Category: The Library

(High Speed Publishing)

Thrasher doesn’t need to prove itself to anyone. Recognised everywhere as the skateboarder’s bible, this 25 year old magazine was the answer to a culture striving to survive and a ‘fuck off’ to anyone who tried to cash-in, label or disrespect the sidewalk surfing community.

The Skate and Destroy book is a testimony to all the blood, sweat and tears that went into providing skateboarding with a beacon of hope. Did you know that when Thrasher coined the phrase ‘Skate and destroy’ into their mag, a concerned mother took it into her hands to start a counter publication titled ‘Skate and Create’? Didn’t think so. That’s why this tome of provocative images and gritty text is a must-have. With words from all those involved in the magazine intimately (Fausto Vitello R.I.P/, Jake Phelps, Kevin Thatcher…),

Skate and Destroy also provides introductory profiles and stories about the key players and by the key players of skateboarding- Mark Gonzales, Duane Peters, Tony Hawk, Tommy Guerrero, Geoff Rowley… All there. Several pages are dedicated to each one of the 25 years Thrasher has been leading the pack. An extensive and exclusive number of magazine spreads, adverts, articles and photos that taught many a generation what our culture entailed.

I cannot express how amazing Skate and Destroy is. Go buy it now!!!

10/10

Ralph Lloyd-Davis

By James Sherry and Neil Aldis

Before the days of the internet, MP3 players and Theo Walcott, sleeves and artwork were as much a part of a record as the vinyl or CD lurking inside. You weren’t just paying for the tracks, you were paying for the product; a unique piece of music that offered so much more than the double-click experience so many of today’s youth are, and will continue to be accustomed to.

Thank the dark lord himself, then, for ‘Heavy Metal Thunder‘. Written by seasoned music scribblers James Sherry and Neil Aldis, it’s an enthralling and undeniably nostalgic look back at some of the greatest, shittest, and most utterly inexplicable covers ever to grace the shelves. Sabbath or Slipknot, Kyuss or Korn, Dio or Disturbed, it matters not. It’s all here inside over 250 pages of high quality colour photos, peppered with side-splitting editorial commentary and a genuine love for all things heavy.

Throw in a foreword courtesy of Anthrax axe-master Scott Ian and the result is a book more than worthy of selling your soul to Satan for. Or at least forking out the devilishly bargainous sum of £9.99 – click here to get one.

Ryan Bird

By Sean Cliver
www.disposablethebook.com

Put it this way, looking back to the year 2004, it was a great year for books about the history of skateboarding in general with the Independent book being the one that really sticks out a mile from the rest but as I started to read this book by Sean Cliver, I realized that we had another corker in the making!

This book review went missing from this site when we launched it, don’t ask us how, it just did and the other day i was reading this book and thinking, everyone should own this who skates, it needs to go back up online.

Cliver answered an advert in Thrasher offering work to the best young designer that came their way over at Powell Peralta and ended up getting the job designing graphics with VCJ, the design icon at Powell who had single handedly created the wonderfully striking Powell graphics for their riders who in turn saw their sales rocket into million dollar sellers worldwide.

Cliver then worked with Steve Rocco and various other heads during the tumbling times of the late 80’s when the skateboard industry fell on its arse and a new breed of graphics, riders and terrain dominated the industry that had always stuck by its own guns.

The graphics that were being designed at that time were most influential to the kids that bought them and these graphics today are still discussed in forums across the globe with the rarest ones selling for up to $5,000 per board. This book takes you through all of those board graphics and the artists that designed them, plus quotes from all of the pro riders that remember why they chose them or designed them themselves in the first place leaving you with an array of information relating to the most influential art and design concepts of skateboarding.

The book also delves into the darkness too covering the back stabbing that went on during and after the scene changed, the board graphics that would not be accepted by main stream shops, the Mums and Dad’s that thought they were too graphic in detail for their children and also the cease and desist orders from stolen artwork from big companies like Warner Bros. It’s a fantastic story once you open the cover.

