If you’re ever in Los Angeles and in need of skateboarding’s finest equipment or attire, make sure you drop by Salvadore Barbier’s new store SLB located at 510 Fairfax on the corner with Rosewood.
Everyone knows Sal’s a classy guy, so why not grab yourself a some OJ’s, Indys and a fresh street cruiser as you push about in your Ben Davis threads, eh?
I really don’t think Pharell’s take on hyper-expensive skate shoes will go far, but in case you need convincing of just how ugly things can get, here’s a picture of the new Terry Kennedy Pro Model for Ice Cream.
Someone tell Skateboard P that raving went out 10 years ago, please!
After the creation of Google World, the access to a web cam at Macba and the oh-so famous quotable ‘Maps to the stars and spots of San Fransisco’ in Animal Chin, there is now an official online global spot map.
You can browse the globe and zoom in on double sets, skateparks, plazas and rails thanks to www.spotcovr.com
Northern Ireland’s best new act The Answer are have announced they’ll be playing a full tour of the UK through to November. They’ve recently supported The Who and Whitesnake and are scheduled to play the Bulldog Bash in August. In addition to the tour, their new single Under The Sky will be released in October . The dates for their tours are:
Irish Tour:
July:
28th – Dundalk Spirit Store
29th – Cork Fred Zeppelins (free)
30th – Limerick Dolansr
August:
2nd – Galway Roisin Dubh
4th – Castlewellan Celtic Fusion Music Festival
Support on Whitesnake Tour:
August:
8th – Nottingham
9th – Birmingham NIA
12th – Bulldog Bash Festival
Headline Shows:
September:
1st Belfast Spring & Airbrake Festival
30th – Limerick, Dolans
31st – Galway Rosin Dubh
October:
4th – Reading Fez
5th – Exeter Cavern
6th – Bristol Academy 2
7th – Cardiff University
9th – Oxford Zodiac
10th – Sheffield Leadmill
12th – Milton Keynes Ritz
13th – Manchester Academy 3
14th – Edinburgh Voltaire
15th – Dundee Westport Bar
16th – Aberdeen Tunnels
17th – Glasgow King Tuts
19th – Liverpool Acadmey 2
20th – Carlisle Brickyard
21st – Nottingham Rock City
22nd – Newcastle Academy 2
24th – Peterborough Park
25th – Birmingham Academy 2
27th – York Fibbers
28th – Stoke Sugarmill
29th – Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
30th – Brighton Engine Rooms
November:
1st – London Mean Fiddler
Rapper and skateboard fan Lupe Fiasco’s new track Kick Push is out now and his video is available to watch by clicking one of the links below. Fiasco has said:
“I used to skateboard when I was younger. I was really into it. I never really knew that skateboarding was so deep as a culture. It’s just as deep as Hip-Hop. I’m not the greatest skateboarder, but I’m a damn good rapper, so I made a damn good skateboarding song.”
Enjoy:
Giant Drag have announced they are to play some smaller shows alongside their dates at Reading/Leeds and T in the Park. The dates are as follows:
JULY
Wed 5th – St Albans, The Horn
Thurs 6th – Northampton, Soundhaus
Fri 7th – Liverpool, Korova
Mon 10th – Nottingham, Stealth
Tues 11th – Sheffield, The Plug
Wed 12th – Cambridge, Soul Tree
Thurs 13th – Stoke, Sugarmill
Check them out at: www.giantdrag.com and www.myspace.com/giantdrag
The Scare
London Garage
07.06.06
Hey Colossus’ psychedelic drone rock seems out of place on a bill like this, but if you take the time to listen properly, you’ll enjoy losing yourself in their swirling, expansive sound. Unfortunately most of tonight’s punters can’t be bothered, focusing their attention squarely towards the bar instead.
However, their apathy is soon kicked into touch when The Scare hit the stage. This Australian quintet are a revelation; like the bastard lovechild of Gang Of Four and The Stooges at their most fucked-up and abrasive, constantly teetering on the brink of pure sonic warfare. They throw themselves around the stage with wild abandon, singer Kiss Reid occasionally jumping down onto the floor to scream in the faces of the disinterested. Rock n’ roll is supposed to be unpredictable, and The Scare leave many a jaw dropped by trashing their drumkit and then exiting after only twenty minutes onstage. It’s the only suitable conclusion for such a wonderfully chaotic display.
Given that the Drips’ vocalist Matt and guitarist Joby are also members of LA nutjobs The Bronx, it’s no surprise that the Drips take a similarly fast, furious, raw approach to their rock n’ roll. Songs like ‘Downbrown‘ and ‘Triplets’ zip by in a glorious rush of squalling garage-punk mayhem, providing the perfect soundtrack to the sweat-drenched, stage-diving chaos that ensues both onstage and in the crowd. There’s no grandstanding here, no time wasted; just a full-throttle rock n’ roll experience, the likes of which we need more than ever these days.
Hyde Park
23.06.06
With a line up that boasted the likes of Sway, Gnarls Barkley, DJ Shadow and Massive Attack, there wasn’t any chance of the day being anything other than brilliant…was there? Well, despite the awesome line up, the abysmal sound set up for the festival meant that the day was certainly nowhere near as good as it could, and should have been.
After a little while mooching about, getting free turns on a PSP and checking out Shorty [I think], we got to the front of the main stage for the chart-topping Gnarls Barkley. Cee-Lo was an awesome front man, waddling around with a beaming smile on his face throughout and finally getting his belly out and telling everyone they loved it. But the problem was that, despite having 3 backing singers, a drummer, a guitarist, a bassist, a keyboard player, a string section AND Dangermouse, you couldn’t hear anything! Crazy was great for the sing-a-long chorus and new single Smiley Faces got some people moving, but it was like listening to a CD in the next room with the door closed.
Moving on, we saw Sway on the second stage. The sound here was a little better because it was enclosed and he ripped through his usual routine of hits and even threw in Parklife [my Blur fanboy radar went off the scale] for good measure. Onto the Myspace tent for Akala and his performance was arguably the best of the day, even though there were only a smattering of people ready for him when he stepped up. I missed him having the whole band backing him as he did at the Barfly show, but he was confident and had fun.
Ignoring Pharrel, we headed back to the second stage to wait for Shadow and caught the end of Damian Marley’s set. It’s amazing how many posh upper-middle-class white people turn into Rastafarians at the mere mention of “Jamaica”. Hearing people with their pink polo shirt collars turned up sing “Owt in de street dey cyall it morda” was entertaining in itself, definitely more so than what was actually on stage. After a 20 minute delay though, and also being crushed into pulp, Shadow came on and I have to say I was disappointed. He didn’t do anything in the first two minutes, save put records on and bop his head. The bass was far too weak and his music suffered as a result, so we buggered off early, back to the main stage.
Massive Attack were the group I went for. The thought of hearing Teardrop, Unfinished Sympathy and Karmacoma live was something I could hardly contain myself for. And yet when they came on and the sound dribbled out of the one set of speakers next to the stage, I knew it wasn’t going to live up to the hype. It’s a shame because the songs are amazing and given the right setting would have stolen any show, and yet nothing sounded as dynamic and forceful as it should. Terry Callier’s beautiful voice was muted and melodies couldn’t be picked out.
This could have been a superb day, and though I had fun, it was more to do with hanging out with my best mate than witnessing brilliant performances. O2 need to get off their mobile phones and get to adding more speakers!
Which UK skater has this fabulous tattoo?
It was sent it anonymously but who has such a well drawn cock on their skin?
info@caughtinthecrossfire.com is the address, feed it.