Concussion 09 by Davoud Kermaninejad

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Trent ackurst

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kieran horn

Cover: Rodent scurries his way onto the cover with a backside scraper at the Napa pool. Photo by Davoud

This page contains artwork or photographs by Sigmar Polke, Goya, Glenn Barr, Sean Renos, Davoud, Dave Nelson, and Cynthia Connolly.

Editorial Rant As the deadline on our little publication closes in, I reflect back on the riches that Concussion has brought us. The limos, the parties, the groupies, life can move pretty fast. Hell, we don’t even have to work on the magazine anymore, we have a think-tank of monkeys in Thailand that do it for cheap (Ah, the sweet smell of exploitation for self gain). We’ve even started construction on a 12,000 sq. foot indoor wave pool/skatepark, so the riders and footage can come to us. But really, all this wealth and fame hasn’t changed us a bit though, we’re still “gnarly”, “core”, “legit” or whatever it is hip to be these days. For instance, I’ve acquired a nasty cocaine habit and written off all the insignificant people in my life. I can’t talk for the rest of the staff but things have never been better. All of this thanks to you, the indespensible consumer. They tell me this issue is “sick” – skateboard tracks, surf tubes, snow sliding and art interviews up the wazoo. Pick up one for a friend or your mom or whoever, just dig deep into those welllined pockets and spend, spend, spend! If you’re curious about buying ads from us, well, we don’t really need anymore ads, and we’re pretty picky about what ads we do accept these days anyway. Jonathan just let me know that the jet is ready to take us to Thailand to proof the issue, and Tim Payne is on line 2, so, I say farewell consumer. Boy, that was a lot of work writing that. Gotta get those monkeys to start writing articles too. - The Editors 8

Staff [Senior Editors]

Jonathan Hay Davoud Kermaninejad

[Senior Artist]

Lee Charron

[Photographers] Jason Murray, Dave Nelson, Patrick Trefz Terry Roland, Bruce Rodela, [Contributing Photographers] Joel Chavez, Jamie Harris, Simon Watts [Writers] Eric Bigler Frank Gilbert Joel Hickok The Colonel [Artists] Lee Eschliman Jeremey Fish Tim McCaffrey Sean Renos Sick Boy [Copy Editor] [Assistant Copy Editor] [Video Production] [Web Hosting]

Frank Gilbert Microsoft Word Dave Amell tromaville.com

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pigs and rodents don’t mix 10

photo: ben wagner

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Send check or money order payable to: Concussion Box 1024 Santa Cruz, Ca 95061-1024 Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery All change of addresses must be notified in writing. 12

photo davoud

Curtis Hsiang 12.4.63 - 1.8.00 I can’t believe that Curtis was 37 years old. He skated like he was still 17 and looked 27. People that skate backyard pools are pretty rare these days, and so it isn’t hard to get to know other pool riders in your area. Curtis was a bit of a legend around these parts, and along with his buddies Royce Nelson and Matt Neely, was definitely one of the top pool skaters in Nor Cal. He may have had a masters in art, but he had a Ph.D. in skateboarding. On and off his board Curtis was an artist; he had more style in his little pinky than most people have in their whole body, which is evidenced in every photo that has ever been taken of him. If you ever saw Curtis skate in person, you would know what I’m talking about. He could suck up his legs and contort his body into seemingly unnatural positions which allowed him to whip overhead grinds in pools with too much vert, or hit 10 o’clock in a full pipe. He’d do lines that are unimaginable to most people, and while he claimed to steal his lines from Royce, I liked to try and steal Curtis’ lines,

except most of them are too hard for me to do. Curtis would say he sucked, and would berate his own skating when he wrote articles for Thrasher, but it was all bullshit; he was just humble, or maybe he really did think he sucked, I don’t know. All I know is that every time I saw Curtis skate, he killed it, gave it 110% as tennis legend Jimmy Connors used to say. One of the things I liked best about Curtis was how he would try the gnarliest tricks, totally commit trying to land them, and then slam. He would eat shit so hard and then get right back up and pull whatever he just slammed on. Unfortunately, Curtis took more than an average human being’s share of lumps, and probably hit his head a few too many times. He died of an aneurysm in the middle of his run during the memorial session for Matt Neely at Wiggy’s. Curtis was killing it so hard on the day he died, and since he pretty much lived for skateboarding, to die while skating was a rather appropriate way for him to go out. He lived every day to the fullest, on his own terms, and was a role model for many people. So if you don’t already, take a look around you and appreciate who and what you’ve got, because it may not be there tomorrow.

RIP in Peace Ho p e fu l ly t h i s w i l l n o t b e a r e g u l a r c olu m n , b ut u n fo r t u n at e ly it h a s n ’ t b e e n l o o k i n g t h at w ay l at e ly.

photos j. hay

Matt Neely 3.2.70 - 12.31.99 One of the sad facts of life that nobody ever bothers to mention is that the older you get, the more people you know are dead. By the time you’re 60 or 70, many if not most of your friends will be dead. Pretty depressing, eh? Well that’s life for ya, as evidenced by these four pages dedicated to people who died before their time had come. Matt Neely died on New Year’s Eve, which would have been fitting had the apocalypse arrived, but the Y2K bug did not even rear its head, and so Matt blew it and died too early. Matt was one of the rare breed of skaters who preferred to skate backyard pools over anything else, and skated them very well. In fact you might say that he made it look easy; his solid frontside grinds and speedy backsides into the shallow end

stood out at every session he attended. Matt was a fixture in the Bay Area pool scene for years. We drove up from Santa Cruz after the fires to skate all the pools in the hills and Matt was there, ripping the black-bottom pool. Almost ten years later Matt was still going strong, and it is truly a tragedy that he is gone. But death is a very selfish thing, and usually effects the people who are still living the most, because they have to go on day after day without that person in their lives. It may suck for us, but I wouldn’t worry too much about Matt; in fact right about this time he’s probably skating some heavenly bowl with Curtis and Rube.

California ‘crete - “Pouring ‘em small” Finally someone in California has built a public skatepark that isn’t a piece of shit. Congratulations go out to the city of Truckee (near North Lake Tahoe) for doing it up right. Actually, I think the park was supposed to be 8’ or 9’ high all the way around, but somebody freaked out and they had to cap it off at 6’. But still, this place is done correct and offers the best design I’ve seen yet. Bowls connecting to bowls connecting to pump bumps and spines and a channel, and they even almost did the coping up right. I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true; this is probably the best public skatepark in all of California. It’s gonna be a zoo this spring when the snow melts, there’s too many groms in the way, and the helmet/pads situation can be sketchy, but it’s still worth the drive and then some. And once you’re there and you’ve skated all day and need to kick back with a cold one, Tahoe Taps is just around the corner. Combine a Truckee session with a drive around the lake and a Strawberry Bowl session and you’ve got yourself a sick weekend of skating.

Captions: Didn’t get anyone’s name, so let’s just forget about captions for this page. Photos by Davoud

“Watch out for the head-ons”

Antioch is unfortunately another story of a good park gone wrong. It is designed in the shape of a large circle, with all (or most) of the lines revolving in a circle going one direction or another. There are a couple halfway decent hips to sprack ollies off of, and there’s a long, steep, curved 6’ quarterpipe that offers the longest grinds in the park. In the very center of the park is a tombstone style hip kind of like the one in Petaluma. And of course you can’t forget your steps and miniledges thrown in randomly around the snake run. But the worst part about the park is the "bowl that could have been". Nothing breaks my heart more than when they finally build a good looking bowl with a decent design, and they make it too shallow or not steep enough; either way you look at it, they fucked it up big time and it’s a shame. But at least there’s no enforced pad rule, although the sign tells you to wear a helmet. I don’t know what I should have been wearing the time that I collided with Brett - we were

Captions, clockwise from right: Brett Stahle snaps an ollie over the hip in the hard-to-skate bowl. Overview of the bowl and some of the other assorted obstacles that await you. The sign says to wear pads, but the cops don’t even come around. That might change if somebody gets really hurt there, but for now it’s mellow. Johnass avoided the bladers and charged into this frontside air over the tombstone hip and into the street pit. All photos by Davoud.

each going 20mph from opposing directions. Punk took me out for like three weeks. I’ve gone back there since and had an ok time, but overall the park’s poorly designed. It is always zooed with little kids (Antioch is on a year-round school system which means that 1/3 of the kids are always not in school, and therefore at the skatepark) which makes it less appealing. I’ve seen better, but I’ve also certainly seen worse.

Roland

Yet another cement street pit with no vert Clockwise from left: Israel Forbes busts a hefty frontside slider on the biggest rail in the park. Huge frontside on the quarter by Sam Harding. Overview of the park. Jessica Krause charges it hard, as evidenced by this large kickflip over the hip. Hay

Roland

Hay

Yeah, I really have no business reviewing a park that I haven’t even been to, but it would be safe to say that I’ve seen enough of these kinds of parks to make some pretty accurate assumptions about Salinas. It’s pretty much the same old shit they’ve been building in California lately - a big flat street area with a fun box, a couple of ollie banks, some handrails, and the biggest thing in the park - a 6’ quarterpipe. Grrr. There are no bowls, but if there were, chances are they would’ve fucked them up. I guess if you live in Santa Cruz or the Central Coast then the Salinas park isn’t a bad alternative to Derby, the indoor park in Monterey, or that crappy park they built on the east side, but that’s not really saying much. Let’s see, what other assumptions can I make? I’ll bet the place is zooed with kids, rollerbladers and BMXers, and the cops hassle you for not wearing pads. The coping is probably done wrong on the quarterpipe and the three other places they thought you should grind, and the trannies are probably done wrong. Call me negatron, but I’m of the opinion that if you build a park no bigger than 6’, you better do it up like Truckee or just forget about it. 24

Wade Speyer blasts off and Bruce runs out of film. Photos by Bruce Rodela

Ramptech park comes complete with pad ranger The city most responsible for over-development of the south bay and all of the traffic nightmares associated with this ‘economic boom’ has given its citizens a skatepark. Since there are something like 2 million kids in Fremont (which is somewhat of a suburban nightmare), it makes sense for the city to install a skatepark. Gotta keep those kids off the street, right? I’m sure they though it made sense to put it right behind the police station and the jail too. They can keep a better handle on the mandatory full-pads rule and watch for the ‘undesirable’ element that comes with a skatepark - mainly you and me. So anyway, they went and bought a bunch of ramps from the Ramptech Corporation, which was responsible for the very fine mini ramp in Half Moon Bay, and surely the hundreds of carbon copies which litter indoor and outdoor skateparks throughout the U.S. The street course is a total piece of shit, but whatever, at least they included a somewhatridable vert wall this time. As expected, the ramp is quite good and even comes with a spine-type deal so one may transfer from the ramp to the street course and vice versa (see Figure 1-A) provided that there aren’t two dozen kids in your way. What’s worse than the kids and the lame pad rule, however, is the tragic flaw that really ruins this park

- they built the ramp facing East/West, so once the sun starts going down you are blinded riding towards one wall. EVERYBODY knows that you’re not supposed to build ramps facing that direction, unless it is indoors or has natural obstructions blocking the sun. Well, somebody forgot to tell these people about that, and so sunset sessions suck because the sun is in your eyes. Oh well. If I lived in Fremont, I’d be stoked to go skate that ramp, I’m sure you could probably get the times that the Pad Ranger (no joke) is not around dialed so you don’t have to put up with their bullshit. But I don’t live in Fremont, and usually (hopefully) I am just passing through on 880 on the way to skate somewhere better. I don’t remember the directions how to get there - it’s east off the 880 in Fremont behind a library, police station, and jail, and it’s next to a big park with a fake lake. It’s worth checking if you’re in the area, but make sure to bring ALL your pads or you might end up watching.

Dublin

Yet another waste of concrete was recently poured in Dublin, which is on 580 near Pleasanton. There’s a bunch of kinked fun boxes and handrails reminiscent of the Modesto park, and there’s a snake-run that ends up in a 5’ or 6’ bowl, which is the largest part of the park. There is also a smaller bowl with a fucked up channel. We didn’t get to skate because there was water in it, but other people have, and claim it is good. Maybe it is better than it looks, but I’m pretty skeptical. The design was just too kooky and everything was too small. The park should be open by the time you read this, so go find out for yourself. Once again, if you can find the sherrif’s department, you’ll find the park. Gotta love it. - No rating. 25

Arizona - what a remarkable place to visit. Home of the Grand Canyon, host of round #4 of AMA Supercross and overflowing with various skate terrain. Phoenix has at least 2 concrete parks, and the rumor during my visit was that a gigantic new one had just been poured. On top of all the public facilities, I’ve never seen a town with more ‘natural’ transitions. Everywhere I looked from the freeways all I saw were insane drainage ditches, huge banks and skateable formations. Many of the big towns surrounding Phoenix have some sort of skatepark. However, my trip was very short and I only skated at Bushmaster Skatepark in Flagstaff. It’s a great medium size park with a really nice clover leaf bowl. The bowl isn’t too deep and maxes out at 9ft in the deep end. The locals are super friendly and told me Flagstaff plans on pouring another concrete park within a year. Check out a few of the snapshots I took of the place, or better yet, get yourself to Arizona and check out the skate scene. You won’t be disappointed. - Eric Bigler

The two most common things at good skateparks: sick bowls and groms that rip. Photos by Bigler

Allison Allen grinds the deep end. Photo watts

The bowl is around 5 1/2 feet in the deep end to 3 feet in the shallow end. It’s got full metal coping and is generally suited more for the advanced skater, as the transitions are pretty gnarly. The surrounding park has two concrete fun boxes with coping. So the next time you’re in New Zealand, be sure to hit the Waltham Bowl, in addition to the hundreds of other cement creations awaiting you. - Simon Watts

Jake Patterson, pipeline photo murray

Matt Rockhold photo trefz

Backdoor photo mark kelly

brian burnes, setting up for the pit in rhode island photo murray

shawn burrell about to spray trefz in the face.

