Chimpomatic

Here's a 2009 round up with a difference. Best Fails Of 2009 is like a skate slam section crossed with You've Been Framed crossed with every other police chase show but there's some real gems in there.

Great early trip hop video, notable for highlighting some classic Bristolian skate spots.

80's-College-Rock-Legacy website Slicing Up Eyeballs points out that the Pixies have entered the al.rock/skate show mash up genre, taking on the No Age Emerica shoe with their own range for Vans. A slip-on and a high-top, no less.

nice to see some magazines still experimenting and having fun - check this cover team-up designed by Geoff McFetridge for Huck and Little White Lies for their Where The Wild Things Are covers (via Notes From My Sofa)

Some nice home video footage of 1989's SMA Hobo Tour, with evidence that Jason Lee was a great skater. Mike Vallely and Jesse Martinez also feature, with Vallely riding his innovative double-ended board - a first.

Jason Lee is riding an SMA Jeff Hartsel - a model favoured by CJ.

interesting piece talking to Spike Jonze about getting the Wild Things project off the ground, his early skate/BMX history and losing two cameras on the Sabotage shoot

Aaron Rose's Beautiful Losers movie is finally coming to the UK, with screenings at the ICA followed by a DVD release through Revolver on August 24th. Buy your copy here.

The Guardian has a piece on the film and the scene it documents, focusing on Barry McGee's tragically deceased wife - the artist Margaret Kigallen.

An exhibition inspired by and featuring some of the artists starts on August 17th at Watch This Space, Unit 11, The Market, London WC2.

It's Skate or Die vs Promo Promo this week, for this cleverly put together video for Dinosaur Jr's new single Over It. Keep an eye out for Mike Watt too.

Monday 8th of June sees the release of veteran Anticon producer Odd Nosdam's new record T.I.M.E Soundtrack. T.I.M.E stands for This Is My Element - the title of the new Element Skateboards film - and Odd Nosdam composed each song to fit the skater it accompanies.

It's a rare thing indeed to have a whole skate film composed by one artist and Nosdam does a fine job. Featuring some heavyweights like Mike Vallely and Bam Margera, This Is My Element is beautifully shot and the soundtrack really raises some of the scenes to epic status. These two clips are from the young Nyjah Huston (above) and the legendary Chad Muska (below).

Chimpomatic review of T.I.M.E Soundtrack online here.

Two nice day-in-the-life videos for you. The beautifully filmed Tom Knox clip is set in London and shot by his film-maker brother Josh Knox. The clip below features smooth-skating from Parisian artist and skater Soy Panday.

A little less punk-rock than anticipated, but it doesn't get much better than Chimps + Skateboards + Vans.

The world has indeed been a duller place since the demise of Jason Lytle's Grandaddy so in eager anticipation of the May 12th release of Yours Truly, The Commuter - the first solo work by Lytle, here's a cheeky video he's put up on his DIY website. I'm feeling Lytle's casual skate skills in a big way and loving the slam section at the end. Check out some new tracks on his myspace page.

After UNKLE provided the music for the opening of Spike Jonze/Ty Evans' 2007 skate video Fully Flared, the directors have returned the favour - extending and re-editing the footage to serve as a video for the UNKLE single Heaven.

Promo up top, original down below.

While these days they might be synonymous with Hoxton hipsters, there was a time when you could walk up to anyone with the familiar Vans 'Off The Wall' logo on the back of their shoe and talk skateboarding. They would be where the local spots were and of course, the local skate shop.

Vans were always made in the USA and, as long as you were in the US, super cheap ($20 or so). Started in 1966 by the Van Doren brothers, the company had 70 stores in California by the 1970's, before hitting bankruptcy in the early 80's. As skateboarding re-emerged and became a more mainstream sport, the brand was revived by new investment and expanded, eventually being listed on the NASDAQ.

Through all this, they have always kept a pretty solid grip on their roots, financing the Warped tour and even backing the production of the excellent Dogtown and Z-boys documentary. Since 2007 production has totally moved to China and Vans even have a 'flagship' store on Carnaby Street - which perhaps due to the sweatshop manufacturing has kept the price low, with slip-ons still going for a very reasonable £30.

Vans also run a pretty successful skate team (see below) and while their more modern models do compete with Etnies and DC in the chunky-skate-shoe market, they have perhaps been more successful with their clothing lines - and of course, the iconic slip-on - favourite of hipsters the world over.

Quite possibly the world's most well-recognised skateboarder, Jason Lee is now far better known as that cheeky chap actor from My Name Is Earl - but as a teenage skater he was known to me as that young dude with big lambchops.

Riding with Gonz for Blind in 1991, Jason Lee was the co-star of the mega-influential skate movie Video Dayz, directed by Spike Jonze (see above). He pioneered a lot of street skating moves, and was well known for big ollies and kickflips. As his acting career took off, insurance issues put an end to Lee's skateboarding career and he was forced to hang up his trucks.

I strangely recall the moment I read about him landing an acting job in a film by that Clerks guy, with that girl from 90210. Mallrats was a so-so affair, but Jason Lee's Banky character easily stole the show. Another amusingly obnoxious role in Chasing Amy sealed the deal and Hollywood came calling. Parts in the likes of Enemy of the State, Almost Famous, Vanilla Sky and Alvin and the Chipmunks followed and IMDB reports that he netted a cool $3M for the overlooked movie A Guy Thing.

No grumbling from me however, as Lee must now have enough clout to sidestep the insurance issue and has re-invested in skating - and re-started his once defunkt label Stereo with business partner Chris Pastras. Great artwork, great photography, great attitude.

And Earl? Great moustache.

Bonus Fact: Don't get cornered at a party, he's a Scientologist. So is Earl's brother, Randy.

Double bonus fact: Jason Lee's son is called Pilot Inspektor Riesgraf-Lee. Ouch.

Final bonus fact: He made a cameo as Kevin Bacon in the Yacht Rock episode Footloose.

Music Fact: The song from his part in Video Days was so in demand that it was released as a single, titled Jason's Song.

Another hall-of-famer from the 80's was Mark Rogowski - aka Gator.

Alongside Mark Gonzales, he was one of the top riders for the high-flying Vision Street Wear line - and one of the top personalities of the era, frequently appearing in the top vert skater list, as well as a stunt skater role in the Christian Slater exploit-a-thon Gleaming The Cube.

Check him out above, calling his tricks out, 9 ball style.

Sadly, it all went wrong in the early 90's - culminating in him murdering a friend of his troublesome girlfriend, and burying her body in the desert. His surfing spiritual advisor pushed him to turn himself in, which he did - waiving all legal rights and receiving a 31 year sentence. He was also diagnosed as schizophrenic.

Continuing last week's movie inspired installment, Gator's story was eventually documented by the film Stoked: the Rise and Fall of Gator. See clip below.