Concussion 23 by Davoud Kermaninejad

97377 96425

DAVOUD

On the Cover: Whoa, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not a frontside air or back Smith in a pool. Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going on here? Sean Stockton mixes up the street and the vert with a backside nollie on a bank to wall in Oakland. Hope that gets you some photo incentive, dude. You deserve it. Photo: Bryce Kanights.

’ve been going down to Vans Milpitas a lot lately. Well, maybe not a lot, but a lot more compared to how much I usually go there, which is as little as possible. That place sucks. But it’s winter here in Nor Cal and it’s been raining a fair amount, which has left the skateboarding options more limited than during the rest of the year. So yeah, Vans is lame, you have to pay too much money, wear pads, listen to shitty music, and ride with all kinds of kooks. From clueless roller bladers to fully padded old barneys, I find myself constantly rolling around, never skating one thing for too long, continually trying to get away from it all until the two hours are up and they let us out of the cage.

In any case, I tend to end up riding the mini ramp a fair amount. It’s as mediocre as anything else Vans offers, but it’s sort of wide and fun to cruise around on. On one particular night we were having a pretty fun session on the mini. Drehobl and his roommate were there, Jason Strubing and some of his friends were there, it was fairly crowded, people were getting juiced and it was staring to turn into a bit of a snake session. And there was this one dude from Santa Cruz there too. Some guy who kept getting snaked by everyone and wasn’t too happy about it. He’d put his back wheels over the coping and try and drop in but by the time he looked to see if it was clear someone else was already in the middle of their run. So this guy was getting frustrated, he was getting snaked and it was obvious that he was out of his league. But instead of going and riding something else, say the little kids’ mini ramp, he started glaring at people and accusing them of snaking him. “You took six more runs than me,” he would shout. “You, you’ve gone three times in a row!” At first people were trying to blow the guy off but this just made him more agitated, and he started getting in someone’s face, yelling and cursing all puffy-chested Santa Cruz surfer style.

The guy he was yelling at brushed him off and dropped in, and the angry guy started focusing his energy on someone else, a girl named Hudson. She was getting more runs than him too. But unlike all the guys on the ramp, who were avoiding confrontation with this “angry local”, Hudson wasn’t about to take any shit from anyone, especially this guy. She got right back in his face and started yelling at him, and more or less told him to shut the fuck up. He kept verbally abusing her and puffing his chest out like some kind of wild game hen fighting over territory, but instead of backing down, Hudson started punching him in the face. It was truly a classic moment. The guy didn’t really fight back but he kept getting pummeled, until someone pulled her back. Sooner or later someone got one of the Vans employees over to calm the guy down, and he should’ve been thrown out for being such an idiot, but they let him stay, although his pride was now wounded and he was still getting snaked. If this incident would’ve happened at a Santa Cruz surf spot, say Steamer Lane for example, the guy getting snaked would never in a million years yell at the people who were better than him. In the surf world, the guy who sucks gets run back to the beach and/or beat up on the way. And here he was, a bona fide Santa Cruz local, accusing more skilled people of snaking him. What a kook. Anyway, out of all the retards, dudes skating with camelbacks like they were dehydrated on the ski slopes, and other assorted barneys that frequent Vans, this is the story of the biggest kook I’ve ever seen at Vans. See you next time, bro.

Concussion Staff Senior Editor Davoud Kermaninejad Associate Editor Jonathan Hay Art Director Lee Charron Video Production Dave Amell Director of Development Jason Murray Photographers Charlie Middleton Bruce Rodela Jon Steele Rhino Contributing Photographers Bryce Kanights Patrick Malpass Adam Conway Blair Alley Patrick Trefz Uri Korn Ken Nagahara Tsuyoshi Nishiyama Rob Taylor Patrick Jilbert Bart Saric Todd Cooper Barnes Writers Paul Morrison Chris Tobias Holly Anderson Mickey Stamm Rob Krautheim Josh Zickert Ryan Furtado Cody McClintock Todd Cooper Barnes Christine Hughes John Sayers Sarah Drexler Graphic Artist Lee Charron Katch CONCUSSION MAGAZINE IS COPYRIGHT © 2004 BY CONCUSSION PRODUCTIONS. NOTHING FROM THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE USED IN WHOLE OR PART WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE PUBLISHERS OR COPYRIGHT OWNERS. CONCUSSION AND THE “CONCUSSION SKULL LOGO” ARE TRADEMARKS OF CONCUSSION MAGAZINE DISTRIBUTED BY NATIONALLY DESERT MOON PERIODICALS, SANTA FE, NM. - WWW.DESERTMOON.COM DISTRIBUTED BY TOWER RECORDS, WORLDWIDE - TOWER.COM CONCUSSION WEBSITE: WWW.CONCUSSION.ORG SEND ALL CORRESPONDENCE TO: PO BOX 70535 RICHMOND, CA 94807 OR EMAIL CONCUSSION@CONCUSSION.ORG. WHILE WE WELCOME UNSOLICITED EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS, WE CANNOT RETURN YOUR SUBMISSIONS WITHOUT A SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE. AND THAT DOESN’T MEAN THROWING A FEW DOLLARS IN WITH YOUR PACKAGE, IT MEANS WRITING YOUR ADDRESS ON AN ENVELOPE AND PUTTING STAMPS ON IT, DUDE. DOMESTIC SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE $20 PER YEAR CANADIAN AND MEXICAN SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE $30 ALL OTHER INTERNATIONAL SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE $40. SINGLE ISSUES CAN BE ORDERED THROUGH THE MAIL FOR $5 IN THE CONTINENTAL U.S. OR $10 ELSEWHERE. FOR ADVERTISING RATES, PLEASE CALL 510-236-3922 OR 831-345-7832 OR VISIT OUR WEB PAGE AT WWW.CONCUSSION.ORG FOR MORE INFORMATION. OPINIONS EXPRESSED HEREIN ARE THOSE OF THE INDIVIDUAL AUTHOR AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE OPINIONS OF THE CONCUSSION MAGAZINE STAFF. ANY SIMILARITIES BETWEEN FICTITIOUS PERSONS MENTIONED IN THIS MAGAZINE AND REAL PERSONS LIVING OR DEAD IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL. Concussion is Made on Apple Macintosh computers.

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Factory 13 Skateboards www.factory13.bowlrider.com Danny "Making Boards and Breeding Children" Creadon goes to Parent Teacher Meetings, lives in the Ohio countryside, and hangs out making skateboards for a living. Rolling hills, small farms, snowfields, and slabs of beefy Maple surround him. He is the man behind Factory 13, the skateboard operation responsible for producing the pink punk point I've been riding. Factory 13 makes custom skateboards, like the one shown here. They also make a slew of model boards including a JFA series. Oh yeah, and they do it all for the love and fun of skateboarding. See, Danny isn't looking at where in China to open a factory, because he's got his own damn factory in back of his house! He and a few friends are everything behind the final product-I've seen it all: the sheets of wood, the clamps, the fans, the glue, the screens, the paints, the power tools-hey, these guys even have a ramp (next to a bunch of tobacco chewin‚ muscle car racing, white trash neighbors) to test their products and fine tune designs. Danny can make a great skateboard and he's down to grab some beer and head on a mission for the same reason he has his own skateboard company: for the love and fun of it. You may never find yourself in Ohio, but you should find the Factory 13 website and see more for yourself. –Sarah Drexler

Terror Skateboards terrorskateboards.com These days, any asshole with a bank account full of cash and some stupid graphics can have a board company. But it’s another thing to have a bunch of gnarly dudes ride for your little board company. Terror has a sick team, they’re like the new Anti Hero team, although I doubt they’d want that sort of comparison, so let’s take it back. But they do have a lot of lurkers on their team and they all fucking rip. G Man, Slob, Roche, Sperm, Jamie Weller, the list goes on and on. Terror makes a variety of nicely crafted boards with scumfuck and/or death metal graphics. The Fang inspired deck pictured here is nice, as is the larger, 8.5” wide GG Allin deck which is not shown here. I haven’t ridden my Terror board long enough to see how well it will last, but it’s flat and stiff and feels good. All those guys down at the park ride those boards and they all fucking rip so they gotta be doing something right, huh? Speaking of the park, Glenn who runs Terror is one of the guys who is responsible for Washington St., so as a general rule you should buy a board from him just because he built that gnarly park under the bridge for free. Terror also has what looks to be a very good video coming out sooner or later. If it’s anything like the trailer they have on their interweb, it’s gonna be good. -dk

Independent 146/156/59Trucks independenttrucks.com I don’t know what’s going on with Indy these days. They keep changing their truck sizes and confusing me. For a while 156s and 159s were the same truck, and now I hear that they don’t make 156s but the 146s are the same length. I think they can get away with this just because as Americans we are ignorant to the Metric System. Exactly how big is one millimeter anyway? 156 is like seven inches, right? Or maybe not. In any case it doesn’t really matter. It’s always been the same truck for me, more or less, and aside from the set of Tracker Ultralights with built-in copers, Indys have been the only trucks I’ve ever ridden. Indys are the shit. When Wade Speyer got kicked off Think, he was actually hyped because he could finally ride Indys. Sure the bushings are a little weird on a new set of trucks at first, but I just crank them down, break them in and then they’re ok. But then again I don’t know anyone who likes riding new trucks, regardless of the brand. You can grind Indys for days, they turn great, and a lot of people get six months to a year out of a set of trucks. Or maybe those guys aren’t skating enough, but either way it’s hot to grind ‘em down to the axle. I don’t really know what else there is to say about Independent Trucks. It’s lame to see all these mall jock kooks rocking Indy gear, but if you actually ride the trucks then you really know what it’s about, right bro? - dk 16

Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale Yorkshire, England Mmmmmm, beer. Nothing like coming home from a long day of work and popping open that first beer. Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale is possibly the best beer I have ever had. Now if you’re one of those “I only drink mass produced watery American beers” kind of guys, then ignore this and keep on drinking that shit, boss. If you order a pint of Heifeweizen and get a slice of lemon in it, or secretly like to drink Smirnoff Ice, then you would appreciate a bottle of Samuel Smith’s beer. The Nut Brown Ale is my personal favorite. Brown ale is a walnut-colored specialty of the North of England. A festive-occasion beer, brown ale is one of the oldest English brewing styles, mentioned in literature in the 16th century. Beers brewed at the old brewery have a round, nutty flavor because of the Yorkshire square system of fermentation. I’ve been picking up these in the 18.7 ounce “Victorian Pint” size for $2.50 at Trader Joe’s, which is a real bargain compared to the $3.50 Beverages & More or other “highbrow” liquor stores charge. And a deal like that makes every day a festive occasion.- dk

PHOTOS: DAVOUD

Curtis Franklin lays into a Smith grind in the round bowl at Folsom. Hey, you got kneepads under those pants, right?

Sean O’Loughlin crosses the Moraga channel with a sweeper.

Folsom Skatepark

Lamorinda Skatepark

Folsom, CA

Moraga, CA

“Ohmygod, have you been to the new park in Folsom yet?” No. “Well you should. Wormhoudt has really outdone himself this time. The bowls have vert and there’s lights. It’s fucking sick. Best park in Nor Cal dude.” Oh boy. The sad thing is, this may be the best park in Nor Cal, but that’s really not saying too much. Actually it’s saying that this park is slightly better than Ripon. Maybe. It’s still a “California park.” The bowls in fact do have vert, maybe even six inches to a foot of vert in some places, which is a hell of a lot more vert than most Nor Cal “vert” parks like Ripon or Berkeley. I guess Redwood City and Sunnyvale have actual vert only on one extension or wall. Anyway, if you don’t know where Folsom is, it’s a Sacramento suburb whose biggest claim to fame is the Johnny Cash song about the jail they have there. And now they have a skatepark, which our good buddy Zach Wormhoudt built. And to his credit it is slightly better than most of the parks he designs, but it still kinda sucks. It’s sort of a combi-bowl deal with a round and a square bowl separated by a flat-wall hip thing. That is the vert part, and via a couple hips leads into a 7’ non vert channel thing and a couple other smaller bowls on each side. And behind that is the street section, which we didn’t ride until they were kicking us out. The Folsom park does indeed have lights, but you also have to pay $2 or $3 to get in, and you have to wear full pads, which is actually monitored by the park attendants. Maybe you can get away with long sleeves, a helmet and one elbow pad if you’re wearing jeans, but the day we were there they were definitely enforcing their rules to the letter. I’d be hyped if I lived anywhere near that park, it’s probably better than Berkeley and most of the Bay Area parks, especially if you didn’t have to pay or wear pads, but I don’t think that I would drive an hour and a half to skate there. You do have to pay, and you do have to wear full pads, and you do have to put up with a dozen clueless kids trying to skate the shallow bowls, so you can’t really put a full line together. And the construction is somewhat irregular, but then again since the designer and the contractor are separate people, you never know if it was the poor design or a clueless contractor. The cement work is pretty good and it’s not too lumpy so I’d tend to bag on the design more, but whatever. The bowls here are pretty big and the hips are pretty steep, but like most every other Wormhoudt park, the lines are off just enough to make you change your line at the last minute or slam and do a tranny check for no reason. This park is pretty good I guess, and I’d be hyped if I lived anywhere near there, especially in the summer when it’s 100 degrees in the day and the only time you can skate is at night. At this rate, maybe Wormhoudt will build a good park by 2010. Hey buddy, here’s a tip. Try building Palo Alto’s Greer Park again but make it steeper/deeper and add coping, that would be kind of rad. Hope springs eternal.

I think this park is actually in Moraga, but the yuppie hamlets of Lafayette, Orinda and Moraga have come to been known as ‘Lamorinda’ by restaurant reviewers and the upwardly mobile residents alike, so there you go. The Moraga park is another Wormhoudt masterpiece, not quite at the top of the shitheap with Pleasanton or Milpitas, but more like Novato crossed with a little Redwood City but not nearly as good as either of those parks. And speaking of Pleasanton, word on the street is that Wormhoudt designed Pleasanton Part Two which is currently being built, although we haven’t been able to get a sneak peek at it just yet. In any case, Moraga has the 5’ bowl with a hip and relatively a useless channel, and then on the perimeter you’ve got a little fucked up street track that has some ledges and a couple hits and some of the worst lines ever. The dumbest thing about this park is all the steps that surround the bowl. It’s pretty much a poor imitation of EMB or something (similar to the useless steps at Redwood City), a sad, fat little 3-set that is pretty much useless. Not even the kids ride it. But you’ll be going around the little track on the perimeter, which could/should be sort of rad, and you can’t get a speed line because whoever designed this park wasn’t thinking. Then again, maybe this park was designed for seven year olds, because that is the largest constituency that uses this park. The times that I have been to Moraga, it’s packed to the brim with super beginner groms, and their anxiously enthusiastic yuppie parents. Lots of crying when the kids fall down and get boo boos, it’s like a daycare center. But listen up sponsored guys, since the area is full of rich kids that all have $100 in their pocket, it’s also a pretty good place to sell boards and stuff. One could probably get $30 a deck. I guess the bowl can be fun if you go at the right time of day; the best line is out over (or onto) the long one foot ledge that separates the bowl from the flat bank. It’s kind of fun to try and transfer back and forth between those two sections of the park, and the bowl itself is okay in a Novato sort of way. Unlike Folsom, you don’t have to pay or wear pads, so it’s got that going for it, but that’s looking on the glass half full side of things. If you’re ten years old, want to sell boards, or hit on hot MILFs, this is the park for you. If you’re looking to do some actual skateboarding, this park is worth hitting once or twice, but as a general rule before you head out to Moraga, you might want to think again and go somewhere else. Thanks again Wormhoudt. Keep it up, bro. We can’t wait for the next one.