Overall, this book is incredible, I could not put it down once I had started and will definitely read it again in about a month. It has quotes from Natas Kaupas, Jeff Grosso, Danny Way, and a thousand other pro riders plus words from various artists like Wes Humpston, John Lucero, Pushead, and many many more.

If you owned a skateboard once, or indeed if you are pushing on one today, you need a copy of this book, so go get one.

Zac

Michael Jacobson & Tobias Barenthin Lindblad [Eds]
Dokument

Overground 2 is, as expected, exactly the same style as the first book, the review of which can be found here. Different people pick a writer they want to show case from Scandinavia and take the reader on their own personal tour of the life and thoughts of that artist. It is a format which worked really well in the first book and so its nice to see they stuck with it for the follow up.

Again, there’s are writers from all sides of the graffiti world and it’s refreshing to see the different techniques used by the artists. Right from the start, when the section focuses on Adams, from Stockholm, you can see it’s not just going to be about writing on walls. It looks at how Adams makes his King Size marker, which he then distributed across the world so that his effect would be seen across the globe and how he was able to compile photofits of all the guards in Stockholm which he could give out to the writers so they’d know who to look out for when they were writing. This spirit is something that glues the graffiti community together and is justifiably respected in the writing of the journalist presenting Adams.

Finsta, from Lund, is also very innovative when it comes to art. Encouraged by his father, who used to draw all the time, we find out that Finsta was able to vary the art he made but always keep it reigned into his own style. This is proved in his section by showcasing his sketching, his graffiti on walls, his use of everyday objects in art [like making a face out of a U-Bend under a sink] and also making massive objects for his art classes, like a giant chainsaw. Whilst all this goes on and his popularity increases, he has had to keep his feet on the ground, only taking the work he wants, rather than everything that’s been offered because that’d break up the flow he has.

The third artist to showcase in this review is Helsinki’s Trama who comes across as quite an aggressive person, getting involved in trouble when he was a kid, drinking lots, not paying any attention to any kinds of authority and basically becoming as infamous as he was renowned in the Finnish graffiti scene. Though again, you don’t feel antagonised by him as he recounts how the increasing in security around the trains meant the community needed to stop warring with each other and join forces against them. He finishes off by talking about how graffiti has helped him learn tricks of the trade so that he’s able to start getting paid for lacquering and understanding colour schemes.

Just like the first of the Overground series, this book shows you how different the artists can be whilst at the same time living with the same ideals. It’s eye opening and it’s unputdownable, so if you got the first one and enjoyed it, make sure you get the sequel.

Abjekt

Michael Jacobson & Tobias Barenthin Lindblad [Eds]
Dokument

Overground is a book that, in short, everyone should own. Scandinavian graffiti has always been innovative and arguably as pure as the early New York writing, but it’s hard for people to be able to see this as a whole until you get a book as interesting as Overground. 9 Scandanavian writers were picked by a number of journalists and other writers, who present their chosen writer to the reader with interviews and visuals.

What becomes apparent after having read this book is the number of different ways to be involved in graffiti and also the reasons behind wanting to do it. For example, if you look at the work of Norway’s Mr Mucho, you’ll see he likes to follow certain patterns, such as using large numbers of dots in his work, be it on canvas or walls. He even takes his designs and uses them for other mediums, like dressing a bowling pin up in a cape. This innovation is something that one might not expect or think of from a graffiti writer and yet reading the interview with Mr Mucho makes it seem like the most natural thing in the world.

Compare that with someone like Copenhagen’s Kegr, whose section in the book is made up mostly of tags, and you’ll be able to see the contrast in styles. That said, Kegr doesn’t limited himself to tags, and in fact my favourite piece in the entire book belongs to him when he shows a photo of a piece he did with the writing backwards. That’s a perfect way of keeping your style fresh with new ideas, and proves that bombers can easily be brilliantly talented at pieces.