EVER T A H W R O F G N I T N I C U S T O M S C R E E N P RI C Y O U WA N T T O P U T O N L A M E - A S S GR A P H , P I N O R P O S T E R . S O GE T R O! R B A T - S H I R T, S T I C K E R U O Y L L A C D N OF F YOU R C OUC H A

THE PHONE NUMBER IS 831-427-2767 THE FAX NUMBER IS 831-427-2897 THE WEBSITE IS www.broprints.com

THE ADDRESS IS 131 CENTER ST. #3 SANTA CRUZ, CA 95060

Alan Peterson blasts a 180 out of Derbyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bowl. Photos by Terry Roland The Kid hucks a huge, tuck-knee frontside on the Crib Ramp extension. Photo by Bruce Rodela

Unidentified Mavs charger on a huge wave. Photos by J. Hay

Pat Duffy flips over a “secret” rail in the East Bay, and the video goon gets in the way. Photos by Bruce Rodela

Ace of Spades : Wig King of Spades gyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always got the Motor head : Bi Queen of Spad g Seanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s got big straight-leg blaring. es: Wiggy slas indys down. hes frontside authority. layback grinds with style and Jack of Spades : Eric J transf ers from low Ten of Spades to high with a : Bobby Waas large ollie. rules vert. Ja Queen of Hea pan air. rts: Jacob Tillm an transfers the high to low on hard way, from the inset tran ny. Other photos: Sean lays dow n a stylish layb game of addac a-trick. Overv iew of the ram k during a p + a slam.

WA N T E D ! TRENT ACKURST of Wollongong, Australia R E WA R D !

Accused of aiding in the deforestation and vandalization of the Sierra National Forest. Riding out of bounds, alleged assaults on skiiers, and multiple attempts of suicide in the park. ACKURST accidentally ended up teaching snowboard lessons at Dodge Ridge because he had never been there when he signed on, but reports indicate he is not likely to return. Suspect is considered armed and dangerous, especially when he is above you. Caution should be exercised at all times. Surveillance photos by Agent Hay

REWARD! REWARD! REWARD! for information leading to the capture and arrest of JEREMEY SCRIBNER Believed to be hiding out in Eastside Santa Cruz although specific whereabouts unknown. Suspect is known to travel by skateboard, which suspect will use as a weapon if confronted. Accused of assaulting the lip, lurking at the casino, and stealing barrells without permission, SCRIBNER is wanted by the Santa Cruz Police. Surveillance photos by Agents Hay and Nelson

REWARD! REWARD! REWARD! For information leading to the arrest and prosecution of ZACH RICHESIN RICHESIN, a Santa Cruz native, is accused of killing it on ramps, breaking the laws of gravity, and contributing to the delinquency of minors. Although RICHESIN is a minor himself, he has been involved in said alleged activities for many years, as the surveillance photo from Derby Park indicates. Reports show that if confronted, RICHESIN will throw his board at you and attempt to flee on foot. RICHESIN is known to associate with alleged accomplice YUSUF GAMMINO, who is also wanted for questioning. - Surveillance by Agents Hay and DK

rod ela

Meet Sean. That’s him up there, doing the big boneless over the spine at Alameda. See that look of terror on Sean’s face? He frequently has that look on his face, because he usually gives it 110% and is often on the verge of slamming. And believe me, Sean takes the lumps; that’s why he wears a hip pad. But the way Sean skates you need a hip pad, because he charges it pretty goddamn hard.

Sean hucks a tall

boneless over the spine at A lameda.

Sean rules skating transitions, and is a badass on vert. If this were the 1980’s, Sean would be pro. Instead, he’s just some guy who delivers paint. Actually he doesn’t do that anymore, he recently scored a gig directing the Berkeley skate camp this summer, and gets paid to skate. What a weasel. Sean used to ride for Black Label, but they kicked him off. Go figure. Nowadays Sean just smokes cloves and kills it. 41

Gettin’ lippy with a nosegrind at Consolidated. Photo by Bruce Rodela

Concussion doesn’t do interviews or spotlights on skateboarders very often - everyone else already does that, and not only is it boring and repetitive, it’s usually to push a rider whose company is a big advertiser or some shit like that. You can rest assured that is not the case with the Sean O’Loughlin interview, because he doesn’t even have any sponsors to bribe us! In fact, this interview has been such a pain in the ass that I almost wish I never brought up the idea. But it’s too late for that so here it is. Sean didn’t really want to answer too many of the questions I had for him, but I found out a lot of the answers anyway, so there. Sean is from Ohio, and has also spent a great deal of time in Modesto as well as other places around the state. Sean was a snowboard instructor at Sierra for a while so he lurked in South Lake, and he is currently lurking on Sam Cunningham’s couch in Berkeley while he looks for a new home. I wanted to go shoot some snowboard photos of Sean this Winter, but it never really happened. I’m surprised I got any photos at all, that guy’s such a fuckin’ flake. But in the end things came together, and we shot some good photos and snaked into the pool you see below. One Sunday when he was really hung over, I dragged Sean against his will to the San Pablo pool and made him do backside

Switch frontside ollie at Wiggy’s.

disasters in the corner until he pulled it. Which was not before I shot a whole roll of him bailing the trick and him hanging up on the steps and eating shit in the deep end. So that photo’s worth $20 plus the six-pack I had to buy Sean to lure him out there. Other times I’ve had to buy Sean a pack of cloves to get him to go shoot photos with me. But that’s cool, it’s all worth it, and the photos you see on these pages pretty much need no explanation. That photo on the right of Sean at the Strawberry Bowl woulda been the cover shot last issue for sure if Joel would have bothered to get the film developed sooner. Sean’s a pretty funny guy, and if you spend any amount of time with him you will hear some funny stories. It would be in poor taste to print most of them, but I gotta say that the story about the girl with the 4x4 in Tahoe was one of the funniest things I’ve heard in a while. Most everyone has an opinion of Sean - they seem to either like him or hate him. It’s true, on the surface he appears to be your typical loudmouth dirtbag who knows he rips, but deep down I’d say he’s a good guy. Otherwise he wouldn’t like working with kids and teaching them how to ride skateboards. On the following pages is an interview that took place at Sam’s house on St. Patrick’s day this year, over Black and Tans. - Davoud

For some people, the Strawberry Bowl is more like a skatepark than a pool. Obviously Sean is one of these people. Very large frontside air. Photo by Joel Chavez

Above: Huge stalefish over the channel at Madera.

Below: Without the agony of defeat, there would be no thrill of victory.

Did you see all of his lines there? He’s an amazing skater. C: Ok, we’re on the record. How old are you?

C: Yeah, Sam rips. I used to have his Blockhead model back in the day. They had the funky shapes going on with the big, square noses.

S: I’m younger than Sam Cunningham, but older than my girlfriend.

S: Yeah, he helped start the trend towards big noses on skateboards. He had to fight with Blockhead to get it, but he did.

C: Nice answer. Where were you born, Modesto?

C: That’s rad. That’s why I liked to ride those boards, because everything else had little tiny noses still, like all the old Powell boards. OK Sean, let’s talk about Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater ["TH"]. I know that game has changed your life.

S: I’m not telling, it’s not important. C: Answer the question, I’ll tell you what’s important. S: I feel like I started to live at the Cancer Bowl, so that’s where I was born. That’s my answer. I met so many people up there. C: That’s funny, I’d always go there and nobody would ever be there, so I’d have to skate by myself. S: Really. What time would you go? C: Late afternoon or after work or whenever. One time Sam [Cunningham] and Steve Bacon were there, though. S: Not Steve Bacon, shhhhh. C: Let’s talk about Steve Bacon. S: Nope. Let’s talk about Sam.

S: [sarcastically] That guy’s done a lot for skateboarding. I still can’t figure out how to play 720˚ though. But back to TH, that game can teach you how to do tricks, because they somehow simulated skateboarding, like an airplane simulator. If you can transform your body movements into certain types of keys, like up/down or whatever… like if you watch a skateboarder play that game, they literally move their whole body. You see what kind of skater that person is when they play that game. Like what kind of tricks are they going to try and why? Can’t you figure out that you’re doing that trick wrong? How long is it going to take you to change that, the balance, or the timing? TH helped me find the balance – the balance of skateboarding on a mental level. But I swear it’s just a video game. C: But it’s not just you. Almost every single person I know that skates is addicted to that game. S: I’m not addicted to it, I haven’t played it in a hella long time! C: Yeah, that’s cuz Hector moved out and took the Playstation with him. S: No, I could go get one if I wanted. It’s like any addiction – not that I have any or anything – like when you run out of shit, you go out and get it right away. And I’ve been able to hold back on my TH addiction. C: Yeah, I’ve been trying to

manage my own TH addiction too. S: My eyes just can’t handle watching that game any more. The movement everywhere, it’s just too much. But the game made me start looking at certain parts of my body during a trick and seeing if I can focus. Like looking at your front foot on an ollie, and watching it, and seeing if you can keep it there..and that’s due to the video game. C: So what’s your all time high score on Pro Skater? S: I don’t want to tell you, because you probably wouldn’t believe it. C: C’mon. S: Ok, try to rack it up, you ready? Set up with full juice on the Miami schoolyard. You know where the stairs come down, where the coin is on the right? C: Yeah. S: So I go up, do a triple kickflip, grab the coin and rotate so when you come in you’re super juiced. I fastplant to backflip off of the jersey barrier thing, except it’s a kickflip-backflip. You land in the ledge going towards the ditch in a special grind. Heelflip out and land in a special grind again, actually it’s an impossible – the "down" "down" trick. C: Are you playing with Geoff Rowley? S: No, Andrew Reynolds, for the kickflip bluntslide. So it’s a fastplant kickflip backflip to bluntslide, to impossible to impossible, because the more times you do it the faster you go. So I’ve done it three times already, with rotations in the middle of each one, so I’m adding multipliers with each variation. By the time I get to the ledge I’m bookin’. Go over the ledge and do a grab 360˚, land on the next ledge in a bluntslide, cuz it keeps giving you points no matter how many times you do it. Ollie from that over to the next rail going towards the halfpipe section, in a bluntslide. And when you get to the halfpipe you gotta ollie late, and then you grab it, and land 180˚ on the coping on the ramp, around the side of the building, in a bluntslide. And this one you sit on for a while and get control going, cuz I’m booking. And the points are just racking up, racking up, racking up. At the end of that I’m going fast enough that I can do a 360˚ grab and land in the bowl, on a grind, 45

pooer – I’ll take you on. *Concussion* is puttin’ it up, a complete skateboard for the winner. C: Ok, bring ‘em on. We’ll throw in a Concussion sweatshirt too. Call us up, or email us and we’ll set it up. S: It’ll be at Wiggy’s ramp, on the big screen. I’ll set it up. It’s rad on the big screen. C: What is the longest amount of time you’ve consecutively played Pro Skater?

in a bluntslide, and then 360˚ out of that. C: That’s all one trick, without ever hitting the ground? S: Yeah, it starts on one end of the course and finishes on the opposite side. C: So what was your score? S: 298,000 points. C: For that one trick? S: 298,111. You wanna know

the fucked up part? On that level, I ended up getting well over 500,000 for the run, and the memory chip was fucked up so it didn’t save the score. C: Oooh, now the truth comes out. S: But I could do that sequence of tricks pretty frequently. That was the only time I did it all the way through. So yeah, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater – that shit rocks. You think I can make some cash playing that game? Ok, I’m calling anyone out who is reading this – hopefully you’re on the

S: That’s a fucked up question, dude. C: C’mon, answer the question. S: Probably from the time you went to bed last night, to the time you woke up in the morning. C: All night? Eight hours?

rock at that game. S: I’ve worked on one particular situation in the game, for probably close to five hours. And that five hours might not come up until four o’clock in the morning. But you get to a certain point where you can see the trick, and you see something in your head, and you’ve got to do it. And if I see something in my head then I have to achieve it. And you sit there the whole time going, "Ok, I’m gonna do it, and then I’m going to bed." But the problem is, I’ll do the trick, and then I won’t turn the game off. I’ll keep playing. I just opened it up. I was skating with someone the other day and he was trying hardflips. He made one, and then he missed it for a while and was all, "Fuck, I just opened it up, where’s it at?" C: He was talking about tricks in the same way as the video game? S: Yeah, but he’s never played the game before. That guy opened it up. And that’s what I think about skateboard tricks, and demonstrations of gravity and stunts. You have to open up that extra part of your head. Isn’t it rad that some people, they’re out and there’s a pole. And they don’t see a pole, they see a pole jam! When you can see yourself doing tricks, and you visualize it, and then do it.

S: Look, I don’t think that question’s fair. C: Sure it’s a fair question. I’ve played that game for hours at a time, and you

C: Yeah, it’s pretty mental. That’s like doing handrail tricks for me. Get over the fear of doing it, and it’s easy. S: That’s why I think that Pro Skater helps, because it teaches compression, control, timing. Dave Chavez: The basics of skateboarding.

Frontside rock at in Oakland’s Kahuna Bowl.

S: It’s all about compression and sucking your knees up. If you look at all the guys who got it – Royce, Matt Neely, Curtis, Salba, Sam – they all have the drop knee. Dave Chavez is my encyclopedia of skateboarding. We were watching this Ruben video the other night, and there was a Neil Blender part, and he goes up and does a lien air and then a fastplant. And I go, "Look, he just did two tricks in a row that he made up," and Dave stops me.

