Minnesotan hip hop collective Doomtree recently made their first trip to UK shores supporting Yelawolf and to celebrate they will also be releasing single Bangarang for free download on 28th May.
Check out the excellent Har Mar Superstar – featuring music video below and stay tuned to www.doomtree.net.
As workers around the world celebrated Labour Day (May 1st) with a well-deserved day-off or a good old riot in the streets depending on your current national economy and austerity plan, Element Skateboards paid homage to their hardworking team of amateur skaters by releasing for a 24hr period only Future Nature. Staying true to their environmental roots, Element decided to build this video around the idea of a David Attenborough wildlife show. They replaced Sir David with Blueprint Skateboards’ chief Paul Shier and invented an entire plethora of pig-latin names for their riders e.g. Accelerus Impossibilus or Gracefullius Awkardus, the tone is set for 37 minutes of top-knotch skateboarding.
With Cole Matthews, Mark Stewart and Ricky Bedenbaugh behind the cameras and Kirk Dianda directing, the Element amateurs give it their best in a bid to become tomorrow’s professionals. Julian Davidson opens the show and demonstrates his love of long rails. Despite the majority of the tricks involving flat metal bars, Julian does find time to kickflip up a hefty set of stairs too. I’ll skip straight to the last skater Nick Garcia here because I honestly thought I was watching Julian again. Rails aside, Nick takes his transition skills and applies them to banks and walls. Nick’s switch noseblunts are a treat and his ollie manual down a bank is worthy of Mosher status.
Back to the order of things, Boo Johnson and Madars Apse have the next couple of parts and each of them is dope. Boo has a very easy-on-the-eyes style that leaves you wishing the editors had put more lines in his section. The handicap ramp ollie to frontside 360 line is an example of Boo’s smooth operation. Madars on the other hand is the round peg in a square hole. He fits the happy blond-haired wholesome image that Element pushes, but he skates like someone brought up on Mark Gonzales and Eastern Exposure tapes. Trading big pop and sun bleached school yards for powerslides and wallie jams, Madars is obviously a Euro in a land of Yanks.
Speaking of Euros, the European Element team get some shine sharing a flow section with their American counterparts. Trent McClung and Nassim Guammaz serve as bookends to a solid section where the highlights include Chase Webb stepping on Nyjah Huston’s coat tails and Tom Schaar getting dizzy with the world’s first 1080°. Not bad for a montage section.
The last amateur to feature in this video is Evan Smith. I leave him till last because I doubt he’s going to stay amateur for very long and will soon join the professional ranks for Element or dare I say it, Habitat? Long droopy hair? Check. Travelling man? Check. Guitar strings? Check. Handsome skating? Check. Evan has been producing some stellar skating recently (c.f. Transworld Cinematographer) and this new section is full of unseen top rate footage that means he’s been putting in the work. Highlights include Evan’s fakie 5-0 variations in various Californian ditches and his Iberian wallie combos.
Some people might find the nature documentary theme of this video annoying but I believe Element wanted to stay true to their game and have a bit of fun at the same time. My personal preference would have seen Skateboard wrangler Bob Sanderson hired to lurk behind bushes and pounce on a few of the riders as they rolled away from afterblack hammers. The 24hr window posting might be a scheme to limit pirate copies hitting the net, but nothing stays offline for long nowadays. Look out for Future Nature on iTunes soon.
Ralph Lloyd-Davis
Ex Gallows singer Frank Carter has finally released the first offering from his new musical project Pure Love this week. Switching from raging hardcore to mainstream 80’s rock, this new song written with ex Hope Conspiracy member Jim Carroll has divided the Gallows fanbase like a marmite bomb and has more in common sound wise with Manic Street Preachers, Journey and The Darkness than previous mentors Black Flag, surprising many.
Watch the video of first single ‘Bury My Bones’ and if you like what you hear get a free download of the single here in exchange for some details.
Death Grips have released a free download this week ahead of their album release of ‘The Money Store’ this month. Take this one away for nothing today.
‘Weird Luck’ EP
Free Download
Weird luck is when you are on the web doing stuff and then the next thing you know, you are listening to a new band from Brooklyn who are blowing your ears off within seconds of pressing the play button. That’s how we discovered Life Size Maps here who release a 3 track EP this month.
This trio have some quality noise on offer that sits above some fantastic pop melodies fueled by Mike McKeever’s brash guitars and warming vocals, Jordyn Blakely’s powerful drums and some amazing cello playing from Rob Karpay. Now, the cello may sound like an odd call, but the production on opening track Weird Luck is a masterful mix of noisy indie rock led by a fantastic synth piece that swirls and drives its anthemic chords into a very welcome sonic explosion!
The melodies within these 3 tracks are irresistably catchy. When Wind In The Furnace breaks into its uplifting chorus, euphoria is unleashed on an epic scale accompanied by another heavy pounding of noise. No change here for third track Copper Mirror that ends this listening experience on yet another musical high with stabbing guitars, psych synth and yet another huge chorus. It’s addictive, it’s loud but it’s also beautifully crafted, so let’s hope that this band are able to drive by map and appear in London sometime soon.
