Nyjah Huston’s Fade To Black released back in December last year is explained by film make Chris Ray and Nyjah who explain how it was made, how the tricks went down and how many slams it took to make some of those NDB’s.
Author: Zac
Raymond Molinar celebrates the launch of his new WKND Skateboards venture after leaving Stereo with a night time street mission via the tube aided by DJ Hotday who packs Scoob, Biggie, Kane and Pac into the mix for the session.
If you want more on what WKND are up to then follow your nose. looks like a tight team run from LA.
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The Young Ones was my first punk rock
It’s hard to express quite how important The Young Ones was to my generation. When it first aired in 1982 it changed everything. It roared through the playground like a tidal wave. It changed the way we spoke, the way we thought, our humour. The Young Ones were our heroes. It was glorious, chaotic anarchy and it was on our TV sets. It divided generations. I remember friends and family whose parents wouldn’t let them watch it. It was a bad influence. Crazy, weird, too damn rebellious.
You loved the Young Ones like you loved your favourite band. Maybe even more. They were total punks and Rik Mayall led the whole thing. News of his passing hit me like a sucker punch. It felt like a part of my childhood has just died with him.
And it goes far beyond and before The Young Ones. The Dangerous Brothers, Kevin Turvey, Lord Flashheart, Drop Dead Fred, Alan B’Stard, endless brilliant Comic Strips. And all of it so funny. All of it ingrained into our collective consciousness. To this day we still endlessly quote from his repertoire. It never goes away, does it…Cod Piece Face?
I never got to meet Rik Mayall. I did get to meet Adrian Edmondson once at the Kerrang! Awards where I drunkenly tried to persuade him to reform Bad News as a rap-metal band (can you imagine how good that would have been?!) He humored me as I slurred at him stating that Bad News were a better metal band than all of the other rock bands in the room that day.
It’s true. Bad News, along with The Young Ones, were a huge part of my adolescence. We would endlessly watch the two Comic Strip episodes that featured this perfect pastiche of heavy metal in all its ridiculous glory. Rik Mayall was incredible as the bands incompetent bass player Colin Grigson. As I type this now quotes from the TV shows and two albums they made fill my head, still making me laugh.
I was lucky to get to see Bad News twice live. Once at the Marquee where they jammed with Jeff Beck and Brian May and again at the legendary Donington ‘Monsters Of Rock’ appearance that features in the ‘More Bad News’ episode. At the time, there was a lot of controversy regarding Bad News being on the bill. In those days Monsters Of Rock (now Download) was a one stage, one day event with only six or seven bands on the bill and the audience was aggravated that one of those precious spots was taken by a ‘joke’ band. On the day, however, there wasn’t a single person in the crowd that wasn’t having the best time ever as the band were pelted with whatever the audience could lay their hands on, which can be seen in all its glory on ‘More Bad News’.
So that’s it then. Goodbye Rik Mayall. Thanks so much for all of the laughs. Thanks so much for making the eighties less bleak than they could have been. Thanks for brightening up our world.
The last words go to (p)Rick.
“This house will become a shrine, and punks and skins and rastas will all gather round and hold their hands in sorrow for their fallen leader. And all the grown-ups will say, “But why are the kids crying?” And the kids will say, “Haven’t you heard? Rick is dead! The People’s Poet is dead! And then one particularly sensitive and articulate teenager will say, “Other kids, do you understand nothing? How can Rick be dead when we still have his poems?”
James Sherry
That exploding tonic water eh…
5050 shot by Joel Lelliot
Matt “Potter” Hill‘s full section from Drawing Boards’ Draw The Line video has been released today.
This part was pretty hard to finish not because of the big man’s ability, just because he spent a lot of time working laying floors. Potter is rad, just a shame he makes big things look small!
Vans have rolled out a brand new Cyclone/Teal colourway of the Chima Ferguson Pro shoe this month that look like must have’s for this scorching summer that we are said to be in for this year. There are many other colourways for this signature collection that you can check out here.
