A list supreme

If you kick it long enough, this blog might still be alive -barely, I know. Time flies, huh? Anyway, here’s a little treat for all you death metal heads out there.

As you know from visiting his studio with Slap, Ian Johnson is a lot into jazz, he also artistically directs Western Edition, has pretty bad-ass books out and we happen to be occasional contributors for Wax Poetics magazine – Ululation reissue coming soon, I swear. Here are few lists I forced him to work on…

Top 5 jazz albums for beginners

1. Jazz At Massey Hall
2. Kind Of Blue
3. The Greatest of the Hot Fives & Sevens
4. Mingus Ah Um
5. A Love Supreme

Top 5 jazz albums, ever

I couldn’t really say what the top albums of all time are, the five on the
previous list is probably closer to that,
but 5 of my favorites are…

1. Money Jungle
2. Live At The Circle Room
3. Everybody Digs Bill Evans
4. Nina Simone At Town Hall
5. Sleeping Beauty

Top 5 jazz tunes that would fit a skate flick, and for what skater

1. Song For My Father by Horace Silver for Chico Brenes in a Love Child /Finally hybrid
2. That’s How I Feel by Sun Ra for Drake Jones in Non Fiction
3. Poinciana by Ahmad Jamal for Gino Iannucci in Chocolate Tour
4. The Creator Has A Master Plan by Pharoah Sanders for Matt Field in then Cosmic Experience
5. Dear Old Stockholm by Miles Davis for Bobby Puleo in Static 2

Top 5 jazz artists to draw a portrait of

1. Eric Dolphy
2. Ornette Coleman
3. Art Blakey
4. Sun Ra
5. Don Cherry

Top 5 weirdest jazz tunes’ titles

1. Psychicemotus
2. Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues Are
3. All The Things You Could Be By Now If Sigmund Freud’s Wife Was Your Mother
4. Dunkin’ Bagel
5. Tapestry from an Asteroid

(If you consider Anthony Braxton to be jazz in that case probably all 5
would be his, like N-M488-44M-Z or those equation ones)

Top 5 “jazziest” skaters, ever

1. Mark Gonzales
2. Jason Lee
3. Bobby Puleo
4. Mike Carroll
5. Jovontae Turner

 

One ecumenical love

You know the good old musical interlude trick? Well here it is, old friends. French unknown aspiring rapper Sonikem proclaiming his ecumenical love for “extreme sports” from surf to roller to skate. Wish I had the courage to go through the whole tune and then the patience to translate all the lyrics, but I’m sure you’ll get it. Thanks Soma blog!

You, the people

Back by popular demand (actually one question), our feature called “Ask a question and we’ll get somebody that actually knows the answer to reply, ’cause I don’t” is back! This time it took the form of a request from Steven, following the Battle in Stereo post. Goes like this:

Steven: “Hey there is a new one up for Tony Karr, I’ve been trying to figure out the song,and no luck, PLEASE HELP ME!!”

The use of upper case followed by two exclamation points required a drastic response. Here it is, from Bryan Lint at Stereo, in person:

Bryan: “The song is called The Traitor and it is by Menahan Street Band on the album ‘Make the Road by Walking.’ It is the same band that Jay-Z used for the song Roc Boys (and the winner is…) when he sampled their song Make the Road by Walking.They are a really sick live band from New York in the vein of Breakestra, the Dap-Kings and El Michels Affair.”

Et voilà!

AVS 13⎜Deathbowl to Downtown (2009)

(Very sadly and coincidentally dedicated to the memory of Andy Kessler. Also, the DVD apparently ships next week, so just order it)

The lost art of skateboarding documentary is definitely demanding. So demanding that most of them tend to go the easy route : drama. Trying to make you cringe, or cry, or feel, to keep you interested. Jay Adams should have had it all, but he went to jail. Gator had it all, but he went to jail. What about Hosoi? Well, he went to jail -but he did have it all before. Jason Jesse? Let’s voyeur a bit into his depraved mind in order to feel safe and fuzzy, outside. And so on. At some point, some mental imbalance is required, it seems.
That’s why Deathbowl to Downtown is so refeshing. No rise and fall of a pop hero here. Just a straight-up journalistic tale of how New York City (and city in general for that matter) skateboarding was born, period, by the dynamic Rick Charnoski/Buddy Nichols duet. To top off all the early Shut footage -James Brown “Superbad” board reissue?- and rare sightings of a talkative Ryan Hickey, it’s a documentary with a more thoroughly thought through soundtrack than the usual litany of Top Of The Pops hits from whatever period it’s talking about. Peep this…

