Hellicar, Crago, Lewis Lloyd and Friends will be playing Cargo in London on May 15th as support for My Lastest Novel.
The Djs on the night will be Eat Your Own Ears and Chris Wheeler and you’ll be able to grab the tickets [only a fiver!] from either www.cantaloupegroup.co.uk/shop or www.ticketweb.co.uk.
As if this weren’t enough, there will be a headline show at the Luminaire on May 31st, with special guests James Blackshaw and James William Hindle. Have a butchers at the flyer for more info.
Atmospheric metal overlords Katatonia will release their new single ‘Deliberation‘ on May 15th through Peaceville Records.
The single is the second to be lifted from the band’s brilliant new album ‘The Great Cold Distance’, and will be available in both CD and Download format.
Peaceville are currently celebrating the launch of their brand new site, with exclusive Download only singles from Italian mob Novembre and female-fronted Norwegians Madder Mortem.
Mosh on over to www.peaceville.com for more ear-shattering info.
Can someone tell me how people name products? What is a Spackler? I just checked dictionary.com and it could not help me either because it doesn’t exist…until now that is. Element Clothing is up there in terms of quality and if i was shopping for some stylish, good qulaity skate clothing, i would start right here.
The Spackler is made from the softest cotton that stretches and moves wherever you do, so you always fee comforatble skating in these threads. You can quite easily look fresh out in a club with one of these on as well so they are worth the money.
Grab one today for the summer, you won’t regret it.
Chuck Bangers
The Ivories
London Astoria
02/05/06
The venue is reasonably empty for a Sold Out gig. Goths’ dressed to the nines huddled inwards to hear the unknown sound of The Ivories. As the not only drop dead gorgeous, but extremely talented drummer bangs hard on her drums, heads turn, and the front of the stage fills up with boys, and their camera phones, desperately waiting patiently to take a souvenir pic. The singers scuttle reminds me of The Kills or Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, and the music is reminiscent of early Siouxsie & The Banshees. In a nutshell, watch this band, they are on fire! Just like Giant Drag snuck in and took the world by storm, this almost (1 male bassist) girl band definitely have the makings of something great. I remember murmurings of their CD being launched in stores over the next week…
Finally the mainliners – Sisters of Mercy. The stage fills with smoke…but it doesn’t stop there, the smoke just keeps on coming, and coming, and coming!…until eventually we cant see a damn thing! You can only feel the hot, sweaty tattoo-clad bodies next to you, whilst almost gagging on dry ice. Funny in the beginning…until we all realized it was going to last the whole friggin gig! Out of smoke, and lights you can see a vague silhouette of Andrew Eldritch in a long white, luxurious fur collared coat. Perhaps the ambivalent atmosphere was a mask for years of serious drug intake? or perhaps it was just supposed to be mysterious?
With Andrew as the only original band member, the new guitarist, and bassist, are rumored to be from Leeds…hence referrals to Leeds in some of the lyrics. As the newbie’s basque in the limelight, and ignore the screeching feedback, the crowd divides into 2 camps-bored!, and die hard’s! Not only could you not see anything(I was in the front!), but you could hardly hear any of the vocals. With Andrews voice being so close to the baseline you would expect the levels to accentuate his voice as much as possible-like their damn CDs. The backing vocals, and baseline were so much louder than the vocals, if you closed your eyes it was like being at an instrumental, with random shoutings of “hey now, hey now now now”? If that wasn’t confusing enough, the track “Temple Of Love” emerged out of I don’t-know-what-the-hell-just-happened?
They came back for 2 encores finishing the 1st set with golden oldie “Dominion“. Then something random happened again, ending with Goth-sing-along “This Corrosion“. All in all, great band, but at this particular show the sound engineering was shocking! At a live gig you expect to hear and see your living legend, not leave confused, and haunted by reminding complaints the whole journey home. Hopefully they sort it out for the rest of their tour, or their annual tradition might not be so well received in the not so distant future. I think as a mainliner with so many years experience, being shown up by the opening act is just plain embarrassing!
Niki Kova’cs
Big Hand have announced some Scottish tour dates for all the fans north of the border. The group have been described as “Chuck Berry and Madness having a fight with Manu Chao trying to break it up, with the Chilli Peppers and a load of Eastern European folk musicians watching n’ cheering it on, all with a bottle of Jagermeister” and with a reputation like that, we don’t think you can go far wrong!
The dates are:
Thu 18th May – Edinburgh
Bannermans, 212 Cowgate, Tel: 0131 556 3254,
Doors: 8pm, £4,
Support: Unknown Hagana & The Love Bastards
Fri 19th May – Edinburgh
Whistle Binkies, 4-6 South Bridge, EH1 1LL, Tel: 0131 557 5114,
Doors: 9pm, Free Before midnight
Sat 20th May – Edinburgh (DJ set)
The Mission Jnr Studio 24, 24 Calton Road , Edinburgh , EH8 8DP, Tel: 0131 558 3758,
Doors: 6pm, £3
Sun 21st May – Ayrshire
Knockengorroch Festival
Carsphairn, Castle Douglas, Ayrshire, DG7 3TJ,
£20 for 3 day ticket.