C: He didn’t invent the fastplant? S: He did invent the fastplant, correct? Dave: Yeah, I think so. C: He didn’t invent the lien air? I thought that’s why it was named after him – cuz it was Neil backwards. Dave: Well yeah, but Joel [Chavez] did it way before Neil did it. Joel never named any tricks. Somebody named those tricks after the fact anyway. C: Looks like we’ll have to ask Neil Blender. Dave: I saw Jeff Phillips do a boneless one before it was called anything. S: It just goes to show. If you go skate with some of these little kids, they’ll try tricks they’ve never seen before. It’s a trick that we know, but they have never seen it, and they just make it up. I saw this one kid at Alameda go up over the little hip into a 50-50, and he came in fakie off his nose. C: Yeah, when little kids don’t know what they can do, they do some crazy shit. S: Everybody has a niche. Curtis’ was frontside. Matt Neely was his knees. Ruben’s was his undying desire to skateboard. Everybody has one, what’s yours? Skateboarding is going in a brave, new direction these days. There’s no limits. It’s either gonna turn out like the new monster truck racing, or I don’t know… like how big was the last ramp they built [the gigantic MTV vert ramp], and why are they building it so big? Can you do more on it? C: I just think it sucks that only a few people can ride those ramps, and everybody else gets shined. S: Exactly. I was so pissed about that Danny Way vert ramp down in Mexico, I wanted to skate that thing so bad. So I boycotted doing airs for a month in protest. C: Yeah, because you can do airs on vert as high as most people, like at Consolidated. But there’s only so high you can go there, I guess. S: You can go higher. I felt that roof, man. There’s a good two feet you can go into it. It’s really fun – you go up and

you have too much momentum, so you stick in the cushions, and then you bounce off and have to come back in. The next wall just hold on because you’re going way too fast. Use it like a hook and do an alley-oop or something. C: So what’s up with the Berkeley Skateboard Camp that you’re running this summer? S: Well hopefully we’re gonna have this rad demo for the Berkeley park. It’s gonna be on April 30 right next to People’s Park, and hopefully it’s gonna go off, and hopefully we’ll be able to get some of the ramps from the demo for the Camp. C: Who builds all the ramps for those things? Have you always been involved in it? S: No. It used to be the Friends of the Skatepark and 510 and… C: Didn’t Wicked used to put them on? S: Wicked tried it once, man. Those people are so wack, I don’t even want to talk about them. If you want to launder some money, go to Wicked. Steve Bacon even worked there for a while.

Indy to fakie wallride at Marin School.

C: What’s up with the supposed Berkeley skatepark? S: Some guy came up here and did some environmental report and said kids are gonna get sick and stuff.

S: You’re fuckin’ with me right?

skateboarding is yet to happen?

C: No, I’m serious.

S: That is correct.

C: What, from the pollution from the freeway?

S: Well I don’t have to worry about it then cuz I don’t rip vert. And vert is only a part of skating. What about skateparks and all the lines coming down the hill from work to your home, and all the different stuff you hit? But anyway, even if you rip vert and you’re doing method airs, hopefully you’re progressing and not doing the same tricks you were in ’92. And besides, just because some people decide they know what makes you a skateboarder or doesn’t make you a skateboarder is just a crock of shit.

C: Have you ever knocked yourself unconscious?

S: Yeah, and some other stuff that the City of Berkeley doesn’t want anyone to know about. There’s two industrial plants down there by Gilman - an ink plant and a steel plant. And the steel plant pays a lot of taxes, and they don’t want nobody on that land down there, because that’s where they dump all their pollution. I wouldn’t be surprised if that environmental guy was working for the steel company. C: In the last Thrasher, they had an article titled, "Top 10 Ways to Quit Skating," and one of the ways was to rip vert. What do you think about that?

C: What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had skateboarding?

S: Why, do you think that’s what’s gonna happen? No, but I have hit my head where you drop into this weird state of mind and you have déjà vu’s. I’ve hit my head a few times like that. No wonder everybody thinks I’m fucked up. I’ve hit my head a few times, now it’s clear. C: Kind of like Curtis. S: No, not even like that. One time his whole eye closed over, and it was like this big Oompa-Loompa trunk of an elephant’s flap over his eye.

S: I don’t think it’s happened yet. C: The worst injury you’ve ever had

C: I don’t know, dude. You take some pretty hard slams and commit to shit 47

when you’re trying stuff, and you’ll just take the hit. S: I don’t ever think about the jumping off part. It’s a matter of if I think I can correct an error. It’s when you’re coming in and you’re a little fucked up and you can correct it. But I don’t know. Lately I’ve been putting effort into jumping off. That’s what I should’ve done yesterday at the new park in Healdsberg. I remembered looking down and watching the coping and the wall disappear and then I dropped down hella far onto the bottom. And I didn’t try and jump off, I tried to land it. And what was I going to land it on? I might as well have ran and jumped and landed on my side. C: Yeah, but when you jump off you bruise your heels too much. Ok, here’s a series of either/or questions. Beatles or the Stones? S: Beatles, without a doubt. C: BOC or BTO? S: What, which one’s worse? C: Budweiser or Pale Ale? S: I prefer quality beers with higher alcohol contents, like the Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale. Sure I drink to get a bit loose, I can’t lie about that, but when I drink, I like taste. C: Frontside rock, or frontside flip? S: Hardflip? Hardflips rock, they’re so sick. I don’t even understand how they work, but I wanna do one. C: Ok, enough of those questions, they were stupid. What was the deal with you and Black Label? Why did you get kicked off? Were you a bad boy, or did they just say they needed to trim the team down? S: I don’t think I was bad enough. C: When did it happen? S: Like a year ago, when they became part of Paul Schmitt’s company. I wasn’t the only one who got cut. Lucero’s a rad guy, he taught me how to play 3’s, and you can make money at the bar that way... although he took all mine. But Lucero always ran his company on beer, ya know, out of the garage, about to 48

Sick backside disaster in the corner of San Pablo Bowl

fuckin’ shut down every day. And then here’s these guys who are willing to help him out, ya know. He got all those new riders and they’re doing really good, and everybody at the park now has a Black Label board. I’m glad they’re doing really good and John’s a good guy. I can’t say for sure [why they cut me] but it was like breaking up with a girlfriend or something… Not that I, uh, think of him that way. C: If I went through your garbage, what would I find? S: All of my secrets.

pants. C: If I went through your recycling, what would I find. S: [laughing] We put it down the street so nobody knows its ours. C: Where do you see yourself in 10 years? S: I’ll either be a professor, or a consultant to cities who want to open up skateparks. I love it when they open up those new parks, but in every town or city, the mayor is always freaking out and the city attorney is pissing their

C: So it’s kind of like being involved in politics. S: I love politics. They’re such a joke, but money is power. Everything is fake, and I don’t really have a choice in the matter. I’m not going to move up into the hills and live off the grid, so you gotta find out how politics works and take advantage of it. I don’t want someone else to be in control of me. It’s why the poor stay poor and the rich stay rich. You either gotta accept it or fight it, and I want to use it to my advantage. All photos by Davoud except where noted.

Straight-legged, roof-hitting, Hawaiian shirtwearing, no helmet Indy air at Consolidated. Fuck yeah. Photo by Bruce Rodela

Darren Cingel going huge. Photo: J. Goldberg

Joey Hudson

Homer

Shane Desmond

Dav e N e l s on ph : 83 1. 46 4 . 362 4 f a x: 8 31 .4 2 7 .38 5 0 p gr : 8 31 . 68 4 .5 9 8 3

Omar 52

Russel Smith in the tube. Photo Nellie 53

g into the “tube.” Photo Trefz. Clockwise from above: Josh Mulcoy pullin Photo Murray. Deep in the Point. ’s Cotton at etted Fred Pattachia silhou Foreman pulling in at Marco . Nellie Photo old. barrel view of Matt Rockh Fig. 9.18. Photo Trefz in deep lf himse finds Weasel Reef. Photo Hay. Omar

trefz

Beach at the Boardwalk after a storm. Photo Hay

Jeremy Scribner, pulling into a dirty tube, south side of the Santa Cruz Wharf. Photo Hay

Rat getting tubed. Photo Trefz

Late drop. Photo Murray

Peter Mel standing up in a very large barrel. Photo Nellie

Unknown. Photo Trefz

Unknown layback slasher. Photo Hay

H o m e r He n a r d , t r y i n g t o f i nd t h e e n d o f t h e r a i nb ow. Photo Nellie

B ac k g r o u n d p h o t o b y T r e f z

Flea boosting a huge air on the Westside. Photo Hay

B i g d r o p at M av s . Photo Trefz

Trefz

Hay

Sean Renos, ollie grab. Photo: Roland

Ma tt Mc Cri llis . Ph oto by Ch ris Kra sso w

Rich Coo ley nose slide s the big box at the Lexi ngto n Ditc h.

Heath Sherra tt, fronts ide slider

Photo Jamie Harris

Backside 180 nosegrind by Dustin Zimmerman at Santa Cruz High. Photo Roland

Ron Whaley attacking the roof. Arr! Photo Roland

Yu su f Ga mm ino bl un ts on th e ve rt ex ten sio n at Ch ar lie â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ra mp . Ph ot o Ha y

Without a real skate park in Santa Cruz, we are left with Derby Park. It’s the same as it ever was. The same people come everyday, do the same tricks, and the same slams as they always have. The cracks are getting bigger, making grinding a little harder and giving you an occasional high speed toss to hipper or swellbow on the cement. Derby is always good for some slams, bruises, blood, sprained wrists, and an occasional head injury. It seems less people show up to Derby these days. I guess that’s because all the old school dogs have kids now, sit home and drink on their couch, reminisce about the old days, and rarely get motivated to go skate the same old shitty snake run that’s been here since the 70’s.

Bailey

photo Roland

Jackson Taylor photo Hay

Adam Morgan photo Roland

Charlie photo Hay

1) This trick is best performed with a full buzz, but can be done at any time, on any ramp, with any level of sobriety. If there’s no railing and only a wall behind the deck, beanplants to fake are appropriate. 2) Prerequisites to this trick include being able to ollie out of a ramp to axle stall on a railing, knowing how to backside disasters, and backside disaster reverts. 3) Approach the lip with full haul-ass speed as you would for any backside ollie or backside lipslide. 4) Ollie out and over the deck, and aim for the railing behind you. Precision is key, because if you miss, you may end up smacking your face on the coping, or worse.

5) When you think you’ve got the railing in range, stick it by smacking your trucks onto the rail. Don’t get too on top of it or you might fall off the top of the ramp. 6) Suck up your knees and jump back in, with more weight on your back foot. Land in a backside disaster and smack your back foot down hard on the deck, trying to keep as much of your board lapped over the deck as possible. 7) The revert is the hard part - swing your arms and body around, like you’re doing a switch frontside rock, and pull that shit in. 8) Pump down the tranny and ride away - but don’t relax - you’re now perfectly set up for the fakie noseblunt.

Top 10 Reasons Skateboarding Isn’t a Sport

Top Ten Shows I’ve Been Kicked Out From:

10. Soccer road trip? I don’t think so. 9. Athletes get scholarships to go to college, skaters get kicked out for skating on campus. 8. You don’t go to skate practice. 7. It would be called a “game”, not a “session” 6. I’ve never meet a swimmer who trespasses to swim in pools. 5. There are no bleachers, Fanavisions or snackbars at Burnside. 4. Athletes don’t get drunk while they play sports. 3. There’s no rulebook. 2. Fighting is encouraged. 1. Jocks play sports.