I love staying in hotels. It’s like getting a rental car but better, in essence, saying to yourself, “I don’t give a fuck, it’s not mine.” I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t get all “Motley Crue” and break shit, but there is a certain sense of freedom that only a hotel room can inspire. When we arrived at San Diego’s Manchester Hyatt for ASR, my love for hotels grew by leaps and bounds. You see, the way the Hyatt is set up, it’s two towers facing each other and if you are lucky enough to get a room that faces the other tower, well my friend, get ready for a spy-tastic adventure. After we had dropped off our stuff in the room I went and looked frantically for a set of binoculars downtown, no luck. I was making my cohorts a little uneasy with my enthusiasm, what can I say, I’m a freakin’ hunter. Finally, I came across a Discovery Channel store that had this handy little telescope called the Spymaster. I was sold. We went back to the room, beers and weed in tow and commenced to see some of the most hilariously disturbing shit ever. Below are some of the most memorable. A big thanks goes out to my team of Spymasters: Gangsta CJ and The Dark Horse, couldn’t have done it without you. - Don Frenchy

The Pant$-On Quickie

The Show-Off

Approximately 17:00 hours. Location: B/17

Approximately 14:00 hours. Location: F/21

The pants-on quickie was pretty disturbing. Gangsta CJ originally spotted this one, “I think I gotta lap dance on B/17.” I directed the spymaster to the coordinates and sure as shinola this female was clearly dancing on the lap of the male. Seemed harmless enough until she took off her shirt exposing her big fake boobies, which she seemed pretty fond of but the male didn’t really seem to care about. Things took a gigantic turn when he took her to the bed, with his pants on – no – basically he had all his clothes on and had intercourse with her for a little over 30 seconds. After the extensive half minute of lovemaking , he threw her clothes at her. Woah.

The show-off was our first big catch. We had originally seen the show-off’s “lady friend” meandering by the window. In order to get her attention we spelled “look” on the hotel window in toilet paper. We got her attention alright and we apparently got show-off’s attention as well, because no sooner did we see him than he came up behind the female and pulled up her shirt, exposing her breasts, as if to say, “Here you go fellas, a little gift from me to you.” Just when we thought that would be the end of it, the show-off pushed his lady friend’s head “down south” and commenced to get...how do the rappers say?..dome. The creepy part was that he was staring directly at our room with his hands on his hips, like some sort of gladiator, fuckin’ show-off. Suffice it to say, we were pissing our pants with laughter after this one.

The Plumpers Approximately 01:00 hours. Location: M/14 The plumpers weren’t that special, this was like watching animals do it at the zoo. A middle aged couple, a little over weight, just kind of going for it missionar y style. Each of them getting lost in each others fleshy folds. I guess it was sort of special because just recalling the

The Shadow Humpers Approximately 23:00 hours. Location: C/14 The great thing about the shadow humpers was that when the deed went down, all the people that were calling us perves earlier in the day were now in our room getting their spy on, fully hooked. There was nothing really redeeming about the shadow humpers except one thing: The male was taking her from behind, standing up and that was all he was doing. For the first 15 minutes the female seemed into it, 15 minutes after that she was clearly over it, like, “Ok there stud, you ready to wrap this up?” The funniest part was all the females in our room were calling it as the male was finishing.

events gives me a warm fatty feeling all over.

more bad tattoos.” The people have spoken and they’re saying, “We want watching your fellow man It’s not that surprising, there ain’t nothing better than of a potentially ongoing or woman do something stupid. So here it is, Part Two . Concussion saga that is Bad Tattoos All pictures courtesy of Marks of Art tattoo parlor. showing budding tattoo artists what not The picture to the left is Scott from Marks of Art tattoo hat. painters er Budweis a wearing to do: No gloves, in your kitchen

DAVOUD

For more information and details on subscription prices, see page 96 23

by Jon Steele

Do you feel young as ever?

First tattoo?

Well pretty much, I mean from like 20-40 really doesn’t feel that much different. I’m sure in the next couple years I will feel my age a little more, but it’s pretty much the same as long as you are skating and surfing a bunch. Nothing different, you just start wearing pads, people start talking and saying, “Oh, you’re getting old and you can’t do this and that,” but I think you can, just try not to get hurt and slow down and fuckin’ be a little more aware of your abilities. They become a little bit worse with skating and such.

I got a little cross on top of my left hand. I saw the poster for the movie “The Blues Brothers” and John Belushi had a little cross and I said “Ohhh I want that.” I lived next to this low rider girl and she tattooed it on me and then after that that was a Thrasher tattoo, which has since been covered up. Best tattoo? Duke Kohonamoku, Miki Dora, my mom’s face, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords on my back.

Above my eye, the scribble. I let some guy practice and he didn’t know what he was doing. He scribbled some thing you can’t even read anymore. It was my mom’s maiden Italian name, “Cirinciona.” Tattoo “213”, what’s that about?

What percent of a surfer are you now?

“213” is L.A. I grew up in Venice and consider myself Vencie for life…6th grade to 12th is where you kinda establish your roots I think.

I’m 100% surfer when I’m surfing. You should be 100% of whatever you’re doing at the time.

Worst tattoo?

Well now you have your own pro shoe? That must feel good? Osiris is helping me out a lot. I got some Grind King Trucks which are a little wider, designed more for parks and pools. I also got a deck from Dog Town skates and an old school deck from Z-flex. Most influential band? They change a lot. At first it was Ted Nugent, then punk rock really influenced me a lot. I grew up with Suicidal Tendencies and they were a huge influence to me. I listen to a bunch of different stuff now. In the 80’s I was kind of brainwashed and only listened to punk rock. Now I put on Black Sabbath…I like a bunch of different shit now. I put on chick music when I’m with my chick.

What does the 100% skateboarder tattoo mean? I consider myself a skater who surfs. Surfing in the 80’s I kinda established that. I thought surfing kinda got soft, kinda stupid. I got into punk rock. Surfers during that time were really snobby and kinda closeminded. I felt I wasn’t a surfer, but a skater who surfed. I didn’t want to call myself a surfer. But now, I’m happy to be a surfer again. I just programmed my life to be that reckless skater…punk rock attitude thing.

What do you do for work? Well, I was working at the House of Flys, but now I just get endorsements from Osiris, Dogtown and Grind King trucks. I’m basically getting paid to skateboard and go to the beach again. I kind of want to take advantage of that again while it’s here. It’s a nice welcome.

open your mouth. Surfing has all sorts of different groups of guys. There are lawyers, doctors, and real conservatives, and then you get the drunks and the drug addict guys. I mean, there’s such a large group of different personalities. You got long boarders, short boarders, boogie boarders, whatever, we’re all out surfing. I just happened to fall into that Surf Nazi category.

Surf Nazi? What is a surf nazi to the uninformed? You might see a swastika on my board or something, that doesn’t mean I’m a racist or don’t like Jewish people. In the 60’s there were these surfers who were anti-establishment, punks before punk, and they called themselves “Surf Nazi’s.” We used to draw swastikas on our skateboards for shock value and freak people out. Even though I am proud of being white. There is nothing wrong with being proud of who you are, whether you’re black, white, Mexican or whatever… I believe we are all equal until you

Did surfing and skating come to you with difficulty or were you just naturally born with it? No, I’ve been skating and surfing before I can really remember. I started at 4 years old, my step-dad was a surfer and I grew up on the beach. Back then, skateboarding just came hand in hand with surfing. That’s what surfers did when the waves weren’t good. In the 70’s it became more popular and available for me to pursue it more. Which do you prefer, surfing or skating? I have always liked both of them equally. I couldn’t pick one of the two. A lot of peo-

ple ask me, “What would you rather do, surf perfect waves or skate a perfect pool?” It’s like asking me if you would rather have a hot black chick or a hot white chick. Pretty dumb question ‘cause you love ‘em both. What do you get out of surfing you don’t get outta skating and vice versa? I get barreled out of surfing. Actually I get the same enjoyment out of both of them. Finding a really good pool is like surfing perfect waves. Surfing perfect waves is a little more special cause it doesn’t happen that often. There are shots of you skating barefoot. Do you recommend skating barefoot or were you trying to up the ante? I was always the guy skating barefoot, I hated shoes. I was a surfer kid and I learned to skate before they had grip tape and I really didn’t like shoes. When I was a kid, I had an allergic reaction to wearing closed tennis shoes, and my feet would crack and stuff. I didn’t really like shoes. I think it was an early surfer thing. We used to skate pools without shoes just for the fun of it, but obviously it is better for your heels and stuff with shoes. You’re deemed as being one of the most influential people in skateboarding. How does that make you feel? I’m proud to have done everything that I have done for so long. I started in 1965, and I’ve seen a lot of people come and go. It blows my mind how somebody could stop skating or surfing. I just have so much fun, I’m just as stoked now doing either one as I was as a kid. Fuck, I love it, it’s kinda what I really live for. It’s what my life revolves around. You can’t let other things get in the way like drugs and stuff, which I happen to have done at one time.

Jay Adams cont’d I’m just proud to be a surfer and a skateboarder. It makes my life complete. When you were growing up getting your own helmet and other big sponsorships, did you ever think about how you might affect other kids to come, or influence these kids? We (Dogtown team) were getting in magazines and stuff. Kids were writing us, telling us how we influenced them, but when I was young I never cared to be a good influence to people. I was just being myself and didn’t like being told what to do by other people. The whole pro thing kinda turned me off because I saw people’s egos running out of control and I really didn’t want people to think of me that way. A lot of guy’s egos were going crazy and that just looked ugly to me. I just wanted to be one of the boys. It’s way more important to me now to be a better influence now than when I was a kid. I’m getting older and more mature now I guess. Where is family in your life? All my family members passed away a few years ago in a one-year period, it was pretty heavy. I have a seven-yearold son who lives in Santa Cruz with his mom Samantha. She’s been sober four years and my boy is doing well. We talk all the time, and I pay child support and I’m part of his life now. I’m just planning on spending a lot of time with him. He’s hopefully coming over again soon. What is your take on big wave surfing vs. small wave aerials? I prefer 4-8 ft. Backdoor range. I like surfing Sunset when its good, but when it’s like 15 ft., it’s pretty fuckin gnarly. I plan on doing more tow-in stuff, but I don’t paddle out at Waimea every time it gets big. I don’t need to go kill myself, I just like to have fun. What’s up with the Pool Duel contest and Mainland dates? Well, I switched over to Dogtown from Deathbox and Dave Hackett was helping me with that, but I might be trying to get a bowl riding series together on the side. What setup are you riding now? 9 by 32 inch Dogtown model. The kids model is smaller but I ride a little larger model. I have my Grind King trucks, and wheels by Bones (60mm Bull riders) What do you think about the state of modern skating, is it progressing? Do you feel skating has progressed faster than surfing?

wasn’t what I was into. I didn’t like losing and I didn’t like fucking egos. When it got “too professional,” it took the fun out of it. It didn’t seem like guys were having too much fun, like we did when we were younger. I mean, guys nowadays, I love watching them skate and I’m stoked they are finally getting paid what they deserve. It’s just amazing to me what they are doing nowadays. Where is the center of surfing? In Hawaii, California, or spread out? Where does it start and end? Well, I think it used to be completely in Hawaii, but now I think it is wherever the guys are at…Australia is insane. California is crazy. California wasn’t a big wave spot in the 80’s, but look now. You’ve got Mavs, and all the guys doing tricks up in Santa Cruz. There’s just no one spot for it. Look at the East coast, Kelly Slater. Who would have thought that one of the all time greatest competitive surfers would come from Florida. It’s wherever the guys with the biggest heart and the most love for it are. That’s what I think. That’s where it’s at. What do you think of the pool skating revival? For me, pool skating was always the most fun form of skateboarding. Even though skating is different, I can have fun cruzing down a hill with a chick, to riding through some slalom cones, to riding in a pool. I just like to see guys doing it all and not being closed minded, just flipping down stairs, or only grinding pools. I think guys should be open minded and I think skate parks really open that door up. They have both street trannies. I always thought the bowl/pool was the best for me, the ultimate. You guys didn’t have pads? Yeah, in the early days, we were skating pools before there were pads. But I love kneepads, kneepads rule! Its like surfing with a leash at Rocky point. You don’t need to, but it sure does fucking come in handy. Any concussions? Yeah, uh, I’ve knocked myself around pretty good skateboarding a few times. Nothing too bad though. I’ve knocked my head and not known what I was doing and stuff a couple times in the early days. I’ve busted my chin, broke my arm once, but I’ve been pretty lucky though. I skated radical but in a conservative sort of way. Just having fun, not as reckless as I could have been. Ha ha ha. Or maybe it was just luck, and I knew how to fall pretty good. Did you grow up with your mom?

I think both of them are progressing a lot. Nowadays surfers are more influenced by skaters than skaters by surfers. This was the exact opposite in the beginning. I think more kids are looking at skate tricks and going, “I can do that surfing!” Skaters aren’t looking at surf guys going “Oh, I can do that.” Growing up, all of our skating was copying surfing and now I think that is reversed. Both sports have advanced so much. Sometimes I look at all the sports and get bummed out because everyone is just so professional. I wonder if they are having as much fun as they used to. Sometimes I think the whole pro thing can kill it and not make is as much fun. I’m kinda stoked I’m not young and I don’t have to be a pro skater or pro surfer. For me, that wasn’t where I got my most enjoyment out of it. Not in the contests and such? Nah, I wasn’t into that. Even when you were blowing them away, taking first place and so on? Well, I mean I did well in contests, I was Amateur World Champion, but it just

Well my step dad was born and raised in Hawaii, and my mom was from Los Angeles – we moved to Hawaii in my 7th grade for a while. Can you speak pigeon? Oh, I don’t try to talk pigeon too much….laughs…I’m a California boy, Venice all the way. You guys got a scene in Hawaii. A lot of bowls, I know there are a lot of parks going up there. How is that skate scene? We got some parks which are ok, but they are actually intermediate parks and the pools we get here are not a whole lot so we appreciate them. The mainland pools are better to me. Living in Hawaii and being a skateboarder is like living in the San Fernando Valley and being a surfer. The best terrain is on the mainland, the best surfing is here. For me, you make the best of what you got. We got a couple fun pools around here, you just gotta work hard in them. We don’t have Oregon skateparks, but it’s good enough. Surfing takes up a lot of time over here. Basically, we wait for the

Jay Adams cont’d waves to get junk to go skating. This year has been good waves and not a lot of skating. Best surf story? There is crazy shit on the north shore all the time from drowning to the best barrel of the day, season, or week. Favorite skate trick? For me, I enjoy frontside grinds in a pool or a good carve. It feels pretty good. I’ve toned down a little bit. I kinda surf/skate now. I’m not trying McTwists or shit, but I still like to get in a pool and get a little bit crazy.

him 2 good years, he’ll cut me lose. That’s only a year away. What put you in jail in the first place? Drugs put me there and I let myself get carried away. I let my drug use get completely out of control. I used that to ease the pain of reality, and I eventually let heroin become all that I really cared about. I got to the point where I didn’t care about going to jail or anything, and eventually it led me to what actually saved my life. The best thing that could have happened to me was going to jail for two years. It made me realize how bad I was messing up and throwing my life away. I don’t regret going to jail one bit. It’s a small price to pay to get your life back in order.

