We had the pleasure of meeting this dude at the House of Vans this summer and Tommy Sandoval did not disappoint. Great guy, gnarly skateboarder, here’s his best from KOTR.
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Author: Zac
Karsten Kleppan‘s skating sits inside a video on love, romcoms, and skateboarding adventures from Berlin in Homo Pop Gun. Francisco Saco’s romcom includes footage of Dallas Rockvam, Roland Hirsh, Michael Mackrodt, Sergej Vutuc, Remy Taveira, Mauro Caruso, Steve Forstner and many more.
Enjoy Karsten’s full part released online today ahead of the full film next week.
Watch the trailer:
Ph: Madars Apse, Drop In by Gaston Francisco
New footage of Mardars Apse skating through Alicante, Barcelona and Valencia with Josef Scott and Manu Margreiter has reached the web today. Remind yourself of what warmer climates look like and sigh.
There are not many record labels that can really boast the ‘legendary’ tag but Def Jam would get a look in for sure. Take in this trip back to where it all started at his dorm room with Rick Rubin and the crew behind one of the most life changing labels in music history.
Interview by Nick Hutchings
If you tell your mates you like Pissed Jeans, they look at you all funny. When you explain that it’s a band on Sub Pop Records they assume they are loud. And they’d be right. But they’re also really funny. Singer Matt Korvette fronts a band powered like a V12 engine, tauter than a washboard stomach, yet that’s as macho as it gets, since his whip smart lyrics deal with the emasculation of modern man and self loathing on a scale not seen since Larry David last pounded the streets of LA.
Last year they released “Honeys” (Crossfire Album of the Year) which was like Killdozer meets The Jesus Lizard, and despite the title was no paean to their potency with the ladies. Instead it mostly dealt with the pain they feel looking in the mirror in the mornings. They make an almighty noise but sing about healthcare, insurance, awkward parties, office bores and cafeteria food. This may sound like it’s a novelty but Half Man Half Biscuit have made a career out of it, and this is not half baked, it’s full pelt. Think “National Shite Day” just got diarrhea and crapped in your cochlea.
They have just re-released their first album “Shallow”, originally out in 2005 on Sub Pop, and it’s a visceral thrill, showing glimpses of “Bleach” era Nirvana and the very best Amphetamine Reptile used to offer but with filled with subject matter that’s right now, modern manxieties and boy-sterous tales of ineptitude. It’s a heady mix, even if it sounds like Korvette is documenting the do-ing in of his own head. If The Clash or Guns N’ Roses were the gang you wanted to be in, Pissed Jeans are the one you were already in and didn’t know it yet. They give you permission to feel awkward in your own skin and yet let your receding hair down.
I had the chance to ask Korvette some pertinent and some impertinent questions exclusively for CITC.
I love it, how do you think the “Shallow” reissue stands up?
I’m glad you love it! I think it stands up pretty well. That’s one thing that I really like about Pissed Jeans – we haven’t done a ton of records, and I am really proud of every record we’ve done. We still play songs off Shallow live, and a lot of people seemed to be unable to get it or even aware of its existence, so we figured it was a good idea to make it available again.
I have been a big fan of your work for a while and I often find myself relating to, and laughing with your lyrics – does this mean you feel sorry for me?
What? No. I don’t think enjoying my lyrics is anything to be ashamed about. I don’t even think my lyrics are a big deal at all, which is probably why people seem to enjoy them. There’s not a lot of murder and intrigue in them.
How much of Pissed Jeans work is about being an emasculated man? Even the idea of having Pissed Jeans is one of mortal embarrassment right?
I don’t know about emasculated, so much as a ‘real’ interpretation of being a man? Or maybe rather, just my interpretation of manhood? I’m sure it means different things to different people. Embarrassment is a feeling that can be thrilling and horrifying, and writing about that sort of stuff is a good way to kind of work myself through it.
I find that in a lot of drama and adverts, the husband/father figure these days is portrayed as hapless, loveable but basically an idiot, why is that? Do you agree? If so, what do you feel about it?