10. Supersuckers @ the Cactus Club, SJ (slam dancing) 9. Reverend Horton Heat @ the Usual, SJ (taking photos) 8. Soundgarden @ Lollapalloza (diving from the lawn area to the seats) 7. UCSC Dorms (small fire in the quad) 6. Mutabaruka @ the Catalyst, SC (stage diving) 5. Mudhoney @ the Warfield, SF (crowd floating) 4. Greg Kihn @ the Catalyst, SC (taking photos) 3. Fu Manchu @ Aptos Club, Aptos (jumping around) 2. Buzzcocks/Supernova @ Palookaville, SC (slam dancing) 1. Descendents @ Trocadero, SF (stage diving)

- E. Bigler

- J. Hay

S k at e Pa r t y By Sick Boy

We sat in the living room watching a skate video and listening to the Angry Samoans. Jackyl comes through the door and tells us that there is a huge party going done tomorrow, up in point arena. This was the beginning of a flipped out misadventure . Let me share it with youthere are four of us in the car on our way to the party. They are Costa, Loopy, Joel and myself. We planned on being therefor two days, so we packed beer (4 cases), two fifths of vodka, a change of clothes each and our boards..oh, I think we had a bag of Funyuns. We arrived at the spot at 1:00 pm. People were already there and the party was in full swing. This is how the layout looked; it was a clearing in the woods with paths going every other direction. In the main clearing there was a stage set up for the bands to play, a decent 7 foot mini-ramp and a big colonial style house. The crowd consisted of punkers, skate punks, skaters and fuckin’ hippies. It just so happened that the property was owned by hippies. We parked the car near some friends little campsite. They had a fire pit, tents, a cooler full of food and chicks. We knew where we would be hanging out. Grabbing our boards and beer we headed toward the ramp. It was a snake session, not a problem for me ‘cause I can barge. So we ripped the mini a new ass while consuming many a beer. An hour later I was drunk. It was starting to get dark and the grand finale runs were being laid. The liquid courage was pulsing through my veins and I looked to blow some minds.So, I dropped in and did a couple of lip tricks, a smith, a rock and roll and then I went for the sick trick. I shot straight up the transition and busted a three foot over the lip kick flip to fakie. I landed it then flopped on the flat bottom. The guys were stoked on it, as was I. Oh yeah, this was 1990, so this trick was semi-new. Well, I stood aside to watch the last runs. This kid that came with us, Joel, drops in and mimics my lines then sets up for the final trick. Instead of a kickflip, the little bastard pulls a heelflip to fakie. Outdone by a kid that is 6 years my junior. Oh well. We all get old sooner or later. So with that we put our boards away and headed to the stage for some slam dancing. I was so smashed at this point I don’t remember much except that I did dance. I got hungry so I gathered the troops and infiltrated the hippy domain. The first attempt was stopped by a crowd of hippies. So we regrouped and made a plan. The plan is, two of us were to run into the house and create a ruckus. The other two were to raid the kitchen. We

broke and took action. Costa and I were the two going to the kitchen. Everything fell into place. Pots and bowls full of food were stolen. Once outside we checked the merchandise. It was definitely hippie food. One bowl had some sort of bean curd shit and the other pots had some vegetables. We ate the hell out of it. We got somewhat full and journeyed out to be social with the crowds. Costa and I attacked the beer til it was all gone. Then we jumped from camp to camp looking for more booze. The findings were meager, then I remembered the bottle of vodka in the car. Before I tell you what incurred, I want to give you a bit of history on the drinking relationship of Costa and myself. We were kind of drinkers that boasted about being hardcore. We were always the last two still drinking when everyone else would pass out. We would always brawl over anything, once drunk enough. So when it came to the last bottle of vodka, it was war! We battled long and hard. We struggled so hard that we tired out. We decided on resting in the car. Each one of us had the front seats reclined and our hands on the bottle, we passed out in the midst of the battle. I don’t remember how long I was asleep but I was awakened by a loud pounding. It was Loopy, he was in deep need of a condom. I had seen him earlier hanging on some old woman. I thought he was being a kook then, but now I think he’s going overboard. I laughed at him and he looked back at me like this was no time for laughter. He really needed a condom. I seen the immediacy in his eyes so I dug through the glove box, there was no condom to be found. The only thing I came up with was a sandwich bag and a rubber band. He quickly grabbed it and ran off into the darkness. I noticed that Costa was out cold so I swiped the bottle of Vodka. The minute I pulled the bottle away from Costa, he woke up. Quickly I began guzzling the contents. It was grabbed away after just a few gulps, Costa

finished the rest and hucked it out the window. We were awake so we decided to go stumble around for a bit. Everybody was pretty much passed out. So we retired back to the car. When I awoke in the morning some how Loopy had crawled under the two front seats. They were all the way leaned back to the back seats and yet he was tucked in and asleep. We laughed for a moment and got Loopy up. He told us of his drunken sex with the baggy and rubber band. We went and sessioned the ramp for a wake up. Then we decided to head back home and grab beer on the way. I mean first thing first. Oh, on the way we caught sight of a pile of boards behind the hippie house. Of course, we stole our personal favorites. They were rusty and had huge stretch marks on them, but we took them anyway. We hooked up with some hotties on our way through the parking area. We made it a date for when we got back to town. The date was broken though. For we had another party to attend and so the adventure begins anew.

Cynthia has a hobby of driving peoples cars out from the East Coast out to the West Coast. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sort of a free ride across the country, where you get to check out the country as you go. This time she even got paid to drive the car. These photos were all taken in a two week trip from Washington D.C. to Seattle. The interview was done via email. - J. Hay

Ice-Arbuckle, CA12-1-99

Tell us about your involvement in the music scene? Where it all started for you, and who got you into it all and when you started taking photographs? I grew up in Pacific Palisades, which is a part of Los Angeles. (Sorry, I might insult MOST of your readership) but it was the late 70's and the "youth culture" was basically people who skated and surfed. They were pretty much assholes to me, being a girl who wanted to skate and surf. They listened to a lot of Led Zeppelin, and at some point I figured there has to be more in music than Led Zeppelin and asshole skater dudes. One day, there was an article with really cool photos, of the LA punk scene in the Calendar Anarchy in Seattle, Kla math Falls, OR 12-2-99 section of the Los Angeles Times. I decided that was where it was happening and so I would go to shows when I was 15 by taking a bus or two to Hollywood. It was pretty great. I then moved to DC in the spring of 1981, since my mom moved to DC. I was 16 then. DC had a pretty small punk scene, so I hung out with people like John Falls, Alec MacKaye and Ian MacKaye. A lot of the bands needed a practice space, and since my Mom rented this old Victorian house on it's own block, it was perfect for bands to practice, since the neighbors couldn't hear the noise and complain. So, the summer of 1981 was the summer where I hung out on the porch and painted (I was about to go to 4 years of art school) and bands came in and out all day practicing. It was really great. Every afternoon there would be this big thunderstorm (for some reason they don't happen as often as back then) and we'd all sit on the big old porch and watch the rain fall through the openings in the sky between the big, green, lush trees. The bands who practiced there were Minor Threat, The Faith, Iron Cross, and Nothing Sacred. There could be more, but I can't remember. I helped with doing some of the "art" for the Minor Threat 7" (number 3) which was done hanging out in that house. I also loaned Dischord money to put out the Flex Your Head record. When I went into art school, I did less stuff, as I was busy with school, and also because it became too "hardcore" and I wasn't into that as much.

Ice-Portland, OR 12-2-99

Ice-Sacramento, CA 11-26-99

Ice-Salem, OR 12-2-99

Talk about the difference between the LA Punk scene and the DC Punk scene back in the day.

Ice skating rink, Sac, CA 11-26-99

Generic Motel, Sidney, NE 11-24-99

Generally, the LA punk scene was massive. It was like 200 times as big as the DC punk scene. Maybe 500 times. I mean the DC punk scene was small. You knew everyone who went to the shows. When people came who you didn't know, that was kind of weird. I remember there was a Minor Threat show at the 9:30 club in the summer of 1981 and all these kids came from all over the East Coast. It really freaked me out. We realized it wasn't just our little scene anymore. It was going rampant! LA had a lot of kids and I think that was why it was so big. It's a HUGE city by comparison. Another thing, LA had radio stations that would play the punk stuff, DC didn't. So our scene was truly underground and all by word

Ice-Sidney, NE 11-24-99

Ice-Laramie, WY 11-24-99

Ice-Off I-5 Oregon, 12-1-99

I-80 in NV, 11-24-99

good for you. Anyway, straight edge is not a term I use. I'm a super hard-ass on food and strongly support buying things from smaller companies who care about

of mouth, so again when all these kids came for that Minor Threat show, it was astounding! The information was really getting around! What's the DC punk scene like today compared to the late '70s and '80s? Are there still a lot of new bands and are there any places for bands to play? That seems to be the major problem in most places, nowhere for small bands to play and get recognition. I can't speak for the whole scene, since there are many parts to it now. Art is like my DC punk of the early '80's. From what I see and from my friends doing stuff, there's a lot of great creative people in this city and newer people are always in the mix, and it's great. I love it. People do shows in their house if there's nowhere to play. People come up with creative ideas for shows and it's really good. There's more and more art incorporated with shows, too. But, truly, there is NO COMPARISON to what was happening in the early 80's. In the early 80's, there were no distributors to sell records, everything was word of mouth, you had to carry your stuff to a city to sell it. It was a lot of hard work. There was no Internet, that we know today (although I remember Al Flipside talking about the Internet in 1985. He was really into it.) It's really hard to describe, but things are way different now. I heard you were married to Ian MacKaye. Is that true? How long have you been married? How is it being married to such a famous musician, especially with the current popularity of "punk" music? Or are you not married to

him? We're not married, legally. We've been "going out" since 1982. I really can't answer the rest of that question since I don't know what it's like to go out with anyone else. I would imagine that it's harder to go out with someone who's character is really strong and overshadowing. But we both have strong characters. So I guess that's why we like each other. Are you straight-edge? What do you think about the notion that people become straight-edge because it's cool to be straight-edge these days? Everything that's different from the norm becomes cool, then everyone starts doing it, then it's not different from the norm, it is the norm. I know it shouldn't have a thing to do with being cool, but what do you think about straight-edge as a fashion statement? No one around here of anyone I know would ever say, "I'm straight edge". That was a Minor Threat song that Ian wrote and OTHER PEOPLE made it into a term that goes on to today. I have been a huge advocate of eating good food as the source for a good life. I encouraged Ian to eat better (the "Dischord house" lived off of 7-11 food which appalled me). I got him into good food and he eventually went way further and went vegan. I'm still the same person I was in 1981, generally. I work for an organic farm in the summer, and try to eat all organic food. I avoid dairy, not because I can't digest it, like Ian, but because of the chemicals farmers inject into the animals. I think one should eat what one craves. And that's what is

the food they make and the environment. All the Dischord catalogs I've made are recycled UNBLEACHED PAPER, which is an aspect the paper industry doesn't like to talk about. A lot of pollutants come from bleaching. Anyway, you

might say that this is a tangent, but I'm merely pointing out that I am not "straight edge" per se, and if I were in a band I would be writing songs

about that stuff mentioned above. That's where my concern is. I find drugs utterly stupid and alcohol and tobacco to be two drugs that companies got in

back to you. If you eat meat from a calf in a box, you are eating stuff that is plain bad. That calf is not going to give you anything good for your body. People shouldn't be duped into it. Do you want to live to be really old? Don't you think it would suck to hardly be able to get around, and not be able to remember anything, and get put in a nursing home and pampered, and pretty much just kept alive only for one reason, to not be dead?

Iowa hills, 11-23-99

at the "ground floor" to be legal, and they all shouldn't even exist, or all drugs should all be legal. It makes me sad to see how many people deteriorate from alcohol. The companies who market that stuff are sick. If you are straight-edge, does it piss you off when other people get wasted? What about if people eat meat? Why don't you eat meat, because it's bad for you, because you feel bad for the little animals being grown in boxes and having boils all over them from not moving, or because it encourages the destruction of the world and increases world starvation, or is it another reason?

Western Nebraska, 11-24-99

I don't care that people get wasted. That's their decision. It's sad though when people's lives deteriorate from over-usage. People can eat meat if they want...whatever. I think it's pretty bad for you, but I don't see the harm in eating meat on occasion, if that's what you're into. I find the over consumption of anything pretty gluttonous and bad and so again, I think Americans' eat a lot of beef since it was marketed to them. We're all suckers for the advertisers/marketers and I think people should wake up to that and change it all. Beef and dairy, alcohol and cigarettes are major players. I say that if you manufacture something that is bad for people, it all comes

I have never really thought about that too much what's the point? I can only do what I do, and where I turn up is where I am. I hope that I don't suffer in the dying process. What do you think is the most pressing social or political issue right now? I'm very concerned about the distribution of plutonium and what happened to a lot of the stuff that was in Russia that is no longer there. I'm concerned about chemical warfare. And I think that things need to be drastically reorganized in the United States. One main concern here is the importance of the farmer. I see the government NOT taking care of the farmer. We need more farms, more food and right now we're having more and more farms being taken over by banks. I think more farms need to move away from the reliance on chemicals and genetically altered seeds. The US is now a big petri dish to companies like Monsanto, and they are fucking with the simplest things in life such as plants and pollen; we all don't know what is going to happen now that the pollen of genetically altered plants is cross-pollinating with other plants. Farms need to go high-tech in serving specialized markets and they need to cut ties with big chemical companies who make chemical fertilizers and genetically altered seeds. There will always be big farms that do, but I think the diversification is a good thing and we need it. We always need food. Farmers should be respected and supported and not put into bankruptcy. I'm also

Laundromat, SF 1-30-00

Gas station bathroom in Elko, NV 11-24-99

really concerned about who is going to be the next President. If you could have anything eradicated in the world, what would it be? War. What's the funniest thing that's ever happened to you? I can't say really. There's been some really funny things. My whole life is like one coincidence after the other and it's pretty funny. It's hard to say what's the funniest... but I have a good life, no doubt about it. Where do you get inspiration for your photographs? When I feel the urge to document things that I think will change or go away... or things that make me feel so good that I have to have a photo of it. As long as I can capture in the photo what that thing is I like, I will take

a photo of it. What are your favorite three bands? What do you prefer, black and white or color photography?

Right now, Bjork, Bjork and Bjork.

Both are cool. I have a darkroom that only does black and white. I can't print color myself, which is probably why I do more black and white. I love black and white films.

Favorite Fugazi song?

Tell us about some of your photo series in the past and what your latest project is.

Ever play music (like a musical instrument), with other people, like in a band, even just for fun?

I've been doing letterpress for a while (it's the old school press with type you can move around). I have a bigger press where I can put in my photos, and I really want to work more in that this summer. I'm doing a couple shows this summer. I have some photos at a festival in Olympia called, "Ladyfest" in the beginning of August. I'm also doing a couple photos in a show in DC where the theme is "day old" which means the photo was taken the day before the show.

Played bass a couple times but realized I can't do creative stuff with other people. I'm a loner in that area.

"Long Division", because I like the drumming. But actually, there is no favorite here.

Who is your favorite photographer? I don't really have one, but Sally Mann does stunning prints and I like that. Also, Robert Frank, but we could really go on and on. Favorite book? Don't have one, but a good one is "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Manuel Garcia Marquez. Finally, have you ever had a concussion?

Sonny (from Heckler Magazine) with his band, Sac, CA. 11-26-99

No, but when I smashed my foot sledding 2 months ago (that I'm still paying for) people then told me stories of people who got injured where I was sledding, and someone else said they knew someone who got a concussion from sledding there.

