GOLDBLADE
‘The Terror of Modern Life’
Overground Records Facebook
This is the fifth album from Goldblade, and I am kicking myself somewhat for having left it temporarily gathering dust on my review pile, because it’s an absolute belter. Brother John Robb and his Comrades of The Golden Blade deliver thirteen robust songs here, bursting with rocking energy and rousing choruses that lay bare a vision of modern day Broke and Broken Britain. The messages contained are shrouded in cynicism, which is honestly not too hard when you take a look around you. The bleak reality on the ground runs contrary to the Feel Good Dictates spoon-fed us by those goons in the Ministry of Truth.
Right from the off, and the explosive “This is War”, Goldblade crank up the jams with some mighty powerful dark, twisted, and foaming at the mouth Punk Rock. There’s a brief interlude in momentum for the outstanding Ruts recalling dub/rocker “Serious Business”, but otherwise it’s crash, bang and wallop right thru to the crashing chords and sonic cacophony of the closing number.
This is spirited music, a red-hot jukebox of hits that taps in to the unforgettable energy of greats like The Clash, UK Subs, DK’s and Adolescents. Recommended.
The Guardian are powering the campaign for Save Southbank right now with their 3rd feature in a week. This one though has special meaning, as its written by legendary London skater and musician Crispin ‘Spry’ Robinson, who ripped MW2 and various other London spots to shreds when he was skating full time back in the 80’s.
His wise words on today’s Guardian feature state that:
“Moving the skaters to a purpose-built spot along the river misses the point. Reclaimed urban spaces are more than just bits of forgotten concrete. They have memories. They resonate with ghosts of the past. They contribute to the richness and diversity of our lives. Their value cannot be measured in material terms. We need South Bank.2
Malmo’s top dog Danijel Jugga Stankovic joins Geoff Rowley who was welcomed to the Lost Art shop team last month. We interviewed Jugga (now on the National Skateboard Co) when he was riding for the harmony back in 2006. It feels like a lifetime ago but he is still one of th nicest blokes you will ever meet. Enjoy this welcome line.
Bucky Lasek and Chris Miller took the honours in this year’s Pool Party at the Vans Combi Pool over the duration of this weekend in California. Enjoy the highlighted footage of the full weekend.
Masters Results
1. Chris Miller (Del Mar, CA) $15,000
2. Steve Caballero (San Jose, CA) $7,500
3. Christian Hosoi (Huntington Beach, CA) $4,000
Henry Edwards-Wood has unleashed an incredible new edit featuring Southbank’s locals leaving their mark on the banks, ledges, blocks and rails. It’s a must see today.
The Observer got behind the fight yesterday and ran this photo feature yesterday, plus on Friday, the Guardian also highlighted the fact that the petition is now using village green status to protect the Undercroft by forming a preservation society. Get to know.
Click here for our Save Southbank event feature with more skate footage, interviews and photo’s from the May Bank Holiday weekender.
If you were looking forward to this, you will not be disappointed when you click the pic below for the footage. Ben Nordberg lays down a huge amount of great tricks on the Berrics in his new Recruit section. Wonderful stuff. Look out for cameo tricks from Geoff Rowley, Curren Caples and Louie Lopez too.
With a barrage of riffs cutting through like razorwire from the outset, Storm Bandage is the first track to be released of The Body Rampant’s debut album. It’s crisp and clean but hard hitting, produced by the legend that is Brian McTernan. With some old school emo style melodies, The Body Rampant give a taster of what’s to come with their full length – ‘Midnight Mayfair’ is an album which promises a kaleidoscope of snapshots into a conceptual character’s life and death.
Hailing from Southern California, The Body Rampant use some interesting imagery, employing the use of some rather freakish masks for photos and videos. Their soundscapes do contain that tinge of prog and old school emo yet the melodies have hooks galore and you can’t help but sing along. Definitely recommended if you’re into Deftones, Circa Survive and / or Thrice.
Cliché has come a long way and travelled a lot of miles since its first video Europa was released some 10 or so years ago. Bon Voyage is the latest leg of their fantastic journey and there are noticeable changes in the team line-up and general aesthetic. The premier international team boasts Daniel Espinoza, Kevin Bradley, Paul Hart, Joey Brezinski, and Pete Eldridge from America; Sam Winter and Andrew Brophy from Australia; Lem Villemin from Germany; Javier Mendizabal from Spain; Adrien Coillard, Max Geronzi, Charles Collet, Lucas Puig, JB Gillet, Flo Mirtain and Jeremie Daclin from France.