I think it’s just clearly a representation of our sexist culture – men are allowed to be rotund dolts who remain in charge, while the women have to maintain improbable figures and perform the balancing act between “prude” and “slutty”. I think it’s utterly horrible, and it leads to a lot of miserable mentalities and, perhaps indirectly, violence against women. Fuck that.
Is there “Hope For Men” and what is it?
You’re talking to him.
So the “Shallow” reissue features your first 7” “Throbbing Organ” – what with that and the song “Ashamed of My Cum” there’s a certain amount of sexualized self-loathing going on – how much is autobiographical, how much is second person story telling and how much is for pure shock?
It comes from a very real place – I didn’t have to imagine a guy who wishes they didn’t waste an hour jerking off, you know? I guess part of it was for shock – I wrote that song in like 2003 or so, and there weren’t many hardcore bands approaching sexuality in a way that’s deeper than “I’m horny”, maybe.
“Shallow” starts with the song “I’m Sick” but it’s not in the same vein as Mudhoney’s “Touch Me, I’m Sick”, you are genuinely talking about being ill, plus in “Honeys” there’s “Health Plan” which details your fear of going to the doctors – why is this such a recurring theme?
Because I am fairly obsessed with my own mortality, and getting older. It’s kind of a fascinating thing, to realize your body isn’t as sprightly as it was five or ten years ago. And it’s also motivation to keep myself from falling into total disrepair. Plus, when you’re injured or have the flu or something, it’s kind of impossible to think about anything else.
Has there ever been a time when a gig has made you feel literally sick?
No, I don’t think so. I actually barfed for the first time during a show last year, but it was from sheer physical exhaustion, and no one knows because I politely ran off stage and barfed out of sight. It was more of a retching than full-on blown chunks, though.
You make banal subject matter sound really angry, how difficult do you find daily life, and how rubbish is modern life?
I think life is both miserable and joyous – who would disagree? There’s a lot of pointless crap involved though, and the beauty of being a vocalist and lyricist is getting to say whatever you want about it. It’s really quite fun.
“Bathroom Laughter” from “Honeys” is a real anthem; does it come from observation at drunken house parties? The video is funny but very dark – the bit where the production assistants are clearing up but ignoring the plight of the infomercial presenter seemed unfortunately totally believable. Have you ever seen those horrific Canadian public information films on safety at work – they seem so banal and end so shocking – it really reminded me of those…have you seen these?
I haven’t! I try to stay away from horrifying YouTube videos. I get affected too easily.
Killdozer seems like a touchstone, how big a lyrical influence has Michael Gerald been?
Seeing as I have to deduce from context clues that Michael Gerald must be the vocalist (or at least lyricist) in Killdozer, I have to be honest and say that he has been of zero influence to me. Never was a big Killdozer fan, but maybe they come from a time and place that I personally missed out on. I have no problems being compared to him and Killdozer, though! Whatever people here in us, that’s cool.
I’ve read that sometimes your audiences come expecting one thing and end up on either side of the auditorium parted like the Red Sea, holding onto the walls for dear life – why do you think that kind of thing has happened? Is it students attracted by the obnoxious name but not being able to cope with the reality?
Really? I never noticed that. I think people generally get what they expect, but also, if it’s a crazy and wild show, it’s because of the crowd that came. If people want to politely sit in chairs and watch us, that’s cool too – we aren’t going to leave the stage and attack anyone, we stay put. Any crowd that is amazed by the violence and energy is probably also the reason for it.
“Shallow” has a touch of Nirvana’s “Bleach” about it – how big an influence were / are Nirvana?
I love Nirvana, and we had a few moments where we’ve though “okay, that’s a serious Grohl drum part” or “that’s kind of a Nirvana-ish riff, don’t you think?”, but honestly those moments happened more on King Of Jeans and Honeys than Shallow.
What do you think about that song they did with Paul McCartney?
I haven’t heard it. I can only assume it kicks major ass.
Have you seen the Amphetamine Reptile film? What do you think of all those bands, I had the 1993 AmRep sampler and you could easily have been at home on that?
