The Mischief edit from the North East skate scene video, ‘Pigs In Wigs‘ released back in 2010 is online from today edited by Bingo (RIP) himself alongside all of the other sections from the video.
Author: Zac
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Rom Jam 2012 video
Monkeyglove covered this weekend’s Rom Jam in Essex. Watch it here.
Old bowl footage of good times spent at Kidderminster’s Safari Park bowl has surfaced this week. the cine tapes have footage of Neil Danze, Gary Lee, Roger Harvey, Andy Peerless, Sean Goff and many more.
Check out this edit of bowl, mini ramp and freestyle skating from the archives and footage from an English Skateboard Association comp (ESA) from 1984 too. Classic stuff.
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The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends
(Bella Union)
It’s been a while since The Flaming Lips seemed absolutely vital. Probably the last time they could have been considered essential listening was back when Yoshimi was battling those evil robots. Some might argue that The Soft Bulletin was the high point, and others might even dig further back to Clouds Taste Metallic or …Satellite Heart. Whatever, it’s fair to say that Coyne and chums have been a little off the boil of late. Embryonic was a move towards a filthier, darker, more overdriven sound, and although it might not have been a grand success, it did seem as if The Lips were getting back on track.
Heady Fwends is probably not the best release by which to judge the state of The Flaming Lips’ collective consciousness, it is after all yet another one of those little diversions that Wayne Coyne seems to like taking his band on.
Discounting Wayne’s own distractions (twitter seems to be taking up a fair amount of his time) the band itself seems to have been content with messing about over the years. There was the Boombox Experiments, the 4xCD lunacy of Zaireeka, the Gummy Skull (with USB inside), and their foray into the world of covers courtesy of their take on Dark Side Of The Moon.
Indeed it is that particular release that rather sets the precedent for Heady Fwends. It too was released for Record Store Day initially, and it featured an occasional guest spot for the likes of Henry Rollins. Taking the guest spot to its logical conclusion, Heady Fwends is an album created by the collaborative efforts of The Lips and whoever they could convince to take part. The overall impression that Heady Fwends gives is that it’s more of a knockabout than a serious attempt at an album. If it’s taken in that spirit, then overall it’s pretty good fun, if slightly flawed.
It all kicks off in suitably wonky fashion with Ke$ha’s effort, 2012 (You Must Be Upgraded) which sounds like Yeah Yeah Yeah’s channelling early Ween – only not quite as good. There are other let downs along the way, the collaboration with Lightning Bolt I’m Working At NASA On Acid should have been a mind bending collision of noise, but when they hit the chaos section it all seems a bit contrived and a missed opportunity. Meanwhile Supermoon Made Me Want To Pee (with Prefuse 73) just seems like an exercise in boredom at the mixing desk. Helping The Retarded To Know God (with Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros) is a bit of a dawdle too with could do with a hefty edit. Not that there aren’t some fine flourishes to be found in the vocal melodies or the heavenly tacked on coda, but it drags quite dramatically.
There are some high points too however (as an aside, Coyne seems at pains to explain just how high/fucked up constantly). Children Of The Moon takes Tame Impala aboard the honking mothership from Close Encounters for a woozy and quite wonderful rustic jam. That Ain’t My Trip (with My Morning Jacket’s Jim James) sounds like an outtake from Embryonic, and is a suitably over-driven bundle through choral chants and earsplitting amp terrorism. The funereal space-scream of Is Bowie Dying? occupies similar territory, combining noise a Twin-Peaks guitar twang and existential dread. Nick Cave turns up and puts in an archetypal Cave performance, for some reason he sounds like an intensely sarcastic David Thomas at times, but it works. Finally, the epic sprawl of the cover of First Time Ever I Saw Your Face is genuinely affecting at times, with the unpleasantness that kicked off between Coyne and Erykah Badu in the wake of that video unable to cast a shadow over it.
So plenty to like, but also a fair few missed opportunities. Hopefully The Flaming Lips will return to concentrating on making music without the distraction of their Fwends for the foreseeable future. The world needs another vital Lips album.
6.5/10
Sam Shepherd
The BBC banks in Manchester may have been decorated lately with skatestoppers after 20 years of freedom, but it has only raised the bar for a different session as Joe Gavin, Rogie, Tom Day, Fos and Tom McClung demonstrate in Jim Craven’s edit.
