The good guys of Rock Solid distribution down West have rocked up with a fantastic edit featuring their crew. This is the first of an ongoing series so look forward to more from Sam Bunton, Joe Paget, George Hill, Ollie Lock, Tom Gibbs, Wes Morgan, Frankie Darby and Mungo in the future.
“This was a clip sent to sponsors in 2008. Some of this is old news but a few clips never saw the light of day due to a computer theft, so I thought I would post.” – BringThat.BEER
Part 4 of this fine series looking back on 20 years of Chocolate Skateboards with Vincent Alvarez discusing his upbringing in dangerous East LA whilst Paulo Diaz explains his musical influence playing with the Beasties and Beck. The subject of drugs and fame are also raised of those who were unable to get parts ready for videos and the addiiton of the Trunk Boys and Jerry Hsu make this a must watch.
Dive in, and if you missed the others, scroll down.
Work your way up from the bottom.
Eagulls / Bad Breeding
Scala
30/11/14
Words: Tim Lewis
Photo credit: John McNicholas / Camilla Morelli
My introduction to Eagulls was probably unlike most people’s. I was at a show in a youth club in Guildford (The wonderful GYC) back in 2010 watching Fast Point, who had a peculiar looking tape on their merch table. Apparently this was some of the members’ new “indie band” and they were called Eagulls. With little interest in indie at the time, and the idea in my head that Eagulls was a terrible name for a band, I didn’t take much notice. Four years on from this encounter, Eagulls are performing on the Letterman show and have released one of the best debut albums of the year. With this London date being their last time in the capital of 2014, anticipation was high.
Before Eagulls take to the stage, Stevenage’s Bad Breeding are up. From the first song, comparisons to the headliners could be made but this punked version of indie is much more frenzied than Eagulls. Scuzzy, frantic riffs cascade down onto vocals that are soaked in as much reverb as you’re ever likely to hear, and at times they remind of a less avant-garde No Form (Listen to No Form) with odd audio clips playing between tracks to create an unusual atmosphere which feels a little unsure of itself. As the set reaches its climax and half an hour has passed, Bad Breeding’s material begins to sound rather alike. Tonight marks a reasonably impressive outing for four piece, but perhaps a shorter set next time.
Rounding off the evening are Leeds’ own. Their sound is very much influenced by the punk bands of the 80s with a touch of new wave and really, Eagulls’ music may be the best of its kind since that decade too. It’s a rare thing for a band to enjoy misery so much, though tonight’s youthful crowd are unphased by the gloom and proceed to cause the kind of ruckus one may have witnessed at an early Stone roses gig.
The Stone Roses serve as good comparison too, John Squire-esque riffs fill the room as tracks like ‘Nerve Endings’ and ‘Opaque’ rain down. Fortunately these comparisons do not reach to the vocals, frontman George Mitchell’s tones have far more in common with Robert Smith’s most furious moments than Ian Brown’s most horrific.
It seems odd that a band who write such desperate and bitter music have white balloons dropped from the rafters onto the baying audience as though this was a Katy Perry concert but really, it just improves the atmosphere as they are tossed throughout the venue. The band close on their best effort yet, ‘Possessed’, and pandemonium ensues. It’s a strong ending to a strong performance, but it’s not quite Stone Roses at Heaton Park just yet.
It’s been a decade to the day since Wu Tang rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard left the universe by way of an overdose after many years of success with his unique Shimmy Shimmy Ya. Prison spells for crack cocaine possession, shot wounds in the abdomen and aggressive lyrics aside, his legacy lives on as a killer MC who went way too early, so take some of this dope new mixtape that dropped today in homage over on the I.D site put together by NYC producer Tanner.
RIP.
Die! Die! Die!
Swim
Small Town America
Having spent the best part of the last eight years on the road sharing stages with everyone from Franz Ferdinand to Wolfmother, working with the likes of Steve Albini and Kevin S. McMahon, and releasing a shed load of EP’s and albums worth of relentless noisy post-punk, Die! Die! Die! return triumphantly with their new Small Town America release, and fifth LP to date, Swim.