Antibalas : Liberation Afro Beat vol.1
Tune used : Battle of the Species

Hard to surpass Fela Kuti’s mastership over the Afro beat genre. Even his own son Seun gave up and just chose to imitate, to the perfection by the way, his dad’s music, frantic dancing and tight, red pants. Seeing a Seun show, at least, ships you straight to Lagos (Nigeria) thirty years ago for cheaper than investing in a time machine -ask Dyrdek, these don’t come off cheap. Anyway, it could have stayed this way forever until a Brooklyn-based, 11-members bulletproof (“anti-balas”) outfit decided at the end of the 20th Century to incorporate some originality in Fela’s legacy, using jazz, funk and improv elements, and not having listened to Eddie Palmieri’s Harlem River Drive Orchestra with adeaf ear, it must be said.

After the initial 7″ Uprising in 1999, Antibalas released their first album the following year, probably their most iconic so far. Funny how slept-on Afro Beat has been as far as skate videos go.

Drunk Injuns : From Where the Sun Now Stands, I will Fight No More, Forever
Tune used : Question Authority

When a band’s first LP is called Frontside Grind and was recorded in 1987, just expect exactly what it’s supposed to mean : classic, lowfi skate rock, in the Thrasher Skate Rock cassette tape sense that is. No wonder, as the Drunk Injuns’ singer, a certain Mofo, sort of directed and created the Thrasher Skate Rock series in question, and even coined the term “Skate Rock.”

Urban legends aside, taking bits from this one plus pieces from their original 1983 tape My Bad Dutch, not to forget two tracks from Ancestors : Gods Of Sound, this album with a title of Morrissey-esque proportions itself is kind of a documentary about the masked band’s early career -the only one they knew, as of course they only recorded four albums. From Where the Sun Now Stands, I Will Fight No More, Forever will pose as the perfect, semi-comprehensive compilation of the band’s statements. And will also remind to those who forgot that Mofo’s actual name is Mörizen Föche.

Fallin Off The Reel vol. 1
Tune used : Mas Y mas (Bronx River Parkway)

It’s pretty sad, but a lot of people in the highly intellectual skateboarding circles will never know anything more about the NY-based label Truth And Soul than this : it’s one of the radio stations in Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars. The fact to even know that is scary.

Anyway, if DFA label’s honcho Tim Sweeney still has a hand in picking the music for the GTA series, it pretty much can’t go wrong. Exhibit two, all the Truth And Soul tunes present in Deathbowl to Downtown, and particularly the Bronx River Parkway’s Mas Y mas, out of either their Deixa Pra La 45’s B-Side, or, for the poor turntable-less souls -the ones who probably invested in GTA instead- from T&S’s 2006 compilation CD. Whatever way works though as a reminder that latin music got soul and makes sense in a skateboard video, even if it’s been thirteen years already since Chico Brenes skated to Joe Pinto.

The Battle in stereo

You might know the co-captains, but the lieutnant isn’t bad either… A strict behind-the-scenes kind of dude –think Karl Rove, but in a good way– Bryan Lint has been working at Stereo for two years, and did you notice? The funkyzeit it’s been? All the good music in all these trailers? Well, dude’s been collecting records for a good 16 years so it had to show at some point.
“Back in the day I used to hunt so many skate tunes down”, he remembers on a side note. “Some ones that had some real impact on me were Survival of the Fittest by Mobb Deep from Tom Penny’s part in 411#2, Blue Train by John Coltrane from the Subzero video, 007 Shanty Town by Desmond Dekker from Keenan Milton’s part in Las Nueve Vidas De Paco and I Wish by Stevie Wonder from Jovontae Turner’s part in Love Child.”
This said, and in one more desperate attempt to shift million clicks from more notorious websites this way, I asked Bryan to talk about the tunes you hear on the Stereo commercials at the begining of each Battle at The Berrics -and a lot of times it happens to be the most exciting moment in them (*). Here’s his little spiel…

El Michels Affair: Enter the 37th Chamber
Tune used: Shimmy Shimmy Ya (Danny Supa)

“We had recently got turned on to this album by the art guy at Stereo, Jeff, and once we heard this instrumental album of Wu-Tang Covers, we knew immediately that this was going to be used for Danny’s commercial.

This hopefully familiar Old Dirty Bastard track is covered by the band, El Michels Affair, that actually backs Wu-Tang live when they perform. The whole album is a banging collection of classic Wu instrumentals performed by a live band, so make sure to cop that disc.”