Advance tickets can be purchased from www.thebighand.co.uk
Grime artist Dizzee Rascal is going to speak at the Oxford Union next week, talking about his career, his life and what’s in store in his future.
He’ll be at the University’s Union from 8.30-10pm on Wednesday May 10th and will be performing some tracks from his new album Maths And English which is due for release later this year.
East London’s Dizzee will be playing Reading and Leeds festivals this year too.
Hey peeps! Its that special time of year…GUMBALL 3000! Woohoo! For those of you guys, that ain’t sure what Im bangin on about, it is an 8 day rally around the World! Mostly illegal, but over the past couple of years the police have warmed up, and been known to occasionally escort the Gumballers’ safely and speedily to their destinations.
The coppers have been trying to butter up their reputation by this year having their very own Car (driven by beer-bellied leathered up Mr.Copper ~ scary!)
This year some of the riders include:
Bam Margera & Ryan Dunn – 2004 Lamborghini Gallardo
Miguel Escamilla & Anthony ‘Tony’ Hawk & Mike Vallely & Rich Van Every – 2006 Jeep Cherokee
Pink, The Cheeky girls, Westwood, some dudes in gimp masks, and rumors say…Paris Hilton (which I doubt her princess ass would cope with!) and er…Pancho from Dirty Sanchez!
It’s Saturday afternoon, and before the rally kicks off, Press and Paparazzi are filming, and documenting each inch of gleaming streamlined metal. There was something for everyone from Volkswagen Campers’, to Mustangs, to vintage Beauties (Cheverolet Corvettes’).
This year sponsor’s included: Vans, DC, Top Trumps, and Ministry of Sound?*Yikes* to mention a few. T-mobile sponsors had their very own racing golf cart, in which they managed to squeeze 3 half-naked babushkas, clad in butt sporting undies and stiletto boots! Enough to make the Cheeky girls blush!
You can track the 131 teams here over the last leg:
www.alk.com/gumball [official]
www.gumball-3000.com [un-official]
Niki Kova’cs
Before Its Official dropped, the Kayo Corp was stirring up quite a frenzy over their first video and quite rightly so! This DVD ‘officialises’ the Kayo Corp as a premier company for street skating, incorporating various styles through it’s network of DGK, Expedition One, Organika and Gold.
The DVD kicks off with Kenny Hoyle who is the newest Kayo recruit. Kenny is your typical contemporary street skater, but Kenny can handle his business like the grown-ups, perhaps better..? I had never heard of Kenny before watching Its Official, but now I know why street patriarch, Stevie Williams is backing him.
Next is Kelly Hart who I had heard about and was anticipating quite greatly. You see, Kelly has a very laid back and controlled style on board, plus one of the best 360 flips in the business. When you couple this kid’s skating with a very well edited Common track, the results can only be astonishing.
Things only get better when Enrique Lorenzo pops up. Finally ridding himself of the cartoon characters, Enrique is all smiles and styles for miles. Like a Spanish version of JB Gillet, this street veteran can switch things up at a drop of a hat.
Time for a change of tune as catch up with Chany Jeanguenin and Richard Angelides. Now we all now Richard is an underground king who has repped the Adidas Shelltoe far too long to not get a proper hook-up, but Chany was killing everything since day dot! Not to be funny, but all I can here is Chany saying “Is it ‘cos I’ze Swiss???”. Bring on more Chany – and I don’t care if it’s on vert!
Organika gets some heavy repping next with King Dread Head Adelmo Junior. I have a new found respect for Adelmo since I watched this new part of his. The guy has pop, power, and a few unseen tricks hidden in that forest of hair of his, and he isn’t afraid to show it.
The last Organika rider to get eerie on the silver screen is Karl Watson who teams up with fellow brother, Robbie Holmes, to cruise the bay area and San Fransisco hills. Jamming to the beats of Damian Marley and Nas, this section is right up there in the ones to watch.
Always a pleasure to watch is Quim Cardona. I know some people criticise Quim for his weird style, but before your Brents and Co. there was Quim. An OG East Coast ripper who flows over every surface; if you still don’t like the visual music he plays, stick a tweaker in it!
Back to the Dirty Ghetto Kids with Lenny Rivas – a pocket sized gangsta that lots of you will hate, but trust me you wouldn’t step to the mouthy kid. Lenny reminds me of a young Steven Cales, but with the contemporary pop that amateurs seem to pack nowadays.
Next up to bat is Marcus McBride who doesn’t need to break a sweat to make you understand this brother knows how to ride. Please check out any old FTC video is you doubt this Bay Area boss.