Mark McKee, Eric Frenay and Boris Proust take care of the production side of Bon Voyage and the end product is a very clean and fluent film. Boris has done well to differentiate himself from his predecessor, Fred Mortagne who single-handedly changed the way people see skateboarding. It’s good to note that Cliché also include their army of flow riders who are each given a few seconds to shine during the closing credits. This sort of recognition is a positive stance that too many skate brands bother to take.
So, the 50 minutes flight time of Bon Voyage begins with their newest pro Daniel Espinoza. Shots of Daniel in his supped up sports car, smoking cigarettes and staring into the distance conjure up a sort of 2 Fast 2 Furious vibe, but to be honest my impression of Daniel and his skating was anything but fast and furious; more of an asleep-at-the-wheel approach. He’s talented on a board, he can spin backside 360 bigger spins just as easily as he can grind long S-shaped rails fitting the cookie cutter mold of today’s über-ams. You don’t see many skaters go pro these days from one major video part, some may feel as though this was premature, but make your own mind up from his section. I’m sure he will be a firm fixture for the future of skateboarding.
As Daniel slides and flips his way off the screen, two OG street masters, JB Gillet and Pete Eldridge step up to bat. You really can’t go wrong with either of these guys. They have both cut their teeth at legendary spots during skateboarding’s golden era of the nineties, so why-oh-why did the accredited music coordinator think a limp electro love song would work well with their swagger and clout? Seriously, the music is so ill-suited to Pete’s powerful switch pop and JB’s smooth operations that I just can’t sit down and enjoy this otherwise gem of a section. Paging Quartersnacks for an urgent remix please!
Max Geronzi, Paul Hart and Adrien Coillard represent the next generation of rippers. You probably don’t recognize their names but you will remember them once you’ve seen their part. All three of them have been fixtures in their respective minor leagues and now their sitting nicely at the top of their class ready to graduate to the majors.
Lucas Puig – Nollie inward heel skill. Ph: Dave Chami.
Joey Brezinski rides in on two wheels and rides out on two wheels. The combos get crazier, the balancing gets better and the quirky sense of humour is kept at a minimum. Honestly, Joey is a white crane martial artist performed the most insane balancing acts on his board and deserves to be mentioned in the same breathe as Daewon Song or Rodney Mullen. I just wish we could get to see a few more regular tricks from the guy.
Charles Collet, Andrew Brophy, Lem Villemin and Javier Mendizabal cruise through the film at their respective speeds and heights. If it’s smaller than 3 feet tall, Brophy won’t skate it. Charles is a still a gnarly bohemian and I think Lem was injured during the making of Bon Voyage, but that didn’t stop him from pulling out some suave tech treats.
Javier really doesn’t have enough footage and it would have been great to see him cruising around that crazy glow-in-the-dark bowl structure at night. Oh well. There is a brief interval where the team takes us on their Trucker tour of Europe unearthing even more insane terrain set to the sounds of Cassius’ ‘I Love You So’. Those funky Euros love their electro and this video is full of it. Thankfully, most of it sounds alright.
Lucas Puig (assisted by a brief Jeremie Daclin cameo) brings us back to Cliché’s French roots with some solid street annihilation set to the score of Oxmo Puccino. Lucas gets a free pass riding up to ledges in Adidas tracksuit bottoms because he’s so skilled on a skateboard. I can see street purists are going to pick up on this loose fitted fashion statement.
Sammy Winter is a visual treat and some might say he’s more deserving of that pro spot than his cohorts. Plenty of pop and finesse describes Sammy’s skating. There’s even a brief clip of recently passed Lewis Marnell sharing some good vibes with his Australian brethren. Lost but not forgotten!
Charles Collett – Lien Disaster. Ph: Dave Chami.
American teen Kevin Bradley delivers by the bucket load. Kevin’s skating is very reminiscent of a young Bastien Salabanzi mixed with a splash of Lavar McBride. He attacks gaps, rails and plazas with speed and style. Even the snippets of bravado and hand gesturing seem fairly fun and positive so I hope to see more from Kevin in the future.
