A quick click over to the Etnies blog and you’re quick to see that the fight for the right to ride is far from over.
The poor skaters from Lebanon, Pennsylvania were served with a $10000 fine ($300 per skater) for trying to participate in a Go Skateboarding Day trek through town. Apparently no laws were being broken, unless cruising is a felony..?
Email these suckas if you want to help: cityadmin@lebanonpa.org
Sage Francis’ Strange Famous Records have a new signing. The latest addition to Francis’ roster, which already includes brilliant producer Reanimator, is Buddy Wakefield.
If you want to check out the new guy’s work, then point your browsers to www.myspace.com/buddywakefield and there is a video clip of him which can be viewed here.
Connecticut rapper Apathy has posted up on his myspace that he is going to start selling beats to people, if the price is right. The Demi Godz crew member said the following:
“It’s to the point now, where I have thousands of beats piling up. Even after producing projects for people in my crew… outside my crew, and everything in between. I really don’t want my beats to go unheard, or wasted.
So I’m gonna start selling beats. Notice I said “selling”.
* No free beats… I dont give a fuck what or who you are, or where you come from. No free beats. *
Hit me up if you’re intersted.
Serious inquiries only please.”
So if you want to grab a piece of Apathy’s beatmaking and you have the moolah ready, hit up www.myspace.com/apathybeatz and see what you can do.
Following Lou Barlow’s departure/squeezing out of the original Dinosaur Jr line-up (now unexpectedly back together again!), Lou sought solace in his 4-track porta-studio and began creating tape after tape of minimalist, stripped down song-writing and can be single-handily credited for creating the so called Lo Fi explosion in a dark and distant world before i-pods and computer files.
Alongside friends Jason Loewenstein and Eric Gaffney, Lou created Sebadoh to provide an outlet for the burst in his song-writing creativity that had previously been suppressed by Dinosaur Jr’s notoriously uncommunicative frontman J Mascis.
This timely reissue of the classic Sebadoh ‘III‘ album comes bolstered with an extra disc of tracks recorded around the same time, plenty of which are unreleased until now. This album also happens to feature some of the band’s finest songs in ‘The Freed Pig’ and the screeching rocked-out noise of ‘Gimme Indie Rock’.
If you’re new to the world of Sebadoh, then this is certainly the best place to start. Click here to buy this amazing record!
For 4 years now we have traditionally attended this event in Marseille, France but everyone knew it had run its course there and with rumours of the local council wanting back handers floating round the internet, it was looking doomed. But to be honest, the Marseille council in all those years never even installed toilets for the thousands of people who witnessed Europe’s most influential Bowl Comp so it was definitely time to move on.
We had a false start though. Got to the airport and missed the flight, in fact we saw it leave the runway, the pilot actually waved at us as we stood waving frantically with tickets aloft to see if there was a chance. Basically, if you go on a trip with Guido Gazzi (crossfire filmer) make sure you check the departure gate numbers yourself! The beer we had in the wrong gate was the most expensive one in the house! We had to stay in a hotel nearby and got the flight at 6am the next morning but my baggage and skateboard had already arrived in Sweden and my board did not even make it that far….bummed.
The event of course ended up in Malmo, Sweden after it was released to be taking place in Bologna, so many UK skaters from our crew spent their weekend there instead as they had already purchased flights, so that was a bit disappointing from the start but we went to Malmo anyway and were greeted by sheets of rain and an outdoor skatepark that looked like it would be the best fun in the world to skate.
The weather did not dampen our spirits whatsoever; we were picked up by Danijel Todorovic and our Swedish session maestro Seth who lives in London and welcomed by the local scene with open arms. Within 20 minutes of arriving at the event, the guy who works in the local skater owned shop Streetlab, mentioned that they play Crossfire Radio shows in the shop a lot, so that put us in a great mood and the rest is a total blur!
The weather dried up and this park was unleashed to the worlds best bowl skaters. The heats ran and the beer flowed at 4pm as it always does. It rained in Fosters beer all afternoon, and the atmosphere was fantastic as everyone caught up with each other.