72 You worked for John K. at Spumco, what’s working for Spumco like? What did you do there?

GB- I would have to say initially it was turn-of-the-century artists worldwide: neo-classicism to expressionism, to regionalism to modernism and surrealism, not to mention all the incredible illustrators up to the seventies.

What artist(s) would you say helped shaped your style?

GB- Painting was never a hobby, when I decided to paint I threw myself into it looking at every artist I loved and never looked back.

At what point did you realize that painting had become more than just a hobby?

GB- I think I finally figured it out ‘bout ten years ago through trial ‘n error but I feel sometimes I don’t know anything. It’s a constant learning process.

Uh, forget about it, how long have you been painting?

GB- Huh?

Does Detroit “keep it real”?

GB- Spending allot of time in Detroit, I know the city has an intense soul. A hardcore attitude that pulses through the garage bars and struggling galleries, binding creative souls to find “IT”.

Describe what it’s like living in Motor City.

GB- Glenn Barr of Detroit.

For the record please state your name and location.

Unusually enough, a lot of people have never heard of Glenn Barr. For all of you who are in the “know” then you can understand how excited we were to get this interview. Glenn is a fuel-injected citizen of Detroit and his artwork gives insight into the dark underbelly of the place that is Motor City.This is the other side of Saturday morning cartoons, the side that your parents have hid from you all these years. So strap in and hold on to hats cause this ride moves pretty fast.

GB- Dark smoky bars, movies and television, naked people, comic

What inspires you to paint?

GB- Flinstones, Jetsons, Spaceghost, The Herculiods, Johnny Quest, Bullwinkle, Tom Slick, Superchicken, Wacky Racers, Warner Brothers cartoons etc.‘cept Disney, they really sucked.

What were your favorite cartoons when you were a kid? Why?

GB- No, there is no comparison.

Do you enjoy animation more than stand alone art pieces?

GB- It was an excellent experience. I was surrounded by weirdos much like myself who had a passion for animation.These guys were drawin’ maniacs.They just blew me away. I really identified. A bunch of nuts like me. But I was there to paint backgrounds for Ren and Stimpy.Those wacky 50’s backgrounds you loved so much.

Thanks Mr. Barr

GB- I’ve had three or four, nothing serious. Just stitches a few times, oh, and my head in a sling for three months once.

Have you ever had any serious head injuries?

GB- ’62 Cadillac, black with red interior.

Strike two, What’s your dream automobile?

GB- What’s that?

Do you ever have to deal with art groupies?

GB- Sure, David Sandlin, Chris Ware, Charles Burns, Dave Cooper, Robert Williams, Mark Ryden, AWOL, this week.

Are there any current artist that you admire?

GB- A social commentary on escapism.

Do you consider your work to be social commentary or social escape?

books, books, carnivals music, life and death.

For all the closet dwellers out there please tell us yer name and occupation.

JK-A couple years. Why did you inevitably have to leave?

JK-What? You know who I am, what kind of question is that? JK-They stopped paying us. I thought it would be....uh..forget about it, Tell me about Spumco (John’s animation company), when did you start up? JK-Uh, We started Spumco in 1989. The reason we started it was because there were a few of us — Bob Camp, Lynn Naylor, Jim Smith and me — and we were all disgruntled cartoonists. We’d worked in the business for few years and we hated everything that we worked on and we were ashamed to show our face in public. So we decided to quit. “To hell with this, we don’t want to do this Saturday morning crap anymore, let’s go into illustration.” So we started a studio to basically do magazine illustration, stuff like that, cartoons, you know. But while we were doing it I had already developed a bunch of shows to try and sell as Saturday morning cartoons. See we used to work on existing Saturday morning cartoons which were all awful but I always hoped to sell my own shows. So while we were doing these magazine illustrations we figured we’d take our cartoons around and see if we could sell them to somebody. In the mean time everybody turned down everything, everything I ever came up with, until Nickelodeon started up their cartoon unit. When they did that I met up with Vanessa Coffey at Nickelodeon. She was heading it up and I pitched all these shows; she flew me to New York the next week to pitch them to all the people at Nickelodeon. Within a week or something they called back and said they wanted to buy two shows from me. One was *Ren and Stimpy,* the other was *Jimmy the Idiot Boy*. That was great, until I saw the contract, which said that basically they own everything. So that was kind of a shock. I told them “ Well, if you have to own everything in order for me to get something on the air I can’t give you two shows, I’ll give you the second best one and I’ll keep *Jimmy*. So that’s how Spumco got started. How long did you stay with Nickelodeon, until you decided to quit?

They stopped paying you! JK-Yah. Did they just up and replace you and your artists? JK-They started their own studio. They fired our studio. Well they didn’t exactly fire us, they just stopped paying us. So, we had no choice but to stop doing it. Then they showed up with a big van one day and just loaded up all the artwork for the shows that were in progress and took it off to a new place and they hired a bunch of new artists. They managed to get a couple from Spumco they had to pay them ridiculously high salaries to get them to go over there to help them set it up but mostly it was new people. Do have any plans for bringing *Jimmy the Idiot Boy* to TV? JK-To tell you the truth, I don’t see the point. No, I’m happy with the Internet. I think that could turn into a big business and a great forum for artists, animators and cartoonists, and I guess everybody — really just anybody — who’s got anything to say creatively. The Internet is going to attract a lot of creative talent. But how do you feel about Flash animation versus old-school cell animation? JK-If you’re talking about old school, like classic animation from the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, there is no comparison. Of course *Bugs Bunny*, *Daffy Duck*, *Popeye* and *Betty Boop* and all that stuff, that’s the great stuff. I mean nothing anybody’s done since then, even in television or movies, has even come close to that stuff. And Flash is pretty primitive But it’s no more primitive really than Saturday morning cartoons. Even though you are theoretically capable on television of projecting 30 frames a second, you are lucky to get 6 because that’s all they’ll give you. That’s all they can afford. So even though there’s potential that television could be quality. It’s not likely to be in the future. JK-What are some of your favorite cartoons? Well, my absolute favorite cartoons are the *Looney Tunes* that are directed by Bob Clampin. I think those are the greatest cartoons ever made.

Sody Pop meets George and Jimmy

God Damned George Liquor

Any particular episodes? JK-Oh, “The great piggy bank robbery”, “Coal black and the seven dwarves” which is an all black parody of Snow White. It’s like the best cartoon ever made. “Kitty Cornered” Bob Clampin is the guy that basically created all those characters, that whole style. Remember when Daffy Duck really was daffy, he was an asshole but he was still woo-hoo, just fly around completely crazy. That was Bob Clampin. He made the really insane *Looney Tunes*. When did you start working on Ranger Smith (Spumco’s new Yogi the Bear)? JK-Jeez, about three and a half years ago. How’d that come about? JK-Well there was a guy that was running Hanna Barbera, his name was Fred Stybreck. He started that whole shorts program that was on Cartoon Network. Like the *Power Puff Girls* and....... (Suddenly, my tape recorder stops, oh god the tapes over, play it cool, just flip the tape, don’t let on to what’s happening, Sorry John, this is where it picks up again).. ...put a whole new take on them, like an abstracted version of them. Uh-huh. JK-A more abstracted version of the early Hanna Barbera. Not the Scooby Doo, Hanna Barbera, but the Huckleberry Hound, Flintstones stuff. Which I really love. They went to hell later. When I say Hanna Barbera don’t think Scooby Doo or any of that kind of stuff, Wacky Racers or anything. I’m talking about the very original Hanna Barbera. So I’d been drawing weird character versions of Fred Flintstone and Yogi Bear ever since I was a little kid. I showed them to Fred Stybreck and he loved them. I said I would love to make cartoons that looked like this, like abstracted versions of Hanna Barbera cartoons. He said, “Great, let’s do some shorts.” We started up the deal with him, but then he left for Nickelodeon. I guess when

Warner Brothers bought Hanna Barbera a lot of people changed positions, so he left around that time and went to Nickelodeon to do a shorts program for them. So we got shifted to the Cartoon Network because they were doing the Hanna Barbera shorts. Basically it started at Hanna Barbera and ended up with the Cartoon Network to finish them, it took a really long time. Most cartoons these days pretty much suck. Who’s to blame? JK-There’s alot of reasons, things happened. I don’t know. Well, culture in general pretty much sucks today. Art sucks, Music sucks, it’s all terrible today. It’s all amateurish. We live in the era where people think that everyone is equally creative. It’s just ridiculous. But you listen to music today and I would say “yah everybody is equally creative”. There isn’t anybody that can’t play guitar as good as anybody who’s on records today. What’s in the future for Spumco? JK-Hopefully, lots of Internet stuff, ya in fact we are starting a cartoon network on line and we have a lot of people interested in that. People are fighting over it right now. I think there’s gonna be a big boom in Flash cartoons, on line. Not just ours. A lot of people are gonna get into it, finally. I’ve been predicting this for 5 years and finally people are figuring it out. I think it’s gonna be great because there will be alot of freedom of expression that people didn’t have before in television. Of course the corporations will get into it and they try and screw it all up but they won’t be able to compete with real cartoons. Have you ever had any serious head injuries? Well there was this time I was chasing a bunch of girls in the fifth grade. There was this girl I was in love with in the fifth grade. We used chase each other around at recess. One time I was chasing her and I wasn’t watching where I was going. She ducked out of the way and I ran straight into a brick wall and knocked myself out. Any stitches? Nope, It just knocked me out Thanks for the interview. Thank you.

All images are property of Spumco & John K.

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Matt McCrillis.

Photo by Chris Krassow

Dealin’ with the Hogwash A brief interview with Scott Hill and Brad Davis of Fu Manchu. by Frank Gilbert

days to do five songs. So we just kind of went in there, got the sounds real quick, everyone got together, played a song, recorded it, and asked ourselves “does that sound good? Okay, let’s do the next one.” That’s probably as live as we can get. On Eatin’ Dust we had limited money from the label, so we just kind of had to go in there and do it.

Date: 3-9-00 Location: Inside their van in front of the Vic Theater, Chicago, Illinois. Concussion: Are you guys into motocross?

photo hay

Scott Hill: Aaaahh…. used to be. When I was younger, in the mid-’70s, I used to ride motocross a lot. Not too much anymore. What kind of cars do you drive? Hill: Nothing. Brant’s the only one with something cool. It’s an old Impala. I’m looking for an old El Camino if I can find one.

Do you have a favorite recorded guitar tone of all time? Boy… [long pause] Naw, there’s too many. There’s just too many. From Black Flag’s to ZZ Top’s to AC/DC’s, you know there’s just so many. [Brad Davis’ comments about his guitar tone were drowned out on the tape by the sound of the cooler being replenished with fresh ice and beer.] The voice cuts back in on the tape with the interviewer asking: Do you still play through an Ampeg SVT?

If you guys are touring in a van, and the fan belt breaks, do you fix it yourself or do you get a mechanic to do it?

Brad Davis: Oh yeah. Do you ever use a Big Muff?

We’ll probably have a mechanic do it. Do you change your own oil? No. We’ll pay to do that also. If we have enough money to pay for it, we’ll have someone else do it. When you guys record, do you take an active role in placing mics and getting sound, or do you let the engineer do most of the work? Some stuff, like when we placed a mike close to the strings to get the sound of the strings. [“Orbiter,” from Eatin’ Dust Man’s Ruin] The reason I asked is because Brant was active in the production of No One Rides for Free, although he wasn’t yet in the band at that time. There’s a real continuity to the production on the first four albums and even side one of Eatin’ Dust. But then when the drums kick in after the opening guitar riff on the title track (interviewer beat boxes the sound of the opening riff on the song, Eatin’ Dust, and follows with the sound of the drums kicking in) it’s like cannons are going off. It sounds like different production… badass. I gotta tell you guys, I’m a big fan.. [Laughs] Those are two different sessions on that record. When we did Eatin’ Dust we only had two 84

On the newer albums it sounds like there’s much more difference from song to song tone-wise. King of the Road we had time to mess with. We wanted to change the tones of the guitars from each song. We told Joe [Barrisi, co-producer of King of the Road] “Joe, we want to hear a lower, fuzzier sound on this song” or “not quite as much fuzz on that song.” We kind of tweaked around with it a lot on this record and I’m sure we’ll be doing that more in the future.

Scott Hill: I tried one, but it just didn’t sound good with my setup. That’s kind of my sound, the Crown pedal. I just switched to Marshall heads. You’re not using the Boogie anymore?

What’s your favorite fuzzbox of all time?

We were in Europe in September and I started using the new Marshall 3 Channel. The whole thing sounds much better. It’s like that exact fuzz but even heavier. And also some stuff like “Weird Beard” [from King of the Road] I use the natural distortion on the head, which on the Boogie I couldn’t get.

Well, I use a Crown fuzz pedal. That’s the one I use mainly, so it’s probably my favorite. Bob uses a Fuzz Face. Now, there’s some stuff where we’re just using a little bit of natural fuzz from the amps.

I promised you guys I’d keep it short, so I just have one more question: Do you guys skate? Or is that Friedman shot of Tony Alva just a cheap way to get old-school respect?

How do you keep the Jaguar from feeding back during the stops?

[Laughs] We do. We don’t skate as much as when we grew up. That era of skateboarding is our favorite. We still skate around nowadays. Just being able to use that shot of him and get a picture from Glen Friedman we were just like, “Fuck yeah, let’s do it.” I can imagine that any shot he would have given us we would have been like “Aaah,” but when he gave us Tony Alva, we were shitting our pants.