Finally we finish with Flo Mirtain. Relatively unknown for some, Flo just joined the pro ranks and this part is a pretty good stamp of approval for that position. Please note the recognition from Marc Johnson as Flo manuals his way around one of the master’s spots in LA. Flo is a tech powerhouse who seems quite mute, but in return his skating does the talking and it screams pretty loud that you need to keep an eye on this guy and his approach to this great pastime we call skateboarding.
There you go. That’s it. Bon Voyage, an epic journey around the world with a truly international team of thoroughbreds and future prospects. It’s recommended. Go get it from your local skate shop this weekend or from iTunes in two clicks.
While Refused were intent on pushing punk rock forward, tearing and ripping up the rule book and starting again, frontman Dennis Lyxzen has both feet placed firmly in the eighties with the old school hardcore punk attack of AC4. ‘Burn The World’ is the band’s second album, released on both Lyxzen’s Ny Vag label and Converge’s Deathwish imprint, and continues their straight–up, high-speed, snotty hardcore attack.
Whilst AC4 offer nothing new or fresh to the musical world, who really gives a damn when it sounds this fun? It’s impossible not to get swept up in the band’s infectious joy as they obviously love and pay the utmost respect to the music they are aping. Energy and enthusiasm crackles from every single one of the sixteen tracks here. The production is powerful and heavy yet manages to retain an important fizzy garage feel that suits the bands energy and Lyxzen’s vocals are snotty and snarled, yet melodic.
Sweden has offered so many great punk bands over recent years. Bands such as Regulations, The Vicious, UX Vileheads and now AC4, have effortlessly taped into the life-affirming energy that legends like 7-Seconds, Minor Threat and the like laid out all those years ago. AC4 take the baton, and run with it at high speed.
The autopsy results of Slayer guitarist/founder Jeff Hanneman came back with alcohol related issues from a statement that the band released overnight. The band are also currently planning to issue a public celebration of Jeff’s life “sometime later this month”.
“We’ve just learned that the official cause of Jeff’s death was alcohol related cirrhosis. While he had his health struggles over the years, including the recent Necrotizing fasciitis infection that devastated his well-being, Jeff and those close to him were not aware of the true extent of his liver condition until the last days of his life. Contrary to some reports, Jeff was not on a transplant list at the time of his passing, or at any time prior to that. In fact, by all accounts, it appeared that he had been improving – he was excited and looking forward to working on a new record.”
The full statement with personal tributes from all of the Slayer family can be found here
This is the fifth album from Goldblade, and I am kicking myself somewhat for having left it temporarily gathering dust on my review pile, because it’s an absolute belter. Brother John Robb and his Comrades of The Golden Blade deliver thirteen robust songs here, bursting with rocking energy and rousing choruses that lay bare a vision of modern day Broke and Broken Britain. The messages contained are shrouded in cynicism, which is honestly not too hard when you take a look around you. The bleak reality on the ground runs contrary to the Feel Good Dictates spoon-fed us by those goons in the Ministry of Truth. 
Malmo’s top dog Danijel Jugga Stankovic joins Geoff Rowley who was welcomed to the Lost Art shop team last month. We 
Bucky Lasek and Chris Miller took the honours in this year’s Pool Party at the Vans Combi Pool over the duration of this weekend in California. Enjoy the highlighted footage of the full weekend.
Henry Edwards-Wood has unleashed an incredible new edit featuring Southbank’s locals leaving their mark on the banks, ledges, blocks and rails. It’s a must see today.
With a barrage of riffs cutting through like razorwire from the outset, Storm Bandage is the first track to be released of The Body Rampant’s debut album. It’s crisp and clean but hard hitting, produced by the legend that is Brian McTernan. With some old school emo style melodies, The Body Rampant give a taster of what’s to come with their full length – ‘Midnight Mayfair’ is an album which promises a kaleidoscope of snapshots into a conceptual character’s life and death. 
While Refused were intent on pushing punk rock forward, tearing and ripping up the rule book and starting again, frontman Dennis Lyxzen has both feet placed firmly in the eighties with the old school hardcore punk attack of AC4. ‘Burn The World’ is the band’s second album, released on both Lyxzen’s Ny Vag label and Converge’s Deathwish imprint, and continues their straight–up, high-speed, snotty hardcore attack. 
The autopsy results of Slayer guitarist/founder