And again the broad nature of graffiti comes into the fore when looking at the final artist in the book, Naestved’s Tele, who uses posters to re-write slogans and deliver his own personal message to the world. As he says himself, one of the interesting things about his work is that the general public don’t immediately think of it as graffiti and as such don’t think “Sabotage! Crime or vandalism!”.

As varied and as far apart as some of them might be, all their views on the freedom of expression in graffiti are amazingly well thought out and natural and it’s a pleasure to be able to read such well presented views and accounts of their thoughts and lives. All 9 writers have their own insight into what they do and how they do it, and if more people read this book, they’d think a little more carefully before screaming rage against writing.

Abjekt.

Tristan Manco
Thames & Hudson

There are many books on graffiti, and most of them are extremely interesting and well put together, but as we all know, street art isn’t simply graffiti. Increasingly in the world today we’re seeing stencils and stickers, a fast and effective way of getting your personality across without having to spend time spraying a wall or train. In this book, Tristan Manco takes us around the world, from London to Spain, Holland to America, France to Australia, and shows us in short sharp bursts, the new life being breathed into street art but stickers and stencils.

Each page is covered in brilliant vibrant colour photographs [in fact, you’ll find 463 colour illustrations inside these covers] and a short description of the artist and what they do. As always with art, it has a message and Manco attempts to convey the message in as short and simple a way possible, allowing the art to take up most of the page and do the talking for itself.

Looking at the differences and effectiveness of signs, logos, free-form, iconographics and urban characters, this book has depth and isn’t just a hastily put together collection. It goes a long way to show how this new form of art is bringing people together from all over the world, how an idea in Madrid can end up being realised on the streets of Brisbane and so on. The illustrations are excellent and it is brings to life this amazing phenomenon. He also features three of my favourites – D*Face, The London Police and Buffmonster – So he must be good. A book definitely worth picking up.

Abjekt

Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant
Thames & Hudson

This isn’t a new book, in fact it was published over 20 years ago, but it still remains one of the most important graffiti books there is. Two photographers, who were infinitely interested in the graffiti surrounding them in New York, met after they had both worked closely with artists separately and decided they wanted to pool their collective talent and experience into a book.

When you open the book, the first page you see is a double page spread of New York, a dull vision of grey and tall monotone buildings. But at the forefront, in complete opposition to the backdrop, is a subway train covered in graffiti. Vibrant yellows and blues blaze from the car and you know that these photographers have captured the exact reason of graffiti in that one frame.

The book itself features the writers who were prominent at the time and whose names are that of legend now – Skeme, Kase 2, Dez, Dondi, Seen, Iz The Wiz – and showcases their amazing talent, often with pages just of their work, not needing words to provide the message they’re trying to get across to the reader. It’s amazing to see how fresh and alive their art was in the late 70s and early 80s and see how it influenced the graffiti you see around you in 2006.

The end of the book features epitaphs for graffiti done by the artists after the Buff seemed to finally overthrow the writers on the subways, but one thing is clear when you reach the end of the book – Graffiti is not dead and never will be, and it is thanks to the amazing ability of these early writers that the art is as strong and forward thinking as it is now.

This book is a classic, if you don’t have it, shame on you. Go and make it right by picking it up as soon as you can.

Abjekt

[Dom Kallar Oss Klottrare]
Malcolm Jacobson
Dokument

Sweden has always had one of, if not the, best hip hop cultures outside of America, and it comes as no surprise that their graffiti is some of the most dynamic, thoughtful and beautiful art in the world. So when my Swedish friend sent me this book, I couldn’t get into it fast enough.

Malcolm Jacobson has collected photos he’d taken throughout the 80s and 90s in Sweden and collated them in this wonderful book. He separates them into categories, from walls, legal walls, panels, window downs, whole cars, bombing, jams and even tattoos. This allows the reader to progress through each section of the book, able to fully appreciate each different type and style amongst similar backdrops.

In addition to the superb visuals, which are all printed in full colour and often take up many pages without writing so as to give a full layout of how the graffiti in Sweden looks, Jacobson has interviewed some writers, including female writer Karma. The most impressive aspect of the interviews is that he never pushes the artists with his questions, he simply lets them speak and talk about how graffiti has affected them, how their life has revolved around it and how growing up has opened their eyes to where writing sits in their life’s priorities.