I haven’t, but I’d really like to! I love music documentaries. I think Am Rep is cool, although I very rarely spend my time listening to records on that label. Much respect though.
There’s a definite early 90s sound but what makes you right now (the lyrics) – do you give a damn about being right now?
I think it’s important that I write about things that are affecting me, and those things are generally happening in the present – thankfully I am not still deeply grieving over my high school dating career or Little League baseball performance. I want to write songs that are relatable ten years from now, but still very much about the present. There aren’t nearly enough people writing songs about iPhones and portable electronic devices, that’s for sure – that shit is utterly shaping our history and existence and it’s scary as hell.
I recently interviewed The Jesus Lizard about their album “Down” which was my favourite but which they hated – how personally do you view your work after the fact? What if someone misunderstands your work and loves it for the reasons you never intended?
I would be disappointed if someone misses my sarcasm and thinks like, bad behavior is good, but I don’t know that that has really happened. Like I said before, I’m really proud of all the records we’ve done overall, so that’s a nice feeling. There are other records I’ve done with other bands that I can’t say that about.
The drumming in Pissed Jeans is immense, what drummers do you admire and why?
Chris Corsano, Brian Chippendale and Han Bennink instantly come to mind. I love drummers that are absolutely totally crazy and capable of insane physical feats. Sean, our drummer, is pretty good, although I want him to work on his upside-down one-handed snare rolls.
Technique is obviously high in Pissed Jeans but how important is showmanship?
Interestingly, I feel that showmanship is far more important for us! I don’t have to worry about having actual talent, but the other guys have been playing their instruments for decades and it’s second nature. We just want to have fun when we’re playing live, really, and I think showmanship, or anti-showmanship, are a big part of that.
You guys look so unassuming; you could be office workers when you walk out on stage, which belies the audio power that emits. As a fellow short-hair Joe Average I have always found that inspiring, dating back to when Helmet first emerged – what role models did you have? How much do you enjoy confounding expectations?
My role models were not office workers, thankfully. I don’t know, I love to dress up in interesting clothes and costumes, probably more than your average person does, but playing shows often results in destroyed clothes, so I generally wear stuff I don’t care about. I think we look decent on stage though, not too nerdy.
The Jabberwocky festival was cancelled, so no UK appearances this year, when do you next plan to drop by?
We came to the UK anyway, cancellations be damned! You missed it. No plan to come back to the UK at the moment, but it’s been a yearly thing lately. We’ve been to the UK way more than California in the past five years, and I’m not sure what that says about us.
Pissed Jeans album ‘Shallow’ is out now from Sub Pop’s Mega Mart or in your favourite record shop that stocks fucking cool punk records. Find it, buy it, listen to it and then destroy it.
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Skrimp video feature incoming
Ph: Conor Charleson
Look out for the full Skrimp Life video coming to Crossfire in a feature with Xavien Francis this week. Who knows, it may even arrive tomorrow.
Phil Evans’ Panoramic Series has unleashed rad footgae filmed on the streets of Paris with Bastien Duverdier and Joseph Biais today.
Creature have upped the ante today with this Welcome to the Fiend clip that will have your jaw on the floor.
Illustration: George Yarnton
Words: Chris Lawton
When I told my girl I was writing a piece on Gino Iannucci, she replied, “that’s easy – just write that he’s the only person you love more than me.” Although not strictly true (I love them both equally), like many in my generation, I have been more than slightly obsessed with the reclusive Long Islander for almost as long as I’ve been skating. This probably baffles many skaters born after 1990 (who were 3 when Gino’s breakthrough section came out on 101’s ‘Snuff’). After all, his last genuinely full part (in ‘Yeah Right’) is now 11 years’ old. But the internet goes wild for every handful of tricks, short ad or interview. Despite Slap message board assholes furiously typing accusations of ‘milking it’ and speculating retirement for as long as the Slap website has had a message board, Gino fans don’t give two shits about the frequency of footage.