New decks have finally landed from Dill and AVE’s Fucking Awesome Skateboards this month. Kicking off with the controversial Coke Dad graphic to the laid back Moroccan Girl and embossed Surf’s Up rig. Available from Supreme skate shops and online.
Coke Dad – 8.18″
AVE – 8.38″
Dill – 8.25″
Mary – 8.25″
Palm Sunday – 8.5″
Moroccan Girl – 8″
Surf’s Up Emboss – 8.25″ – Raised Logo Emboss style Team Deck – Black painted bottom, not full dipped
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Body of Water
This new edit featuring Walker Ryan, Dennis Busenitz, Joey Pepper, Josh Matthews, and Nestor Judkins skate through New Zealand is a total winner from start to finish. Dennis takes lines like Richard Bacon.
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Craig Questions RAW
Remind yourself of Craig Questions sessioning Stockwell and see some clips of him fart-arsing about in the US with Fos in the latest from Heroin film week.
If you missed their new rider welcome last night, then get familiar with Zach Krull.
Photograph shot in 1987 by Stephen Marc. Buy it here.
Alvvays – ‘Archie, Marry me’ (Transgressive Records)
As indie ‘hits’ go Canadian pop crew Alvvays have crafted a stunning contender for the best laid-back summer tune of 2014. Melt this into your ears on a sunny day for best results and look out for the album dropping on July 21st. – Zac
Iggy Pop & Nick Cave feat. Thurston Moore – ‘Nobody’s City’ (Gun Club cover)
The coolest, second coolest, and third coolest rockers of all time covering the fourth coolest rockers of all time. One’s the leader of the Stooges, the other the leader of the Bad Seeds and the third the leader of Sonic Youth. Together they pay a mighty tribute to Jeffrey Lee Pierce, leader of the chaotic blues-punk outfit The Gun Club. If you enjoy this little number, get a copy of Miami and Fire Of Love. Immediately. Describe the track? Fuck that, this needs to be heard to be believed. – Ross Horton
White Lung – ‘Snake Jaw’ (Domino)
Hot on the trail of gnarl left behind their shit kicking new single ‘Drown With the Monster‘, White Lung have just dropped the equally stonking B-Side, ‘Snake Jaw’. If you need it loud and you need it now, hit play for a snarling fix. – Dave Palmer
Eight Rounds Rapid – ‘Stalker’ (Cadiz Music)
Hailing from Southend and featuring rhythm and blues punk rock legend Wilko Johnson’s son Simon on guitar, Eight Rounds Rapid’s debut album ‘Lossleader’ is a perfect and very British slab of strutting pub punk rock. Vocalist David Alexander has the perfect ice cold vocal sneer, distilling the essence of Alternative TV, Wire and Dr Feelgood and making it sound totally NOW. Check them out quickly before they fire off all eight rounds. – James Sherry
Chain & The Gang – ‘Devitalise’ (Fortuna Pop)
Ian Svenonius always does good party manifesto. I first heard his “13 Point Plan To Destroy America” with Nation of Ulysses then got to interview him as leader of Gospel influenced MAKE-UP for my old grunge fanzine Velvet Sheep when he said “the only reason we make music is cos what can poor people do to fight against the context they’re forced to live in, in terms of capitalist society? The great promise of rock & roll is the idea of self-creation”. And he’s created yet another brilliant band Chain & The Gang who return after a triumphant MAKE-UP reunion (I was there, I testified as Ian repeatedly smacked a microphone into his Steptoe-esque teeth) with the brilliantly understated “Minimum Rock & Roll”. To call it lean is an understatement.
