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Skate or die: Inside Stereo Skates
Now this looks like a fun place to work.
28th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
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Skate or die: HD
Skateboarding has always been a fertile culture for creative types. My first films were inspired and based around the sport and the art/photo/film output of skateboarders never ceases to amaze me.
Things have come a long way since the VHS-C cameras of the 80's however. Check out Nike SB's (Nike? Skateboarding? Bah!) Debacle film above and check out a slow-mo skate clip shot on the new Scarlet 3K Red Camera below.
20th Jun 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: The Get By - Skating NYC
In support of last year's New York-set dramedy How To Make It In America, HBO made this nice little film The Get By - documenting the New York skate scene.
The show also features references to a supposed New York skate 'legend' - Wilfredo Gomez ... a film about whom you can see above.
7th Mar 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: More Mark Gonzales
Following a successful art career, legendary skater Mark Gonzales can be seen out and about again more and more.... Here's a nice little day-in-the-life from 2009.
21st Oct 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Guy Mariano
Nice little video series over at VBS.tv following the career of Guy Mariano, who made his name as a kid in Ban This and Video Days, then as a teenager in Mouse - before disappearing until a come back in 2007's Fully Flared from Lakai. Look out for some extra footage from skate-classic Video Dayz with a young Jason Lee doing his thing.
14th Oct 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: MachoTailDrop
Could be interesting: MachoTailDrop looks like a goofy skateboard conspiracy thriller/comedy. starring James Faulkner, Rick McCrank, Anthony Amadorri, Vanessa Guide, Steve Olson.
26th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Forties - Amigos
A stellar slice of 90's skateboarding for today's episode of Skate or Die. I've been digging around for this one for ages, so great to finally find it buried away on the defunct Google Video.
Arty pixel-vision, jazzy music and best-of-all hair-raising downhill skating on the streets of San Francisco.
Forties: 'Amigos'.
14th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Will It Shred? iPad
Built To Shred host Jeff King and pro skater Chad Knight test the new iPad 3G
#chimp71
#IPhone
#Skateboarding
#Tech
10th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Ian MacKaye and The Solitary Arts
Great piece up at Fistfulayen regarding the contribution of skateboarding to many people's world view (mine included). The article is in reference to an Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat/Fugazi) interview done for The Skateboard Mag. Interesting, as MacKaye's world view was itself was an inspiration to many skateboarders and pre 'alternative' music US-punk fans (me again).
"I think when skaters walk down the street, they’re looking at it with an entirely different grid in their minds .......To this day I swim to the bottom of swimming pools just to check out the transition."
Via Fistfulayen, via Atiba Jefferson, via The Skateboard Mag
4th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Best Fails of 2009
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.
13th Jan 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Wishing On A Star
Great early trip hop video, notable for highlighting some classic Bristolian skate spots.
#CSF
#Music
#PromoPromo
#Skateboarding
22nd Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Death To The Pixies: The Vans
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.
25th Nov 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Huck + Little White Lies
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)
#chimp71
#Books&Comics
#Film
#Skateboarding
18th Nov 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: SMA Hobo Tour
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.
25th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Where The Wild Things Are: Spike Jonze Interview
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
9th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Beautiful Losers
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.
13th Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or Dinosaur vs Promo Promo
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.
#CSF
#Music
#PromoPromo
#Skateboarding
16th Jun 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: This Is My Element
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.
8th Jun 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Days Of Their Lives
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.
#WellerTime
#Film
#Skateboarding
21st May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Chimp Vans
A little less punk-rock than anticipated, but it doesn't get much better than Chimps + Skateboards + Vans.
24th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Jason Lee-tyle
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.
1st Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Fully Flared
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.
#CSF
#Film
#PromoPromo
#Skateboarding
24th Mar 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Vans
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 know 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 (unfortunately) due to the more sweatshop-style manufacturing has managed to kept the prices 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.
16th Jan 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Jason Lee
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.
Photo by Atiba Jefferson. I urge you to visit his website.
19th Dec 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Gator
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.
12th Dec 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
THE Aaron Rose
You may have heard us mention Aaron Rose on this site, as a pioneer of the Lower East Side art scene, one-time boss of English Steve, promotor of many fine Skateboard related artists and director of the recent documentary Beautiful Losers.
Well it turns out he's now in Gossip Girl as rich chick Selena's artist squeeze. Or is he? Huffington Post has the details, via the New York Post.
