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Skateboarding News

Palasonic – Palace Skateboards full video

palace_skateboards_palasonic_video_download

Palace Skateboards just popped their Palasonic video onto interweb for you. No pea required.

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Skateboarding News

Rough Cuts: Clint Walker’s Saturdays 1 and 2

Saturdays_DVD_birdhouse_downloadImagine this much footage being left over from your main part? Absolutely nuts on all levels.

Pick up the full film now on iTunes.

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Skateboarding News

The Flare skate video by Lakai released today

the_flare_video_by_lakai_download

Quick reminder that Lakai’s new skate video, The Flare is released worldwide today via Vimeo and iTunes for download and more importantly, your local skate shop on the good old DVD.

Review coming soon.

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Skateboarding News

Watch the new Polar video in full

Polar are pushing into the weekend in style by posting their latest full length video DVD, “I Like It Here Inside My Mind, Don’t Wake Me This Time”.

Hit the DVD below for the sweets – you will probably want to own it once seen. It has sick footage of Aaron Herrington, Kevin Rodridgues, Hjalte Halberg, Pontus Alv and Am’s Oskar Rozenberg Hallberg, Michał Juraś, David Stenstrom, Dane Brady, Paul Grund and Jacob Ovgren.

http://www.caughtinthecrossfire.com/uploads/2016/07/polar-skate-co-dvd.jpg

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Album Of The Week Album Reviews Buzz Chart

Descendents

Descendents
Hypercaffium Spazzinate
Epitaph Records

Descendents - album cover

There’s nothing like the news of a new Descendents album to improve a summer in advance –and, with a particularly slow start to the good weather, their short, sweet blasts of melodic punk are exactly what is needed to counteract the strangely unseasonal Seasonal Affective Disorder caused by leaving the house at least three days a week to find South London rain-drenched and storm-swept.

Hypercaffium Spazzinate, of course, would be a cause for celebration regardless of the weather; the band’s first release since 2004 sees them return to Epitaph, the label under which they recorded 1996’s ‘Everything Sucks’. Does this mean we can draw in depth stylistic comparisons between the two albums recorded under Brett Gurewitz’s label whilst at the same time contrasting them with ‘Cool To Be You’, the Fat Wreck album sandwiched between? Does it bollocks. Bill Stevenson has always had a keen eye to which side his punk rock bread is buttered on and Hypercaffium sits comfortably amongst the band’s previous efforts, offering 16 sometimes deceptively sharp blasts of what can be termed ‘pop punk’, but only once you mentally eschew the taint of saccharine awfulness which the late 90s and early 00s bought to that term.

Opener ‘Feel This’ sets the general pace at 1:14 in length, with only half the songs exceeding two minutes and a grand total of three that get past three. I found myself having to stop the album when I needed to go down and get a beer out of the fridge, in case I missed anything vital. That’s what you get with me, quality professionalism. Anyway, ‘Feel This’ drives full speed into ‘Victim Of Me’, the song which pre-hyped the album to the world and while it may not quite reach ‘Milo Goes to College’ speed, it definitely offers Karl Alvarez’s fingers a workout on a breakneck bass line on a tune which will have you skipping the needle back more than once (or moving the mouse and double clicking like the horrible nowadays bastard you are). ‘On Paper’ slows things down and brings into the mix the self-deprecating humour that Milo’s soulful, very slightly snotty, very slightly roughened voice is so perfectly suited to – the sound that so many vocalists took as a template to fall far short of.

From then on in and for 16 songs the band take the sound which they’ve perfected so well and throw in a number of variables, still keeping hold of their core formula like a control variable in one of Milo’s lab tests. ‘No Fat Burger’ harks back to the band’s earliest days musically, as Bill Stevenson’s lyrics bemoan the doctor’s orders which have stopped him scoffing whatever he wants due to health issues covered in the killer 2013 documentary ‘Filmage’. Just remember as you listen to the primal but supremely controlled beat underpinning every track that the man playing it has survived health issues which would kill five other people at once.

Elsewhere, this may not be a change in style from previous releases but that doesn’t mean that the Descendents are ploughing the same furrow in any way. On the contrary. The hooks which made the likes of ‘Bikeage’, ‘Silly Girl’ and ‘When I Get Old’ such instant classics do the same for much of Hypercaffium. Whether it’s the full pelt race of ‘Human Being’ or the mellower, hook laden likes of ‘Shameless Halo’ or ‘Comeback Kid’, the band sound like they don’t even know what the term ‘twelve year album gap’ means. Closer ‘Beyond the Music’ is a potted history of the band, a microcosm of the personal lean of their lyrics which has definitely played a massive part in them becoming such a worldwide phenomenon.

Despite having almost 40 years of history, and a major place in the history of punk music and numerous musical milestones, they are still writing songs of awkward love, caffeine obsessions and flatulence which strike a chord the world over…and long may they continue doing so.

Jono Coote

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Skateboarding News

Watch Volcom’s Holy Stokes! trailer

holystokes1

Volcom are ready to push the button on a new full length called Holy Stokes! featuring their full team, and what a line up it is. Skate film maker Russell Houghten is also behind the project so expect top end photography.