Favorite pro skater? Omar Hassan and John Cardiel. Favorite pro surfer? Andy, there so many, Nathan Fletcher, Archy, there are so many it’s hard to pick. It’s whoever I’m hanging out with and having a good time with… You know who really impressed me was Jake Patterson at Haliewa last year, that guy was doing some really nice turns…And of course Andy and Bruce. Sunny, fuck man! Kelly and Joel Parkinson and all those guys are so hot right now. There’s a lot of kids coming up right now like Tory Barron, Mikala Jones, and little Jon-Jon Florence. I mean how hot is that guy? The kids’ ten years old and getting stand up barrels at Backdoor already! The kid is just amazing! You were in the 1970’s movie “Skateboarder” and other films in Hollywood. How was that? No, no fortunately, they wouldn’t take me ‘cause I was a little out of control. Tony (Alva) got the good part ‘cause he could get a little punk and fart and drink and look at Playboys. But I think those movies are an embarrassment to skating. Anything with Leif Garret and that kinda shit, I was glad I wasn’t a part of. That movie “Thrashin’” makes skating look stupid too. Was skating better now or in the Dogtown days? Hard to say. I think we had a good time, we were more “rock-n-roll, party animal, skate stars,” but nowadays, they’re probably making more money. It seems that it has definitely softened up a little bit, when we were doing it, it was pretty hardcore and more punk rock. Nowadays it seems it’s calmed down and way more professional. They have better terrain and more advanced maneuvers. It’s just such a different era. It’s like comparing Larry Bertleman and Kelly Slater era. It’s just different. Was the Dogtown film an accurate portrayal of your childhood? Was anything added or taken out? The DT movie portrayed me kinda like somebody who could have had it all but didn’t give a shit and then got into drugs and threw it all away, which is completely not true, because out of all the guys in the movie, I’ve been skating and surfing the whole time since day one. I might have shined away from the whole pro thing, ‘cause I really didn’t give a shit about it. I didn’t make that my number one priority. I was more into making a little bit of money and going on surf trips and having fun and doing it with the boys in the backyard. It kinda made it look like I dropped off the face of the world, and now I was in jail and “Poor Jay.” But in reality, I’m the one that’s the Energizer Bunny out of all of them. I haven’t stopped the whole time. You are currently on probation, correct? I’m on parole, which is better. I got a ten year sentence and I get off parole in 2010, but my parole officer says if I give

Was there just one instance, or a build up of warrants? What really happened was I came home and found my girlfriend in bed with another man. He wouldn’t come outside so I smashed the door in with a fucking crowbar. I was trying to fight him and I got five years probation. I didn’t give a shit about life or anything after that. I was doing drugs, and got caught in a house where they were selling drugs. That being a violation of probation, I went back in. That gave me an open ten year sentence and I did two and a half years of it. If I wasn’t drunk and on drugs when I went over there, it might have been different. What do you feel is your peak moment in your career? I got a wave at backdoor that was as good as any of ‘em. As for being pro, yes, when I was younger it felt just as good as anything ever has. Then there’s Peter Cole who is 70 something and surfs Sunset and gets great waves and I’m sure he’s just as stoked as ever. With surfing you can keep that stoke on ‘til the day you can’t paddle out anymore. I don’t wake up and go “Oh, I’m bummed, I’m 42 and I’m not going to be Andy Irons.” I might get a good wave at Pipe and it will be the best thing in the world. It’s just as fun as it always was, if not more. The difference is I can actually remember most of the days now…enjoy it because it’s there to enjoy! Any epiphanies or head clearing? Traveling and meeting people are one of the greatest things. Surfing all over the world and meeting new people to surf with. Surfers are such greedy little fuckers. If there are two guys out at a perfect wave, they might be angry for you coming out. Tennis players don’t get mad when other people play on their court. It is so selfish, but I see when it’s overcrowded and guys are dropping in. Then it’s definitely good in Hawaii to have a pecking order and a little respect and stuff. Some guys just take it a little too far and then it just looks so childish and stupid. I just gotta laugh at ‘em. Advice for groms who look up to you? If they want to become a pro, the best thing they can do is do it every day for as long as possible. That’s where the greatest guys have come from, the guys who do it all the time. Try not to let things like drugs get in the way. I’ve watched Tony Hawk grow up. I’ve watched Christian Hosoi, Lance Mountain, and a lot of surfers grow up. The best ones are always in the water or in the bowl doing it all the time. Any last words or thoughts? Yeah, keep surfing and keep skating and don’t rely on negative things to make you feel good about what you’re doing. You should be able to enjoy life and concentrate on the positive, instead of the fucking negative, and enjoy yourself. Nothing wrong with being a fucking happy guy…a nice guy. Ha ha ha.

The Crew:

Kays, Bobby Katch, CAZ, Brenden Leung, Josh Zickert, Chris (photographer), Rodriguez, Dave Davis, Billy Wilson, Blair Alley and Luke Huff (filmer).

The Mileage:

1,800 miles in 10 days. Los Angeles, Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe.

Tucson, El Paso,

The Rukus:

demo. Bobby The roof of the van caved in after the El Paso demo, then we licked a dead fish on the street at the Phoenix trying to get drove over it and guts flew all over three chicks escaped in background props. 5-O got us in Phoenix, we Tucson.

Juice: Applejuice used “La Vida Loco.” The gangsta walkin’ Juice A.K.A. lookin’ for his most famous pick-up line endlessly, “You girls this silver some juice, I got it as sweet as it comes.” He carried Box” and it’s still a briefcase everywhere. It was called the “Love us. He MC’d our mystery to me what was inside. Juice is hilario finished the demos for the rest of the tour. That’s right – Juice ix and will be tour with us. He took a greyhound back from Phoen invited on all tours in the future.

than ours. captions here. They’ll be funnier Go get a sharpie and write your own curacies. inac al factu or s and often contain typo Our captions suck. They’re boring iest captions for these two The person who sends in the funn Even better, how about a contest? rs correctly but you can skate the name to magazine, you have spreads (you have to write on the schwag that we have other some and DVD n will win a Concussio xerox the pages and send ‘em in) on page 96. d foun be can h whic into our po box address laying around. Send all entries

Trick of the trip: In Tucson, Chris Kays climbed this rusty fence and tail dropped into a narrow 15 foot high ledge with a drop off leading into a ditch, in Vans slip-ons first thing in the morning. Sick!

Psycha Crew: Hooked us with VIP status at El Pasoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier strip bar High Heels. 50 Cent playing all night with NK shout outs by the MC. Of course, Juice knew all the girls and spent the night on stage with them. Chuy and Rob, the owners of Psycha, threw us money all night. We rolled around through El Paso tough in two Escalades with multiple video screens in each. As we were driving back from the strip bar porn played on the screens and cars were following us along the freeway to catch a glimpse of the action. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Josh Zickert, with photos by Blair Alley.

We don’t. But captions. Give ‘em praise or talk shit. Who cares? Here’s some more space to write your own witty than that you’re on Other Leung. n Brende and Davis Dave Kays, we’ll give you a hint: These photos feature Chris your own.

hose who live in a sub-tropical climate can never comprehend the effects of a mid-west winter on the body and mind. They cannot understand the pain of taking a shin shot from your board when it’s fifteen degrees outside or seeing all the places you used to skate covered with a foot of snow. They do not realize just how hard it is to get out of bed in the morning or gain the motivation to do anything productive. They do know the stress one goes through, being forced to skate inside a park that’s overcrowded with eight year old children whose parents never taught them the concept of “taking turns.” Most of all, they cannot appreciate each and every day that the temperature rises slightly above freezing and the snow melts just enough to be able to skate. This is winter time in the windy city.

Winter brings many misfortunes, but with it comes one of the most important things in skateboarding and life itself: desire and dedication. It is in times like these where the true skateboarders are defined. They are the ones that are motivated to keep skateboarding alive in these cold and dark months. While most people sit in their apartment wasting away, there are some that are building ramps in their living rooms and hosting sessions with twenty kids that want none other than to skateboard. And when you haven’t skated for a month, a simple four foot ramp inside a heated building is a dream come true. Fortunately, these freezing months can only last a short while. And come spring, we find all the pain endured has only made us stronger. Those who were lazy during the snowy months reflect it in their skating, while the ones who continued to pursue their love seem to skate with a passion, taking advantage of each and every day and traveling to everyplace they can. For it is they who realize that it is only a matter of time before the next snowfall. Snowman hopper: Luke McVeigh

Interview by Frank Soles, Louis Cuccero, Beaver, Taj, and Donut

Beaver: Wrestling is gay. What about the phone call from the Jones Brigade?

Taj: So what’s up with your straight edge tattoo?

D: That happened a couple years ago. The legendary Jeff Jones had some crazy demo for hire team called “Hell on Wheels” and somehow he got my number. He wanted me to skate some big jump ramp live during the Philadelphia Phillies Half Time show. I asked how much money I was possibly getting to embarrass myself and he said “Nothing,” and that was the end of that conversation. No cash, no 360 judos.

Donny: I put my time in, ‘88 to’98. Back when I was going to shows every weekend and doing a fanzine. I got the Gorilla Biscuits mascot on my leg and I used to have some Xed up construction gloves. Some people say, “If you’re not now you never were” but I never considered straight edge a trend, I just don’t have that discipline anymore. Life isn’t very sobering.

Beaver: What’s with this weed-to-go shit? Taj: Did you collect records? D: Oh yeah. At one point I had Youth of Today “Break Down the Walls” on Wishing Well and all the Schism releases except for Project X.

D: Man, you know I can’t drive all zooted. So sometimes I try and get a courtesy nug to go ... Donut: Yeah, but I ain’t running no weed drive thru over here.

Louis: What’s the first metal record you had?

controlled by secret societies, and Presidents are like puppets. The real movers and shakers are not voted for, they’re born into powerful families and groomed. Frank: So you’re pretty big on conspiracy theory? D: It started when I was given the book “Behold a Pale Horse.” I haven’t looked at the world the same since. Frank: How so? D: For one thing, I don’t think the American public is being told the entire truth about 9/11, among other things. Do yourself a favor and check out the documentary “9/11: Road to Tyranny” by Alex Jones and then repeal the Patriot Act. “Bloodlines of the Illuminati” by Fritz Springmeier is another good read. Frank: So, do you believe in aliens too?

Beaver: And what about your bad beer etiquette? D: Actually it was a tape - Iron Maiden “Powerslave.” Christmas of ‘85 maybe? Louis: What did you think of that King Diamond show we went to in November?

D: Beer tastes foul to me. I don’t drink much but when I do I’m like Uncle Jemina ... I wanna get bent quick and beer doesn’t do it for me.

D: I don’t research that sort of stuff but I’ll say this ... we send all these random signals into deep space hoping that someone will intercept them and contact us, but who’s to say what’s really out there and what their intentions may be.

Frank: What’s your worst injury? D: King Diamond’s stage presence was strong, he sucked me in. His voice was as crisp live as it is in the studio. I couldn’t believe they played “Eye of the Witch.” The only downside was all the horseshoes that showed up. I guess I’m used to hardcore shows; metal kids can’t dance, they do the Columbine shuffle. Louis: You still watch wrestling? D: Fuck yeah. Monday night RAW, Smackdown and COPS for life.

Beaver: You’re so paranoid. D: My left hand is pretty shot, I can only feel half of it. I’m a walking wound. I need some health insurance quick. Skateboarding can save your life and ruin your retirement at the same time. Frank: What are your thoughts on having a board with your name on it? D: I’m hyped but I don’t trip out on it. I’m 30 years old with kids so I ain’t trying to stress. I’m more concerned about my cholesterol.

Louis: Who’s the man?

Frank: Do you have any skate superstitions? D: I’ve got a huge OCD about my shoes. They must be untied when I skate. Frank: Okay, you say skating is in your blood. So if I cut you with this razor, will you bleed wood? D: Are you wasted? Next question. Frank: What’s up with Metal? It’s not your average ...

Frank: Who’s your pick for president? D: Vintage Undertaker when he wore the corpse paint.

D: We don’t follow any industry formulas. We just are. D: I don’t think it matters who you vote for. America is

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ean Stockton rips. The kid is an underrated lurker. Originally from Atlanta, Sean has been living/lurking in Berkeley, couch surfing, hustling, shacking up, and skateboarding like a mother-

I’ve been trying to shoot and do an interview with Stockton for at least four years. We’d run into each other and manage to shoot a couple photos here and there every three or four months, but lack of moti-

fucker for the past six years or so. Last year Sean Stockton made something like $1,700 in taxable

vation and lack of my photography skills prevailed. I blew at least five to ten really good shots because of

income. His eyes light up and with confidence he says that he could easily live off $10,000 a year. Many

my janky setup, and we’d just end up running the good Stockton photo in the Random Skate section or a

people felt that he should have won that $10,000 at the Thrasher/Deluxe sponsored Bayview Rumble

510 ad. It’s funny – going through the photos of Sean to use for this article, I came across a lot of ollies.

contest, where he ollied to frontside five-o over and down the huge fun box and was awarded a humbling

Backside and frontside ollies on tranny, big snaps on street gaps, huge sidewalk bump pops, Stockton

3rd place. He (or Steve Nesser) sure could’ve used the money more than Dustin Dollin, but sometimes

has the ollie shifty down with a style that few can imitate. There were more photos that I wanted to run for

that’s how it goes when the fix is in, eh guys?

this thing, but they were all of ollies, so they didn't get in. In any case, it finally took a professional pho-

Monster pop shove-it somewher e in Oakland.

tographer, Bryce Kanights, to get all this shit together, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m glad that he did, because this has been a long time coming.

essay on Sean Stockton written by a guy with writer's block who can't do a good interview. Sean is 24 years old now, I think I met him when he was eighteen or nineteen. He had probably just

I finally set out to do an interview with Sean. I picked him up from some girl's house in Oakland at

moved here from Atlanta and all he wanted to do was skate and party. Bum smokes and skate. Head out

11:30am on Valentine's Day and took him out to a yuppie beer joint on Telegraph, but the interview didn't

to Alameda or hit some street spots, go bomb a hill. Smoke weed and hit on chicks. If you wanted to get

go too well. Neither of us really wanted to do it, I hate doing interviews for the most part and Sean would

a hold of Sean, the best way was to look for him at the shop sometime after noon, where he ended up at

rather his friends write stuff about him. It was weird, we'd be having a good conversation just driving

the end of the evening was sometimes unpredictable (but it was preferably in a cute girl's bed), but he

around or drinking beer or whatever, but the minute the recorded turned on things became awkward. All of

was a fixture at 510 on a very regular basis.

my questions were stupid. So I didn't even bother transcribing the tape, and you're stuck reading a short

Sean went home to Atlanta this Christmas. There he got his nose broken by a bouncer at a bar, and 45

then he went and entered Tampa Am and proceeded to make the top 30 or something. I think

and made him pro. Instead he's groveling for photo incentive and hasn't gotten to go on any

he said 23rd place but I couldn't figure out shit on the SPoT website. Whatever, he did pretty

tours. I think they flew him to a contest in Minneapolis pretty recently. By himself.

good, but not quite as good as Jon Newport. Sean rips. He's just happy if he's rolling, looking

out of Deluxe, which I suppose could be semi-accurately described as a hippie board company

doesn't actively seek it out, I've never ridden a pool with Sean but I bet I'd be bummed at

since Matt Field and Nate Jones are the pros. I asked Sean if he considers himself a hippie and

how good he is. Sean is extremely talented on his skateboard, and you'd think he would be on

he said, "No, but you might as well go ahead and call me one." I asked why, is it your long hair,

some team legitimately or even pro by now. After all a bunch of his friends are, and he's just

do you like the Grateful Dead? Are you an eco-activist? "No," he replied with a sheepish grin,

as good as them. Maybe it's harder to "come up" living in California, because there are so

"but I like to party and I like a free ride." - Davoud

many other good skaters that compete for the limelight and in SF, attention from Deluxe. If Sean was from some hick town in the Mid-West, Deluxe would've flown him out to California

Above: This probably looked radder in person but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still pretty sick. Treasure island ditch kickflip . Right: Out of the seventeen more ollie shots we had, this monster floater over the big flat hip at Berkeley needed to be slipped in. Photo: Nagahara Further right: All kinds of people do tricks off the end of that quarter pipe, but Stocktonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lien air onto the far side of the lumpy flat bank is probably as good as it gets.