Followers of first and second gen Girl/Chocolate are well used to the super cool dudes – Keenan, Chico, Gino, Scott Johnston, Chris Roberts – only releasing a small amount of footage at a time, often a few tricks in a shared section. Rather than feeling short changed, the years between each sighting just added to the mystique – helped by the fact that the quality would always be game changing. Things have changed – now if we don’t see a full part from our favourite pro each year alongside constant web clips, social media traffic and interviews, we scream like spoilt children. Gino is cut from a different cloth: giving interviews relatively rarely, keeping a low profile on social media, and seemingly unaware of the esteem in which he is held.
For those unsure why the jump from Chocolate to Dill and A.V.E.’s Fucking Awesome is such a big deal, and why dudes in their 30s far away from the North American East Coast leapt from excitement to trepidation and back again, let’s break it down with a bit of a personal story. Sorry…. not sorry. It’s my post…. I’ll do a ‘Gino and me’ if I want to.
I started skating in 1996 – the year ‘Trilogy’ and ‘Mouse’ came out – but it took about a year to see either, given high speed internet connections were the sole preserve of the military, and supply chains to local shops were haphazard at best. So by the time I watched Gino’s incredible part in the 101 opening section of Trilogy, then his shared part with Keenan in Mouse, I’d transcended from the grom stage of ‘all skating is amazing’ to forming a view of the sub-species I’d seek to emulate. As Quartersnacks have noted – if you were a suburban white guy, Keenan and Kareem were a level of super cool that was inaccessible: you’d never be like them. But Gino looked like a better dressed, much better skating version of you. When The Chocolate Tour followed in 1999 – and you already thought the Girl/Choc guys were the dopest people on earth (except maybe the Mixtape-era Zooyork guys) – Gino stood apart. He didn’t arse around for Spike Jonze’s direction in any of the skits. The other guys just open a door and exclaim ‘here’s Gino’s part’… and then the GZA instrumental kicks in. In THAT L.A. schoolyard line he rocks the exact same outfit as every other skater at the time: hoody; khaki cargos; a pair of chunky Axions…. but somehow looked a million times cooler than any of us. I went to Rollersnakes the next day and then had to live off stolen bread from my housemates for the next 3 months.
You could say that the majority of this reflection is about outfit choice…and that you’re above such shallow shit. But you’ve come to the disco buddy, you might as well dance. We’ll get to the skating in a minute. Whenever I walk into a clothing store, a mental voice urges me to purchase the XXLest of t-shirts, preferably with an all-over print of mostly dead rappers, baggy-ass track pants or light-ass-denims. I have a professional job. I’ve just left my middle 30s. Luckily, a louder voice sternly asks “what would Gino do?” This now-automatic reflex has saved both my marriage and ability to progress quasi-successfully within wider society.
2014 Gino is the sartorial benchmark for the older hip hop white guy (thanks to Frozen in Carbonite for popularising that label, I’m taking that to the grave). After muddying up Nike vs. core skate shoe allegiances a full decade before Nike SB emerged, rocking indoor football shoes and thus encouraging bourgeois gangsters in Nottingham to do the same, Gino shows us that we can be fresh post-35… without looking like an accountant with expendable income and a fetish for gaudy streetwear collaborations. Understated, low on daft logos, fashion-forward. Football Ts. Beanies that perch all funny on the top of your head. The return of bucket hats. The East Coast beard. Gino had a large role in bringing these things about. Because, for whatever reason, when he rocks something a big part of the skate world takes notice and follows suit. I mean, just check out that Seaport line in the Pretty Sweet bonus footage/Brick Harbour remix…we never need to worry about wardrobe strategy again.