I stayed in the bar whilst people legged it over to Pontus Alv’s mad little bowl for a sesh, in fact, I had to, I missed the ride! Free beer huh! It pissed down with rain anyway though so I didn’t miss much.
The first night we were there, a party took place in a cool club, it was a Streetlab video premiere and Malmo’s scene turned out in force to witness the first showing. It’s a great movie and worth grabbing if you want to find out more about how good European Skateboarding has got thesedays. These guys rip. One thing I have to mention is that Sweden is full of tight units, girls and boys. Obviously the girls are off the hook, throughout and tonight, the club was awash with beautiful women. We realised that this would be the case for our entire weekend, it was superb.
The other notable thing for the traveler is that the clubs have smoking bans throughout, which, if you like to smoke, is a pain in the ass and something us Brits will have to get used to next summer apparently. Some of the yanks went to jail that night for smoking in clubs. I spoke to a bouncer about how things have changed since the ban and he said straight up – “it’s healthier cos there is no smoke and people’s clothes don’t smell like they used to, but at the end of the night, the clubs stink of body odour and piss, so I would prefer to smell of smoke!“
That night was fun, although David Martelleur from Belgium was arrested and thrown into the slammer for being drunk and disorderly again! Every skate trip, every country, you know where to find David at 6am – being released back onto the streets!
The hangover on the Saturday was priceless but the skating today was even more so. You see, this skate park is a work of art and most people have not sessioned this place yet as it is so new. It did not take too long though and the park was hit at every angle. It was built by Stefan Houser, a yank running PTR Skateparks and was completed in November 2005, but with snow falling, the Malmo faithful had to wait until the good weather arrived, you can imagine how stoked they are about it now, in fact if you click here and read Danijel Todorovic’ interview on this site, he will explain the Malmo scene in much more detail.
I think we should concentrate on the good times as the skating can speak for itself in our Bowlriders video filmed by Guido Gazzi and Alan Christensen on this page. Download it to save our bandwidth.
There are too many names to mention, but of course the style and trickery of Italian heavyweight Daniel Cardone stole the show with Spanish rider Alan Goikoetxea in 2nd and the Dane Rune Glifberg stealing 3rd on the day. It was fucking mental, that is all I have to say, and the pool sesh that followed the final was electric.
Have you seen that kid Screech skate? What the fuck?! this is him right here smashing blunts in the pool!
So for the first time in Bowlriders history, the Europeans stole the first 3 places. Omar Hassan was followed by Benji Galloway and Chris Senn to finish the top 6 places and British rider Pete King lost out on the opening rounds whilst Ross McGouran who looked lethal, went through with Andy Scott who reached the semis and skated really well.
The Saturday night started with a pizza. We managed to attract new friends from the USA as well, namely Craig Whitehead (who is now writing for the site) and his entourage from San Diego…I don’t know what it is about that part of California but people from there seem to rage harder than anywhere else, and yeah, San Francisco, take note! You were missing this year J-Dog! The other hilight of the weekend was meeting Chris Cab from Austria. Top penis, great cab driver! Here he is below admiring Fosters!
The pizza went down well, then a crew of 15 drunken skaters tried to make sure that Renton Millar didn’t piss himself in the main square as he shouted “Cunt” at the top of his voice. Things were getting gnarly. We went to see Jocke Olsen at an underground bar who was playing drum and bass and then went off to a “Skate Party” that most thought would be a sausage fest, funny how they all managed to scramble into that place once we got there and they got the message it was 50/50.
You would have loved to have checked the moves on Niall Neeson Editor of Kingpin Mag at this party, this bloke can seriously be a contender for Staying Alive, and actually I think the entire party must have just thought we were gay! Oh well! It could have been worse, I could have been dancing with Silent Will and Jason from Method Mag who were legends all weekend.