Bob Dylan: Dylan
Tune used: Lily of the West (Clint Peterson)

“This Bob Dylan song was Clint’s choice and I think it represents him for sure. It definitely has a down home feel just like Clint’s rad wood burn artwork and like Stillwater, Minnesota, the town where he is from.

We were actually going to go with another song at first but Clint called last minute and told us he wanted to use this track which worked out really well.”

The Seeds: Self-Titled
Tune used: Can’t Seem To Make You Mine (Benny Fairfax)

“You can’t go wrong when it comes to mixing classic garage rock and skating and Benny’s style of skating is timeless for sure. You could place him in the early 90’s and he would fit with his super clean style and pop which is why I feel he totally embodies that “Stereo” style of skateboarding.

This Seeds track is one of their best and was actually brought to us by Ben Gore since he had the whole psych rock box set, “Nuggets” on his laptop.”

La Kabala: Self-Titled
Tune used: Azucar Quemada (Ben Gore)

“Ben had just went back up to San Francisco as we were working on his commercial and I had hooked him up with a bunch of jazz and Southern soul albums from the 60’s before he left.  Our filmer/editor, Matt, asked Ben if he had any preference for what song to use and Ben told him to just ask me because he knew I had some rare funky jams up my sleeve.

I chose this track because it had a funky psychedelic feel to it and because I thought the group was from Florida like Ben since they have a song called “Miami Beach”, (they are actually from Peru). Big ups to Orb, (dude that played the “Maps to the skater’s homes guy” in Animal Chin), who hooked me up with this track.

Taj Mahal: Self-Titled
Tune Used: Leaving Trunk (John Lupfer)

“One thing you gotta know about Johnny Lups is that he gets down on the skateboard and he definitely keeps it dirty! Known to rock the same outfit for weeks at a time, we had to go with a track that represented that down and dirty personality that John fully lives at all times.

If it was up to him, he probably would have picked a Lil Wayne song, (John once told me that he downloaded 500 Lil Wayne songs in one day!) but this raw blues jam definitely did the trick.”

Beck (Boards of Canada Remix): Guerolito
Tune used: Broken Drum (Josiah Gatlyn)

“Josiah is such a rad addition to Stereo and is undeniably amazing on a skateboard. He is such a motivated person with an abundance of natural talent so I can’t wait to see what he will bring to the upcoming new Stereo video.

He picked this Beck remix himself and had actually edited a version of his commercial on his own while he was hanging at the Stereo office but we had to cut it down due to time restraints. The intersection where he does the trick  in this commercial is in Downtown Los Angeles and there is always cars zooming by so that makes the trick even gnarlier.”

(*) Mandatory old fart slash “Back To The City contests in that empty fountain were better” rant.

AVS # 12⎜Life of Leisure (1996)

The Sole Tech owners got it all wrong in the mid-90s. Budget canvas shoes with vulcanized soles and some eco-concerns? That could never work. Then. I.e. in an Axion-packed skateboard world. Ever imagined the killing Sheep shoes would make today? But I’m partial, probably because the only video the brand put out bared two excellent reggae songs from two excellent reggae albums, and I’ve made my personal crusade to unveil them all, the eight of them.
I mean, I can’t see myself praising the Lou Reed and Pink Floyd classic albums heard on Life Of Leisure’s soundtrack as well, for their complete works you should already own. I won’t discuss why this flick is a classic, with its subtle subliminal messages and collages using the tripped-out time lapses from the 1982 Koyaanisqatsi film -please thank Buttery Robbie for the reminder- and/or heteroclitic juxtapositions of Natives getting smoked next to Dukes of Hazzard clips. But it worked. So did Life Of Leisure’s soundtrack. Here are three of its must-own albums.

Horace Andy: Feel Good All Over 1970-76
Tune used: Nice and easy (Matt Field)

Obviously, this one wasn’t “Matt’s dub”, as the ending credits stated. Thankfully, it didn’t take a particularly seasoned reggae collector to unmask the tune and recognize the familiar falseto voice at its highest-pitched: Horace Andy, singing his 1975 lovers hit Nice And Easy, musically not a stranger to a noticeable dose of disco influence. In true “dynamic rasta” style -remember that Big Brother caption?- Matt anihiliates positively, setting the mood to a tune that was to become a few years later one of the UK’s Lovers Rock, reggae’s equivalent to the slow jams trend, founding anthems once covered by Susan Cadogan. But that’s for later.