10th Dec 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Spike Jonze
This week we celebrate the skate-related films of Spike Jonze. In his youth Jonze was more into BMXs and was a member of the Rockville BMX crew. He has been involved in the making of some of the most creative skate videos in the genre and co-owns Girl Skateboards which is where the first clip comes from. Featured on the Yea Right video this is a clever little piece of what has now become classic Jonze quirky effects. The second clip is his legendary intro to the Lakai - Fully Flared video. Apparently all the explosions are totally real.
5th Dec 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Mike Maldonado
I've been listening to a lot of The Misfits recently so it would be wrong not to feature the "East Coast Powerhouse" Mike Maldonado in this weeks Skate Or Die. Reaching his peak with his slot in the legendary Welcome To Hell video, when signed to Toy Machine he became famous for the sheer size of his tricks. While other guys were perfecting their flips Mike would pull the gutsiest ollies over walls, trash cans and off buildings. His section, included here, is set to The Misfits' London Dungeon and has got to be one of the best sections on the film. Check his ollie onto a bench then clean over the wall at the end of it, incredible.
He's also associated with Bam Margera's CKY crew - check him out below with Bam, Mike and Kerry Getz.
28th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Lance Mountain
Another one of the Bones Brigade, Lance Mountain has been skating as a pro since 1981, when he signed for Variflex. He was a dominant force in the 80's on Powell Peralta - just check him ruling the pool in the clip above (whizz past the jumpy video at the start). Hand plants, big airs and slides - plus the odd Gay Twist now and then.
As skating evolved into a street sport, Mountain moved with the times, setting up the influential company The Firm, responsible for signing maybe prominent skaters, including last week's Bob Burnquist. Lance has also starred in many notable skate films, including the Mike Watt soundtracked/narrated skate parody The Parallel in Girl's Goldfish video. No YouTube for that one, but skip along to 13:05mins here for this great little film.
Mountain was also the host of the excellent video magazine 411, which started in the 90's and was ahead of the curve in terms of multimedia programming - first on VHS tape, before graduating to DVD then the internet.
The Firm had their own cool videos too, so I've included a clip from Can't Stop below, entitled The Dream.
Bonus Fact: He invented the fingerboard, which grew legs (or wheels) of it's own and turned into one of the dumbest things you ever heard of. Also worth noting is his awesome name...
21st Nov 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Bob Burnquist
It's more dare-devil stunts this week with Brazilian vert king Bob Burnquist. Burquist is famous for a number of firsts in skateboarding, but most notably he pretty much championed switch skating (that's facing the reverse of your usual stance, sports fans) so then I guess every trick he pulled off after that he became the first to do it in switch. He was also first to pull off the loop-the loop both in a pipe and and a specially designed ramp. He then went on to open up the top of this loop and was the first to land the trick clearing the gap at the top. As if this wasn't enough he assembled one of the biggest run-up ramps and successfully popped a 50-50 grind into the Grand Canyon (below), sadly Homer Simpson had already completed this trick over the Springfield Gorge, even if it was by accident.
14th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Ed Templeton
Up this week is the multi talented Ed Templeton. Starting out in the mid eighties with buddy Jason Lee, Ed went on to create Toy Machine skateboards in 1993. I always liked his style as he never seemed to bother with the whole image-conscious bullshit that always plagued the sport, wearing drainpipes and sensible shoes he'd pop some of the biggest tricks and all the time looking like a grumpy bastard. Ed claims to be the pioneer of The Impossible, one of the few tricks that doesn't involve an ollie but instead is more of a pressure scoop where you flip the board lengthways around your back foot. He was also a master of the rail slide. One of his best moments came on the now legendary Toy Machine film Welcome To Hell. Soundtrack provided by Sonic Youth with Titanium Expose (above).
Ed has always partnered his skating with a love of art and photography and has, in recent years, become more famous for his involvement in the traveling Beautiful Losers show that features artists like Barry McGee, Shepard Fairey and Aaron Rose who founded the Alleged Gallery in New York. A film about the group featured at this years London Film Festival and charts the rise of these 'outsider' artists who are described as being part of one of the most influential cultural moments of a generation. This autumn sees the publication of Ed Templeton's Deformer book. It's a multimedia scrapbook documenting his life in Orange County California. It's entirely art directed by Ed and features a wealth of photographs, drawings, paintings and letters from his family.
7th Nov 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Mark Gonzales
BC filled the void nicely last week, but I'm now back with a vengence after my sun-soaked So-Cal holiday for another thrilling installment of Skate or Die.
It wasn't all R&R, and while strolling down Sunset Blvd I spotted this Car Wash, where skate legend Mark Gonzales famously launched himself off, in the hallowed pages of Grand Royal magazine - losing an eyebrow in the process. He was already a well-established legend on the skate scene by that time (mid 90's).