This party was amazing, great music, seriously tight units everywhere and cool people, maybe this is standard stuff in Sweden but it rocked! Once that ship sunk, we went back to Jocke’s where Aussie Tom was about to headbutt one of the bands I do PR for in Malmo. I saved his arse as Tom is like an Elephant on Acid at this time of the night and the band member went home in one piece but probably woke up with a sore arse! Ask Tom! When Jocke’s club kicked out at 4am, it was the usual – just me and Pete King left!
We hit a cab and went to a rock club, only hour left on the clock so they said, we got there and a full on fist fight erupted outside a kebab shop (Swedish Kebabs are the nuts btw!) and the whole street was in disarray! Out came the meat cleavers and baseball bats and the place kicked off. The rock club was empty but they played The Slits for me before I stumbled out of there pissed as a fart! A blonde girl took me down the street on the back of her bike and then I woke up in my hotel room cock in hand, still dressed. Sunday’s finals had arrived!
The finals were indeed a spectacle. The rain came and went but no one gave a fuck. Everyone was in high spirits. At one point there was a board focusing moment at the bar and The Harmony Skateboard Company will be very happy to know that thier boards were unbreakable to all pro riders at that bar! Kids take note!
After the comp, the annual Quiksilver party rocked the City. The concoction of Dave Duncan and David Martelleur got David locked up for a second night of the weekend but at least this time the tables didn’t all go over! Gerald Roche in true Gerald only style was banned from the main event for drinking a beer outside, I must admit, my main man went missing all weekend but flew the flag, top geezer.
The comp was amazing, Malmo’s people are amazing, the park is off the hook and Quiksilver once again pulled off one of the best events of the year. Thanks for the hook ups.
Enjoy the video on this page.
Chuck Bangers
As ever we’re bringing you the best prizes from the best teams in skateboarding. This time round we’ve got an awesome green Emerica t-shirt [size large] for you to try and get your grubby little paws on. And as if that wasn’t enough, the t-shirt is signed by Heath Kirchart, Leo Romero and Erik Ellington. Considering Ellington has left, this is now ltd edition.
Obviously, this is a cool prize and if you think we’re just going to give it to you without any hard graft, you need to put your thicko cap on.
What you need to do to grab this badboy of a t-shirt is answer the question below and you could be sporting it soon!
Abjekt Approved trio Glue have put their new single A Lot To Say up for free download on their Myspace page. The track, which will feature on their forthcoming release on Fat Beats, Catch As Catch Can, has been put up as a challenge. The group’s myspace bulletin about it read:
“We are challenging all of you reading this to download this song and spread it to every place you can.
Consider the song a can of spray paint with a fat cap and consider the internet some crusty old white man’s corporate headquarters. Go tag the hell out of it.”
So listen, download, spread the word.
Sanity reigns supreme in France after the case against Monsieur R was thrown out of court by the judges. The much maligned rapper was taken to court by an MP for producing music which, it is claimed, incited the riots in France last year. However, clearly this ridiculous claim had no backing with proof and so the judges dismissed the case.
Monsieur R, who refers to France as a slut and bitch, and who draws parallels between France’s government and the Third Reich, infuriated MPs who even tried to go as far as censoring all hip hop. Thankfully for all sane-minded people, this didn’t happen and hip hop in France remains as cutting edge and thought provoking as ever.
Guns N Roses frontman Axl Rose spent a day in a Swedish jail after having allegedly bitten a security guard. According to reports, Axl was partying after a show and came back to the hotel where he began arguing with a woman in the hotel.
The security guard stepped in to break it up and then was allegedly bitten. The police spokesman claimed Rose was let out after admitting to the charges and paid over $6,000 in fines and damages.
Buzzcocks are back with a new single, called Sell You Everything which comes from the new album, due out in August called Flat-Pack Philosophy. They’ll also be playing some festival dates, which are as follows:
July
8th – Rise Festival Finsbury Park, London
August
4th – Bath Halls Scunthorpe
5th – Gosforth Gathering Gosforth Park, Newcastle
13th – Summer Sundae DeMontfort Hall, Leicester
20th – Beautiful Days Escot Park near Fairmile, Devon
27th – Get Loaded In The Park, Clapham Common, London