For now, that compilation should help you see clearer through the jungle of releases that Justin Hinds’ cousin has been heard on in his almost 40-years long career, other highly recommanded albums including Skylarking (Studio One label),  DanceHall Style (Wackies), and In The Light (Blood And Fire).

Sonic Youth: Experimental Jetset Trash and No Star
Tune used: Waist (Ed templeton)

A few times in his life, Ed Templeton skated not to Sonic Youth. It was so weird -like not having Jason Dill skating to the sounds of the latest band à la mode du jour. What’s weirder is to imagine who else is associated with the band, skate flick-wise : Jason Jesse in Streets On Fire. Now THAT’s an agnostic match in hell.

Even though all old-farts out there will forever lament over the band’s-now defunct SST label times, even their 1994 album, which contained probably their biggest hit (Bull In The Heather), is more than listenable, not to say absolutely crucial. Think Dinosaur Jr. Timeless, sorta. On an interesting side note, some will remember that Self-Obsessed and Sexxee was intended to be the second single from Experimental Jetset and No Star, but its promo pressing got cancelled, launching the copies already pressed (out on their side label Sonic Death) into the voracious Ebay jaws. Also, since Life Of Leisure is all about subliminal messages too, don’t forget that the band recorded EJTANS over the master tapes of Sister, so you can hear some of its tunes being played, faintly, in between tracks. A budget album for a budget shoe company’s video. How awesomely on point.

The Pioneers : Let Your Yeah Be Yeah
Tune used: Wolves in Sheep Clothing (Sergei Trudnowski)

It’s fair to say that Sergei reached legend status. For his balls-out yet mellow skating of course, but also who besides a legend has their own, personal stalker? Her name is Trisha, hopefully she’s not a hoax, and no idea what she’s been up to since the last updates in 2002, but her blog was too hilarious, and weird, and embarrassing, not to mention it. One of the entries, for instance, reads: “Sergei spotted in dog park with current fat ugly slut girl friend and her stupid ugly dog who i fed a spider to when they weren’t looking. 6/12/01″ OG Twitting! And so on…

Personnally not willing to comment on “the cute tight pants” he was seen in on Jan 11^th 2002, I’ll just try and focus on his 1996 skateboarding, when Sergei was at his downhill-firecracker best, mastering SF ass-hauling to the aptly named “Wolves in Sheep Clothing” tune. It was sung by the nonetheless aptly-named Pioneers, a vocal trio out of Jamaica that reached their own legend status (without Trisha’s blog) within the early reggae, mod, non-fascist skinhead circles as one of the most revered ska/rock steady bands ever.

Mostly known for their late-60s Long Shot song, Sidney Crooks, Jackie Robinson and former tailor George Agard recorded for another legend, producer Leslie Kong, and had more than a hand in one of reggae’s most mysterious groups, The Slickers, that came, saw, and pretty much disappeared -the only extensive article about them can be read in this mag, in French though- after their one mega-hit, Johnny Too Bad. A bit like Trisha’s blog, alas.

Back to more musical concerns, even though it’s a song from after the Pioneers’ golden age, Wolves In Sheep Clothing, and the compilation album it’s the easiest to find it on, will remain as one of the classic anthems when it comes to bomb some Avenues, well-perched on a reliable set of Physics 60 mm wheels.

A Teasa Please ⎜Hopps-essed with funk oldies

Remember that Hopps commercial that came out internet-ages ago? I mean, like a month ago? Besides still-awesome skating by mastermind Jahmal Williams and by comeback kid Jerry Fowler, it also featured quite a banging tune -a perfect pretext to resurrect our ‘Teasa Please’ irregular feature, which for some reason always seems to tend towards a disturbing obsession for soul oldies/funk divas these days.

Took me a minute pestering Jahmal but in the end it worked out: the commercial in question was set to Midwest funkette Wanda Davis’ only known tune, Save Me, an Aretha Franklin cover available on a few CDs, the most remarkable being a pretty cool compilation straight outta the Tornado Alley, Midwest Funk (From the excellent UK-based Jazzman label).

You can also endanger your retirement savings by trying to put your hands on the original 45, or be the true, full-on, skateboard dude, by trying to get a copy of one of Jack Sabback’s mix CDs -which is where Jahmal got it from. Lemme call Jack and get back to you.

Beat it (I’m late)

In my usual “just a week too late” fashion -wait ’til the next post and you’ll see- I had to pay my Michael Jackson hommage too. The only thing is, by now everything was said and this photo of him skating a banana board has been all over the interweb.

