The offcuts from Albert Nyberg‘s AB&A section have been released today with footage of him battling nature at various pots worldwide during the year it took to make the full edit. Whether it’s lines or straight tricks, his technically gifted bag of tricks just keeps giving us progression. What a talent.
It seems that skateboarding is reaching such mainstream levels now that even the 9 month old Prince George received a deck as a present down under this week. Prince William was awarded the gift for his son in Elizabeth, South Australia last Wednesday that came with kangaroos and the Australian flag as a graphic alongside his name. Why go to so much effort when they could have given him this?
In other royal news from Australia this week, Tas Pappas made his first 900 on the Megaranch making him the first Aussie to have that trick in his bag. Congrats mate.
The Fifty Fifty team hit the road to North Wales and came back with some footy. Watch Phil Parker, Barber, Ollie Lock, Josh Arnott, Tom Gibbs, Will Ainley, Layth Sami, Boyo, Justin Sydenham and more.
Eagulls
‘Eagulls’
(Partisan Records)
For all intents and purposes, Leeds’ Eagulls are a hardcore band playing post-punk. Where many bands loosely lumped into the genre opt for po-faced melodrama, Eagulls inject a snotty snarl into each track on their self-titled debut.
Opener ‘Nerve Endings’ is a statement of intent, driven by pulsating drums and vocalists George Mitchell’s desperate wail. Despite his vocal approach sitting somewhere between speaking, singing and shouting, there’s a weirdly discordant melody which makes the track all the more alluring. Often employing repetition throughout the album, he manages to create tracks that are as aggressive as they are catchy – see the verses of ‘Nerve Endings’ as a perfect example.
Like many bands who take a influence from the 80s, there’s a big emphasis on the bass tones, however the lighter guitar work laid over the top ensures that there’s never one component which rises above the rest of the noise, giving each Eagulls track a sound that is their own. The album consistently balances brash aggression with pure pop melody – if you pull the tracks apart, they’re genuinely noisy and weird, but always palatable. ‘Possessed’ is the perfect example of this – if this track was stripped of some of its jagged discordance and given to a less adventurous indie-rock band, it could easily be a festival sing along track. Thankfully, Eagulls clearly don’t care much for arenas and their uncompromising approach makes the album of the most truly exciting debut records of 2014.
Throughout the record, there isn’t a huge palate of different shades but this doesn’t make it any less remarkable. This is the sound of a band marking their territory and delivering a unique album that keeps its varied influences at arm’s length. This is post-punk with its sights set squarely on the future.
Joe Parry
Long Live Southbank are throwing an event at the Undercroft on May 4th for everyone. The event celebrates a year of campaigning to save to the spot in light of the proposed move to the Hungerford Bridge.
Community Jam schedule:
11am – Skate School (all ages) with The Boardettes
12pm – OG Slalom with London Skates Dominates
1pm – Best Trick & Longest Ollie (with prizes)
2pm – BMX Demo
3pm – Local Hero’s Demo (riders from Isle, Palace, Slam City, Cliché, Supreme & more)
4pm – Skate-For-All
Plus photography and art displays, Workshops, giveaways and much more…
Get on the speed of Reese Forbes in this clip that was found and uploaded this weekend from a Quiksilver project of yesteryear. Classic Donny Barley footage also surfaced from the ‘Not For Sale’ promo. This is gold right here. Amazed both sections have been locked up for so long.
If you want a longplayer for tonight then bookmark this thrash-tinged Lawless flick. It has Chris Gregson, Colton Reeves Erickson, Cody Lockwood and Mason Merlino pushing concrete to the hilt in streets, parks, pools, ditches and more.
Mark Gonzales has released a new video in honour of John Cardiel this weekend, in his very own special way of course. The Stranglers form the soundtrack.
Go on then…
Matt Bublitz uploaded leftover footage of Tom Karengelov from Zero Skateboards’ Cold War flick over the weekend to a Wugazi track. Read our exclusive Wugazi interview here.
The Alien Workshop team line up seems to have been edited recently with John Fitzgerald and Donovon Piscopo‘s names leaving the fold. The door to Fucking Awesome Skateboards seems wide open for these two, who could be announced soon alongside the recent acquisition of Dylan Rieder. Who knows…it’s all speculation.