Things get a whole lot heavier when Wade Desamo scrolls and rolls across the screen. Wade has raw power tucked into his XXXL clothes, and he isn’t worried about unleashing it on ledges, rails or gaps. I’ll put good money on Wade blowing up everywhere as of now.
Surprise surprise, DGK Mastermind, Stevie Williams doesn’t get last part! But, that doesn’t mean Stevie isn’t going to serve out some unique magic. Stevie has swagger and demeanor that some people misunderstand for arrogance, but when you catch the Keenan Milton dedication at the beginning of his part, you’ll understand that he is just carrying the torch for street skaters everywhere.
Finally, it’s the curtains with last part going to Jackson Curtin (*Tophat snare!*). Jack has spent a lot of time travelling and homing his skills so sharp that nothing is left unscathed by his skate tricks. There are some serious nollie and switch hammers going down in this section powered along by the beats of Kanye West’s Diamonds are from Sierra Leone track.
I take my hat off to everyone involved with this DVD because this is set for instant success in the streets. Powerful skating and great music edited very smoothly with fun graphics and atmosphere- something a lot of recent productions lack. Could this be a modern day 20 shot sequence? I think so- It’s official!
Ralph Lloyd-Davis
04/05/2006
I think a lot of people got confused when 411VM stopped the ever-increasing issue numbers in favour for the new volume versions. I was one of the confused viewers, but now I’ve understood the concept and actually prefer it. Instead of pumping out issue after issue with tight deadlines, Studio 411 takes a breath between each new release and invites people to conceptualise each issue, thus making the product stand out clearer than the next. Volume 14 Issue No.2 has been moulded by the gurus of finesse, Stereo, and that is in no way a bad thing at all!
So, let’s a have a quick run down of this DVD’s main points:
The issue kicks off with a homage to fallen soldiers, Harold Hunter and Trevor Prescott. Rest in Peace guys! Then the fun begins with some serious skating going down in the Chaos section. Keep your eyes peeled for one of the biggest kickflips ever! David Bachinsky drops jaws with his take on El Toro 20 stair. Check the catch!
Life isn’t all about hammers though, and hot amateur, Daryl Angel is here to remind us. After a near death experience, Daryl has learnt to make the most of life and push his skills for your viewing pleasure.
Next up, and I’ll try not to be biased, is fellow Brit Olly Todd. Recently picked up by Stereo, this guy fits the mould perfectly with cruising lines and smooth tricks. I’m not sure if everyone has picked of Mr.Todd’s skills, but this section should definitely have a few heads turning.
Someone else who has never got the recognition they deserve is Miami homeboy Abdias Rivera. I have always seen this kid at contests, in tour footage and various other areas of the media, but 411VM took the time to let Abdias shine, and trust me it’s pretty bright.
I’ll take this interval to talk about the adverts. Well not all of them, but just the Krux ones. Please say thank you to the weird creativity of this truck company who manage to keep your attention instead of pressing the skip button.
Next up is Paul ‘The Machine’ Machnau. Paul can handle any gap, rail, gap to rail or other generally gnarly spot like it was a stroll in the park. Even if this kind of skating might not be flavour of the month for everyone, you have to admire the cojones on this Canadian.
Jason Lee talks us through his take on the new Stereo team and even gets a few tricks in too. I’m not entirely sure if this second version is comparable to the first of the early 90’s, but the parallel is there. Just the general style and happy vibe will have you amped to go skate, I think.
Finally, we get to Tony Silva, the Stereo Sound Agency’s better than good amateur – not to be confused with a pissdrunk am they had riding for them some years a go, Tony Da Silva. Isn’t there a Tony Da Silva in the UK right now? Someone must me making these kids in a factory… In any case, Tony Silva dropped the ‘Da’ and has you going ‘Ah!’ at his sick skating. Oh, and listen to Benny Fairfax’s intro- ‘Knob jockey’ Ha!
And that just about wraps it up. Well, almost because then you get the inner note interviews and two bonus features which are this year’s Tampa Am contest. Please note the winner’s last run(!!!), and the best trick contest. The other feature is the final of 411VM’s Versus contest which places skaters head to head for best trick and a $25000 purse. Will it be Chris Haslam’s double flip footplant over the Barcelona bumps to bar? Or, Greg Lutzka’s frontside boardslide through a long double kink? Log onto the website www.411vm.com to place your vote.
I think this is one of the cleaner and more coherent versions of the infamour video magazine that I have seen I quite a while. Good stuff definitely worth checking out.
Ralph Lloyd-Davis
04/05/2006
Kool Keith’s aliases and unofficial materials are so vast that its hard to remember if he ever put out an official sequel to the brilliant Dr Octagon. Well, up until this point, he hasn’t, but come June 27th, The Return Of Dr Octagon will hit the streets and will blow everyone away no doubt.
In celebration of this album, a number of producers, DJs and MCs have made remixes of his stuff and they will be floating around the internet to download. The list of remixers includes Prefuse 73, Spank Rock and Aesop Rock, awesome!
To check out the myspace, have a click right here.