So, being the partial advocate I am, I decided to pass along a bunch of his tunes that reggae has covered  over the years, compiled by Roots&Discipline over at the Blood And Fire forum. Get the mix right here, or there once the link passes away.

If you thought there only was Shinehead’s interpretation of Billie Jean, think twice, cause the opening I Want You Back version by Esso Trinidad Steel Band pretty much sums it all -Esso being the name of the gas company by the way, who used to sponsor the group at first! Nice digging work.

Sundays with Sundae

Sundae has done many things after skateboarding, such as art and spinning records for prestigious labels and crowds. But as they say, you can take the man out of 1993 but you can’t take 1993 out of the man. This is where his skateboarding clock stopped, as his playlist du dimanche will attest.

Ah, 1993 in Montpellier, France… I was doing that fanzine Barbe A Poux (“flea-infested beard”), Sundae offered a hand on it -I promptly slaughtered all of his work by either cutting his articles in half or pasting old ayatollah heads on his awesome graffitti art. I have an excuse though: we all thought that making LSD at home was a normal thing, since there were articles in Big Brother about it. Evoking these souvenirs I could probably cry for hours, like an emotional Greg “Pignolo” on his first drinking binge after he saw Chico’s part in Finally (true story) but for now let’s see what Laurent Richard thinks are the best ever tunes used in skate flicks.

1. John Coltrane : Traneing In > Mark Gonzales -  Video Days (Blind)

2. A Tribe Called Quest : Oh My God (Know Naim Remix) > Jeron Wilson – Goldfish (Girl)

3. Dinosaur Jr : Just Like Heaven > Rudy Johnson – Video Days (Blind)

4. Group Home : So Called Friends > Tony Ferguson – Goldfish (Girl)

5. Steve Miller Band : Serenade > Colin McKay – Virtual Reality (Plan B)

6. David Bowie : Ziggy Stardust > Intro – Finally (FTC)

7. Diana Ross : Love Child > Daewon Song – Love Child (World Industries)

8. Mary J Blige : Sweet Thing > Jeron Wilson – Finally (FTC)

9. Black Sheep : Black With N.V. (No Vision) > Shamil Randall – New World Order (World Industries)

10. The Cowsills : Hair > Spencer Fujimoto – Love Child (World Industries)

Interlude⎜Jeremy Wray’s white room

He shot with Daniel Harold Sturt and got the only Dr Seuss graphic board that never got a cease-and-desist but a thank-you letter from the doc’s wife instead… In the Droorstalgic circles, Jeremy Wray will also remain for ever as the closing part in Plan B’s Second Hand Smoke video, with such a nice tune to it that it politely waited for his monster Carlsbad gap f-side kickflip before it started.
While I can’t find a link to the part in question that actually has the song on it –not like it matters since you watched it a million times in 1994– why this song and how did it go down, you may ask? Here are a few first-hand precisions from the man himself.

“I was working with Jake Rosenberg and we were going through a music list I had, trying to pick what we wanted to use. I brought in a few different options, I think I even had them on cassette tape at the time. Besides White Room, there was another Cream song we were  considering, Sunshine Of Your Love, which Adam Alfaro ended up using in one of his parts, and I had other ones, I probably have them written down somewhere.  I had Sly and the Family Stone’s Everyday People, and then Jimi Hendrix, Voodoo Child or something like that.

It was me, Jake, my friend Paul Luna, Dave Schlossbach was helping too, and we’re all listening to all of them trying to figure out what would work. But the way White Room was, and the way you can edit tricks to it, that ended up being the best choice. And we were gonna run out all the way to the end of the song, and we had more footage to use, but when we put everything in and got to the frontside flip at Carlsbad, it matched up with the very end of a part of the song. After that, there’s an instrumental part for a long time but we cut it right there, cause it was perfect.

It’s funny cause back then we used to be able to go in there and help editing the video exactely how we wanted, and work with the people on it. These days it seems like there’s a guy in charge of the project, and he got his own idea of what he wants, and they treat it as their baby, they don’t let you have much say at all even though it’s your footage and your part. It’s like it’s their part. Plus now you don’t get to choose the music cause they gotta get rights for the music, and you end up with something you would never want to skate to. I guess at the time skateboarding was smaller and most companies were skater-owned and they didn’t worry about getting sued. ‘Cause there was not much they could get sued for.”

(*) Please do yourself a flavor and check Spanky Wilson’s funky cut of the tune as well.