Serious skate stuff now. Not that the above isn’t… I’m not even half joking. Marc Johnson, among others, has summarised the essence of what makes Gino’s skating stand above the rest. Natural with a slight awkwardness – see how upright he stands on his board. No over-steez on the landing, not ever. Super fast. For a guy who came up in the mid-90s, when so many others did the foot-drag push to maintain pedestrian speeds, he really hacks at it. Still does. As Brits we can appreciate that he skates cutty East Coast spots as much as Californian schoolyards. But unlike an army of high-water-and-Vans contemporary try-hards, over-steezing ollies and mobbed kickflips, when he hits up rough spots he invariably does really difficult tricks. When it’s switch, it looks switch: that 90s belligerence when doing something ground-breaking, but pulled off with understated ease. And of course, the trick selection. Gino is one of the few people who can single handedly bring a trick into fashion – even when it’s thrown out seemingly as an afterthought in a shared part or web clip. No-complies to tailslide: Gino and Pontus get shared credit for that one. But the 360 shove-it, previously an early 90s flatground stinker, now executed with pop and over obstacles; the fakie varial flip; backside 360 ollies in lines or to manny; backside heelflip as good as the kickflip equivalent. The credit for the contemporary popularity of all of these lies with Gino alone – someone who hasn’t released more than a smattering of footage every couple of years for a decade.
Of course it doesn’t take a genius to observe that our man is getting older. But we’ve seen a number of big names indefinitely extend their relevance by changing up the way they skate. Both booze-addled crazy man Freddy Gall and our own Paul Shier have switched from precise high speed ledge tech to something looser and more creative after years of ankle injuries. This concern is largely irrelevant for Gino. His career has been a process of constant change and reinvention – no two video parts have been remotely the same. There’s always a new group of tricks, just ahead of the curve – the low-impact curve maybe – but a change in theme that then affects the way the rest of us skate. Even if we don’t see a full section in the next F.A. release, it’s worth betting money that Gino will bring something new to the table.
Finally, why is his departure from Chocolate in particular a big deal? Many in the UK have followed the careers of Gino, Keenan, Scott Johnston, etc. with a certain sense of pride or at least association. These dudes went over to the hallowed, sun-blessed land of California and tore shit up with much the same set of values as British skaters: skate fast; try hard; make-do; be true to your origins. That Chocolate became a home for a bunch of East Coast émigrés gave it a special place in our hearts. Its importance increased as O.G. Zoo York turned to shit, and even more so as Blueprint and Alien died their recent horrible deaths. Chocolate literally became the only brand that I have followed solidly since starting skating. And the visual language of the brand – Evan Hecox’s lettering, street scenes and portraits – were/are almost as important as the skating. Either side of the wedding photograph in our living room hangs Keenan’s street scene and Gino’s 15 years’ of Chocolate Brooklyn Bridge boards. It’s hard not to worry that the resonance of Gino’s skating will lose something when detached from that unmistakable graphic prism. F.A. is pretty cool n’all, but it still seems fledgling – its popularity currently due more to the prominence of F.A. kids and Dill in ‘Cherry’, and its wider association with Supreme, than to a body of work that stands apart on its own. Although Dill reminds us that the clothing brand has been going for years, it’s early days for the hard goods and skate team. For Gino fans, the dead cert of Chocolate has been replaced with something more fragile.
I’m an optimist, and at the end of the day want to see more Gino footage – especially footage that stands out for the aesthetic appeal of the skating, rather than the technical feat of its digital capture or verve of one’s drone piloting. Like everyone else and their dog, I’m excited by the wider narrative of smaller brands coming up and re-asserting skaters in the presentation of the art form, and fighting back against the encroaching values of mainstream competitive sports. Despite clearly being a committed professional who places high standards on himself – Gino is a million miles away from Street League. Perhaps a growing, independent brand will let him – alongside Dill and A.V.E – remain relevant for many more years.
Dill better not blow it: I’ll be in the queue to make him eat that fucking vest if he does.
Ph: Dill and Gino in Nottingham, UK (1994) shot by Jody Morris and included in his book 20 Plus.
Skaters down in Broadstairs and Ramsgate will be receiving two new concrete parks following petitions from locals after the bulldozing of their DIY spot in the area this year. National skatepark contractor Wheelscape have been granted the fees to build both projects with Broadstairs getting a street park and Ramsgate receiving a bowl.
Margate will also have a park designed and allocated once these two are up and running. Work will get underway immediately on both parks with a scheduled completion before Christmas, weather permitting.