But after years of lurking on Deluxe flow, Sean is now riding for Rasa Libre, the latest brand

for something to skate, cruising down a hill to the coffee shop. He can ride tranny well but

Above: Bryce has this rad new Canon digital camera that shoots like a thousand frames a second. Shoot a bail sequence and you can just delete it. I had to take like half the frames out of this sequence of Sean backside 5050ing this huge ledge in the Berkeley rose gardens, but it was probably first try. Right: Back when Alameda was the only skatepark around, Sean and his buddies would show up all blazed and wreck shop on all of the crappy obstacles there. I almost got a sick shot of a kickflip over the fun box, but guess what, I blew it. Good thing Ken Nagahara managed to come up with this shot, that guy knows a thing or two about lighting up a spot. Fat, fat ollie grab over the lumpy hip. Photo: Nagahara

Above: If you can make your trick on this secret ledge hubba spot, you can just hang a left and bomb the hill. Right: Bump to ollie on Yerba Buena island. Note back foot position. 48

Sean rides for Rasa Libre, Independent, Spitfire, Etnies, and 510 Skateboarding. The end.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pretty lame to run a photo of someone on your own staff in the center spread of your mag. I wonder whose idea that was? Oh well, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how it goes when the fix is in. Photo: Charron

oing south for the winter is not only a migratory pattern for birds, but it is also becoming a pretty standard routine for us and many other skaters on the west coast. The plan goes something like head to Oregon/Washington in the summer, and when the weather gets nasty in the winter, migrate towards San Diego, Arizona or beyond. Last year we drove to Phoenix, this year we decided to get bourgeois and fly to San Diego, rent a car and stay in a motel. Yeah, things get crazy when one has a job and money to pay for those sorts of things. The original plan was to go hit up a bunch of the burned down fire pools from the firestorms that happened in the fall, as well as hit up Washington Street and anything else that came our way. Once we got there, however, things changed. The fire pools were not a go. Even if they were, we had too many people with us and it became too hard to organize anything in such a short amount of time. Dave had booked us a super early flight, so when we found ourselves in San Diego at 8am, we decided to drive up to Pala and ride the pool, since it was a guaranteed go and might not be too hot yet. After a breakfast stop in Encinitas where we randomly happened to run into Jimmy the

Greek, Pala was on. It was indeed a go, but it insane. Sure it’s sort of like Burnside in the fact was already hot and so it suddenly became beer that it’s a renegade skatepark built under a thirty at 10am. bridge, but the physical terrain they have built is way gnarlier. The lines are there, but it’s not Mad Mike got some licks in and then we drove like you’re just going to jump out of the van and back towards San Diego, having made arrange- start ripping unless your name is Pete the Ox or ments with Glenn from Terror to ride something. Washington Street that afternoon. We arrived and there was already a session going on which So more beers were procured and we spent was nice. Apparently this was the first weekthe afternoon falling off our skateboards tryend they had the whole finished portion of the ing to figure out the elusive lines and difficult park cleaned up, and we even got to ride a new transitions the park offers. Local lurkers like section which was poured the night before. Let Rob Slob, Roche, Glenn, Ballard, Luke, Carter, me just say now that this park is pretty fucking Zaroche, and many others all killed it. The only 53

Mad Mike and his 10am Pala

That Zaroche kid is pretty funny. He’s like 18 years old or something, rides a wide 80’s board, and kills it. Nosebonk on the side of the cinder block punk wall.

loveseat ollie.

here. He You can’t even tell what Slob is doing over frontside 5050’d through the corner and he’s later blocks seven or six the loveseat and shit. popping. On an old 70’s board or some

Shallow pocket of the gnarly amoeba, probably my favorite obstacle they have built so far. But the snake run and the bowl behind the channel aren’t finished yet, so who knows ....

one of us who could remotely figure out the place was Mad Mike, who was grinding over loveseats and popping stalefishes where he pleased. Fucker. After skating all day we decided to regroup and figure out our plan for the evening. It happened to be Dave’s birthday, so it was elected that we should take him to Tijuana. At first Mad Mike was super bummed on that prospect. “No fuckin way man, I’ll stay in the hotel,” was his first response, but his tune changed once we crossed the border. He was pretty broke, but at the strip club this didn’t stop him from falling in love with 54

the first girl to come sit on his lap and before we knew it he was headed upstairs for a private lap dance. We figured that he was over his head and wouldn’t be able to pay his bill, and we half-jokingly contemplated leaving him in TJ and heading back across the border before we got our asses kicked too. Luckily he had enough to cover himself and we got to watch the bouncers rough up and throw someone else out of the club instead. We did have to drag an unwilling Mad-in-Love Mike out of the club and back across the border, but after that his tune had changed to “Do you wanna go to Tijuana? ¡Si!” Saturday morning came and we were ready to ride some pools. We were supposed to meet up with Ballard at Washington Street in the morning, but we were late or he was early and by the time we got there they had already left. So it was time for some

10am Icehouses. After that, we pretty much got sucked into the Washington Street vortex for the rest of the weekend and spent the days trying to figure that place out. But boo-hoo for us, we didn’t get to ride any pools and were stuck having to ride some crummy skatepark under a bridge. That place is fucking sick, dude! So for the rest of the weekend the routine went something like this: get some tacos, pickup some beers, go down to the park and ride, take a break, drink some more beers, get some tacos, etc. Fucking fantastic.

Dogboy is at home under bridges up and down the West Coast. Here he is shown during his seasonal southward migration from Portland during the winter. Oh, and just like every other photo from Washington St., you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even tell how gnarly this transfer is either.

to to, go figure. Eddie Alio air was the better pho utes straight. rlier, but the frontside min The backside ollie is gna and tore the park a new asshole for ten dark showed up just before

Twelve year old “Little Navs” grinded the deathbox at Ray’s for $5, and his other buddie ollied in the deep end. Little fuckers are comin’ up.

Mad Mike was ripping all weekend, and took a special liking to this hip. Stalefish.

We did manage to make it out to Ray’s permission pit in Clairemont on Sunda y for a while, where we were outdone by a gang of eleven year olds who skate d that place better – considerably bette r – than we did. This one little fucke r ollied into the deep end on a dare, and that deep end is no joke. This other little punk, Alex I think his name was, grinded the deathbox frontside for the first time. We were so bitter that we had to go get some more beers and sulk under the freeway for the rest of the day, watching the locals kill it. As the sun set on another 68 degree sunny day and the last of the beers were killed , it was time to head home and go back to work. We all had to work in the morn ing and the Washington Street crew had to get ready to move some dirt around and prepare for another pour. The park should be officially open by June, so if you think you’ve got the balls (and liver) to ride with these guys, check it out in the summer. Who know s, they might all be on a road trip to Oregon and you’ll have the place to yourself. the freeway at This guy’s name was something like Assface. He lived under stoked. the park, but this night he got to sleep on Ballard’s floor,

After all the “street” earlier in the issue, it’s hard not to run 100% photos of frontside airs, but Dan Heassler’s back lip in Tacoma had to get in. Photo: Rhino

This pool had four or five loveseats, one of which was this shallow cave setup. It would whip you around and spit you out, but Farmer managed to hang onto some backside slashers. Photo: Davoud

Jub, pole jammer. Photo: Conway

Mad Mike’s blowing up, he’s all over this issue, shit. He had some super funny slams before he finally stuck this frontside loveseat attack, the tranny coming in was nonexistent. Photo: Davoud

Corey Ryan kickflipping his way out of the Ben Lomond Park. Photo: Winger.

Mad Mikeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s blowing up, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all over this issue, shit! He had some super funny slams before he finally stuck this frontside loveseat attack, you can check them out in the Slam section in the back of the mag. Photo: Davoud

Sequence: Remember the cover of last issue that had the photo of Tony Trujillo chowing some backside box? Well here’s the sequence we forgot to run with it. D’oh! Sorry Bryce, better late than never. Photos: Kanights Big photo: Why it’s Mrs. Hitz’ little boy Sammy, doing an ollie in a La Jolla pool. And look, there’s Texas Dan and Carter lurking in the background. Smaller photo: This shot is sick too, but we’re tight on space this issue so ol’ Rochie’s just going to have to forgive us. Photos by Middleton. 60

Left: Jason Adams has his Miller flip spine transfer deal pretty wired, but this is an especially gnarly spot to pull it off at. Out of the bowl and into the street course, one wrong move could spell some broken ribs. I’m guessing this park is somewhere in the midwest, but like I said, that’s just a guess. Right: “I made a backside disaster in a pool by the ocean in San Diego, and all I got was this lousy photo in Concussion.” Alex Horn, working for peanuts. Photos by Rhino

Rhino gave us so many sick photos this issue that it’s for half of them. embarrassing, we Instead of two or don’t even have roo three more spread pages of surf pho m s of skate photos tos. Sorry Rhino. , we have to run Sorry readers. We issue, promise. Any five ’ll run the rest of way I suppose you these there photos 're reading this so goddamn photos nex t you can get some instead of reading captions for the about me talking shit on surfing: Clockwise from top left: Hewitt getting a little shallow poc If you’re color blin ket at the Mousetra d, this is your lucky p. Photo: Rhino • day! This shot on but here at Concus the right was a bea sion you get to see utiful color photo, Kyle Berard’s lien gray. Set, spike, gam to tail in Newport e, bro! Photo: Rhino Bea ch in shades of • Charno’s got som kind of like a goo e sick style in this fy footed Chris Sen frontside grind, n. Photo: Middleton Want to write cap • I’ve run out of tions for us? We’ll not-funny caption pay a nickel a wor shallow end backsid s. d and you bring the e Smith. Photo: Sari beer. Eric Dressen, c

We really did have a shitload of good skate photos to run this issue, and it’s too bad that this is the last spread of skate shots, but what do you want to see, clutter fuck spreads with 20 shots, or full page photos, or surfi? Oh well. Clockwise from top left: Winter in Chicago means skating indoor or playing Tony Hawk 4. Bart Jones prefers the former. Photo: Conway • Those pipes in the city sure are fun, everybody’s been getting a little bit, even Jacob Tillman. Photo: Korn. • Modern day cave man Chris Becker grabs his way through a frontal at Berkeley. Photo: Nagahara • The only thing more fun than skating 10’ wide pipes is skating a 12’ wide vert ramp, huh? Sick invert imported to the USA by Wataru Nagashima, if we were uptight jerks we’d probably Photoshop out the Thrasher logo or something, but we’re above that sort of thing, aren’t we? Photo: Nishiyama

Photo: Jon Steele

urricane season in Mexico is treacherous and dangerous. I recently had the opportunity to spend about 20 days in Baja, chasing hurricanes. I love the rain, it gives a nice change in scenery from sunny California. But this wasn’t rain, this was a storm. In fact, it had been raining so hard for weeks from earlier hurricanes, that entire roads were flooded out. The worst part was we didn’t have enough time to bucket out the pools and skate spots we did find. Someone had even died as a result of the river coming through his house in the middle of the night from overflow. We decided to spend the night elsewhere. After surfing several nooks and crannies, both scoring and getting skunked, we then proceeded to go south. This led to going the wrong way at a check point which could have gotten us shot. We also experienced mutiny between the ranks, dealt with allergic reactions to kelp, scorpions in our shoes, urchins in our feet and money extortions from federales. One killer part was we ran in to “Reef The Kid” at the Pescadero surf camp. Reef was a super good skater and a better guide. I saw photos his old man had shot of him ripping, but unfortunately his dad couldn’t drink with us because he was recovering. “Recovering from what?” you might ask. Recovering from taking a board to the face, giving him a great concussion and two bruised retinas which made his eyes super black and gnarly. He was lucky to be alive. Despite running across some inevitable problems, Baja is dope with plenty of waves and shit to skate. Stop by Squid Row in Cabo to pick up your Soma’s. Fuck, it seemed like the trip would never end, but we made it out alive with waves under our belt and plenty of memories.

Alex Gray boosting!

Cerritos empty wave

Jake and the only urchin on the beach

Alex floats across another border checkpoint

Alex - air reverse at Lobster Traps

Photos & words – Jon Steele

Adam Wickwire boosts just as high in either direction

Road to Paradise

here are at least 1200 miles of surfable coastline between San Diego and Cabo. On any given day, there are hundreds of waves perfectly peeling with no one around to bear witness, let alone enjoy. Most of the surf spots are well documented and easily located with the assistance of surf guides and blown out websites. Fortunately, there are still some hidden secrets out there filled with the rewards of empty line-ups and hollow pits.

This spot is one of the heaviest waves on the West Coast, maybe even North America. My friends, Greg and Rusty Long and I discovered it on Thanksgiving weekend of 2001. Talk about stuffing, we gorged ourselves on hearty slabs of cold water and frothy shacks, definitely one of the best turkey days I can remember! Over the past three winters, we have surfed it over 50 times by ourselves. It breaks in about three feet of water over urchin infested limestone reef about 50 feet off of the rocks. We've seen it head high and we've seen it holding at solid 8 foot, handling every swell the north pacific can dish.

Greg Long

Rusty Long

Fortunately, we have been able to keep our spot secret, giving hope that there are tons of waves like this, not only in Mexico but all around the world. Go out and find yourself a little slice of perfection for you and your crew. Greg Long

Photos & words - Jason Murray

Rusty Long

Photo: Hay

The open road Photo: Trefz

Vulture Photo: Steele

300 miles deep into Baja, our car had broken down only miles away from our chosen surf destination of El Rosario. Nevertheless, we were not going to let the trivialities of a broken down car hold us back from reaching our goal. We tied up the front bumper with ropes and towed the car behind my friend’s truck. Everything was working out until we reached a running river, about 2 1/2 feet deep. While crossing the river, the ropes snapped one by one, like the fraying fibers of a rope holding someone from dropping off a thousand foot cliff, almost stranding our chariot mid river. The final rope snapped as the front wheels touched the muddy banks. Fortunately, the car had made it just far enough for us to get knee deep in the river and push it safely to solid ground. We retied the shortened ropes and towed our pathetic ride another mile or two across a rugged dirt road to the campsite. In typical surf trip fashion, we drove 700 miles only to discover the waves to be flat. There wasn’t as much as a ripple, which left us wondering if this place ever had waves like we had been told. The next morning we had to deal with the reality of dragging a broken down car back down a 4-wheel drive road. We scrounged up some longer rope from the fishing village we were camping next to and started the process over again. For some reason we had decided that smuggling LSD into Mexico was a good idea, and in our current predicament, now would be the perfect time to take this powerful mind altering substance. My friends Curst, Zak “the desert fox” and I, had just started tripping when a truck of amped Mexican fishermen pulled up blasting Mexican music. They proudly pulled out a sack of shellfish and a machete and started asking us if we had any marijuana. Being in our altered state of consciousness, we decided it was a bad idea to let anyone know we had anything illegal going on. One of the fishermen pulled out his intimidating blade and cracked open what we believed to have been a low-grade abalone type shellfish. Always willing to experiment with something new and peculiar, I bit into the little fella. A sharp bitter rancid taste (that stuck in my teeth for the next few hours) was nothing compared to the visual that stained my memory forever. The suction, or meat of the abalone, writhed back in pain as

Photo: Hay

Christian Hurst Photo: Hay

silent screams cursed me for my cruelty, evidenced by my teeth bite marks that resculptured its physiology. That was enough for me. Laughing the whole way, the fishermen gave us a crazy high-speed ride back to town and then pulled up to a metal gate. They pulled up, the gate opened and we entered into the large, ominous warehouse. Heated panic flushed through my mind and body as I realized we had been taken to Federale headquarters. They knew we were on acid, they were going to search us and find our weed and then send our asses to Mexican jail and throw away the key. As we sat and waited for our nightmare to unfold, we suddenly appeared invisible. We jumped out the back of the truck and walked out of the warehouse unnoticed. We found our friends down the road at the mechanic, balancing the car over a 15-foot cement ditch on two planks of wood. We were free! - Haywire

One year we were hanging out down in Baja Sur, towards the tip, near the town of Todos Santos. After surfing a beach break all day, we were just settling in for the night. As we began to cook dinner and have a few beers, the sun set and the light began to fade away. There were four of us that year, three guys and one girl. As it began to get dark, our female companion went to the car to get a flashlight to help with the cooking. The rest of us were sitting in the dark, cooking on the table by the back of the VW bus, when we heard talking. “Who is she talking to?” we asked ourselves. What we could not see was that she had come around the corner of the cars only to find this guy going through the truck, trying to rob us. Well, one by one we got up and proceeded to walk towards the commotion. First up was Thomas, followed by Lars and then myself. Just on the other side of the Toyota drivers side door was this fat, drunk, Mexican local, and he was naked! He was going on and on in his worst Spanglish about how he needed "agua por mi caro." Then Lars saw that he was holding something behind his back and then realized exactly what it was: my little blue bag that we kept the ‘kitty’ in, as in all of our expense money. As Lars

reached for it, the guy turned and started to run. Lars was quick to pursue and snatched it back from our drunk adversary. The guy ran off into the night towards his friends down the beach where they had been partying all afternoon. We kept worrying that the guy was going to return with his friends, so when these two figures appeared on the beach just at the edge our camp light, we quickly planned our defense. As it turned out, it was just two surfers from mainland Mexico coming over to say hello. I'll never forget the expressions on their faces when we told them the story of the guy who tried to rob us "completo desnudo" as they so eloquently put it. So, next time you are down in southern Baja camping near some partying locals, beware of the naked fat Mexican and his unabashed quest for your dinero. – John Sayers

A few years back, some good friends and I went to northern Baja during the holiday break. We headed straight for K37. After a couple hours of glassy waves all to ourselves, a dreadlocked surf gang paddled out. Tacos and cold beer were calling, we had had our share. Coming in over the sea urchin minefield, my buddy Watts starts frantically yelling at me. Once on the beach, the good surf vibes quickly vanished. Deadpan, Watts broke the bad news, “your car is gone.” I wasn’t mad, just shocked. Then, bummed about everything the banditos had stolen. I found a payphone and called my dad. No answer. I walked back and my friends were looking at me like I was the butt of a joke. They were standing around my brand new 6’6” pintail I had just surfed. A baseball-sized hole was now gracing the bottom. As it turns out, a car had driven by and lobbed an M80 off the bridge. It landed in the middle of the crew, bounced once and landed on my board and exploded. Talk about adding salt to the wound.