This books goes far beyond art, and winds around culture and the expression of self that these artist’s are allowed to feel their way through. What the writers say is uplifting and powerful, much more so than anthing a politician can say against graffiti. These people aren’t vandals, they are some of the only people who take life by the throat and throw it against a wall.

Anyone remotely interested in graffiti should pick this book up. It’s beautifully laid out and features some absolutely incredible artwork. The fact you get both visuals and text [translated into perfect English] only adds to the brilliance of the publication. Buy this book now.

Abjekt

Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes and the new reality of race in America.
Bakari Kitwana
Basic Civitas Books

Mainstream Rap is arguably the biggest genre of music in the world today, a far cry from its roots back in the late 70s. But with this new found fame and wealth comes new fans, who are invariably white, and, it is argued, these white kids are the largest consumers of rap.So the question which becomes increasingly raised is why do white kids like hip hop? Do they think black culture is just cool and will eventually grow out of it when it becomes less popular? Do they genuinely want to be involved in the culture? Or has it just been marketed well?

Bakari Kitwana covers all these issues and much more in a book which, though dealing with many arguments and various views on either side, runs smoothly and is easy to read.Not only does Kitwana cover these arguments but he also looks at films such as Bulworth and Malibu’s Most Wanted which attempt to give a commentary on rap’s influence on white society, which adds yet another dimension to the discussion.

The most interesting section in the book however, is the final chapters which look at how the hip hop generation can influence politics, regardless of race. With the generation born in the late 70s onwards, black, white, asian, gay, straight, being more and more conscious of the way the Republicans don’t care about the younger generation, and with the Democrats simply trying to suck the votes out of them before dumping them onto a used pile after an election, Kitwana argues that this collective coming together thanks to music could leads to a third party. However with all the intereference by the Democrats and the ludicrous in-fighting for power in these various voting groups, it seems a long way off.

Kitwana is quite daring in the book and tackles many subjects, more than other books I’ve read on the subject and the fact that he ties most of the ends up is testament to his research and writing. This is certainly a book worth reading if you’re interested in an in depth look at how rap has changed and what the white community make of it.

Abjekt

The best American hip hop journalism of the last 25 years

Edited by Raquel Cepeda
Faber & Faber

This book is one which stands out amongst the masses of hip hop history books for one simple reason: It takes articles written at the times when specific events happened. Where one book would look back on an event and be able to write with hindsight which would shape the opinion and narrative, this book simply uses the exact articles written at the time, giving you a perfect idea of how hip hop was viewed within certain periods.

The opening part of the book looks at the early days of the movement, and its interesting to see how people saw the future of hip hop, whether it was just a phase or whether it had some long lasting appeal. It seems, looking back on what the journalists thought at the time, that no-one could ever have imagined just how much impact hip hop would have on the music world and beyond. The stories make for great reading to see how the early pioneers went about their business, especially the stories of the Rock Steady Crew going to Paris with various rappers, DJs and graf writers and how they were viewed by the European crowds.

The middle part of the book looks at the rise of rap in the 90s and features articles written with Tupac and Biggie before their untimely deaths and provide a fascinating insight into the inner workings of the two rappers, how they viewed the world, where they came from and what impact they had at the time they were alive.

And finally the book ends up in the current decade, with an obituary on Jam Master Jay being the particular article that stands out as we can look back now, over 20 years on from the start of hip hop and see what he helped achieve for the music which has grown from a small start in the Bronx to an all encompassing lifestyle and which Jam Master Jay was a catalyst for.

Being able to read the thoughts of the journalists at the time enables the reader to get a mindset of the time, giving them the opportunity to imagine just how big a change the emergence of hip hop was and allowing the mind to wander into the psyche of the major players of each era that hip hop has passed through. A brilliant read with some excellent choices of articles.

Abjekt