Fast and fluid, Gonz brought together old school carving moves and inventive gnarliness. Always a bit left of centre, he made his name on the neon-drenched Vison Streetwear team in the late 80's, famously using the newly popular ollie to clear a huge gap at San Francisco's Embarcadero - leaving the terrain forever known as the 'Gonz Gap'. Gonz created his own Blind Skateboards, and with future movie star Jason Lee created one of the all-time top video Video Dayz, mixing arty filming with incredible tricks. Clip above.
The arty-farty world was Gonz's other passion and he has built a pretty solid reputation for himself as an artist, with shows at Alleged in NYC (along with Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Geoff Mcfeteridge etc - check out Beautiful Losers, but that's another post) and even 291 in Hackney. A giant pink cat and an a pretty mental in-gallery skate course are amongst his most famous pieces - the latter of which has been appropriated for a promo by Jason Schwartzman (see below).
31st Oct 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: The Crossover
As CSF is winding up his mammoth tour of California I thought I'd keep his weekly skate section alive with these two selections. Instead of one skater getting all the glory I found two films with a common theme, and that is, they have both been made or presented by an artist of some description who has links to the skate scene. First up is The Foreigners, directed and edited by No Age's Randy Randall. It follows the Altamont skate team on their tour of Paris and is all set to the music of No Age including the atmospheric sounds of Keechie and the awesome Nouns opener Miner. As far as the skating is concerned it's a pretty standard film but Randall manages to evoke a nice sense of nostalgia with the flickering, bleached out footage and there's a healthy display of long hair and beards.
The next film is by Ari Marcopoulos but is presented by the New York fashion designer Adam Kimmel. It's called Claremont and it features some of the most hair-raising downhill, old-school speed skating i've seen for a long time. Again 'beards on boards' seems to be the order of the day as both skaters do the whole run in Kimmel's AW08 collection. Swapping the camera over between each other on the way down and having little concern for oncoming traffic this is an awesome movie.
24th Oct 2008 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Danny Way
While clean-cut superstar Tony Hawk was perfecting the all-American style that would land him big contracts with the likes of Gillette, no-one noticed young tyke Danny Way sneak in the back door. As a young 14 year-old he popped up briefly in Powell's Public Domain video, before he moved over to the more punk H-Street label and quickly excelled on both street and vert. By 1989 he was nipping at Tony's heels - and the H-Street video Risk It ended with a tantalizingly cut-short clip of a 15-year-old Danny apparently landing a 900, the holy grail of vert skating.
Danny Way started Plan B skates in 1991, and invested in DC Shoes in 1993, with fellow bad boy Colin McKay. With DC hitting the big time, funds were available for bigger and crazier stunts - including the aptly titled 'megaramp' (above, from the DC Video), the helicopter Bomb Drop (can't find a clip of that, but it's a drop out of a chopper onto a half pipe?!), and a bizarre jump over the Great Wall of China (below).
Bonus Fact: Danny Way broke his neck surfing in 1994.
Musical Legacy: Meh.
3rd Oct 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Tony Hawk
Tony Hawk may be the undisputed king of vert now, but at the time he was a bit of a dweeb - having evolved through the pastel drenched skate style of the early 80's before street skating kicked in. He was always too gangly for that stuff and seemed uncomfortable anywhere other than 20 feet up in the air ....despite what his Tony Hawk Pro Skater video game might suggest. Have a look at his cameos in Police Academy IV and Gleaming The Cube and you'll see what I mean.
Either way, technically he was a genius and 1987's Powell Peralta video The Search For Animal Chin put him on the map - skating on the monster ramp they built for the video out in the desert (see above).
Desptite putting his retirement on ice since the 90's, he's continued to skate and set some major benchmakers over the year's - beefing McGill's McTwist into first a 720 spin, then even a 900 in 1999 (see below).
Bonus Fact: Hawk's 16 year old son Riley Hawk has been on pro on Tony's own Birdhouse label for several years.
Musical Legacy: None.
26th Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Jason Jessee
"Who's in there?!" Jason Jessee was a pretty high flying star in the old days of hand-plants and big air - and down but not out, he was still around for a pretty tough cameo in the finale of Consolidated #1 in 1995.
Musical legacy: The Minutemen with Streets of Fire, not to mention the Tears For Fears revival way before Donnie Darko.
Bonus fact: Jessee was a semi-pro boxer for a while, and even had a film made about his various erratic exploits. Check out the trailer here.