Usually I don’t [laughs]. Live I can. Growing up listening to hardcore punk bands, fedback’s just part of it. I love it. When we do a record, and there’s feedback, we’re like “Leave it in there,” ya know?

Don’t Fuck With the Dwarves An Interview with Blag Dahlia B: I just did this band on Epitaph called Straight Faced, and I’ve done three albums for this band FYP from down south. And just various quickie, low budget records.

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C: So what’s up with your new album [Come Clean]? I heard it was supposed to be a full-on gnarly techno album and

On why Blag doesn’t drink anymore:

it’s mostly pop.

Blag: A few years back we were in New Orleans on my birthday, and you know, it’s New Orleans, so we were out drinking, and it got to be 2 AM, and you just keep on drinking all night long. Well anyway that night I puked all over my friend’s house - not just his house but his girlfriend too, I puked on her on the way to the bathroom. So after that, I decided that maybe alcohol wasn’t such a good idea.

B: No, there’s only one techno song on there. You know, man. *Come Clean* is exactly the kind of record I wanted to make. It’s got all the different kinds of music that I like. I’m a big pop music fan so it’s got a bunch of pop music on there. I’m a fan of really offensive, nasty hardcore, so it’s got some of that. I like techno, so I got some of that. I’m more about the good version of every kind of music that some people, who have the one genre they stick to, and they like every mediocre, piece of shit band in that genre.

Blag: So you guys from Santa Cruz? Concussion: Yeah.

C: A lot of punk these days sucks. B: That’s surf city. Two girls for every boy. C: Yeah, there’s certainly no shortage of women there. B: You’re shit out of luck if you’re into bands, though. C: Yeah, pretty much. Ok, here we go. We’re on the record. The last few shows of yours I’ve seen have been pretty long - like a half an hour - are you guys over playing short shows or what? B: Yeah, the short show thing started to get too predictable. And we have more songs that people wanted to hear now and we’re getting requests so we figured we should start playing longer sets. During the really early days of the set fuckin’ up, it would be because the gear would always break down, or people would get mad at us, or someone would get hit and they’d stop the show, or the soundman would stop the show because he thought everything was being trashed. C: So it wasn’t quite like you were doing it on purpose. B: Sometimes we just quit, but a lot of times there were external forces involved. It really kind of depends. If it’s one of those stupid shows where they make you play for almost no money, then I’m a lot more likely to jump off early. I wanna get paid. C: But you guys are doing pretty good for yourselves these days?

B: Exactly. I don’t like most punk rock bands because I’ve been there and done that, and if you’re not doing it better then I don’t want to hear it. If you make a great punk rock record, then more power to you. But most motherfuckers are making the same mediocre, wanna-be NOFX record, and NOFX already did it themselves 15 years ago. They better get with the program and move onto something new. C: With your somewhat ever-changing lineup, do you find it difficult to keep playing old songs? B: I don’t like re-teaching people the old shit. I’d rather do new stuff.

C: What bands have you been producing?

B: [Laughing] Oh, uh… certainly on stage that would be true.

C: So do you generally try to refrain from whacking people with the microphone these days?

C: How about in the parking lot?

B: I think people like it when I whack them with the mike. I think they dig it.

B: Yeah, I haven’t fared too well in some of the brawls and some of them I’ve done pretty well. I don’t really believe in fighting, I believe that when people go to my shows to fight me, it’s their way of saying, “Blag, I’m really sad because my girlfriend wants to sleep with you. And I’m having trouble with that and my job at the tire factory, so I think I’m gonna drink a lot and attack you.” And I don’t have much patience for guys that attack me. C: You think that people hear about your somewhat violent reputation and go to the show with the intention of proving something or starting a fight. B: A lot of times it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. People hear about us and think that’s what they’re supposed to do. But you know, it keeps it exciting. If it were just about the music I don’t know how interested I’d be. I like to be humane in a general way, but very cruel in a specific way. C: It’s almost like it seems you have two personalities, one on stage and one off. B: Well totally. I’m a very schizophrenic person and I can very nice and kind one minute and pointlessly weird and aggressive the next. I haven’t really been able to figure out why. But that’s just me. But when

C: Then they have a story to tell. B: I’m just trying to help them, to make them feel better. C: You better be careful and not get too famous, someone will sue you. B: Absolutely. I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m amazed it hasn’t happened already. C: So do the cops ever come and hassle you when you play? B: Cops have certainly come to our shows. I remember one time in Seattle, a particularly drunk jerk-off guy was making a lot of trouble and grabbing at us onstage and being a jerk - so I smacked him, and he sustained some bruises and punches. It was all immortalized in that movie “Kurt and Courtney”. Anyway, a half hour later this guy has a cop and his girlfriend and he’s walking around backstage, holding his head and trying to find out who hit him. C’mon man, if you’re gonna go out to a show, get drunk and act like a jerk, don’t run for a lady cop and your girlfriend. People gotta follow through with those things if they’re gonna throw it out there.

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B: I prefer to think of it as a leave of absence. I don’t think Vadge could ever really quit, but who knows. C: What happened? B: Well you know those Norwegian death metal bands that had the church burnings and shit? Well Vadge tried to do his own version of that, and was going around cutting down Christmas trees with a chainsaw. And apparently he had a chainsaw accident and it fucked up his hand really bad, so we’ll see if he pulls through. C: Yeah I think I heard that and didn’t know whether to believe it.

B: Oh, absolutely.

B: Well I’m here and it’s Monday morning. Actually I produce records for other bands. Everybody has to work, but I don’t have to do it at any specific time, just when I need to.

C: Would it be fair to say that you’ve kicked more ass than have had your own ass kicked?

ly witness any of it. But I think when you’re younger it’s more interesting to break things over people’s heads and hurt people and all that. You get to a point where that doesn’t seem such a good idea anymore. I’m not ashamed of it, I’m glad I did it, I might even do it again.

C: I heard Vadge quit. Is that true?

B: He’s accident-prone. C: Do you have to work other jobs?

just part of being in the Dwarves. And I’d advise anybody that trying to fuck with us to re-think their position.

C: What is the most violent thing that’s happened on stage at a Dwarves show? B: Aw, you know man, I don’t want to advocate violence. Suffice to say some violent things have happened to me. I’ve been hurt, stabbed, slashed... this right here [pointing to a three inch scar on his cheek] is a knife wound. Actually it was a jagged bottle that was thrown at me from close range. I’ve taken all sorts of blows for rock ’n roll. But that’s

it comes to rock ‘n roll, man, there’s no competition for the Dwarves. We’re in a class by ourselves. Punks can just step the fuck off. C: You’ve heard of the Candy Snatchers? B: Yeah, we’ve played with them. The guy tried to sell me some fake cocaine. C: I heard they’re all Iggy Pop-style and break bottles and shit. B: Yeah, I heard they did that too, but didn’t actual-

C: People gotta know what to expect. B: A lot of people want to run around at a show, act like a jerk, and not pay the consequences for it. But ultimately, I think violence at shows is overrated and pointless. C: A lot of big meathead guys get mad at me when I push them around in the pit, they can’t take it. B: Well that’s why we started taking our clothes off [on stage], because big meathead/skinhead guys -

[Continued on Page 89]

Vi d e o R e v i e w ( s ) Fruit of the Vine A documentary about backyard pools and the people that ride them. Fruit of the Vine is not your average skateboard video. In fact, it’s not even an average pool skating video; shot entirely on 16mm film, it is more of a documentary on pool skating than anything else. But many people will only see it as a skate video, and for an hour long skate video, it is intelligent, engaging, and fully entertaining. Filmed mostly in 1999, Fruit of the Vine follows various pool rippers as they seek out, drain, and rip the fuck out of backyard pools. Opening with some history about the socio-economic forces behind Southern California pool scene, the stage is set for some serious pool ripping. Texas Dan rolls in and rips the fuck out of a nice looking mid-sized kidney. Salba clips fences with bolt cutters and kills it with sick, super long lines at a variety of pools in the Fontana / Rialto “Salbaland” wasteland. It is simply out of hand. Some people may view this movie as a documentary about a small group of skateboarders who prefer to ride

backyard pools, but for pool skaters this video is like a porno. I know it sounds funny, but it’s no joke.

from the film, but I guess you can’t cover everything. Still, for a film shot entirely on 8mm and covering a relatively short and recent time span, Buddy Nichols and Rick Charnoski did it up.

Focusing mainly on California, but including other pools in the Southwest and East Coast, one is treated to peek upon the pool scenes in Fresno, Nor Cal, Arizona, and many other spots too numerous to mention in detail. An interesting aspect of the movie is the examination of the “build your own” skatepark scene in the Pacific Northwest. While they aren’t building backyard pools per se, the guys in Oregon and Washington know what they want to skate, like to built shit big, and build parks the way they should be built.

I could go on and on, so in a nutshell, this is the best skate video I have seen in a long, long time, and I highly recommend it. People that don’t even skate enjoy watching it – that’s how good it is. And while this video probably won’t be on the shelf at your local skate shop, you can and should order it direct from the producers themselves. Five skulls, and our highest recommendation.

Featuring Salba, Dave Reul, Lance Mountain, Tony Farmer, Texas Dan, Bailey, Matt Moffett, Hewitt, Tony Alva, Scott Smiley, Shaggy Palmer, Mark Hubbard, Matt Neely, Curtis Hsiang, and many, many other rippers, Fruit of the Vine is the shit. My only complaint is that the Nude Bowl and Royce Nelson were noticeably absent

The reason there is only one video review this issue is because no one sent us any videos that were worth reviewing. To be considered, send your flick to:

Roots Review

Concussion attn: Reviews PO Box 1024 Santa Cruz, CA 95061-1024

Charlie Chaplin – Que Dem

Gladiators - Dreadlocks the Time is Now

Send a check or money order for $20 payable to: Coan Nichols 332 E. 19th #4 New York, NY 10003

he keeps it real. The album Super Ape is itself a little slow at first, but after a couple of times listening to it you will never turn it off. It was early Upsetters albums like this one that made Lee Scratch the legend that he is today.

Jamaica - home of Ganja Mountain, sandy beaches, and the slums of West Kingston. It is here that many youth dream of escaping poverty as a Reggae star. In the mean time, many turn to the crime filled life of a rude boy. West Kingston is no joke, it is a ghetto. The music may seem mellow but some of the guys on these albums had been shot dead, or were in hiding when this stuff finally came out. All the albums reviewed are from the late seventies, which I feel is the height of Reggae music.

I first heard this album while passing around the chalice down on West Cliff. I was hooked immediately. This album is so good. Most of the songs on the album were written by Albert Griffiths, the lead singer. They also cover a few Bob Marley songs. This album flows smoothly, both the instrumentals and vocals are tight. If you don’t have this album already you need to go out and buy it.

Ordering Information:

The Upsetters – Super Ape Lee “scratch” Perry’s Upsetters are the originators of dub. This album is a roots classic. All songs are written by Lee Perry. As a youth he slashed up the school bully with a razor, an early indication of rebellious nature. Perry smokes more herb in a day than most in a life time. When you listen to his music you know

From Spanish town Jamaica, Charlie Chaplin’s first album, Que Dem means, “to teach them”. Charlie Chaplin is a hardcore rude boy and it comes out in his soulful lyrics. This album does however get a little monotonous and several of the songs sound the same. But some of the songs are my favorite of all time. I actually looked for this album for years before I finally found it, so be happy if you can too. - Dave “The Colonel” Curren

[Dwarves...Continued from Page 86] the kind of guys who want to be the boss of the pit type people - they don’t want to touch a naked guy. That’s a trick I learned from GG Allin. I just stopped short of smearing myself with shit. [Laughter] But I certainly ran from him when he threw shit at me. C: I never got to see him. I had tickets, but the show ended up getting cancelled. B: The Dwarves were supposed to play with GG Allin one time, and he cancelled and stayed at my house. That was quite an experience. But he was a good guy to me. ODing was a pretty silly way for him to go, considering that he promised he’d kill himself and a bunch of other people while onstage. I thought that would have been much more amusing. GG is a legendary character. People in modern punk rock bands don’t even understand that people like that used to exist. Modern punk rock bands are around to sell t-shirts, that’s their main function. C: If you could make a supergroup with anyone in it, who would be in the band? B: It would be me and a computer. C: Was it real rabbit blood on the cover of Blood, Guts and Pussy? B: It wasn’t rabbit’s blood. It was carrow syrup and coloring. C: Was that cover based on the Samhain cover? B: Yeah, it’s based on that. I ripped off Glenn Danzig a lot. C: Have women ever stalked you? B: Yeah I’ve been stalked.

C: Do you think it’s a case of, “Be careful what you ask for because you might just get it”?

C: You should’ve been the band at the Peach Pit After Dark.

B: Well it doesn’t really work that way because I am very cordial up to a point, and then I’m really good at eliminating people I don’t want to be around. It never really got out of hand. I had people sort of start to stalk me, but I put a stop to it. I like groupies, I think that’s great.

B: Yeah I know, that’s what I thought. But if you notice, there is one Dwarves appearance on 90210. It happens on a particularly interesting episode where David is getting addicted to speed and he’s working at the radio station. At one point he’s really jonesing and the program director gives him his speed and he takes it and pours it all out on the table... and when the camera pans from the pile of speed up to the wall, there’s a Sugarfix poster on the wall. And I was sitting at home watching, because I always used to watch that show, and I thought it was classic. 90210 of the early 90’s was beautiful.

hen t o W “ s B: But it’s different than it c o‘mner ol l , being r o ckt her e ’ s n o he stalked. m a n , it io n for itn a C: If we c o m prevte s . We ’ r eelv e s . looked through D wa s s by ou r s u s t C: Do you still watch it? your cl a n k s c a n j ck garbage, P u p t he fu what B: No, I only liked it when they would we were in high school. It got to a point t e off. ” s find? to where it was ridiculous. C: I’ll bet you do.