Download this EP for free from here and watch this clip of the band playing in Williamsburg, NYC to get the full picture.
For fans of Dinosaur Jr, Superchunk, Flaming Lips and Trail of Dead.
Enter Shikari’s Rou Reynolds who played the Crossfire Halloween Massacre back in November has made a statement on the band’s website explaining feelings behind the current midweek chart position on new album A Flash Flood Of Colour:
“Two days ago things began as normal.
I pressed snooze a few times, finally woke up, rubbed my eyes, stretched my arms… and checked Facebook/Twitter.
But from then on it got weird. Really weird.
Our bands album ‘A Flash Flood Of Colour’ was at number 1 in the official UK charts.
I waddled confused and still half asleep down the stairs and had a crumpet to ‘celebrate’.
I lie, i ended up having 3.
I’m writing this two days after that rivetingly descriptive morning escapade, on Wednesday 18th, and we’re still topping the charts by a few thousand copies. Madness.
Now i’m not gonna sit here and bark on about how this is…
a) a victory for independent music
b) a victory for meaningful and societally conscious music
c) a victory for guitar/alternative music
…of which it is undeniably all three, but it has to be at least mentioned.
It goes without saying, you certainly wouldn’t label the majority of artists normally in the charts any of those descriptions, let alone those that reach number one.
The fact that so many people have bought this record and supported the values behind it is incredible. And we would like to thank every single person that has, from the bottom of our hearts.
I don’t know whether we’ll be holding strong by Sunday when the end of week chart run down happens.
In fact i’m sure Adele or Bruno Mars will have crept back up on us by then and achieve their 50th week at number one or whatever they’re on.
But we’ll have had our nice brisk trot in the limelight, and big up all those that contributed to it.”
Rou.
Gimme A Beer
www.partisanrecords.com
2012 is shaping up to be a pretty vintage year for decent albums so let us introduce you to yet another contender that should stoke you out if you like your garage rock and country.
Firstly, it’s best to mention that Diamond Rugs is a project that was conceived back in August last year. John McCauly and Robbie Crowell from Deer Tick, Ian St Pe from Black Lips, Bryan Dufresne of Six Finger Satellite, Steve Berlin from Los Lobos and Hardy Morris from Dead Confederate went down to Nashville, Tennessee together to lay down some tracks and miracles happened. Speaking to Morris back then, he mentioned to us on a telegram that: “We were planning on recording 5 songs, and we did 14, so I guess you could say we had fun! It’s got a couple of Ian’s songs, 4 of mine, and the rest are John’s and other folks. Should come out early next year, I’ll keep you in the loop.”
Fast forward to January 18th and Diamond Rugs has surfaced online with a taster of what’s to come in a tune called ‘Gimme a Beer‘. The result, a mighty fine slab of catchy, slide guitar and horn assisted, country-rock’n’roll with a dirty Southern edge that makes you want to shake your shit over and over. I quote the words, “Damn it feels good to be a gangster!”
Check it out for yourself, download this tune for free and look out for an album announcement for the UK pretty soon.
The Kill City Skateboard team have opted for the non conventional DVD trailer ahead of their release of ‘Rookies‘ this month. By adding their own commentary from The Milk, (a guy who has parodied various clips from TV on youtube) you will find the boyos very own take on classic scenes from the legendary 80’s skate flick Thrashin’!
Watch Kill City’s Rookies London video premiere at Mau Mau Bar in Portobello Rd following the Crossfire Xmas Jam on Saturday December 10th. It’s free to get in and the party will start from 8pm-2am.
The DVD will be available in skateboard shops from December 16th. Put it on your Xmas list.
Fugazi‘s live series archive is now open with 130 shows now available to buy online at Dischord. The very first page has shows from Birmingham, Leeds and London gigs and if you delve even further you can find all sorts of other recordings from a plethora of appearances around the globe.
The recordings are priced at $5 each but the band have also given you a choice to make your own donation and leave a message with them personally which is cool.
Sign up, claim a free download and get stuck in to these shows and then watch this Snub TV footage of the band in December 1988 with interviews and footage from their first Boston Arms show. The UK desperately needs another Snub TV style show, programming like this is so sorely missed.
Fugazi are one of the best bands to ever come out of America and stay true to their roots and this Thursday, fans will be able to purchase live recordings on a concerts website that will showcase hundreds of mostly high quality recordings of live shows recorded over the last 15 years.
Fugazi played over 1000 concerts, covering all fifty United States, Europe, Australia, South America, Japan and many points in between. Over 800 of these shows were recorded by the band’s sound engineers, often on high quality recording gear. The first 130 will be live this Thursday alongside flyers, ticket stubbs, photos, mp3s and more.
If you are expecting polished, perfect versions of all of the shows, hold that thought. In true Fugazi style, they will be as they were when recorded and not edited in any way. Guitarist Guy Picciotto told the NY Times recently that: “It’s all there, and it’s not cleaned up. You get what you get.”
Log into Dischord Records today and get signed up for the updates and an account where you can purchase the recordings as they drop. You will receive 2 free MP3’s as a taster on sign up from Egg Hunt too.