On the brilliant teaser Ian intones that this record does not contain the following: “Extraneous words, unnecessary sounds, frivolous notes. Fewer Words — Fewer Notes — Fewer Beats. You’re tired of hearing them, we’re sick of making them”. Like The Cramps this is cut to the bone. Still funky, still sexy, still incandescent. But made from rubbing two sticks together rather than with a flame thrower. If politics is about personality these days, I say we should all clamour for Ian’s immediate election. – Nick Hutchings
Perspex Flesh – ‘S/T’ (Static Shock Records)
Hailing from Leeds, Perspex Flesh play a particularly ugly and thrilling mutant form of hardcore punk that is bathed and smothered in so much feedback that pain is as much a part of the listening experience as pleasure is. However, underneath the swathes of noise lay some killer punk rock riffs and rhythms. Excellent new hardcore that looks forward as much as it does to the past.- – James Sherry
Jack Ruby – ‘Hit & Run’ (Cargo Records)
On his liner notes for this remarkable reissue Thurston Moore says “Jack Ruby may be the most influential punk band from New York City that no-one ever even knew about”. He first wrote about them with Byron Coley for his ace book “No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York 1976-1980” and now with the help of the internet connections have been made, and the rediscovered sound is like the connections of two live wires unearthed. The band’s George Scott III went onto become the bassist of the kinetically brilliant Contortions, but if you’re familiar with James Chance’s sound then you’re only half way there. Think of Crime – the rediscovered roughcut diamonds in police uniforms who proclaimed San Francisco to be doomed, with a dose of Electric Eels “Agitated” and Sonic Youth’s “Shaking Hell” and you are nearer the compelling carnage of this proto-punk “Hit & Run”. – Nick Hutchings
Lee Baines III & The Glory Fires – ‘The Company Man’ (Sub Pop)
Need something to put the swagger back into your step? Maybe this Alabama quartet can help. ‘The Company Man’ is Southern rock at its finest; underpinned by a fuzzed-up beast of a riff, topped off with Mr Baines’ rootsy road-dog drawl, and probably an absolute belter when played live. Here’s hoping for some UK dates soon. – Alex Gosman
Lola Colt – ‘Vacant Hearts’ (Black Tigress Records)
Lola Colt’s sonic explorations never fail to satisfy. Live, or on record, the past couple of years has seen this six-piece consistently deliver the most mesmerising, psychedelic soundscapes you could ever wish to indulge in. Now approaching their highly anticipated debut album, scheduled for release at the end of the year, Lola colt have dropped their third single ‘Vacant Hearts’. As per, this track oozes cool, and is laced with that hot desert sand ‘Colt fans will be oh so familiar with. – Dave Palmer
Wonk Unit – ‘Lewisham’
New Wonk Unit album Nervous Racehorse is melodic, indie-tinged punk at its finest, and ‘Lewisham’ evokes the same feel as the best that Fat Wreck or Epitaph had to offer in their mid-90s heyday. A ridiculously hook-laden ode to the South London borough that is bound to get you out the door and on your skateboard. – Jono Coote
Wussy – ‘Teenage Wasteland’ (Damnably)
Taken from Wussy’s fifth album, Attica! Lead track ‘Teenage Wasteland’ is the perfect introduction to the Cincinnati five-piece’s restrained rock ‘n’ roll. A slow burner that builds on a quaint piano riff to an uplifting crescendo. Prepare for howling pedal steel, throbbing Hammond organ, and an obligatory theremin thrown in for good, psychedelic measure. This is a summer haze to be fully embraced. – Dave Palmer
Arctic Flowers – ‘Anamnesis’
Playing gothic-tinged hardcore punk in the vein of TSOL/45 Grave/Nerve Agents, Arctic Flowers often stray closer to UK ’77 and 80’s post-punk sounds than the aforementioned comparisons. ‘Anamnesis’ finds the group at their fastest and loudest, but they are equally at home creating foreboding, gloom laden dirges. – Jono Coote
If you would like to contribute tracks next month or write for us then don’t be shy, get in touch.
Elliot Rowe‘s section from Draw The Line is next up from the Drawing Boards camp today. His words to sum it up: “Sunshine, happiness, youth and freedom. I really enjoyed spending time with everyone. Being surrounded by people so good on a skateboard made me feel so good being on a skateboard! Even though I’m losing my skill as quickly as my hair, the memories won’t be forgotten.”
You can read the full feature from the making of this DVD here.