B: Well we can go over to my house and take a look if you’d like. You can go dig through it, I think it’s the day before garbage day.

B: Absolutely. The whole song was written for 90210, and I actually wrote them a letter explaining to them that my song was all about 90210 and I wanted them to play it on the show, but they never did.

C: So who did you want to screw from 90210, Brenda? B: C’mon, no way.. Kelly was the one. With her little bunny nose, it just screams Beverly Hills to me. But my favorite, she was somewhat obscure, was this girl Brandon was dating named Nikki, who was supposed to be from San Francisco. She was great, probably my all time favorite from the show. C: Do you have any concussion stories? B: Yeah, I got assaulted by a group of young men at the corner of Webster and Hayes when there was a project there. It’s since been torn down, but I got beat up by them one summer night, and I kind of crawled up the street and they beat me up again. At that point I lost consciousness and had a concussion. Then I crawled up to a bar called the Casa Loma and they called an ambulance for me. C: What do you know about Vadge rolling around in broken glass with large women in Canada?

C: What are you watching now? B: I don’t really have a show now... uh.. C: You should check the WB out.

C: So what’s up with the lyrics to “Everybody’s Girl,” I thought I heard a 90210 reference in there?

B: Yeah, anything with high school girls is great.

B: That’s what I was going to say. My girl was pushing Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I think she’s great. I like the little witch girl that was the band camp girl in *American Pie*. C: Yeah, Buffy’s pretty rad. The WB pretty much rocks it. You should check out Popular, that’s a good one.

B: I walked in at the tail end of that. It was Vadge Moore and Dan Bolton [from the Supersuckers] I believe it was Winnipeg. Yeah it was broken glass, naked women, and it was really strange. I don’t believe I’ve ever walked in on a situation quite that interesting. It was pretty funny. C: Where do you see yourself in ten years? B: Hopefully just doing cocaine and fucking teenage girls. If these last few years have been any indication, let’s hope that that’s where I’m at.

Concussion’s “Pick of the Litter” M a s s s / t M a n ’s R u i n

Think your band has got what it takes? Send CDs, tapes, etc. to:

I dub thee Concussions “Best CD to listen too while you’re in excrutiating pain.” This is the third time that I’ve listened to this CD in the last 15 hours and still it gives me a blunt karate chop to the head. Has Mass elevated to the likenesses of such epic bands as Black Sabbath, Sleep, Kyuss, and the Melvins? Only time will tell, but this first release is a masterpiece of suffering and pleasurable sins. The Concussion staff wholeheartedly agrees, Mass is What’s For Dinner. Man’s Ruin thank you for once again yielding the fuel to my fire, the lube to my monkey. Folks, do your self a frickin favor and get this CD now, for Christ sakes you cheap asses, just go….please, for the love of god, go. - LC

Concussion Reviews - PO Box 1024 Santa Cruz, CA 95061

Attic Salt Instrumentality I’ve just put this CD on and so far, hot damn, the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire. The title explains the philosophy of the whole thing, instrumentality, just great instrumental songs with twists and bends and curves like an Epic motion picture. How many times has a song been great and then some dumb-ass starts flapping his jaws and ruins the whole damn thing. Well, these semilocals(Santa Rosa) have done us proud and weirdly enough they don’t have a record label. Good luck Attic Salt. If you can find it, git it. - LC

BEER ZONE They Came, They Saw, They Conquered TKO Records More beer drinking music. They sound like the Pogues after they had a few too many and started getting a punk and rowdy. Beerzone crank out Brit hits such as: Beerzone, 90

One Too Many, and Saturday Night Beaver. Oi! Oi! Oi! They kinda remind me of Murphy’s Law in the fact that their lyrics are all about partying, beer, and chicks. These guys are real British punkers; they don’t just try to sound British to be cool. I’d never heard of TKO records before, but they seem to be in competition with Beer City for their old school punk rock clientele. The competition is on! - JH Deep Lust s/t Killrockstars This is a little 3 piece that can really get you to shake your tail feathers. This band is obviously selling sex, so let’s look at the liner notes (nudie pictures maybe?). No naked pictures at all, but there is talk of public urination and cuss

words, which is a bonus. If you like rock your rock gritty then this is your “Stairway to Heaven.” One geetar, some drums and a girl, who you should be scared of, keep it moving through 11 garage inspired rock anthems. Your mom just tossed my salad and said “Go get this album, and give me a Hot Carl ASAP” - LC Drowningman How They Lit Cigarettes in Prison Revelation Hmmm, how did they light their cigarettes in prison? Is that a gay joke? I don’t get it, but let me tell you what you will get if you purchase this 4 song EP, gut wrenching sounds that will turn your innards into a black goo. Drowningman has a lot to say like “It seems like somebody’s happy, when they make me cry.” Don’t let the sensitivity fool you though folks, these guys will still kick your ass.

Some poppy riffs and emo sections make this a well rounded album, full of the little intricacies that keep you guessing. Hey silly get off the crapper and get this CD. - LC

Dwarves Come Clean Epitaph A few months ago I started hearing rumors about the Dwarves’ new album. “Dude, they made a fuckin’ techno album,” someone told me with twisted delight. Hmmm. Well anyway, several months passed and I completely forgot about the Dwarves album until it plopped itself on my front door, and then I started to get excited. Their last album on Epitaph – The Dwarves Are Young and Good Looking – was pretty good, and I had no reason to expect any less, except for the part about techno, of course. The cover art is in the same vein as the now classic cover of Blood, Guts

and Pussy, except instead of being covered in blood, the hooker bunnies are all sudsy and soaped up, and the midget is covering his unit with a scrub brush. Pretty amusing, eh? Well the cover is arguably the high point of the album, which is somewhat unfortunate. As expected, the music and production are similar to Young and Good Looking, but the songs are way more poppy; in fact some of them are so sugar coated that it’s rather sickening. But the Dwarves probably intended it to be that way, although it doesn’t make me like the album any more. Yeah, one song, “Over You” has a bunch of techno samples and stuff, and I actually liked it way more than the pop stuff. Hardcoretechno makes an interesting mix of genres. Some of the faster, less pop-ridden songs are pretty good, such as “Johnny on the Spot,” “Accelerator,” and “Act Like You Know,” but a few too many of the songs follow a tired, worn out formula which is too accessible to mainstream audiences. It would be funny to hear one of these songs on the radio, though. The entire album clocks in at 21:25, which is acceptable for a Zeke album since they rock so hard, but when the Dwarves do it, I am left wanting more, and would’ve been pissed had I paid for this album. Kind of like some of the live shows they used to put on, but that’s another story. But what the fuck do I know? Like Blag said, I’m not ready for this album, so disregard this whole review, because you’re not ready for this album either. - DK

The Earthlings? s/t Man’s Ruin

The Forgotten Veni Vidi Vici TKO Records

Lots of stony effects and Sonic Youth influenced psychedelia. This release features band members from the Desert Sessions, Queens of the Stone Age, Dave Grohl (Nirvana), and Scott Reeder from Kyuss. If that gives you a feel for what these guys sound like, then go with it. It’s like those bands cross-pollinated with a new age Dire Straits. I’ve noticed a lot more bands lately are going with that trippy Floyd sound but blending it with more blues grunge guitars. Gotta say it’s a good idea, I thought of it first though. Punk Freud was going to be my Pink Floyd thrash band. Anyway, Earthlings? are pretty damn good if you felt like smoking some opium and chilling out. If you didn’t want to do any drugs, I still think they’d sound good, just not quite as good. - JH

There’s pot music, and then there’s beer music. For me, it’s usually a mixture of the two, but that’s not the point. The Forgotten are beer guzzlin’ punk rock band. They remind me a little bit of the US Bombs but with a little bit more of a catchy, less bitter angle. These guys are from Campbell and it’s produced by Lars Frederikson, the guy from Operation Ivy and Rancid, in case it matters to you who produces an album. They’ve got a good song called “Won’t Stay Long” which is about this kinda slutty chick. The lyrics go, “She came quickly, fast as she could, I was fast too, don’t care if I’m good, just wanted to get mine too, now leave girl like ya said ya would.” I like that. Good stuff. The Forgotten are pretty much the type of music that you’d hear been blasted at a party full of punkers with Tattoos and an occasional Mohawk or at the skatepark to amp out the up and coming punk rock kids. - JH

Euroboys Long Day’s Flight ‘til Tomorrow Man’s Ruin The lights are low, the cheap Chianti sits on the TV tray and the woman you love is gazing drunk into your eyes, who better to be in the CD player than the Euroboys. Labeled “transgenere acid fantasy rock” the Euroboys will fill your drugged up makeout sessions with an exotic sex appeal. Or if you prefer to be by yourself (Right hand under right leg) or maybe with a favorite pet, anything goes with the Euroboys. Which I guess explains the band’s name, cause, man Europeople are pretty freaky deaky. Get this album and strap it on. - LC

speed machines, the hooks are still there although more straightforward than some of the stuff on The Action is Go. Many of the songs rock, but I would say that this album isn’t quite as good as The Action is Go or their Eatin’ Dust release on Man’s Ruin. Still, this shit rocks, and the more I listen to this album, the more I like it. Pretty much every song on the album is a keeper, but Fu Manchu’s choice of covers is always superb, and I’d have to say that their version of Devo’s “Freedom of Choice” is one of my favorite songs on the disc. If you’ve got a computer you can throw the CD in and watch videos of the band and some other pretty cool stuff, but no matter what, King of the Road should be in your CD collection. - DK

The Grouch Making Perfect Sense

Fu Manchu King of the Road Mammoth The mighty Fu Manchu return with this latest Mammoth release, King of the Road. Now that they seem to have found their sound, they have settled into it and cranked it up a bit. Opening with the thundering “Hell on Wheels,” one of many songs about

When it comes to REAL LIFE, many hip-hop MCs tend to lose perspective in their raps. Not Grouch. Straightforward, honest, confident, creative, evolving, true, self-assured and dope as fuck are only some of the initial characteristics of the Grouch’s personality and music. Once people have listened to enough Grouch-ism’s they are soul-ed both spiritually and financially on his style. He breaks boundaries as far as what a hip-hop MC is supposed stand for. Although a little shy and introverted in person, his music speaks powerfully and folks around the world are hearing his subterranean proclamations. 91

Rising out of the bay area (and LA) with his crew the Living Legends, the Grouch is so obviously simple and real to life, yet so complex and introspective that you’ll learn about yourself through his lessons and aphorisms. The latest album by the Grouch, Making Perfect Sense marks the fifth full-length release in this epic series of the guidebook to life. Thankfully, his style is ever changing, so that both beats and raps are never stale or overly reminiscent of past releases. On this latest, Grouch is honest as ever in songs such as “Simple Man”, in which he proclaims: “My graffiti looks like shit, I dress how I dress and can’t dance a lick … I’m just a simple man, I like pretty things, I like dope things.” The songs ends with a sample relic, Don’t you be just something on the shelf, just always be yourself. Although, the album has definite strong points, it is not as consistent as past releases. It is the first album released by the Grouch where I can’t say that every song is off the hook. Some other highlights include, “Trust Yourself”, “Zip It” and “Too Much On It.” Appearances are made on the albums by fellow Living Legends crew members such as PSC and BFAP from the Mystik Journeymen, Eligh, Aseop and Scarub. Abstract Rude and another living legend, Aceyalone, also make appearances on the album. Although all of Grouch’s music should given a once over at the very least, this album is solid and definitely represents a good entry point into the mind of this social genius.- Joel H

Herbert Stepping off to Eden Fueled Up Records Although I think we agreed Mass was the Concussion CD of the month, I’d have to say the new Herbert is a close second. The new Herbert is so good; I have a hard time believing my ears. There is no band in the world that sounds like Herbert. Although their sound doesn’t seem to be completely original, obviously influenced by early metal and the Occult, they have somehow found a space in music that doesn’t exist in the 90’s, oh wait, we’re in the 00’s. Best new band of the Millennium. Herbert. All I’m saying is that Herbert keeps it real. Why get all techno or Hip Hop, when everyone knows the best music is Ozzy, Sabbath and Maiden. Herbert take the best of the old and bring in their own sounds, beliefs, myths, dreams, psychosis and derangement into the mix to come up with the Masterpiece: “Stepping off to Eden”. The new Herbert is better than the new Fu Manchu, if you need a reference point. But stand-alone, Herbert could lead the new Medieval revolution without using any of their magical powers to coerce you to walk with them in the Devil’s Garden. - JH Huntingtons s/t Tooth and Nail Hey, this is fabulous, it’s the Ramones. I mean it’s a band that loves the Ramones, well that okay I guess. But it really makes record reviews hard, because that’s all I can think of when I listen to this band. I could say “Wow, these guys would make a great Ramones cover ,band” or “If any of the Ramones died these guys could be like second string band

members”. I don’t know. I heard that the lead singer of the Ramones is gay, is that true, that bothers me. If anyone knows if that’s true, write Concussion. Oh ya and buy this for the Ramones lovers in your family. LC In The Red s/t Self Produced This tape came encased in an impressive looking sheet metal case with In The Red stenciled onto the case, quite an original packaging scheme indeed. I threw in the tape right away and these guys don’t give you a chance to get prepared for their brutal deliverance. They just dig right in with a scalpel and wrench at your guts with their gritty hardcore. This is one of the cleanest (non-muffled) sounding hardcore tapes I’ve heard in a long time. I appreciate how you can hear each instrument and the sound doesn’t get melded into one grinding muffle. The vocals are in your face and violent in sound, although I can’t make out the words. Oh wait, there’s lyrics included: “...Reside yourself in all your wants (as if that kills the pain), rewrite all your wrongs right in time to get them all redone, repeat again tomorrow (forget that it’s the same), what you believe is what you borrow (not what your saying)”. Fuck, the first song on the second side is so good. I can’t describe it (except to say its maniacal guitar lashings) but it wants me to loose all control. There’s a few emo sections and soothing interludes that caress you right back into the brutal madness. They make you think

everything is going to be alright, that you’ve made it through to the safety zone, you’re free, but then you just get dragged right back in. This is way better than all the stuff I got with the fancy promo pack and the glossy prints. Arhh, my ear just started to hurt. Get it if you can find it, or tape it off me. (In The Red, PO Box 11046, POX, OR 97211) - JH The Judas Factor Kiss Suicide Revelation At the deepest depth of the ocean lies a beast and i’s name is the Judas Factor. These guys are so deep that I can’t understand what their lyrics mean, but I’m an idiot so you should try them out for yourself. I guess this would be classified as “hardcore” but there are some melodic parts of Kiss Suicide that might make you second guess yourself. This CD offers 6 tracks of ever changing guitar mayhem. If you know what’s good for you, which you don’t, get this CD, sucka. – LC King Rubby The Garden of Eden The next time I go on a road trip through space I will definitely bring my King Rubby album, or a road trip anywhere else for that matter. The Garden of Eden provokes a travel-istic need within me. In fact, the music itself is a road trip: it’s straight forward and then meanders, accelerates and stops, climbs up and then down, and if you can relate, gets stuck in the mud and slowly digs itself out. If you’ve seen The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, possibly think of The Garden of Eden as a more psychedelic and modern soundtrack.