The string of bad luck was surreal. We kicked back and had a laugh. After a smoke and finishing off a twelve pack we headed for town. It felt odd strolling through Rosarito with a pink towel around my waist and a fluffy John Denver jacket. I gave the law dogs my report and can only imagine what a sight I was. We headed back to the U.S. – five guys in a ford ranger is not a smooth ride. The irony of it all? The Arizona State Troopers found my car a year and a half later smuggling Mexican folk over the Arizona/U.S. boarder. Thank god for Mexican car insurance. - Todd Cooper Barnes

One day when I was driving deep in Baja, I pulled up to the checkpoint of a yellow shirt Mexican DEA agent. Upon inspection of my trusty Toyota 4x4 packed with surfboards, bottles and clothes, the officer reached under my seat. I was relieved of a Playboy, which I was told to be illegal, and a small straight bladed hunting knife. I explained that I use the blade for cutting avocados and that it was a gift from my father to me when I was a kid; which made it extra special since birthdays were outlawed at age ten when the Jehova Witness’s took over. My sentiments met the slimy smile of fate as the officer unbuckled his pants and slid the knife and case onto his belt and proceeded to model it for me, bragging about how good he thought it looked on him. With the cold eyes of someone having been snaked on a set wave I carefully explained that I gave him no permission to have it and that taking it was on his conscience. My words were very careful because planting a kilo of dope on a solo surfer is an easy thing to do. The officer assured me that he was my friend and that everybody needs friends and that he was my best friend. I smiled, put my truck in gear, and drove off in a rage of disbelief that he would steal a piece of my childhood. To this day I haven’t heard from him and I find myself wondering why my best friend in Baja still hasn’t called to wish me happy birthday. – Cody McClintock

Between surf, beer and taco stop. Photo: Todd Cooper Barnes

Brad Ettinger Photo: Trefz

Ensenada Overview Photo: Hay

View from Chadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s deck Photo: Manny Caro

Tecate launched bottle rocket extravaganza. New Years Eve Photo: Hay

Thanks to the following for collaborating on this article: Jon Steele John Sayers Patrick Trefz Jason Murray Christine Hughes Todd Cooper Barnes Cody McClintock Chad Godett Chadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mom Manny Caro JR No thanks to: The Mexican Federales. You extortionist bastards!

Photo: Trefz

Birdies Photo: Christyle

Chadow Photo: JR

Full name. Nathan L. Fox Location. Brooklyn, NY – Originally from Houston, TX How long have you been in New York? Almost 4 years. After 4 years of unhappy - post undergraduate 9 to 5 jobs, I had to get focused or go crazy. So, I moved here with my girlfriend (now beautiful wife) in 2000 to go back to school and get my master’s degree. What’s the weirdest thing to ever happen to you riding the subway? While people watching and fantasising about their lives, I made eye contact with the woman next to me. At first glance she appeared normal. So I nodded hello and went about looking around at everyone, making up stories in my head. This would prove troublesome… As we pulled up to the next stop she coughed into her hand and hiked the skirt of her dress up a bit. Naturally, I looked in her direction and made eye contact again. In the process of almost being gentlemanly, I got a good look at her and what was not normal about her at all. She was almost indescribably “Teacher’s Pet” slutty. That older woman attractiveness that young boys from Texas find impressionable, but grow up only to wonder from time to time, “What the hell was I thinking?” Realizing this unwanted familiarity, I turned away quickly. But before I could turn, she licked her lips and hiked up her dress again. This continued for 4 or 5 more stops and I slid further and further away. Just before my stop arrived the moaning and groaning started. She started including other riders in her public displays. I had wanted to run at first, but now my curiosity was peaked. We were all watching. It was sick and amazing at the same time. I stepped off the train, hoping she wouldn’t smear the glass with her face as the train went by, or jump up and make a scene or something, but nothing happened. It could have been a performance for all I know. I didn’t even think about her again until your question. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Do you think living in New York has an influence on your work? Why? All I can say about that is I wouldn’t be where I am now if we hadn’t moved to NY when we did. I truly have a Love/Hate relationship with this place. Some of the best and worst live here. Some of the best and worst things can happen. Just living here has influenced my work. I would have to say the people are the best part of being here. A lot of characters to draw. How much of your life is consumed by art? Don’t know if I would say consumed, but most days. Working, freelancing and trying to have art shows, getting my stuff out there, begging to paint murals, that sort of thing. I am not a very active participant in the social art scene here. Don’t know if I want to be. I used to be all, “as much art as I can pack in.” But lately I have pretty much kept to myself. Doing research, working on print editions, that sort of thing. I am consumed by fitting in time to work on my own art. Struggling like most people to make ends meet, fulfill my responsibilities and enjoy being in NY. How important is music when you are drawing’? I don’t need it, but I sure as Hell love working to it. Nothing better than hooking on monster big stereo headphones and zoning out . Top 3 bands that get you artsy? Mr. Bungle (a lot of Mike Patton’s stuff, Fantomas, Tomahawk, etc.), Flogging Molly and Sex Mob, lately. OutKast’s new album gets

me jumping. Today, Mr. Lif’s I Phantom and PuffyAmiYumi. When I am working on a job, I usually pick something that suits the concept or genre. How much emphasis do you put on concept when you are creating a piece? Aside from illustration to solve a problem, not much. I just go with what works. Most of my personal stuff just happens. Dreams, fears, fantasies, movies, music. Ever since my graduate thesis I have been working with Fast Cars and loose women. Good ol’ sex and violence. I am just interested in making pictures and telling a story I like. Wherever I am headed, it’ll work itself out with time. As for the freelance, I enjoy being offered new subjects and images to solve a problem. Comics have felt the best so far though. That and silkscreen prints. Can’t say why. I just sleep better at night.

Are you a comic book junkie? Not really. I am just really getting started if I am. I have my favorites and collections going. I’m a bit too critical to be a junkies junkie in terms of collecting and selling. You can’t have a good story without equal art and vice versa. I didn’t get into comics until college. I went to school with some really talented artists. (Jim Mahfood, Mike Huttleston, Paul Chatem and Paul Briggs) Most of the books I started with came from hovering over their collections and finding new books as time went on. Jim and Mike had gods and monsters of the day. I fell off my chair looking through Goef Darrows Hard Boiled and Paul Chatem turned me on to a lot of alternative comics. Eight Ball and Love and Rockets were the first. I never took working in comics seriously. I went to school for Disney, what the hell did I know. Those boxes and shelves, man!… I think it was while watching Jim and Mike work, someone mentioned developing a “Visual Vocabulary.” Being able to manipulate images and objects in your head from memory, at will, and put it down on paper. I got hooked and that was that. What’s the worst head injury you’ve ever had? Car crash. Nailed on the passenger side by a bitch doing 50 or 55 on the shoulder of a 7 lane highway. In Texas, everything is too big to accommodate everyone, so the highways are usually too small for the traffic and the driveways are a free for all. She said she was turning into the same driveway to get to lunch at the restaurant on the other side. I had crossed rush hour to turn into the parking lot to meet my dear mother at the same location she claimed to be traveling to at mach speed. Everyone in traffic waived me on to cross through at a red light when wham. I hopped off the driveway and slid about 15 feet into a filled ditch. Bad smell in summer. I lost consciousness while a nurse who was on her way to lunch as well was holding my head still. It felt great though right after the impact. I almost made it out of the car to go see why I was in her way.

cult? Ever wish you Ever wonder how to start your own ted to do whatever wan just that kids of s had gang load t to ask the guys wan t migh you told them to? Well, you that RU36 time the In ed. start get to how 6 from RU3 tight-knit rre, biza a ted crea â&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve has been around they d care less about coul that kids n ridde t angs of circle RU36 has the police the consequences of their actions. nts frightened pare and department asking questions Houston ney Whit fan. a be t migh y Bobb that little well I guess e, futur the were ren believed that the child welcome to the future.

it that these one crazy fuckers used to go around and drop huge How long have you guys been playing as RU36? sit amounts of LSD in the coffee pots at various coffee houses and band first my AJ: We have been playing together since 96. This was it was not me or anyone I course Of it. drink people watching around and I have never played guitar our anything before RU36. Acid in know personally, but we wrote a song on our first album called Zappo: Yeah I’ve been playing in RU36 since I first started playing the Kona Blend. bass. It was 96 I think. Zappo: I don’t drink coffee. Who’s all in the band? RU36? How much does drug use play a part in song writing for Zappo: I play bass and sing and yell. but I am currently sober right drugs of lot a done have I Well, AJ: guys other few AJ: Me and Zappo do all the music but we have a and now. But I think it has played a big part in the way I view things and that help us when we play live. A-Tone operates our samplers designed basically is music our of All hear. to like I that sounds the soaker electronics and Two Mom Tim runs our lights and LSD super the around the fact that I have LSD psychosis and that I try to give cannons. a taste of what it is like to live in my mind. A lot of my inspilisteners cult? own your How does it feel to have n full ration comes from memories of things like listening to Beethove Zappo: It’s cool. You should start one. TV muted and about 20 hits of high the on Crystal Dark the with blast AJ: What are you a fuckin’ cop or something? grade acid running loose on my mind. RU36 In the beginning it was weird to see kids with RU36 tattoos and of Zappo: LSD was definitely a good inspiration to play the kinds desengotten just have I guess I but flesh, their into carved or burned enjoy still I now. sober I’m goes, writing as far as But play. we music it is that sitized to it. Now it seems normal to me. The best part about they hearing stories about people taking acid and flippin’ out cause of when we play a show it’s like we all play a show. Every last one Then they usually ask us if we were on drugs CDs. our to listened the to other each on feed We eyes. our fans is part of the show in my when we wrote it. get point that it feels like the whole thing is gonna just blow up and far as Apart from the music, RU36 seems to be pretty visual as way out of hand. t part of importan pretty a that Is stuff. and art ’s Pacheco Sean crazy? What do you think it is about RU36 that makes kids go so RU36’s presence? so AJ: I think the fact that we are real people and that there is ce. AJ: Absolutely. Shawn’s art is totally apart of the RU36 experien bullshit about sing don’t We fans. our of all much unity between working on a DVD with this phenomenal film dude are we now Right the from running like issues real teeny bopper crap, we sing about our named John Snapp. He is a total genius. We have been taping and cops, dropping acid in the coffee pot, fucking under age sluts, gave him a big ass box of tapes we and lives our filming and shows life suburban throwing watermelons at ten speed tweakers because is and he has really captured the true essence of RU36. The film kids is so fucking boring. Our message is the brutal truth and the called “Dumpster in the Sky” and will be out later this year. respond to that. kind of Zappo: Visuals are very important. Sean’s art work was also Zappo: I think vodka and LSD have a little bit to do with it. n for me. When we used to practice he would always be inspiratio an a law the with in run your about Do you want to tell the readers there painting some bad ass shit. So the music and the art have ment. while back...the one that involved a certain coffee establish always been a unit for me. had legend But AJ: I could never openly admit to any criminal activity.

e you? How old ar 16 t RU36? ll great abou funny as he What’s so and they’re in Contra y, av he is ic nd Their mus biggest ba n is like the cause I ca r music be well, RU36 ei th e lik I t real shit. ty. ou un co ab lk ta ta Cos they shit to lot of shit a bunch of relate to a st make up ju t n’ do They e bands . u tattoo th make cash would yo ll he e th Why in ? wn your body the scene. I’m a do name on ce. n with on w e do liv ly I’m Because g. You on representin fan and I’m your parents? t of te have, a lo Do you ha some times where I ey Th d. ba at en There’s be , but they aren’t all th s a lot. y as ally m tu ac ve sa es tim they t in court, help me ou

How old are you? 19 years of shit What’s so great about RU36? Well they are just two white trash dudes like me and they write good lyrics about what ever amuses them and they are somewhat musically talented and they are nerds just like me. Why the hell would you tattoo the bands name on your body? ‘Cause the tattoo symbolizes music friendship and good memories of fun times and I like the band a lot. Do you hate your parents? Well, parents for me is two moms and they are totally gay. They kicked me out with nothing and won’t let me move back in. They suck. They’re jewish.

How old are you? I’m 19 What is so great about RU36? I think the real question is what’s bad about RU36? I can’t think of one thing not to love about this band. They are loud heavy and hard fuckincore. But I guess the greatest thing is seeing them live and going crazy in the pit for every song. Why in the hell would you tattoo the bands name on your body? It represents where I grew up. Plus its gotten me laid on several occasions. Do you hate your parents? I hate parents in general.

How old are you? 21 What’s so great about RU36? RU36 is great because they are something new to the music scene, even though they have been around for years they are one of a kind, there is just massive amounts of energy coming off of the stage at live shows. They make fun of and put in perspective some very real issues in today’s world – inside their songs if you really listen to them (the songs). Oh, and they have some of the best god damn mosh pits I’ve ever seen. Do you hate your parents? No way, I love my parents without them I wouldn’t be here and besides my parents are old school cokeheads who like RU36 just as much as me.

