Skatepunk

Articles all taken from other mags -- including the classic DP Interview from Action Now in 1981.

For music fans, there's nothing like a set list from a show you've seen to take you back to the show. They're the perfect memorabilia - they don't take up much space, they're free, and to a certain extent they're not easy to get, or at the least, there aren't too many of them from each show. I started collecting set lists when I was pretty young, and although I never really killed myself or went out of the way to get them, I've always tried to save them, and I recently realized that I have a ton of set lists. So I've scanned some of them and here they are. Hopefully they'll take you back too.

So, I actually can sympathize with the job of having to be the person who says "You can't be here" but I do see a difference -- at events that I have the privilege of doing that for, we ALWAYS make arrangements for all the people who should be there shooting photos... the pros, the veterans, the people who know how to shoot a vert photo from the deck of the ramp. And here at Dew Tour, it's arbitrary -- nobody is allowed to shoot the finals or semifinals, apparently, but we were supposed to be able to shoot the practice sessions...

Mt Baldy is one of the holy grails of skateboarding... at least in the bigger history of skateboarding. I've been lucky enough to shoot a number of great sessions there. Chris Robison, Sin Elgeljia, John Gibson, Gator, Craig Johnson, Dan Sturt, Nose Lips, and more. Baldy is not an easy spot to skate, and it's not for the weak. The ground in the bottom of the pipe is very, very rough, worn out from the water that runs down the center line most of the year.

For anyone who knew Joe Lopes, hearing the words "Joe Lopes is manning the barbecue" was always a good thing. Joe's passion for skateboarding, for getting together to have a good time with your friends, made a great big dent in the collective cool armor of skateboarding at a time when contest results and magazine coverage were the measures of how good a pro you were. Indeed, the very first time the words "Ramp Jam" were used was for a contest at Joe Lopes' house. Later, when contests got even more serious, Joe was one of the first pros to ever say "I don't wanna enter that contest." But those words were probably followed by some variation of "but I'll cook for everyone."

I just got a new scanner so I'm hoping to post a number of old photos again soon. With Maloof Money Cup over it seems I'll have much more time on my hands! This photo of Tim was in the field that eventually became highway whatever into downtown San Jose, near Gunderson High if I remember correctly. Roger built it with some friends but it was forever known as Roger's Ramp, and Tim was one of the rippers who localized it. His first photo in a skateboarding magazine was a full color photo that I shot, I think it was 1990 or so... it was in the Transworld Photo Issue with Mike Carroll and all the names of the skaters on the cover. GSD did the layout.

The Emerica Team made the trek up to Vancouver over the first weekend of Summer, 2009 for some madness and chaos. An otherwise completely boring autograph session was spiced up when some kid asked all the team guys to sign his arm, claiming he was going to get the autographs tattooed... and sure enough, he walked out of Underworld went and did it. Wow. At least Ed drew some artwork to go along with his sig... that was the beginning to a great weekend. Following the Underworld visit, the crew headed to LeeSide, where, joined by a modest crew of rippers, they sessioned for a couple of hours.

After some dinner, the crew headed to the Biltmore to check out The Goat and No Age. No Age is a two-piece from L.A. who play a high energy post-post hardcore brnd of punk rock. The Goat is the supergroup with my old dear old friend Shane Heyl, backed by Andrew Reynolds, Beagle, Spanky, and Atiba Jefferson. Their set was energetic and there were more than a handful of hyped up fans in the front row who knew every word! And of course on the street outside following the show there was all the prerequisite drama that is quite common during Vancouver skate events: drunken fights, crying girls, pissing in doorways and the subsequent yelling, and loud requests from neighbors and barkeepers to keep the noise down...

The first of several books that prolific DIY photographer Glen E. Friedman has published over the last fifteen years, Fuck You Heroes is perhaps the most important documentation of underground phenomena of this or any era. On the surface, and perhaps in its simplest beauty, Fuck You Heroes is just a collection of photographs. There are beautiful, amazing photographs in the traditional sense: blue skies, bright colors and sexy girls; and there are gritty, dark photos of alleys, freeways, riverbeds, and jails. There are some technically advanced photos, some shot in truly beautiful natural light, and a few that aren't even all that sharp. But get beyond the surface and into it on a deeper level and it's easy to realize why these photos are important to a generation of misfits to whom the subjects are iconic.