Watch the trailer below and expect footage from Alain Goikoetxea, Alec Majerus, Alex Midler, Axel Cruysberghs, Ben Raemers, Caswell Berry, Chris Pfanner, CJ Collins, Collin Provost, Daan Van Der Linden Dane Burman, David Gonzalez, Dennis Busenitz, Dustin Dollin, Grant Taylor, Jackson Pilz, Jordan Trahan, Kyle Walker, Milton Martinez, Louie Lopez, Pedro Barros, Rune Glifberg and Ryan Sheckler.

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Skateboarding News

Tristan Funkhouser in Substance

Ph: Blabac

tristan_funkhouser_door_riding_in_tight_space

Transworld’s 27th full-length video, Substance is coming to DVD soon. Get a taste of this new flick that features footage of Davis Torgerson, Dolan Stearns, Tom Karangelov, Jon Nguyen and Baker’s riot kid Tristan Funkhouser, whose future looks brighter and brighter every time he releases a part.

The video is available to buy now on Vimeo On Demand for £9. There’s also a recent interview with the 18 year old on TWS here.

Categories
Features Music

Chronicles with Gengahr

gengahr

“I’m pretty sure the label were ready to drop us when we told them the fourth time that it still wasn’t right and we’d have to give it another going over,” reveals Felix Bushe, guitarist and main man of London’s Gengahr, as he racks his brains over the trials and tribulations of their decision to co-produce their fast approaching debut, A Dream Outside.

Heralded as the finest purveyors of hazy, psychedelic pop right now, Gengahr have risen fast and high above their contemporaries, with tracks like ‘Fill My Gums With Blood’, ‘Powder’ and ‘She’s A Witch’ raining from the stereo in here on loop.

When asked about the band’s most personal lyric on the album, before we dive into his own musical psyche below, Felix cites ‘Lonely As A Shark’s verse of, “All I ask is just one more chance. If I grew horns and fins, at least I’d get to start again. And speak in tongues just like it all began. Somewhere underneath the sea are teeth the size of you and me.

Going on to explain, “I normally try to disguise myself in the songs with fictional narrative but ‘Lonely As A Shark’ in particular is a song full of my own emotions. I wrote this at a time when I had moved to the suburbs of London and rarely saw any of my friends. I was working full time and I had tried to go back to university because I felt my life lacked direction. The song is basically about my isolation and solitude at that time.

Check out Felix’s nine most personal albums below, but first hear their eerie new cover rendition of Fugazi’s ‘I’m So Tired’. Not many have managed to pull off covering one of the finest band’s in history.

the_argument

My gateway album is…

The Argument – Fugazi

Whenever you put on a Fugazi record it just makes you feel cool, and that’s a big part of being at college and school.

mechanical_animals

The album my fans might not expect me to like is…

Mechanical Animals – Marylin Manson

I love this album, I swapped it for a Slipknot album with a friend at school and even now if I put it on it still sounds great. Some dope tunes on this one.

around_the_fur

When I’m angry at the world, this album fires me up!

Around The Fur – Deftones

If it wasn’t Fugazi then I was probably listening to Deftones as the backing music to my school days.

ed_sheeran

A record I absolutely despise is…

Any album by Ed Sheeran.

He has no soul!

deerhunter-halcyon-digest

An album for Sunday chilling is…

Halcyon Digest – Deerhunter

These guys are maybe my favorite band and I could have named any of their albums really but this is one I’ve been listening to most recently.

hello_nasty

An album to dance your ass off to is…

Hello Nasty – Beastie Boys

These guys bridge the gap between rock, hip hop and dance so effortlessly. I was blown away by the Beastie Boys during the whole MTV2 years.

3_feet_high_and_rising

The album I’d like to see live, in its entirety, back to back is…

3 Feet High and Rising – De La Soul

I feel like I don’t get to see enough Hip Hop music when we are playing festivals or whatever but this album would be amazing to see in it’s entirety.

devotion

The album that evokes a specific memory is…

Devotion – Beach House

This record reminds me of my first flat after moving out from mum and dad. My flat mate used to play it all the time and its a really beautiful record.

transformer

If the world was ending, the last album I’d want to hear is…

Transformer – Lou Reed

One of my all time favourite albums. Featuring two of my all time favourite guys, Lou Reed and David Bowie. This is maybe the closet thing to a perfect record in my eyes so it’s fitting that it would be the last thing I ever hear.

Gengahr’s ‘A Dream Outside’ is due June 15th via Transgressive.

Categories
Music News

Death Grips leak new album Jenny Death in full

death-grips_free_download_jenny_death

The new Death Grips album has leaked well ahead of its proposed 31st March album release date which is kinda no suprise with this lot who cannot help themselves to a bit of unpredictability and controversy.

Jenny Death, the 2nd part of ‘The Powers That B’ is loaded with their traditional digital punk sound that we can’t get enough. Glad they didn’t call it a day!

Tracklist:

01. I Break Mirrors With My Face In The United States
02. Inanimate Sensation
03. Turned Off
04. Why A Bitch Gotta Lie
05. PSS PSS
06. The Powers That B
07. Beyond Alive
08. Centuries of Damn
09. On GP
10. Death Grips 2.0

Categories
Skateboarding News

Vans announce PROPELLER skate video

vans_propeller-video_skate

With all the talk of the new Vans video now over and done with, it’s time for it to be unleashed to the public. So here’s the first official teaser and unveiling of it’s name: PROPELLER. Yep, you heard it here first.

Greg Hunt is behind the making of it that will have full parts from Rowley, Crockett, Dollin and so many more. Look out for the full film this May that you will be able to download or pick up in stores.