CONCUSSION: WHEN DID YOU GUYS FIRST START THE BAND? Shane: Spring of 2001. CONCUSSION: WHO GOT EVERYONE TOGETHER? Shane: It was a mutual thing, but these guys were in a band already. Dave: Jake and I were in a band called Grand American Modified, it was pretty short lived. That band broke up, and I was in a band called Self Destruct for a little while, then I quit and started playing with these guys. Shane: It all started from scratch. Jake: We knew we wanted to be in a band together, but just waited until the right time. Dave: We all had kinda of the same idea of what we wanted to play, and what we wanted to do with the band. CONCUSSION: WHAT ARE THE BAND’S MAIN MUSICAL INFLUENCES? Shane: We started out saying stoner metal, old New York Hardcore and thrash. But now it’s just Hightower. Jake: Good music is good music. There’s so much stuff we enjoy. CONCUSSION: THERE WASN’T ANY BAND THAT YOU GUYS WERE LIKE “WE WANNA SOUND LIKE THAT!” Jake: I’m sure if you really listen you can hear things here and there that we were influenced by but nothing really in particular. Dave: We definitely have our inspiration and influences from Afro-Cuban to metal basically. CONCUSSION: HOW DO YOU GUYS PUT YOUR SONGS TOGETHER? Shane: I don’t know, they write themselves. Dave: We’ll come in with a riff, a riff will just

Photographs & Interview by Ryan Furtado

happen. Just half jamming. Kinda of just piece it together. Jake: They write themselves. Shane: We’re just the vehicles. (laughs) Jake: Skategods come down and just sprinkle magical music dust upon us. CONCUSSION: DOES HIGHTOWER PLACE MORE OF A VALUE ON THE INSTRUMENTAL QUALITIES OR LYRICAL CONTENT OF YOUR MUSIC? Shane: Lyrics come when they come, you know. Dave: Personally, I like instrumentals. Jake: Yeah, lyrics are only there when they fit. Shane: During the instrumentals, we try to leave the lyrics up to people’s imagination. Dave: I guess that’s part of our whole song writing thing, if something needs vocals or someone thinks vocals will sound good on a certain part…. Shane: Or we’ll have vocals written and on a certain part of a song they’ll fit in perfect. Otherwise we’d rather just keep the vocals low and rock out. Jake: Yeah, were not going to force them in. CONCUSSION: WHAT OTHER BANDS DO YOU GUYS LIKE TO PLAY WITH? All: S.T.R.E.E.T.S! American River! Shane: Damage Case. Jake: We like to play with friend’s bands. It’s more of a party atmosphere...everyone knows each other.

Bro-band factor. Shane: We like playing mixed shows the best, ya know. Jake: You don’t want to go to a show where you see six bands and everyone sounds the same. Dave: Yeah, it gets boring by the third band, when it all sounds the same. CONCUSSION: HOW LONG HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN LIVING IN SAN FRANCISCO’S MISSION DISTRICT. Shane: Five years for me. Jake: Four years. Dave: Six. CONCUSSION: WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK THE MISSION HAS OVER OTHER NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE SAN FRANCISCO? Jake: Personality. Shane: All our friends. Dave: Sunshine. Jake: Burritos. Shane: It definitely has more of a community vibe than any other neighborhood. Jake: Yeah, it’s just more of a neighborhood. It doesn’t really feel like a big city. CONCUSSION: WHAT CAME TOGETHER FIRST? THE GNARGOYLES OR HIGHTOWER? All: Gnargoyles. Dave: Gnargoyles spawned Hightower. Jake: Hightower is officially a Gnargoyle band. Shane: Yeah, we started in a Gnargoyle house. There were 15 of us living in one house in the Mission. We had a ramp in the yard and everything. Dave: And a band in the kitchen. We started playing in that kitchen. CONCUSSION: HOW LONG WAS THE HOUSE GOING FOR? Shane: 6 years. Our first shows were there in that backyard.

CONCUSSION: WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THAT HOUSE? Shane: It was done, it ran it’s course. It got wrecked. Jake: (Laughs) Yeah, I feel bad for the people who moved in. CONCUSSION: DO YOU THINK THERE’S A BIG GAP BETWEEN MUSIC THAT SKATEBOARDERS LISTEN TO NOW AS OPPOSED TO 10 OR 20 YEARS AGO. Dave: Just a broader range. Jake: There’s just a lot more skateboarders. There’s a lot of different kinds of people skateboarding. It’s not just punk rockers skateboarding anymore, so there’s so much different music that’s classified as skate music. CONCUSSION: DO YOU THINK IT HAS A GOOD INFLUENCE OR BAD INFLUENCE? All: Both. Shane: Skate kids now probably don’t know who the Minute Men are, unfortunately. CONCUSSION: WHAT BANDS DID YOU GUYS LISTEN TO WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP SKATING? Jake: Any New York hardcore. Dave: I loved all those Santa Cruz videos cause of all those great bands. Shane: Bl’ast, Firehose, Minute Men. All the Hstreet music like Sub-Society. And those were just local bands from their skate scene. Dave: Then there was always tons of thrash metal and stuff like that. CONCUSSION: WOULD YOU GUYS LIKE TO GIVE ANY THANK YOUS OR SHOUTS OUT TO ANYONE? Shane: Gnargoyles, worldwide. Dave: Thanks to everyone who comes to our shows. CONCUSSION: WHO WOULD WIN IN A GNARGOYLES VS. JAKS JOUST? Jake: I think we’d be on the same team. Shane: Gnargoyles are a friendly gang. Dave: We are going to challenge the Piss Drunx to a bowling match, if they wanna step to it.

“As if I even need to tell you, the band Motorhome has a logo that is a take on MOTORHEAD’s. Never saw that one coming. Utterly predictable horseshit here: dumb punk’n’roll (and by “punk” I mean “not punk”) with snarled hick tough-guy vocals. It’s stuff like this that almost makes getting free records shitty-almost.” –Amp magazine July ‘03

“As if I need to tell you, this reviewer is a pansy. Which is not that surprising considering most record reviews are condescending diatribes of ignorance anyway. Utterly predictable horseshit? Do you suck your mom’s dick with that mouth? Sheesh. And seriously, unless you’re Ian McKaye or Iggy Pop, I don’t care what you think is “punk” and what is ”not punk.” Don’t go away mad...please just go away.”

Lord knows that I’ve had to write quite a few record reviews for Concussion. Sometimes it’s not so bad when you get some decent music to review, but in general, it’s potentially one of the most painful/monotonous activities ever, second only to going to the DMV. I would find after reviewing 15 records (my eyes bleeding hate) I would just slip into talking shit about the bands.Truth be told, sometimes they’re not too bad but because I despise writing music reviews so much I would snap. Even still, what does this guy at Amp magazine have clearly wedged in his/her ass to give Motorhome a bad review? So, first and foremost I would like to review this reviewers review..ahhhem:

Motorhome is a 5 piece that hails from San Francisco. The first time I experienced them was at the Damaged premiere a while back and needless to say my ass was rocked. If you’ve never seen Motorhome, it comes highly recommended. I would say to definitely pick up this album, however, your first priority should be to see them live. Similar to bands like Drunk Horse or the Black Furies, their live show is where it’s at. We met up with Motorhome at the Zeitgiest over ribs and cheeseburgers to see what’s the deal and to find out why record reviewers hate them. It’s awesome the way frontman/self-proclaimed lead asshole Matt

D’s eyes light up when he talks about the review in Amp, “...‘snarled hick tough-guy vocals’, I mean that’s a diss but I was stoked, I loved that review.” That’s one thing you notice right off about the guys in Motorhome, they truly don’t give a fuck. It’s all comedy to them and they just play rock’n’roll for a good time, weird concept. Lefty guitarist Rob Vastano sites another review by Maximum Rock’n’Roll in which they were labeled “musical vandalism,” which we all agreed was funny considering everything in MRR is the same and pretty much sucks. Rob was originally in All About Evil with Mike Baptista (righty guitarist). The two had been playing music together for 20 years. After the demise of All About Evil, Rob and Mike hooked up with Bryan Coons (bass) who brought Matt D (aforementioned lead asshole) and last but not least, drummer Tim Curry to form Motorhome. From talking to the band you get the idea that the rock’n’roll fantasy of packed coliseums and drug infused orgies is far from a reality. Considering four of the five members are married, all the backstage “perks” fall on the only single member, the mustached lady killer, Matt D. “These guys depend on me to vicariously live the life,” like the Red Cross, Matt comes to the aid of his brothers. The guy’s a saint.

As our rainy day interview continued we ended up getting way off course talking about everything from cole slaw to why strip clubs in Portland are so much better than strip clubs in the Bay Area. I believe Matt D said it best “it’s like the difference between Burnside and Dublin.” So true. Then as we were wrapping up I asked if there was anything else the band wanted to say and Rob said something great, “Why does San Francisco hate rock’n’roll?” Thank god somebody said it. Rob continued, “take the Black Furies, that’s a great rock band that will railroad your ass and people go to their shows and watch it like they are watching TV.” It’s the sad truth that most rock shows these days, it’s more about what you’re wearing and who you know than how rocking the band is. Motorhome has a new 7” out on Infringement Records (get it at interpunk.com) and probably by the time you read this they will have a full length out, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Also you better believe these guys are down with the Silly Pink Bunnies, you’d better ax somebody. - Don Frenchy Photos by Rob Taylor

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SIDEWALK In Motion I thought it was kind of odd that a British skateboard magazine was sending us a VHS video, because we use different formats here and there, and it seemed like the video shouldn’t work. But these are some smart guys, and they made special NTSC copies for us blokes over here. Sidewalk is one of the bigger British skate mags and kind of reminds me of Skateboarder or whatever. This video is pretty well done, somewhat artsy with Super 8 clips here and there. This flick is mostly street skating from the UK and beyond. Lots of rough and rugged spots, sketchy brick banks and weird transitions. Definitely not your average strip mall or playground, which was a nice change. I hadn’t heard of most (or, any) of the guys in this video, but that’s because for the most part they’re all European. There might have been a random Jason Adams appearance and a couple other things like that. Anyway some of these guys were better than others but overall there were some interesting spots and some good skating. The only negative thing I can say about this video is that I didn’t like the soundtrack, which was mostly Beatles-influenced alterna-Brit pop or whatever. Wasn’t into that, but the skating was good. I’m not sure if they’re selling this video over here but these Sidewalk Magazine guys surely have a website and if you can find that you’ll find out if you can order this. - DK

THE DC VIDEO Deluxe Edition DVD Wow this sure is a fancy DVD. It comes bound with a little book which talks about the filming of this video. There is definitely some good street skating in here, Anthony Van Englen and Stevie Williams stuck out, but the real reason you should watch this is for the Danny Way part, if you haven’t seen it already. It is absolutely insane, he kills it on the vert ramp so hard it’s really not even funny. And then there’s the super gap kicker thing that ends in a 29 foot quarter pipe. This is where Danny puts every snowboarder that’s ever tried to huck-whirl the superkicker to shame, as he does all snowboard tricks on a skateboard. And if that’s not enough, the DVD has a bonus Danny Way part which is even more out of hand. They put a big box (and subsequently rainbow rail on top) in the middle of the superkicker so it’s like a giant fun box. Which he proceeds to go to town on, culminating in noseblunt slides and 270 lipslides and I don’t even remember what else. But that shit is worth watching alone, and if you want to watch the rest of the DVD that’s cool too. - DK

NO TALKING A Ballard Production Everyone has seen the Danny Way Part in the DC video, and yes it’s amazing. But are you going to watch it in order to get stoked to skate? No, of course not, because it has nothing to do with actual skateboarding. Matt Ballard’s new video, “No Talking” is pure skateboarding. This video features footage of G-Man, Rob Slob, Bailey, Hitz, Pino, Roche, Ox, Delgado, and more. Highlights include tons of pipe and pool skating, including footage of Eddie Alioto skating some ridiculously deep pool as if its a miniramp. There’s also a bunch of footage of Bailey and some locals skating that bowl in the Basque country — after I watched this part I started checking the price of flights to Spain. But the best thing about this video is all the footage of Washington Street. That place is so gnarly, you can’t even understand how crazy some of this shit is until you skate it. But these guys kill it. As Ballard says, he’s a skateboarder, not a filmer. If you care more about slow-mo and artsy angles than skateboarding, watch the DC Video. Otherwise, skip that shit and throw this one in. It will make you want to skate. - DA

ARE YOU ALRIGHT? Transworld This is one of the first almost all-good Transworld videos that I’ve seen in a while. Usually they put out videos that kind of suck except they have one really really good rider whose part is sick, like Tony Trujillo or Drehobl. Are You Alright? is a road trip video to Oregon in a super plush RV, and features Pat Duffy, Danny Way, Clint Peterson, Ryan Wilburn, Aaron Harrison, Jud Hertzler and a few other guys. Most of the footage is really good but the thing that bugged me the most was the lame narration by a bad imitation of an old southern black guy or something. I guess they put that in to keep the kids entertained. The skating is good enough to overlook that irritating flaw, and it was also nice to be able to skip to my favorite parts (and parks) during subsequent viewings of the DVD. That being said, my favorite parts included Klamath Falls and Pat Duffy’s gnarly transfer into the over vert cock and balls bowl, West Linn, Burnside, Ballard Bowl and Danger killing himself, Bainbridge, and Danny Way killing it at Orcas and Hailey. Clint Peterson had a lot of rad shit, but I would’ve liked to see more Jud Hertzler footage. It’s also pretty surprising how well Pat Duffy can skate tranny, he was killing it pretty hard on this trip. Wilburn ollieing off an RV at Burnside was pretty funny too. There’s also some pretty good street skating interspersed, especially one loading dock session with Donny Barley that was nice. So yeah, overall this is a good DVD showcasing badass riders visiting some of the best cement parks around. Hard to go wrong with that one. -DK

MINOR THREAT DC Space • Buff Hall • 9:30 Club This is a Minor Threat Live DVD. It has three shows on it, which are of various (technical) quality and times throughout the band’s short history. The quality and intensity of the shows seem to get progressively more intense, as do the quality of the recordings. Some of this stuff has been available on VHS in the past, but I’m not really sure of the details. A notes section on each show was a nice addition, as was the 16 page booklet full of photos and stuff. No cheap ass non insert DVD here unlike most of them aside from the DC video which was a book. If you are a fan of Minor Threat then you’ll probably want to see this if not own it, for what you’re getting it’s not very expensive. - DK

ZEKE Zeke You DVD I was pretty hyped when this Zeke DVD showed up, but then I watched it for five minutes, turned it off, and then promptly forgot about it for two months. I’m a big Zeke fan, but somehow the DVD started off in such an amateur style and had a bunch of random, sort of funny interviews with the band while on tour, that when they finally got to showing Zeke play live from such a shitty bootleg angle with blown out sound from the camcorder, that I was over it. I love/loved seeing Zeke play live, but I didn’t really like watching them on the TV. But then I watched this thing again recently, and it grew on me. For one thing, I watched more than five minutes of it. And to their credit they actually have a disclaimer on the box which says something like “Yeah we know the audio on the songs is super shitty and the filming sucks, but it’s still Zeke.” And it’s true. While we’re at it, the editing sucks too, but underneath all of the shaky angles and drunken backstage interviews is Zeke playing live on tour for a couple years, 2000-2003 or something. Some of the shows are better than others, some of the audio quality is better at times, but the shows that are good are really fucking good. The one that stuck out the most was the one from England filmed from the soundboard, which apparently was their last show. I wonder if they knew it would be their last show, because they were rocking extra hard and extra fast. So if you like Zeke then you might want to check this out. It’s not the most well produced DVD or anything, but if you want raw rock and roll then you’ve found it. - DF

split on second listen. I Want You have a bit more of a melodic hardcore sound. I like them as well, but Creep Division won this sucker hands down. I will pursue more Creep Division. Great CD, you should get it. – Sick Boy Darlington All The Wrong Moves Woah Oh Records Adolf and the Piss Artists Hate Generator TKO Records I've been curious about these guys for some time now. So here's what I hear: Hardcore-OiPunk. You know, like The Exploited, The Oppressed, and Blitz. They pull it off pretty well. There are three covers, one from each of these bands: The Oppressed, The Samples, and The Valves. This is the last recorded document of the band formerly known as Adolf and the Piss Artists. They now are APA and include Perry from the Templars on bass, Mark Magee from Anti-Heroes and Condemned 84 on guitar, and Amos Insane on drums. This is a great release and hopefully a gateway to a better, badder band. I still love this label and most of the bands on it. Buy to Die. – Sick Boy

