboarders in the world. This year was no different with entrants from all over Australia, Europe and America.
There are also a number of sideshow events throughout the week in the lead up to the competition on the Saturday. All in all, it makes for a perfect long weekend away from the drudgery of real life and work.
Anyhow, you’re not reading this to learn how much beer I drank in the sun, you reading this to learn about who ripped and who won.I’m gonna jump ahead a bit and just say for me, three of the main stars of the weekend. First of all, Grant Taylor, is an absolute beast, he appeared on the Friday and was ripping around the bowl like a hyperactive child just given a can of coke. His frontside ollies rival Jason Jesse and he was floating them sky high in the deep, matched with long and speedy grinds. The second, who I only saw on the day of the comp was young ripper Ben Raybourn from Texas, riding for 1031. He turned up and killed it with a mixture of old and new. Only Grosso was doing better sweepers than him on the day, but then Grosso wasn’t also pulling BS 360 airs to rock n roll out of nowhere in the shallow. Thirdly and the guy that really does deserve a lot of recognition was Sergie Ventura. He was constantly present all weekend skating and encouraging people and MCing on the day after knocking himself out in the square corner on the Friday and earning a head full of stitches.
Anyhow, onto a more chronological description of the days events, first up was the Masters comp. Every year I have attended Bowlarama there have been a mixture of legendary pros in attendance to compete, mixed in with a handful of unknown, lifetime deep rippers from Australia. This year saw the best turn out so far for the legends, I managed to be stood listening to Caballero and Lance chat about whether or not they could do sweepers after we watched Grosso do one in his heats. That doesn’t happen twice in a lifetime, although there is always next year.
The Masters final had a strong showing with everyone skating hard. Lance Mountain was unfortunately sidelined after a back issue in his introductory run. It was disappointing, as he was ripping prior to this with all his trademark moves, no one does a sad plant like Mountain.
‘Grosso, Grosso, Grosso‘. There are not many words to do his skating justice, to see is to believe as they say. He was grinding and sliding every inch of the coping and stalling his inverts. I guess you could say he is like a caveman on a skateboard, and I mean that in the best possible way. One of the funniest points of the weekend was watching Grosso announce he was having a cigarette break, only to go and pop in some nicorette gum.
Local Mick Mulhall was ripping with big airs and a deep bag of liptricks to get him into third place. Pat Ngoho was ripping after his win the previous week in New Zealand. He gets better every year it seems and this year was no different. His manual around the platform of the square corner was a highlight to earn him a deserved second place.
For the third year running, Steve Caballero won. As ever he was the well rounded professional with a combination of airs, inverts and lip tricks to put him into first place. There’s not many new things that can be written about him, but after more than 30 years in the pro game, he is still as passionate and fun to watch as he ever was. I’m hoping to see him in the same place next year.
The pro event has always had a great turn out. This year was no different, what is always amazing is the mixture of skateboarders you get. There are vert pros, bowl skaters, the skaters you never heard of apart from in the WCSK8 contest listings and a heap of Australians.
Notable skaters this year that didn’t make the final include the aforementioned Taylor and Raybourne as well the two young vert upstarts, REAL’s Alex Perelson and the UK’s Sam Beckett. Both cruised in their heats and didn’t really show all that they were capable of. Sam proved that he has style for miles and the look of a skater with far more years under his belt than you’d imagine. Alex taught the tight square corner a lesson with a bs 50-50 270 in.
Anyhow, onto the finals, I think that this year was the first year where everyone that got through to the finals were padded up. Previous years, various bowl skaters opting to go sans pads have made it through. This year was a different story and the skating was so gnarly that it was probably wise.
This year, the sponsors, including Vans, had put up over $40,000 in prize money, so the skaters were feeling hungry to say the least. The 10 man finals started off with two introductory runs each and then straight into a jam format or a hectic snake session as it were. At times, it was 2 or 3 skaters at once, in a relatively small bowl, so you had to make every run count. It was unfortunately at this point that Renton Millar managed to smash himself into the flat bottom after slipping out of a 540. He had been killing it all day and it was a shame to see the current World champion bow out early to injury. He was fine later thankfully and pulled in a respectable 10th.