Although, composed of members of the now deceased Dojo, King Rubby promises to steer you off into a completely different galaxy. “The Sloppitist” on keys assures to make it a eerie and dark, yet hopeful journey. Wagnus brings melodic and grimy chords on guitar as you look out the left window and see the Earth getting small as balls of clay. Just before you make the jump to hyper space Chris-O bends the space time continuum with his distorted space funk bass lines. Meanwhile, BA is busy keeping rhythm in order to maintain a direct course to the Garden. All the time the mixing by King Rubby himself is really the equivalent of the spaceship fuel propulsion system, which keeps the whole trip in balance and in forward motion.

Self-produced, the latest from King Rubby is a vehicle for escape from whatever planet your on. In a way, a heavy metal influenced, next millennium, vocal free version of Pink Floyd, Rubby will appeal to a wide variety of space travelers here on earth. If you’re sipping coffee and smoking a bowl on your deck or driving off the horizon into the sunset, let the piano touch you, the bass consume you, and the guitar electrify you through this excursion into the musically unknown; it will fuel your thoughts and passage through life. - Joel H.

Lost Goat Equator Man’s Ruin I’ve heard about Lost Goat for three or four years now, but I’ve never really owned any of their music. I was expecting something way more satanic and evil and grinding, but I’m not disappointed (well, maybe a little, music about Satan rules). The singer is a girl and she has a lovely voice, which makes this music, shall we say, somewhat enticing. Lost Goat rocks their shit out. The guitars lead the groove in their soloing prowess and the bass explores uncharted domains of the cesspool of musical discovery. Sexy stoner rock. Oh, what if these aren’t girls in the band, and it’s just a guy

with a girly voice. I’d feel so silly. I just checked, it’s two girls and a guy. Yes. These sexy demons are on it, they know what’s up with rock music. I was lost, but now I’m found. - JH Machetazo Carne de Cementario Razorback I put this CD in and pressed play next thing I knew my lower intestines shot out of my mouth. My toes popped off one by one and my head shook 100 mph and then burst. These death mongers are crushing heads of innocent people everywhere. If you ever did PCP and then peeled your face off in the middle of your high then this is the CD for you. Keep it real y’all muck ass busta’s and buy this joint. - LC

Moneyshot To the Grill Dirty Fonzie Records These guys have some definite issues with women. In fact, most of Moneyshot’s 10 songs are about screwing (“Sex Dance”), being dumped by (“She’s So Cold”), or being in love with women (“Hot Damn”). This shit is pretty shallow, and sounds like a late 90’s version of cock rock. The music isn’t that bad, but the lyrics are horrible and are often hard to ignore. The absolute worst song on the album has to be “Bonique,” a song about Monique, who is, as they so eloquently put it, “So unique - She’s never on the rag – Her tits will never sag – She’s my favorite lay.” Great stuff for your next frat party or gang rape. - MH Shannon Moore LTD Farren Music America I don’t think that Farren Music advertises with us, so this record gets the balzack, if you know what I mean. She sounds like a bad Crissy Hines impersonator. God, this is so crappy that I can’t bear to write about it for another second. Buy this, if you love the excruciating pain of your ears bleeding. - LC One Man Army Last Word Spoken Adeline Records One of the only remaining East Bay Skate Rock bands worth a damn, One Man Army has been playing packed shows and skate parties for years now. They’ve always been a good live band, but I never really got 94

into their records too much. Last Word Spoken changes all that, and is a testament not only to the band’s maturing sound and skill at songwriting, but to producer Billy Joe’s technical abilities as well. The production quality of Last Word Spoken is excellent, as are the songs. The vocals are sung in more of a hoarse British accent than I recall, but unlike most non-UK bands who try to emulate that style, One Man Army actually pulls it off. Depressing yet raucous songs about friends dying, empty promises, old girlfriends and much more fill up the 13 songs that make up Last Word Spoken. This stuff sounds like a cross between Duane Peters’ band and Social D with a heavy Clash and/or Rancid influence; but not enough to sound like a rip-off band or anything, it is actually really good stuff. I heard these guys got a video on MTV, so I wouldn’t be surprised if poised to become “the next” Green Day, if that kind of stuff is still going on, that is. Either way, a great, energetic record. - DK The Reducers Backing the Longshot TKO Records Straight up SF Punk rock. Similar to the other bands on TKO (The Forgotten and Beer Zone) but not so Oi! influenced, but they still sound kinda like they wish they’d grown up in England, or maybe just their heroes are from there. Either way, the Reducers are real music, I’d say working class music, like the Business, but I don’t have a clue what I mean by that. Well, this is my last review of the issue. The Reducers make me want to shave my head, grab my fellow sweaty slam dancer,

put my arm around his neck, and charge into anyone in my way. I’m done with work, it’s time for a Guinness or maybe a Sheaf Stout. Fuck you, go listen to your shitty mersh music you wussy trendy fucking pussy. - JH The Robots The Day of the Robots Man’s Ruin These guys are sick. The first thing I thought of when I threw it on was Zeke but not as gnarly though. So if you thought Zeke were a little too much, The Robots might be for you. They’re from Scandinavia, but the guy sounds like he’s from the US when he sings. Not all the songs sound like Zeke (all Zeke songs kinda sound the same), they’ve got a few different styles going. Some is more straight up blues rock and roll, with the guitar solos, the whole bit. One song Amen, kind of sounds look “My Baby does the Hanky Panky”, and then it’s right back into the faster stuff. I’m sure the Robots will still be around after the rest of us are destroyed in the Nuclear War. JH Rugged Descent s/t Self Produced I thought these guys must be from Metaluma when I first heard it, but I was wrong again, Oakland. Why does the self-produced stuff sound so much better than the fancy multiplethousand dollars recordings, maybe record labels just sign crappy bands. Anyway, this tape is the goods. It’s nothing that’s going to change the way people think about the Bay Area music scene or anything, but it rocks. It’s a little on the slow side for my tastes. I mean, I like slow music and

all, but sometimes you gotta just up the ante a little and just go for it. I think these guys want to be famous, why don’t you help them out and book them a show and sign them to your record label, then they can have your expert sound guy mix it all and record it, and they can sound like every other one of your shitty bands. But for now they rock, and I’m sure they put on an energetic live show. (Rugged Descent, 3459 Piedmont Ave. 27, Oakland, CA 94611) - JH

Rhythm Doctors Reggae Injection TKO Records I know, reggae bands made up of all white people usually aren’t such a good idea (UB40, for example), but the Rhythm Doctors do it up. This is especially surprising coming from a mostly hardcore label, but I guess anything’s possible these days. Twelve tracks of instrumental reggae, dub, and ska fill this album which is complimented with deep grooves, recurring themes, and a Hammondstyle organ player which fills out the group’s sound. I didn’t think I’d like this album very much, but this, like many other albums from TKO, is a pleasant surprise. - DK

Snake Charmers Rock n Roll Deathwish Sonic Tone The Snake Charmers rock; you can tell from the album cover. I know people always say not to judge a book (or CD) by its cover, but I often find myself doing so, and more often than not, I am right. This album looked like it rocked, and it did. The Snake Charmers play garage rock with the same amount of style and enthusiasm as other great bands such as the Stooges, Zeke, the Replacements, and Motorhead. Rock n Roll Deathwish sounds like you’re down at the track watching a muscle car race, and with songs titled “Queen Fuck,” “Thunder Alley,” and “Zombie Jesus” you can’t really go wrong. - DK Spoonfed Life in a Coffin Stone entertainment Metal or Punk? This question boggles me like adult diapers (If I’m that old, I can crap my pants if I want too). Spoonfed is giving the kids want they want these days that’s for sure. “What do the kids want?” you ask. The kids want revolution music, they want music to overthrow there government to. Spoonfed serves up some rockin’ platters, perfect for anarchists everywhere. Tell you what, if you see this CD, steal it, cause that’s just the man taking your money. Riot. Loot. – LC

Sugar Spun Hollywood and Vine Orange Peal

Vader Litany Metal Blade

V/A Hot Curly Weenie Vol. 2 Recess Records

Jeez, you know I try hard in my old age to be positive about music. Like if a band is not my style or whatever I find a redeeming quality about it. Well, this band has nothing. It’s plain to see that these guys just want to get laid, so they make girl music. The cover features the band members laying in a field of pansies, how appropriate. Chicks love that shit. All the songs are about as rocking as my grandma trailer park. Maybe this is a good CD to have in your collection to show the ladies how sensitive you are. I hate my life, kill me now. - LC

I just got a fat Metal Blade package in the mail, but unfortunately a little too late for review. But I figured it’d be fair to pick one to review since they sent in 20 CDs. And what luck, these guys rule. Super heavy and fast piercing death metal - not the kind that brings you down and makes you want to kill yourself, but the kind that makes you want to go and smash everything up, in honor of good fun of course. Low-pitched growling vocals, a standard in death metal, are ever present, but the guitar is what really steals the show. Intense guitar solos and ultra fast rhythms haunt the inner soul and pierce the eardrum. This is the music that the Vikings heard in their heads that inspired them in their Nordic death pillaging. In a world of mediocre hardcore and death metal, this comes up near the top. You’re not my father, noooooo....... – JH

See, this is what you get, when you put Blag Dahlia (of the Dwarves), on the knobs to master your recordings. It’s dirty, obnoxious, and offensive. Simply, it’s punk rock! Don’t question it just embrace the chaos. I, of course, have my favorites on here. Those being F.Y.P., Dwarves, Berzerk, Crumbs, and Sex Offenders. The truth is that all the songs on this are killer. The CD ends with Blag Dahlia talking you off to sleep. Dreams of skateboards and grimy punk. -SB

Suplecs Wrestlin with my lady friend Man’s Ruin If Lynyrd Skynyrd kept doing tons of drugs, this is what the result might be. Raw southern fried rock ‘n’ roll. Favorites include “Dope Fu”, the name alone gets the Concussion stoner seal of approval. These guys roll through 11 songs like a 12 pack on a warm summer night. Some songs had me thinking this was the new Fu Manchu but once again I’m not dealing with a full deck. This album was produced in New Orleans so it’s laced with black magic. Check it out....jerkface. – LC

V/A Five Years on the Street Vagrant Records I had anticipated hearing this CD. I knew J. Church, Face to Face , and Boxer were on this disc. What I didn’t know was that there were a lot of other really good bands on this label. To name a few: Nuclear Saturday, Automatic 7, Gotohells, and the Hippos. The live Face to Face song is inspiring. “You can keep your faith and I’ll just walk away”, they sing with spite. If you like punk with a bit of sentiment, angst, and honesty, then you will like this compilation. - SB

V/A O.C.’s 5400 Day Revolution Hepcat/Superkkol Can I drop some names on you? Here you go: MIA, Agent Orange, Big Drill Car, Final Conflict, The Crowd, Farside, and Uniform Choice. There are a lot of good bands on this double C.D. set, then there are a lot of bands that I wouldn’t be too quick to call punk. I heard a band that sounded like a Bush rip off, an Offspring rip off, some weird noise shit, and a grindcore band. I personally never knew there were so many Emo styled bands from Orange County. The best of these were: 409, I Own the Sky, Gameface, and Farside. In whole this is a really good 2 C.D. set. My biggest complaint is that Social D., Adolescents, and Shattered Faith aren’t on the damn thing. It could’ve been done better, but still it’s worth the money. -SB Key to our fabulous reviewers: LC – Lee Charron DK – Davoud Kermaninejad JH – Jonathan Hay MH – Mike Hunt Joel H – Joel Hickok SB – Sick Boy

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Heath Sherratt shoots one out on a railslide gone awry. Photo Harris

Sean gets lumps as his hip gets reacquainted with the flatbottom at Wiggyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. Video: Amell

Adam Repogle frozen in a fall. photo trefz

Chris Senn feels the pain. photo davoud