19th Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Tom Knox
Another one from the 1989 Santa Cruz video Speed Freaks this week, as nervous teenager Tom Knox shows us round his So-Cal home turf.
The best thing about this clip is the absolute barrage of non-stop tricks this guy pulls in quick succession. All the time. No-complies, judo ollies, shove-its, ollie blunts, airwalk-ollies, as well as a ton of gnarly pool skating action. Fast and furious, with an awesome fluid style on a board the size of an aircraft carrier.
BONUS FACT: He'd just turned pro on that video and still skates every day. Check out this Thrasher interview for more info.
MUSICAL LEGACY: I was already investigating fIREHOSE after the Natas clip, but this introduced me to the album fROMOHIO, which featured this killer track - In My Mind.
12th Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Matt Hensley
Matt Hensley in Hokus Pokus - one of the first skate movies to eschew the finesse of 16mm and get grungey with video on a low budget. This video pretty much summed up H-Street as a brand, as skating got way more street orientated. The label was one of the first rivals to the dominance of Santa Cruz and Powell - and introduced a ton of legendary skaters including Eric Koston and Danny Way.
Bonus fact: Matt Hensley is in the band Flogging Molly.
5th Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Mike Vallely
More from the skateboard nostalgia files: Mike Vallely is pretty legendary in street skating, pioneering the first double ended street boards. Essential for the huge ollies he pulls.
Here's a later, Boss-infused clip from 1995's Powell video Scenic Drive. Pulled from Vallely's own comprehensive YouTube page, which has pretty much everything you might be looking for.
BONUS FACT: Vallely was the singer with Black Flag for a small reunion run in 2003.
MUSICAL LEGACY: The clip below from Speed Freaks kick-started by Dinosaur Jr addiction.
29th Aug 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Eric Dressen
Back when skating was still a pretty neon sport, Eric Dressen and the other skaters on the resurrected Dogtown label brought a bit of heavy metal into it. Gnarly tricks, tons of speed and a lot of concrete. As a kid in Bristol we used to skate Bedmister skate park, where the best kids would get 3 foot airs out of one of the double bowls onto the flat. When Dressen, Bill Danforth and Jeff Hartsel arrived on tour, Eric Dressen blew everyone away by smoothly pulling 6 foot airs out of one bowl and down into the other bowl - 12 feet away.
I was always a huge fan of how fast he's going at the start of this clip from the Santa Cruz video Speed Freaks (1989). Check out the massive powerslide he does as he's motoring down the hill. You can see the whole video over at the now obsolete Google Video.
BONUS FACT: Turns out he's still skating and is also a tattoo artist. Read this interview for a bit more info (conducted by an original Dogtown legend - Jay Adams).
22nd Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Rodney Mullen
Rodney Mullen was the king of tech skating, since way back in the late 70's - check him out in the Powell Peralta classic Public Domain above, when 'freestyle' was a style of it's own and required a different board. When street skaters started doing his flips in the 90's however, his currency shot up. Check out the multiple flips in the video below from Plan B's Questionable (1992).
Musical legacy: The Plan B clip has an awesome Cat Stevens song - Sing Out
Bonus fact: Rodney studied Biomedical Engineering at University. Looks like all that hard study in Public Domain paid off.
15th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Natas Kaupas
After the nostalgia trip of my recent Welcome To Hell revival, I thought I'd run a weekly series of skate classics. Here's Natas Kaupas - who pretty much invented street skating - from the video Street of Fire, from 1989.
Check out Skip Engblom (Skate legend, played by Heath Ledger in "Dogtown And The Z-Boys" - the movie not the documentary) as the jailer.
Musical legacy: My first encounter with fIREHOSE (Brave Captain is the song here), this video single handedly kick-started my personal post-punk revolution, with a soundtrack composed almost entirely of SST Records bands: Minutemen, fIREHOSE, Sonic Youth, Black Flag, Descendents and more.
Bonus fact: Natas went on to work in graphics for Quicksilver and designed the logo they've been rocking for the past ten years or so.
8th Aug 2008 - 4 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Welcome Back To Hell
A recent Paris mission resurrected old chimp favourite Welcome To Hell back to the top of the skate video pile. Great Artwork + Cool Hooded Tops + Black Sabbath remains a career goal.
It certainly can't be legit, but Google Video has the whole film, including an iPod download....
31st Jul 2008 - 4 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Samba Pa Ti
I was on hold with Apple Support for 30 minutes this afternoon, trying to make headway on my endlessly busted Powerbook, but thankfully I was kept entertained by Santana's epic classic Samba Pa Ti, a personal favourite since the days of Toy Machine's Welcome to Hell video.
3rd Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet