It’s been reported that Jack White’s new band The Raconteurs have had to change their name for the Australian market due to their being a jazz band down under with the same name. As a result, White’s group will be called The Saboteurs to avoid any conflict. This change is for Australia only and they will remain known as The Raconteurs throughout the rest of the world. The new album Broken Boy Soldiers is out next month.
After almost 10 years away from these shores, Daft Punk are going to return, by playing a set at the Global Gathering Festival which takes place in Stratford upon Avon on July 28th and 29th.
Alongside Daft Punk will be the lives of Groove Armada, Fatboy Slim, Erick Morillo, Carl Cox, Paul Oakenfold and Pete Tong.
The event will feature a fairground, skate ramps, BMX, a lapdancing club, breakdancers and graffiti writers. Sounds like a party to us!
It’s been pretty quiet on the J5 front, thanks to various solo projects and so forth, but word is the group are back together in the studio working on a new album entitled Feedback. The album, which features production from Nu Mark and Salam Remi is slated for a June 25th release.
The first single, Work It Out, features the Dave Matthew’s Band and should be around to listen to very soon indeed.
www.jurassic5.com is the official site.
Scandal is never too far away from Pete Docherty, and though it isn’t him in trouble this time, it’s one of his bandmates in Babyshambles. Patrick Walden, the guitarist who is constantly flitting in and out of the band, has been remanded in prison after a charge of common assault, having been accused of assaulting his girlfriend at their home.
He pleaded not guilted to the charge and is now being held in Pentonville Prison.
Dance kingpin Fatboy Slim is to release a Greatest Hits album entitled “Greatest Hits – Why Try Harder” in mid June it has been revealed. The CD will have 18 tracks including 2 new songs, Champion Sound and That Old Pair Of Jeans, and remixes of Brimful Of Asha and I See You Baby.
There will be a limited edition version of the album which comes with a DVD which will house 10 of his videos, including Praise You and Christopher Walken’s dancing in Weapon Of Choice. In July, a full DVD release called “Greatest Hits – Why Make Videos” will be unleashed too.
The tracklisting for ‘The Greatest Hits – Why Try Harder’ is:
‘The Rockafeller Skank’
‘Praise You’
‘Brimful of Asha’ (Norman Cook remix) by Cornershop
‘Weapon of Choice’
‘Gangster Trippin’
‘I See You Baby’ (Fatboy Slim remix) by Groove Armada
‘Wonderful Night’
‘Right Here, Right Now’
‘Going Out Of My Head’
‘Sunset (Bird of Prey)’
‘Everybody Loves A Carnival’
‘Don’t Let The Man Get You Down’
‘Demons’
‘Sho Nuff’
‘Slash Dot Dash’
‘Santa Cruz’
‘Champion Sound’
‘That Old Pair of Jeans’
Heavy Metal legends Judas Priest are going to bring out an album based on the life and predictions of the infamous Nostradamus. It is the first time the group have created a conceptual album and they are planning to stage the album theatrically in its entirety as an epic musical.
The as yet untitled album is slated for a 2007 release, and is currently being written.
words by Nic Powley
This event was modelled on the highly successful War of the Roses held last year at the Works in Leeds and Bones in Bolton. Two parks over two days, best trick jams on several obstacles and the usual chaos!
Day 1 was Unit 23 in Dumbarton just outside Glasgow.
The main focus of action was the newly completed 4ft deep bowl which had just been finished the night before. The Death? team including Blackwell, Cates, Steak, Zorlac and new recruit Carl Wilson aka Potter had all made the mission up and Turvey dragged along team riders Si Skipp, Dave Davies, Ben Leyden and more.? Add in local rippers like Div, his brother Colin, Big Mark and Benson and you can picture the session!?MC duties were as usual in the trustworthy hands of Bob Sanderson.?
I didn’t see all of the action this day as I spent most of my time sat on the bowl chatting with Cates but what I did see was ridiculous.? Notably the big handrail session with kids chucking themselves down it like lemmings on apocolypse day!? Cates was first to get wheels down on a caveman boardslide but it spat him out on his lanky arse leaving Div to ride away from a caveman 50:50 clean (the trick that is, Div is far from clean!).
The bowl jam I guess was the main focus of the day and it would be hard to say who was ripping hardest, pretty much everyone who was in there. Si Skipp had some nice switch lines and his traditionally spontaneous approach to riding. Josh ‘ASBO‘ Parr impressed a fair few with his smooth style and big bag of tricks for a little man. Div really has to be seen to be believed, never has anyone been so deserving the title ‘beast’. Potter and Blackwell were also both on ridiculous form all weekend.? Judge for yourself from the following footage:
http://www.powow.com/kruger/War%20At%20Dumbarton.mov
Day 2 The Factory Skatepark – Dundee
Fatigue levels were high on Sunday, increased by the fact most people had got up and gone in search of concrete in the morning before the comp.? What followed was similar to the day before and is best explained by just watching the footage:
http://www.powow.com/kruger/War%20At%20Dundee.mov
Respect to the organisers and sponsors for another grass roots skate comp.
The turnout was a bit lower than I’d expected for both days but I guess it’s a fair trek for most people.? When the weather gets a bit better you should definitely think about getting your ass up there and checking out the new flurry of concrete parks (the Dundee one is worth the trip alone).? There’s also plans to run a War of the Thistles concrete park series over the summer hopefully.
Footage courtesy of perrykruger.co.uk
Pics by Ross Thomson
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.
The dust has finally settled and Europe’s gnarliest skate comp comes to a close. Of course there were winners, but there were also injuries. Benni Buchwald broke his shoulder but didn’t stop tearing the ramp to shreds with a ruthless frontside 360 over the spine!
This year’s winner was Jeurgen Horrwarth from Berlin, but hot on his tail were the two Romans– Hackl and Astleitner. No good ramp sesh goes down without some sort of wreckless free for all and one man is always there for the call- Belgium’s David ‘Roest’ Martelleur literally smacked it with a huge fingerflip to tail and a backside tailslide revert on the extension, whilst Stefan Atzl was hungry for the Taco and served out a frontside smith revert.
Finally, despite the dehydration, bruises and possible fractures, dudes got into party mode with Roest, Ferit Bartir, Oliver Gordon and Andi Fugger making good fools of themselves!
1) Jürgen Horwarth (Ger)
2) Roman Hackl (Aut)
3) Roman Astleitner (Aut)
4) Oliver Gordon (Aut)
5) Ralf Edlinger (Aut)
6) Sascha Biehaule (Aut)
7) Stefan Atzl (Aut)
8) David Martelleur (Bel)
9) Manuel Knoflach (Aut)
10) Martin Jurásek (Cz)
11) Kamil Poč (Cz)
12) Ferit Batir (Aut)
13) Andreas Fugger (Aut)
14) Benjamin Buchwald (Aut)
15) Adrian Buchwald (Aut)
Best Tricks: David Martelleur (Fingerflip to Tail / Extension) and Stefan Atzl (Smith Grind Revert / “Taco”)
Worst slam: Benni Buchwald
Go to http://www.muckefuckskateboards.com/modules/newsgalerie/listing.php?gid=8 for all pics.
FLYBLOWN, GIVE UP ALL HOPE
THE GROSVENOR, LONDON
21.02.06
Apathy and disinterest are reactions that most support bands have to get used to very quickly. Every now and then, however, the roles are reversed and the supposed main attraction gets an unexpected kicking from the lower end of the bill.
Doom. Misery. Despair. Doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun does it? Wallowing in depression has never been so much fun when it comes to local crusty punks Give Up All Hope. Regular fixtures at DIY punk gigs, they’ve come a long way in the last few months and sound harder, heavier and more overwhelmingly bleak than they ever have before, taking their obvious influences (Discharge, Tragedy, Black Sabbath etc) and moulding them into their own epic doom-laden take on punk.
Flyblown are equally hard-hitting tonight. Featuring Pete Giles, formally of grindcore merchants Scalplock, they pummel the audience with rapid-fire, stomach-churning blasts of intense noise that at times sounds like a hover jammed into a chainsaw. Nice.
Skitsystem originally formed in 1994 as a punk side project for death metal legends At The Gates yet despite such pedigree, something’s seriously amiss with their ultra-distorted, high-speed hardcore tonight. While it’s not clear if they’re drunk, tired, emotional, or just don’t give a shit, nothing quite seems to gel. On record their savagely raw noise can’t be beaten, but the shambolic wall of noise they create tonight leaves you wondering if this is the same band at all.
A disappointing end to an evening that got off to a great start.