9th, 8th and 7th went to Rion Lindermann, Josh Borden and Juergen Horrwarth. All of whom pulled out some stylish and respectable runs, but were edged out in the snake session for better or worse.
6th place went to Melbourne local RJ Barbaro, who stayed on for some of the longest runs and the highest airs. His placing was pretty good given his experience last year. From maced to placed, shall we say. 4th and 5th went to previous top 3 placers Omar Hassan and Rune Glifberg, both did well and showed why they’re some of the biggest names, but just couldn’t put it together to break the top 3. This is the ridiculous bit also, in previous years, both of them would have been contenders to win.
This brings us to the top 3. Coming in at 3rd was Flip’s Bob Burnquist with a heap of switch crazyness and manhandling of the coping. After seeing his Flip part, you might think that Bob is some superhuman that can skate everything, well he is, but you see him work for it and that makes it all the radder. 2nd went to last years winner, Bucky Lasek. I had Bucky pegged to win this year now that he has his own mammoth training facility in his backyard. (He also has a bowl, ha ha ha.) He killed it, but didn’t seem to want to get his hand dirty in the snake session as much as others. He did make it all look effortless though.
This brings us to this years winner, the brazilian 14 year old wonderkid, Pedro Barros. He wanted the $12,000 to buy sweets, so he turned it on won a lifetime of tooth decay with fully upside 540’s of every variety (my favourite being the stalefish). There was no doubt that he won it and that we’ll see more of him in the years to come.
So to conclude this slightly lengthy article, Thanks to the World Cup of Skateboarding, especially Dave Duncan and Sasha Steinhorst for the hospitality and thank to the sponsors, Vans, Oakley, Tony Hawks Ride and Mountain Dew for putting on a great show.
Roll on 2011.
Top Ten Results
Pro
1. Pedro Barros $12,000
2. Bucky Lasek $7,000
3. Bob Burnquist $4,000
4. Omar Hassan $2,500
5. Rune Glifberg $1,500
6. RJ Barbaro $1,100
7. Juergen Horrwarth $900
8. Josh Borden $800
9. Rion Linderman $700
10. Renton Millar $600
Masters
1. Steve Caballero $3,000
2. Pat Ngoho $1,800
3. Mik Mulhall $1,100
4. Glen Charnoski $700
5. Lester Kasai $500
6. Jeff Grosso $200
7. John Grey $200
8. Lance Mountain $200
9. Adrian Jones $150
10. Scott Spring $150
Full Results can be found here and a video of the comp from the Australian Slam Skate Mag here.
There are many rappers out there who’d have you believe they have many dimensions – they’re a hustler, they’re a businessman, they’re this, they’re that – and yet the more they try to persuade you, the more contrived it becomes.
And then you have B. Dolan, a man who not only proved his worth in the spoken-word world, but also set up Knowmore.org, a consumer activist website. Not one to rest on his laurels, he signed to Sage Francis’ Strange Famous label and tore up stages at Paid Dues and Rock The Bells – if anyone has a reason to preen and pout, it’s Bee.
Thankfully, he doesn’t fall into that trap, instead he has teamed up with Alias to deliver Fallen House, Sunken City. I must say, as much as I’m not a fan of Alias when he raps, his production has always been good, be it straight up hip hop or more chilled out stuff such as his collaboration with Tarsier, but he has taken it to a next level on this release, from the slamming boom-bap of Reptilian Agenda to the almost I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead era El-P of the opening track Leaving NY.
With such a solid base to showcase his lyrical talent on, Dolan goes for the jugular right from the off with “I was told to pick my battles. This isn’t my war. My fight is with myself. I’m leaving New York” and continues at a similarly high-octane pace, lamenting consumerism and the acts of multinationals in Fifty Ways To Bleed Your Customer and showing an ability for story-telling that seems as natural as it ever could be in Body Of Work. His delivery is as impressive as his lyrics, putting his message across powerfully whilst not forcing the listener into uneasiness as the likes of Immortal Technique unfortunately do. No, it’s obvious Dolan is passionate, but he’s able to portray that as part of his album, rather than pushing that as the main focus.