The carpenters have been finishing off the main body of work in the street course over the last week with the ‘spectator gap’ being the stand out design addition that has been built in front of the new spectator cabin. Check out the new video and photos in the updated feature and feel free to share them as the park really takes shape.
Lakai have dropped a new edit featuring their European crew skating Parisian spots. This footage put together by Boris Proust features Sylvain Tognelli, Karsten Kleppan, Niklas Speer Von Cappeln, Max Frion, Gauthier Rouger, Daniel Espinoza, Sebo Walker and Nick Jensen.
The UK Huffington Post and TMZ have reported the serious offence to Baker Skateboards‘ latest baseball shirt design that features Daniel Shimizu and Don Nguyen riding the classic Dukes of Hazzard car with The Duke’s word exchanged for Gooks.
Paul Kearns, of anti-racism education charity Show Racism The Red Card, said: “We would say that T-shirt is obviously racist and we agree with the comments that suggest this is essentially a case of racism for sale. We hope to see it withdrawn in the very near future. It promotes racial stereotypes and it is unacceptable.”
Andrew Reynolds is yet to comment but is this an over the top reaction?
Ice-T’s directorial debut is a documentary of epic yet intimate proportions as he embarks upon a series of discussions with legendary rappers and purveyors of hip-hop in the cities of New York, Detroit and Los Angeles. Not a history lesson per se, the film merely touches on some of the more historical elements of the genre – how it originated, how it progressed and grew – but focuses more on each rapper’s individual process and attitude towards lyrics as well as their theories on why it’s not quite a well-respected art form in the same respect as jazz or blues.
A whole host of MCs offers up insight on their approach towards rhymes and one of the overwhelming features of the film is how we see rappers with actual pen and paper crafting their verse with consideration and diligence. This is not something that the genre of hip-hop often brings to mind. Seeing Grandmaster Caz’ obvious irritation at running out of ink and having to switch pens halfway through his flow is something quite brilliant. His neat handwriting fills the page, albeit littered with F words and N words. Another who is interviewed by the always eloquent and directive Ice-T discusses the construction of a track from the outline of a plot, kicking off with its conclusion and there are also some great shots of sheets of paper with flowchart diagrams tracking the progression of lyrical content. Dr Dre teaches us that Tupac wrote all his lyrics (again with pen and paper) inside the vocal both and then would lay them down immediately.
This film teaches us many things about legendary rappers’ processes and also how they think the genre is viewed and why it’s perceived in such a way. It also brings us a series of original a capellas as the likes of KRS-One, Melle Mel, Q-Tip and Kanye West present original rhymes direct to camera, prompting woops, gasps and general sounds of approval even in a half empty cinema. This is the sort of piece of cinema that should really be shown in schools and universities in years to come but is also a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.
Sarah Maynard
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Turbonegro
TURBONEGRO
‘Sexual Harassment’
(Volcom)
www.turbonegro.com
Almost fifteen years have passed since Turbonegro released ‘Apocalypse Dudes’, a record dubbed by none other than Jello Biafra as “possibly the most important European record ever.” High praise, indeed – and it is an awesome record. Equally impressive, though, is the fact that the Norwegian death-punks are still around, with their long history of drug addictions and personnel changes hopefully behind them.
The departure of long-standing frontman Hank Von Helvete could well have been the final straw for the band, but ‘Sexual Harrassment’ is as superb a comeback as the Turbojugend faithful could hope for. New vocalist Tony Sylvester’s gravel-throated roar lends a raw edge to the frenetic punk rock attack of ‘I Got A Knife’ and ‘Hello Darkness’, whilst the wonderfully-titled ‘Shake Your Shit Machine’ is as fine a slice of bar-room boogie as they’ve ever produced. Musically, there are no great departures from the Turbonegro of old, but the quality of the songs here is undeniable – with the call-and-response chorus of ‘TNA (The Nihilistic Army)’ sure to go down a storm live, and the bizarre spoken-word outro of ‘Dude Without A Face’ proving that these old dogs can still throw a curve ball or two.
No, it’s not quite ‘Apocalypse Dudes’, but this is arguably Turbonegro’s finest and most adrenalized record in a decade. They’ll be playing the Lock-Up stage at this year’s Reading/Leeds festivals, before returning in November for the following dates:
Thu 22nd – London Electric Ballroom
Fri 23rd – Manchester Academy 2
Sat 24th – Glasgow King Tuts
Alex Gosman