From the sleeved tattoo dude on the cover holding Gator’s Vision model, I had some reservations about this CD before I slipped it in. A touch of US Bombs style guitar solos throughout mix with a more generic radio friendly love song style which leaves this release neither here nor anywhere. There is nothing left to hang on to. If my ears were hands, Darlington would slip through my fingers like sand, to remain forgotten and unnoticed. Stepped on and grinded into the ground, dispersed and diffused, “All the Wrong Moves” would eventually return to the earth, to reform, and perhaps grow into another form of music with a more specific core rather than a confused and shallow identity. That said, fans of light pop punk with a little harder edge would lick this up. – J. Hay

Bad Reaction Six Songs Self-Release

The Darkness Permission to Land Must Destroy Music / Atlantic Records

In my drunken stupor in Vegas at Punk-Rock Bowling (everyone should go, damn it), I ran into some cool dude name Kash. I came to find out he likes street thrash, lived around the corner from me in Echo Park, and was in a band called Bad Reaction. He said that he would give me a copy and bring it to me later. He ended up coming back later with the copy and I was just stoked that he had remembered, even though he was wasted. So I popped in the CD and the first thing that came to mind was Smog Town. In a way I am really bad at comparing music to other music unless it is that obvious. What I can say is that it is fast, angry, has six-songs and leaves you wanting more. They have a lot of good people on their thank you list, which is always a good sign. Casper

So what do you people know about music? Do you realize that music has been stagnating for the past 10 years, at least? I can honestly say, that besides Electric Frankenstein, Scissorfight, and Kill Allen Wrench, there hasn't been anything truly exciting in Rock. The Darkness bring back the fun and power of Metal/Rock. The theatrics are hilarious. The lyrics to the songs are infallible. If you've ever enjoyed Heavy Metal or a Monty Python skit, then The Darkness will tickle your fancy. The video for "I Believe in A Thing Called Love" is one of the best video's I've ever seen. Most of these guys used to be in the band, "Empire." The lead singer plays guitar, piano, keyboards, and sings like you've never heard. There is a feeling of hard rockin' comedy to every song they put out. For instance, the song "Love on The Rocks With No Ice" is a great play on words and a crazy vocal rhythm. I welcome any singer out there to attempt to follow the vocals on this song. It's like some master opera singer just testing each vocal chord. I must say that whatever success these lads receive is righteously so. These guys are the actual Spinal Tap with a shitload more talent. I would love for them to take over all Pop radio stations. If their video for "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" doesn't win some awards, I will be totally blown away. What a breath of fresh air. The Darkness are golden gods. Highly Recommended. – Sick Boy

Bad Religion Punk Rock Songs Epic Records I have to admit that Bad Religion is my favorite band of all of time. Thank you. Now I can proceed. I came upon this album thinking that I knew all of what existed by this band. Apparently, I am not as much of a fan as I proclaimed to be. This album was printed in Japan and is basically a compilation. Recorded songs included range from the Atlantic Records era to live songs that stem from the Epitaph years. There is a live duet with Biohazzard (“We’re only gonna die”) and there are also some songs I have never even heard “Dream of Unity” (good shit my friends) and “Dodo.” Greg Graffin even lends to you, the listener, his ability to sing in German. There are 25 songs all together on this album. This is a must for real BR fans. BR is coming out with a new album really soon, so prepare yourself. Whaachooee! - Casper Betty Blowtorch Last Call Foodchain Records This is a fantastic album on a sad premise. Bianca Butthole has past, leaving a trail of Rock in her wake. If you're a punk chick and you don't know who she is, you are way behind. Start here and go backwards, although you won't have to go far. This thing has a bunch of her old Butt Trumpet songs and a bunch of unreleased songs. I personally think Bianca and Texas Terri are underrated. These ladies kick as much ass as the men. Anyways, we lost Bianca. She has worked with a crap load of people, including The Meatmen. Any woman that can jam with the Meatmen has got some rocks in her sock. All the songs on here are great. Some better than others, but none are bad. I don't know what else to tell you. If you don't know these ladies then buy it, if you do know them, then this is their best stuff. Get It. – Sick Boy Creep Division / I Want You Split LP Lorelei Records Very minimalist packaging, leaving me with no insight into either band, so all I could do was listen to it. I really like it. I can't exactly figure out where one band ends and the other begins. I know that Creep Division rule. If you like the Old Hardcore/Skatecore/Metalcore then you will love these guys. They blew me away. I'd love to see them live. I can hear the 88

Deminer Woes and So’s Johann’s Face Straight up: This is the best punk rock record to come out of Chicago in 2003. No whining, no bullshit, no rap breakdowns, no funny stuff, no expensive haircuts, no shtick. If you ever liked listening to Pegboy, Naked Raygun, or Jawbreaker, this record will do you right. So c’mon, get you a copy already, candy ass. Your life will be richer and you a better person for the effort. - Mickey Descendents 'merican Fat Wreck Since the early '80's, the Descendents have been writing some of the catchiest pop punk, and it's both comforting and surprising that they can still manage to continue to pull it off today without sounding washed-up. Most '80's "punk" bands that are still

around are embarrassing to hear or see live, but the Descendents put out a solid release in 1996 and this four song EP is good as well. The first song is about watching TV with your girl, the title track "'merican" is an aptly sassy jab at our beloved country and contains the line, "You've got to know the truth before you can say that you've got the pride", "Here with Me" sounded like "Clean Sheets" and the third song kind of rambles, because it's seven minutes long, which means it's really like three or four separate songs because Descendents songs are like two minutes long. Some of them are good and some of 'em aren't so hot. But still, this little EP is probably one of the best things I'll listen to or review this month. - DK The Dirtbombs Dangerous Magical Noise In the Red Records Ever heard of these guys? Well you better get to hearing. The Dirtbombs are out of Detroit and have been putting a little soul back into rock’n’roll for three albums now. This five piece consists of 2 bass players, 2 drummers and 1 guitarist, which might sound excessive but once you hear the ass they kick it’s hard to argue. I suppose people that like to put things in boxes would say these guys are garage rock, but that just doesn’t do them justice. My favorite track is “Stop” a little ditty in which Mick lays down a veritable motown classic. Another doozy is “I’m through with white girls”, the title alone speaks for itself. This should be my friend Egg’s theme song because I think I’ve probably heard him say this like a hundred times. What’s wrong with the white girls? Once you go cracker it only gets wacker. Oh shit, I just made that up, I’m a retard. – Lee Dog Fuckr 50 Lb. Shit Horsejohn Records This is Shane Scoffone (team manager of The Driven)’s, debut release on Horsejohn records. The word debut makes things sound really official, which is why I sarcastically used it. 50 pound shit weighs in right around there, with 5 tracks at about 10 pounds of crap each. That’s a lot of shit. Shane growls death metal lyrics along to drums beat as fast as possible, along with some computerized drum machine sound as he sprays shit gold and presents it with a home made sharpy-on-a-torn-paper-cover. This is truly a DIY release all forms. He even said he threw in the last two songs, just for me, the night before. I’m honored. My favorite number, Track 2, sounds like 5 bush pigs fucking while being axed to death by a jealous nun ending their bloody orgy in honor of satan. For added effect, crank this through a shitty computer speaker and turn it up all the way so it sounds super fuzzed and muffled. I’ve listened to this 4 times already, which is more than I’ve listened to any of these other CDs, so that must mean it’s my favorite, right? Or maybe I’m just full of shit. It’s possible that it is available through automodown.com – J. Hay Eddie Spaghetti The Sauce Mid-Fi Supersuckers front man does the solo thing with mixed results. Good: Kris Kristofferson’s “The Best of All Possible Worlds.” Bad: what must be the 10,000th cover of Johnny Cash’s “Cocaine Blues,” and what must be the 10,000th failure to improve on the original. Ugly: the remake of “Sleepy Vampire,” one of the most beat tracks from the last Supersuckers record. But great: “Killer Weed.” When I first got this record I wanted it to be good like “Must’ve Been High” so I could say something clever like “dude, quit your day job,” but after listening to it a bunch of times I’m sort of like, “uh, don’t quit your day job.” Don’t get me wrong, this is a good record, one that in a perfect world would do better than that crap country poseurs like Ryan Adams toss off, but it ultimately seems more inconsequential than it should. It doesn’t nail the classic country sound like “Must’ve Been High” and it doesn’t have the kind of rawness you want these solo-type records to have. More Nashville than Bakersfield, this record takes aim at Willie Nelson and hits Conway

Twitty. – Mickey Electric Frankenstein meets El Nada Finger Records This is a killer idea. Each band does three originals and then they cover one song from the other band. EF chose 502 Blues by El Nada. El Nada chose NY Knights by Electric Frankenstein. If you have followed EF you know they are unstoppable. They can take anyone else's song and make it their own. They did it on the split with The Supersuckers, they've done it with Iron Maiden songs, Motorhead songs, you name it they can do it. El Nada are little known by myself. They are a hardcore group from L.A. They give off a great sound and vibe. Hateful, of course. The cover art is cool. It's like Monster Biker Mexican art. Cool stuff for those in the know. Buy or Fry. – Sick Boy Fantomas Delerivm Cordia Ipecac Recordings Even if you tend not to like any of Mike Patton’s projects, one can not help but respect the sheer volume of work produced by this man. The musical miles and styles covered by Patton and his many cohorts throughout the years range from rock to pop, from calculated noise to spontaneous improvisation. The first Fantomas effort explored a dark tapestry of metal thunder and cliche shrouded in the context of an obscure comic book. Their next album consisted of perverted interpretations of movie themes given the distinct Fantomas treatment. It can only make sense then that their next record would provide a detailed soundtrack for surgical procedure. This is by far the most conceptually ambient of the three albums recalling the more abstract works of John Zorn as well as Patton’s solo piece "Pronzo Altranzista." Fans of Patton’s more straightforward work should be forewarned that this is not going to be as simply absorbed. There are definite moments of intensity as well as sweet melody hidden beneath the layers of skin waiting to be dissected and examined piece by piece. An album like this makes me question the utterly pretentious notion of art for art’s sake such as after viewing a Fellini film. Nevertheless, in a similar way, I find my thoughts resonating far beyond the casual listen. This album is a puzzle waiting to be put together for those with the patience. And, for those without...at least peep the really gory pictures included inside the all-too-cool package design! - Sgt. Scrapes Jet Get Born Elektra Records I hate mass media. I hate 95% of what is on television. I hate the people behind the scenes, controlling the whole flow of our society, brainwashing the youth and creating a docile, easily contained culture. With that said, I saw these guys on MTV and I really liked them. They are one of two bands that I really like, that have been played on MTV. The second is The Darkness. My wife really liked Jet when she saw the video. So I bought her the CD. Now I really like Jet. There are several influences that they wear on their sleeve. First off, The Rolling Stones are idolized by these guys, along with Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, and dozens of garage rock. At times, I hear totally original sounds that are going to develop into huge hits. These guys are doing the right thing by worshipping the ROCK. If you haven't heard these guys yet, give 'em a whirl. Truthfully, I believe these guys could level most bands out there right now. I even love their slow songs. Get this NOW! - Sick Boy Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros Streetcore Hellcat Records It is sad to think how many people we have lost within the last couple of years, but let’s not dwell on their passing and more on what they have done for our lives. I think that I was fortunate to have had listened to this solo album before any of the others. I was very hesitant to listen to the solo albums, because… well frankly a lot of solo albums don’t hold up compared to the original band. Well, this album just happened to fall in my lap and it didn’t disappoint in the least. Maturity and age can bring a person to certain enlightenment that most of us young people try to achieve on an every day basis. Joe

Strummer has reached that level on a spiritual and musical level. His voice has the harmony of the angels above. Some of the notes he hits on this album are just amazing. Another element about this album is that it has so many different styles-from Acid-Jazz, Folk, Punk, Blues, and just plain Rock ‘N’ Roll. This album did not get boring all the way through. Although the song “Acid Test” was a little annoying, but other than that, good stuff my friend. So remember the ones who gave us so much and listen to the words they sing. - Casper Johnny Cash American lV: The Man Comes Around American Sometimes we never really realize someone’s talent or influence they have on our own personal lives until they die. In the case of Johnny Cash, I identify with the latter. I have listened to country for years but didn’t get older country until I listened to Meryle Haggard. Johnny Cash had come through Folsom prison, played a concert to the inmates and inspired a troubled hopeful man to play country music. You guessed it. Meryle Haggard was one of those inmates. If someone could influence Meryle, then they had my respect. I had heard many songs by Cash, my favorite being “Boy Named Sue.” Even so, I didn’t get Johnny Cash as much until I saw a video on CMT a month or so ago. It displayed older Cash sitting on a master’s chair and in front of him laid an array of fruit, wine, and other items that a king would lavish on a dinner table. The scenes go back and forth from that to footage of Cash when he was younger. The music goes right along with the visual. It brought a tear to my eye, dude. And to come to find out that this was a cover of NIN’s “Hurt” only made me respect him even more. Someone who could put so much feeling into a song that he didn’t even write said so much. It was as if that song was meant for him. Needless to say, the next day I was out on the hunt for this CD. I came upon a copy that had the song “hurt” on DVD for only 2 dollars more. Along with this song on the album Cash covers “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” by Simon and Garfunkle, “Personal Jesus” by Depeche Mode and a few others. Johnny lays down some of his own tracks and they are well done. “You could have it all, my empire of dirt.” - Casper The Low Budgets Go For Broke Akhenation Music / Schuylkill Records What we have here is bunch of Philadelphia fellows trying hard to raise their musical bar past punk. With the addition of keys, adjustment of tempo and a bit more melody to their sound, the Low Budgets have succeeded in doing so. Unfortunately, it seems they did not step up the vocals to match the music. Not to say that they are terrible, but they do tend to drag the music down a notch both in content and execution. For example, lyrics such as, "Life can be so brutal, so you gotta use your noodle" sung a bit off time (and key) just doesn’t cut it like it must have back in the day. Still, the music is fun and could be very interesting if they took themselves a bit more seriously. Sgt. Scrapes MAJHAS Stepping into Character Hawthorne Street Records Never heard of these guys. Hard, heavy, screaming, New Style Hardcore. The lyrics are pretty decent. I, of course, put them up next to Fall Silent and they pale in comparison. I dislike new hardcore. Saying that, this is a good release. They show diversity and style. I would like it a lot more if the singer wasn't screaming every lyric. Not bad, not great. - Sick Boy Mondo Generator A drug problem that never existed RekordsRekords/Ipecac Records This is Mondo’s follow up to Cocaine Rodeo and it’s pretty much the same blur of blistering drug crazed songs. If you’re a Kyuss freak and follow all the crazy side projects then you’ll probably recognize some staple Desert Sessions songs being changed from rocking to acoustic or vice versa. The acoustic version

of “Day That I Die” is amazing and makes the song totally brand new for me. The original tracks are great too. How can you go wrong with the line-up of heavies involved here. By far the most ass-shaking track would have to be “Fuck You I’m free”, it’s just classic Nick Oliveri, pissed off and spitting in your face. Another standout is “Detroit, purely on it’s musical merit it is just a great well-written song. OK, I’m done swinging from this records nuts, it’s good, whatever, go buy it or go steal it, I could care less. It is good though. – Lee

tening to this record everyday for the last month driving around Chicago, and the “fully realized project” sounds to me like the soundtrack to a bleak, cold winter. To each his own, perhaps. I’m reminded of Arnold Schoenberg’s remark that there’s something in good music that best “ought perhaps to remain incomprehensible” to the listener. Talking about it only makes it banal. This is good music, so let’s stop talking about it and keep it that way. Fair enough: mix Kyuss, mid-period Led Zeppelin, and Neurosis, take out all the vocals, and just dig it. – Mickey