Signing to Sage Francis’ label is bound to draw comparisons, which would be unfair. Certainly, Dolan is his own man and whilst Strange Famous feels like a perfect fit for this record, he doesn’t ever find himself in Sage’s shadow, which is a testament to both the content and the man himself. And, hey, he has a P.O.S. verse on there, you know I gotta thumbs up my Doomtree homies. This is an album that’ll surprise you in all the right places. Pick it up and savour it. And then look forward to checking him out in the UK throughout March.
Check out the video below to see what to expect.
Abjekt.
Thanks to the over-abundance of premature verbal gushers in music journalism I’ve developed some problems with the phrase ‘up and coming’. If something is up and coming already then what’s next for them? Wiping off their brief blogosphere success with a damp cloth and flaccidly play on to an already bored audience perhaps? Bands shift in and out of listener popularity oh-too quickly when the hype machine is turned up to 11 (I think the knob is stuck there?), and to describe Houdini Dax as simply an up and coming band from Cardiff would be an insult to the lads. They have an established live presence at a sickeningly young age, yes. They’ve already gained respect from the musical peers, correct. Houdini Dax are up, for sure; but the only thing coming in this relationship is the listener, again and again and again.
Let’s take their recent EP, The BBC Sessions as a sample of what to expect; there is an immediate comparison in the music to countless good British rock acts (the guitars meet at a synapse in which both The Beatles’ Rubber Soul and Blur’s Modern Life Is Rubbish are playlisted) but when Jack Butler’s sonically rich vocals swamp each track with a smooth prowess, each song becomes enriched with something that makes this not only very listenable but instantly replayable.
Robin You Lie is a simple, overwhelmingly catchy jam, packed with layered chanting and psychedelic rug-cutting evocation. But it effortlessly achieves something way beyond all the other twee faggots whispering crudely thought out metaphors over a fucking xylophone solo that whimsically thrive in the indie music scene right now. Houdini Dax are a much needed, not so much nostalgic as a refreshingly inspired fuzz-pop that will make dancefloors squeak and the soles of your shoes as smooth as the wet wipe you’ll need to calm your climaxing eardrums.
Stanley.
The Borderline, London
19.02.10
Unfortunately missing out on Tall Ships who were first on tonight, we turn up to the newly refurbished Borderline in good time to catch St Louis’ So Many Dynamos who reel out a substantial set to an attentive and moderately busy crowd. Suitably geek-chic (actually, more geek than chic which makes it all the more authentic), the band present their rhythm-heavy rocked-up indie with aplomb.
Their music has a lot in common with Q And Not U and the jaunty nature of the tunes is rooted in a rhythm section that consists of synths and drums (no bass guitar needed here). Couple that with the scuzzed-up chords, catchy choruses and interjectory vocals and you’re definitely onto a winner. It’s a shame it took them three albums to come over to the UK!
Tubelord have been causing quite a stir amongst both underground indie and straight-up rock fans over the past year or so. They describe their music as “pop songs for rock kids” but the appeal of their recorded and live performances has the potential to be wider reaching than that. Looking slightly awkward on stage, Tubelord are more than comfortable when it comes to having a grip on their material. And what material it is!
Poppy, rocky, but also having that slight edge of originality which raises them head and shoulders above the plethora of pop-rock bands that seems to be teeming around UK venues at this point in time. there are singalongs but few straight-up clichés, making the band an intriguing prospect in the live arena. Tubelord have clearly built themselves quite the following (how else are you going to achieve live singalongs with crowd participation so well?) and theirs is an honest, simple sort of music that has enough flair for the innovative to set them apart from the crowd of clones.
Winegums.
Crossfire favourites The Smoking Hearts will embark on a tour of the UK throughout February and March, which recently kicked off in High Wycombe.
The band have released a video detailing their tour progress, featuring clips of the band on the road and audio snippets from their forthcoming debut Pride of Nowhere.
Check out the video below, and make sure to catch The Smoking Hearts when they play;
Feb
27th – The Nags Head, High Wycombe
March
4th – Red Lion, Stevenage
8th – South Of The Border, Old Street, London (ALBUM RELEASE SHOW)
11th – Upstairs at The Garage, London
12th – The Marquee, Norwich
13th – Club Revolution, Peterborough
14th – The Central, Nottingham
15th – The Freebutt, Brighton
19th – Goblets, Southampton
26th – Esquires, Bedford
April
1st – The Hat Factory, Luton
3rd – Club 85, Hitchin