Straight off the mark, Die! Die! Die!’s incentives are clear. They want to make your head hurt. These three New Zealanders kick out the snottiest, riff driven wall of sound you’ll ever need, and follow suit with countless other three pieces that apply the following golden rule to music making – make more noise than any band with more people in it could ever make and more!
For better or worse, the album’s opening and title track is its barefaced forte. The unhinged guitar riffs that swirl around your ear with each chorus almost sound out of time as they’re executed with such speed and zest. It’s desperately exciting and feels as though it could fall apart at any second. Coupled with Andrew Wilson’s compelling vocal line, this opening track boasts a seamless blend of snarl and melody that will have you hitting the repeat button multiple times.
Despite favouring the crash bang wallop approach rather than crafting a serene and sensitive ditty, Die! Die! Die! are not opposed to dynamic change. Songs like ‘Don’t Try’ see the three-piece take their foot off the gas for a minute to take things to a slightly more poignant place. Similarly, ‘Angel’s “ooh’s” and “ah’s” make for an agreeable melodic passage slap bang in the middle of the record, giving you a slight breather from the ruthless fuzz.
Die! Die! Die! roam through their twelve tracks strong Swim with gusto, spitting out chorus after chorus with malicious intent, backed by a wall of thundering bass fuzz and sincere whammy bar manipulation. For those that revel in the fusion of punk energy with wall of sound electric guitars, you are in for a sure treat. The high-energy, adrenalized aural assault that Die! Die! Die! employ to nearly every track on this album will undoubtedly leave your ears exhausted and your head throbbing.
Swim is out now on Small Town America Records.
Rewind skateboarding life back to 8pm on Saturday 14th December, 2003 to West London’s Subterania Club and you would find 600 skaters awaiting the Crossfire premiere of Fifty Fifty’s Jus Foolin’ video put together by Tidy Mike and Danny Wainwright. It followed the first ever Xmas Jam and had rad parts from Flynn Trotman, Dan Wileman, Joe Habgood, Zak Pitter, Will Ainley, Paul Carter, Wainwright and Matt Keal.
Today you can watch it in its entirety, so get those teas ready and take yourself back to where good times were seriously rolling.
Get the teas on for this new 20 minute British skateboarding documentary, ‘It Takes More Than A Trick‘ put together by Paul Scott who looks back on how skateboarding was filmed throughout the late 90s and 2000’s with Adam Mondon and Paul Gonella.
Mondon discusses working with Dan Magee on British footage for Panic and Blueprint productions and the pair also talk about the technology and techniques available for skateboard filmers alongside clips from Mixed Media, Anthems, Waiting for the World and more.
Skateboarding pirate Richie Jackson has launched a new app this week called NBD tricks where you can learn, share and discover new technical tricks. Download it for free in the app store on Apple and give it a whirl. To kick this off, Jackson fires off a few NBD’s as a starter in the video below.
Read our interview with Richie from earlier this year here.
Gino Iannucci speaks to Jenkem today about his untimely move from Chocolate in the middle of their 20 year celebrations to Jason Dill and AVE’s FA brand and also speaks on his prison spell, past alcohol issues and had this to say on future parts:
“There’s always something or tricks in the back of my mind that I’m interested in trying to do, like ideas for tricks that I think will look good and relevant to film too. But as far as accomplishing stuff in skateboarding still…. I feel like I had my prime a long time ago. And I’m happy I had the opportunity to do that, to be out in California, skating for great companies like Chocolate, 101, Black Label and now Fucking Awesome. I’m getting to a point where I’m kind of content – where the past is the past, and the past was my prime. Now I’m older and I just want to enjoy skating.”
Follow your nose to read a blog feature on Gino’s legacy from Chris Lawton’s view.