Naked Aggression The Gut Wringing Machine Rodent Popsicle Records

The Postal Service Give Up

Kirsten Patches is the lead singer of NA. She is small in size. She teaches to kids in South Central LA, yet she still is able to spew out such angst-driven lyrics. Although this album doesn’t have the same energy as earlier NA album’s, it still keeps up, letting it be known that they are still here. If you don’t know who Naked Aggression is then let me leave you with some of Kirsten’s lyrics (all together in the loudest female screaming voice you can do) “What ya want me to do, stick a coat hanger up my cunt!?” - Casper Nik Frietas Heavy Mellow Future Farmer Recordings Recorded after midnight in Visalia, Heavy Mellow, Nik Frietas’ 2nd release, must be my standout listen for this issue. Nik Frietas is a skateboard photographer whose photographs have graced the pages of Thrasher and Consolidated ads for years. But it looks, or rather, sounds like Nik’s skills don’t stop behind the lens. As the title suggests, Heavy Mellow is both that: heavy and mellow. Some tracks start out on the acoustic guitar, almost sounding like an earlier Radiohead, others sound like a distorted but slowed down Bob Dylan or some grunged out emo Elton John piano song, while other songs sound like Modest Mouse if they had remembered to take their Prozac. The originality scale is tipping the scales, while at the same time fondling many different styles of music. Some tracks have a rocking punk drum style, with Pavement / Sebadoh styled vocals and rhythm while others sing along like the Beatles before they took their LSD. But comparing Nik Freitas to a bunch of radically different bands doesn’t give this the justice it deserves. Listen to it yourself and you may come up with something completely different. The lyrics range from transcendently deep, to heartfelt sentimentality. For anyone who isn’t afraid of both their angry and sensitive sides, Heavy Mellow should be part of your music collection. For the rest of you macho macho men, go rock out to some Pantera. – J. Hay Outkast The Love Below/Speaker Boxx Arista I wrote a review for this album before it got the attention it did at the awards. I was fortunate to have heard the song “Hey Ya” before the album came out. I hadn’t anticipated a hip-hop album since Humpty. I even tried to get the punkest of punk’s, Sick Boy, to give these guys respects. He said they were doing something by they way they were dressing. That was a start. Anyway this album isn’t even hiphop dude. This album has broken so many barriers and the way Outkast present themselves through the exterior just solidifies that they are different from any other “hip-hop” artist out there. If you have not yet heard this album, buy it, eat it, suck it, do what ever you may, just please don’t call it hip-hop. Wait could it be… yes I do like Hip Hop… no this is not Hip Hop… man whatever you call this music, it is good artistic music. “I’m leaning out the window/caressin’ indo feels body/ where’s the party.” OK has come along way. - Casper Pelican Australasia Hydra Head On their website, Pelican says that this album is a “fully realized project. It has a beginning and an end, a theme and a structure.” They elaborate no further, and there’s no vocals in any of the songs. I’m puzzled about the concept. Little about this album suggests Australia to me, nor do pictures of Asia come to mind. The cover art does look like some kind of tropical sunset. I guess that might be relevant, I don’t know. I do know I’ve been lis-

from the Spindrift crew to date. I look forward to viewing the yet unreleased film to see just how the individual pieces work themselves into the story line. – Sgt. Scrapes http://www.drophit.net/spindrift/ The Staggers One Heartbeat Away From Heaven Haunted Town Records

The end result is an album that is creeping its way into radio play due to its sheer brilliance. I don't quite get the magic of DCFC, but The Postal Service definitely hits home as one of my favorite albums of 2003. - Cody McClintock

I own the first Staggers release and like it immensely. So when this new one showed up, I had high hopes. I wasn't let down. These guys have their sound down. It's very eclectic - a solid blend of Oi, Psychobilly, Country, and Punk. Their first album was a great release. I love that album. This album is pretty good. It's just that they didn't build on their sound. I believe you get better as you go, so even though the sound is very similar to the first album, it still doesn't have the progress I expected. The highlights for me are the two covers and the hidden tracks. However, I must speak of the song "Abducted by Nazi's in Hollywood." The opening lyric goes like this, "Theaters or Gas chambers? It all seems the same, Make believe in their stories, Studio gestapo, It's how they tame." I believe they are calling the jewish media, nazi's. Huh, interesting. They cover Hank Williams (The original) song "I Saw the Light" and The Royal Guardsmen's "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron." Both songs are fantastic. Now the hidden tracks are my favorite. It's just Joe Blow (rhythm guitar and lead vocals), a guitar, a tape recorder, a four track and beer. I really like these four or five songs. He should do a solo album all drunk and low fi. This is a good album in the sense that it's decent music. I can't recommend this album to anyone who doesn't own the first album. I know I'm kinda crazy, but it's my opinion and it stinks. Killer label !!!! - Sick Boy

Spark of Life

The Strokes

If you grew up loving the upbeat electronic sounds of the eighties and own the music of 'Kings of Convenience' or Erlende Oye then 'Give Up' will fit nicely into the sound track of your life. The Postal Service started as a side project between 'Death Cab for Cutie' front man Ben Gibbard and 'Dntel' architect Jimmy Tamborello. The two met through a mutual friend and the collaboration began with a swapping of tracks via snail mail. Gibbard is based in Seattle and Tamborello in Los Angeles, hence the band name I presume. To simplify, Jimmy builds the structure and Ben lays down his smooth vocal tracks. The beat structures are ambient at times yet creative and motivating while the lyrics seem very observant, personal, calm, and collected.

Probot S/T Southern Lord Records By the time you are reading this, the new Probot album has been out for like two months and if you do not own it yet, kill yourself now. This could potentially be the album of the year, I can’t imagine another album even getting close to touching this metal masterpiece. If you don’t own this album, then you don’t know the significance, so I’ll break it down for you. Dave Grohl put together 11 tracks and sent them to 11 of metals most elite vocalists. You name ’em, they’re on there: Cronos from Venom, Lemmy from Motorhead, fucking King Diamond, Tom G. of Celtic Frost. They are all on there. I couldn’t find a weak track if I wanted to. It’s just as hard for me to pull my favorite track from the album because they are all amazing. The entire album celebrates every facet of metal and they couldn’t have pulled it off better. Have you ever just lost faith in the music industry, like everything just blows ass? I was that way for a little bit but now I am breathing a sigh of relief because now I know, no matter how bad it gets, that there will always be an album like this just around the corner. – Lee www.probotmusic.com

Promises Made. Promises Kept Loreli Records

Room on Fire Rough Trade

I choose to classify Spark of Life under the loose hardcore-emo-pop punk category. Screams of discontent about society ring soundly with long drawn out distorted reverb on the guitars. A band that would most certainly reap the benefits of a live show, the energetic passion shows strong in their music and vocals. Fans of At the Drive-In should be on the lookout for Promises Made. Promises Kept. Spark of Life start a fire needed in this drab apathetic world of carbon copied radio friendly formula rock. The fire is burning for these guys, maybe someone will notice them before it burns itself out. – J. Hay

The Strokes have been the soundtrack for many fantastic experiences in my life; however, it wasn’t always that way. The Strokes first came into my life through a commercial on TV that was advertising their first CD, Is This It?, I thought I would never support a band that so literally commercialized their own music, and who have too near mastered the indie/retro look. Forgive me, it’s hard to write a music review about The Strokes without mentioning their influence in fashion. Anyway, back to the music. The second album, Room of Fire, shows no signs of experimentation from these guys. It’s one hundred percent Strokes, folks. In fact, I’m not sure if they should really give this album any other name but Is This It? Vol. 2. But then, if the music remains equally enjoyable from first to second album, then the title and cover just become clothes over the body. With that having been said, The Strokes have not lost their shape; in fact, they’re even better naked. - Christyle

Spindrift The Legend of God’s Gun Drophit Records For quite some time, Kevin Thomas has been at the helm of the space-rock outfit Spindrift. Many members have come and gone throughout the years, but he has always remained the constant force behind the band. After spending many years honing their sly-fi sound on the East coast, the current lineup has gone West (both physically as well as sonically). God’s Gun is a soundtrack executed in the style of the legendary composer Ennio Morricone. The Italian Westerns scored by Morricone went on to become some of the most popular genre films in history. While Spindrift’s effort is largely in the vein of the great composer’s work, it serves more as a modern tribute than an imitation. Overall, this is by far my favorite album

Rancid Indestructible Hellcat/Warner dist. I had previously given this album a bad review. Why did I give this album a bad review? Because it is Rancid and they have gained more popularity than SUV’s in the suburbs. Instead of listening to the album and giving it a chance I went in with the preconceived notion that it was going to suck because it was on Warner. Well two things for the people who 89

thought the same. Warner is only distributing the album so they don’t have any influence on the outcome of the album. Second, this album is good. Let me say great! The fact of the matter is that Tim Armstrong is all about the music. Whether it is up to your standards or not it seems to me that he is giving it all when it comes to writing music. “Arrested in Shanghai” is one of the greatest reggae, folk, punk songs I have ever heard. This album had me hating Broady from the Distillers at the end of it. The only thing about this album is that Rancid’ s classic bass solos are not really contributed from Matt Freeman, which sucks, but everything else about this album is right on! Sometimes you just have to listen with an open mind… I guess. - Casper The Resistoleros Rock n Roll Napalm Steel Cage Records I was dying for some more Fang songs to come out, then I heard about this band. It has Sammytown from Fang and members from The Cheapskates, The Cliftons, and The Boneless Ones. It is somewhat of a raw ass supergroup. The music is tough and hard. Straight up rock n roll very similar to what Electric Frankenstein started out doing. Although I'll always have a deep affinity for Fang, these guys are great. I can see their next album making some waves. Sammytown is part of the tiny percentage of parolee's that complete parole. I happen to be another. We are few and far between. Seek to own this. It has thirteen ass stompin' tracks. Steel Cage Records can do no wrong. Evil. Bless The Resistoleros. – Sick Boy Ripp Winkler Pork and Loathing in Osh Vegas Self- Released The intro to this album sucks balls. From the sounds of it, the band is in their car (recording themselves all the while) talking about how they are going to get in a fight with some guy that was tail-gaiting them. That’s it. Then the first song comes on and it sounds like something along the lines of a band on TKO records mixed with some reggae/ska flava in there. Well I pretty much liked everything else that I reviewed… wait… this song is starting to 90

rock. What the hell… I am confused. They suck…then… good rawking…Oh, my bad I fell asleep and was dreaming that I was listening to Zeke, bitch!!! - Casper Sk8 or Die is GO! The Ruminants 7" Route 44 Records I was skating in San Diego by the beach with Casper, who writes for this here rag, and I broke my board. So I went to the local skate shop, which had a ramp outside of it. There I purchased my current SCUM board. I had 'em set it up and I took a couple stabs at their ramp. I had fun, but I was way out of my element. New board, strange ramp, worried about rulin' over Casper so hard I broke my board. I'm not sure, but I was thrown through a loop. I bailed a little too hard for my tastes and I quit. We were skatin' with one other dude. He came up to us and asked about Concussion. Casper has a sticker on his car, AS ALL GOOD READERS SHOULD HAVE! So we told him we review music. He said he had a kickass skaterock band and he wanted me to review it. He didn't ask Casper 'cause he's a dork. So here it is. I've got a ‘45 on clear green vinyl. Very cool. I really like the SK8 or Die side, which was the band Brandan, whom we were skatin' with, was in. There are two songs on here from SK8 or Die and three from the Ruminants. I love the SK8 or Die side. They play the original style of skaterock. Snide, belligerent, dominating SK8 songs. There should be more bands out there like this. Unfortunately, everybody is all toned down nowadays. At least I'll still cause a ruckus. Great band. Now, The Ruminants are a bit too lawdy-da pop crap. There is way too much of this sound out there. Drop the pop, kill the hiphop, rap is crap, country is coming back, along with the original hardcore attack. What I mean to say is, "Go hard and fast or don't leave your house." – Sick Boy Texas Terri Your Lips… My Ass! TKO Records Texas Terri gave me this sampler to her upcoming album when I did an interview for her a while ago for Destroy All Magazine (RIP). I

was stoked to have been able to do this interview. Texas Terri is one fine work of art. Like a daisy in a battlefield full of mangled bodies TxT is lying in the waits. It has been awhile since she has been out with an album and it might still be awhile until this album actually hits the street. Famous producer Jack Douglas lends his ear to this album, which is a good thing. TxT still has the energy and angst she had before. Raw rock n roll in your face. The songs that are included are “Brain Explosion”, “One Hit Wonder”, “Dirty Action” (which is a song that is on a split with Anti-Seen on TKO records), and “Raunch City.” TxT explodes my heart, damn it! - Casper V/A: Punk Rock is Your Friend Kung Fu Records I was having a hard time with this compilation, on account that I really disliked it. Then I brought my son in to view the videos on it and listen to it. He's 8 years old and he knows music probably better than most of you posers out there. He really liked the Tsunami Bomb video and songs. I'd have to agree. I can't knock punkchick singers or musicians. So my boy likes it. He thinks it's cool. The Vandals are funny to him. I used to feel the same. Oh well, my point is this comp. is trying to befriend a younger generation. They've done it and I must say it's still better than most mainstream Top 40 these days. The kids will love this. – Sick Boy V/A: Punk Seven Inch CD Volume One 1988-1989 Lookout Records This is a killer idea. I also, see it as an attempt to put validity back in a dead label. These bands and the ones absent are what made Lookout a great label in the late eighties, early nineties. The first notable band on this disc is Corrupted Morals. These guys

rocked hard and solid. This is what East Bay Punx were all about. There’s 5 songs from them. It's just not enough. Since the band is gone, it'll have to do. Next up, Isocracy, again, definitive East Bay Punk. Al Sobrante played drums. He played drums for lots of classic East Bay bands. 11 songs on here. Some just seconds long. Plaid Retina are next, the band closest to old DRI. They sound very close to the first DRI EP. Fuck Yeah! This is so fuckin' good. 12 songs present. Then there’s Yeastie Girlz. Fuckin' funny shit! Kinda like the Beasties, but way more sexual and raw. It's three ladies with three mic's. That's it.....and it's pretty damn entertaining. A lost gem. 10 songs from these gals. Other bands on this comp include Surrogate Brains (crazy good madness). There’s a funny rearrangement of a Skrewdriver song or as they labeled it, Skruejiva. Great sounds somewhere between ALL and the Descendents......ha. 6 songs to enjoy; Kamala and The Karnivores (girl band). That's how you describe these ladies. They remind me of The Breeders, Veruca Salt, a bit of Debbie Harry, and a touch of the GOGO's. Good stuff. My wife has me enjoying this genre. Don't worry, I'm still a tough violent man. So the bands missing are Operation Ivy, which everything they did is on Energy, except for one song; Crimpshrine, whom put everything they did on the CD, The Sound of a New World Being Born on Lookout; Sewer Trout, who has disappeared altogether, good luck finding any recordings. What was missing is Neurosis. I have no idea why they didn't put these guys on here. Maybe volume two will have 'em. Great CD. Brilliant marketing scheme or tribute to the good old days? You decide. Highly recommended. – Sick Boy Lee Charron >> Lee Jonathan Hay >> J. Hay Christine Hughes >> Christyle Paul Morrison >> Sick Boy Davoud Kermaninejad >> DK Rob Krautheim >> Sgt. Scrapes Cody McClintock >> himself Mickey Stamm >> Mickey Chris Tobias >> Casper

Right: Hopefully this won’t be the last we see of Neil Heddings. Photo: Greenwood. Below: It’s kinda dark, but it’s a sequence of Rob Slob slamming and hitting his head at Washington St. He’s got a bad habit of doing that. Bottom: Mad Mike was going for the most impossible loveseat attack and just piling. We didn’t think he was going to make it but he finally sucked a couple up and stuck the landing. Still, the slams were the best, Mad Mike loves to mop up the flatbottom.

Two angles of Luke Sawyer’s broken femur. You can see the break in the lower photo, but the upper photo shows a better view of the gnarly pin that’s in his leg now.

Sequence: Here we have Mad Mike, again. This time he hits one of the many kinks in this pool during his setup carve and slaps the flat bottom belly first. Below: Patrick Jilbert sent us his first attempt at color slide photography, and it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a bad start. A little blurry but excellent subject matter. In this case the subject is Sid Enckâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hand. Right: Assface had a nasty infection going on, and after he slammed one time too many it popped.

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