Unbroken played a reunion show with Swing Kids, Undertow, Threadbare, Portraits of Past, and Festival of Dead Deer on May 9, 2009. The show was a benefit for the Ché Cafe, San Diego Women's Shelter, and other charities. The impetus for the show was the release of a book called Burning Fight: The Nineties Hardcore Revolution in Ethics, Politics, Spirit and Sound. Four of the bands are featured in the book, and this was the first time any of the bands had played in some time...

The Clash is one of the few bands that I've never gotten sick of over the last 28 years. I saw them in the early 80's and they're still among the best ten shows I've ever seen. Like McCartney and Lennon, Richards and Jagger, the combination of Mick and Joe was magic and without each other they struggled for a while to reach the same plateau, although Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros came close. I didn't ever shoot photos of the Clash, but I did dole out cash for the limited edition Bob Gruen book when I was in London a few years ago... and so I wanted to share a few of them with you.

We had no idea what was up with Gator at McGill's on what turned out to be his last day of skateboarding. We just knew something was up. As he left, he was hugging everyone, including the rollerbladers, who, especially at that point, at McGill's, were persona non-grata. I'd been skating and had no idea he was going to show up, but we'd talked about shooting photos for an ad for the new company he was riding for. Of course it all seemed to make sense a week or ten days later, when word came down that Gator had turned himself in for killing Jessica Bergsten...

On my first trip to Europe, with Kristy and Tim Brauch, in 1992, we happened upon the Needle Park in Zurich, Switzerland. It was unbelievable, pretty shocking. At the time the longest lens I had was a 105mm, and I shot these photos from the driver's seat of our Renault. After shooting photos and trying to be inconspicuous for a few minutes, Kristy said "Oh my God, go!" I kept shooting. Tim was laughing, but then: "Shit,go!" I kept shooting until Kristy hit me and said "Someone's coming!" I dropped my camera as the guy who was crossing the street towards us broke into a full run...

All Systems Go! weeds out the less-or not-produced songs and emerges as a great collection. Rocket From The Crypt's catchy, riff-heavy songs stick in your head, and the soon-to-be classic lyrics are just as prevalent here as on their two albums proper. Lyrics from the simple things in life, as in the refrain of "Call it a Complex;" ("You're not the boss o' me, you're not the boss o' me...") they lure the listener in like a kid walking by a candy shop. The guitars get louder and the drums more incessant until you've got to have more...

Emo Phillips, First Wave Emo, Second Wave Emo, Olympemo, San Diego Screamo, Santa Cruz Emo, Nouveau Suburban Straight Edge Emo, Emo According to Rolling Stone or Spin, and now, it's gotten really terrible... Plus: Ian MacKaye's thoughts, directly from his own mouth.

So bummed I never got to see the Refused, but the first incarnation of the International Noise Conspiracy was really good, too. Saw them twice on their first two US tours and they were epic. Haven't heard much about them recently, but Survival Sickness stands as one of my favorite records, and their live show was one of the top 25 of all time for me... highly energetic, great songs.

I've read a load of good books over the last six weeks. That's why the site hasn't been updated too much! So here are book reviews on No Black, No Irish, No Dogs: Rotten, the Johnny Rotten Autobiography; England's Dreaming, Sex Pistols and Punk Rock, by Jon Savage; We Got The Neutron Bomb, The Untold Story of L.A. Punk, by Marc Spitz and Brendan Mullen; Make the Music Go Bang, The Early L.A. Punk Scene, by Don Snowden; All Ages, Reflections on Straight Edge, by Beth Lahickey; and Dance of Days, Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital.

Against Me is an anomaly in my musical taste, but they have still become my favorite band of recent years. They aren't the norm not only in time and place, and stand out more these days simply because I've found it hard to really latch onto bands for the last 6 or 8 years. Not because new bands aren't "good," whatever that means, but simply because I don't relate. They don't speak to me like Against Me! does...

In 2003 skateboarding was a little different than it is right now. Budgets were flowing and if you could create a trip and somehow convince someone that it would go in a magazine and get press for your brand, you could get money for a trip. So somehow we found out that Hanoi Rocks was going to play in Helsinki, Finland, where they're from, at the same time as the Helsinki Pro or whatever the contest was called... so a crew of skaters and folks who love the band got together and took a trip to Helsinki to check out the whole deal. We met up with the distributor and took a trip to Estonia...

Duane Peters is a punk rock and skateboarding icon. Besides inventing staple skateboarding tricks, including the Indy air, named after his truck of choice for 30 years, he's been the reason people started skateboarding, quit skateboarding, and came back to skateboarding. He is the reason this website exists--he was the first skatepunk, and at the rate he's going, he may well be the last... check out some colorful photos of a colorful man.