AC/DTZ - Dap the Rap

  A solid 5 days off in a row over the holidays, complete with hibernation-inducing weather, was all I needed to get the creative juices flowing.... you never know how that's gonna turn out, and this time I decided to devote my energy to remixing some classic hip hop with funk & soul samples. I'd been waiting to use some of the Daptone Records tracks as samples since I first heard them a few years ago...

  After posting the Kool G Rap mash-up, I looked through my collection to see what a capellas I had.... slim pickings unfortunately, but I worked with what I had and came up with 4 tracks in total.  The Deee-Lite/Too Short mash-up was just so funny when I remembered the whistle sound from Groove is in the Heart ... so I made it as a gift for a good friend of mine who loves Blow the Whistle. Enjoy....

AC/DTZ - REEEEEEMIXXXXXX !!!

  The new Menahan Street Band album is great... and full of smooth beats that could be sampled to no end. It turns out that Kool G Rap's "On The Run" pairs up nicely with "Sleight of Hand" by Menahan. Gangster storytellin' raps over an ominous afro-soul beat.... hope you enjoy the remix....

S(pencer).O.T.Y

  Damn Spenny, congrats ! Sick new full video part to add to his impressive collection of coverage for 2012.... luh dat guy !
 

Countdown...

  As you can probably tell from the frequency of Arizona-related posts, I'm getting pretty antsy to bounce outta here for my southern 2nd home. Lots of brethren meeting up in the desert lands this year.... one day I might just stay....

MagPile - Mo' Freddy, Mo'.... Millimeters ?

  MagPile is new and Fred already got two....

   Got my hands on the first 2 issues of Journal Magazine out of Philly, from 1996. I'm a lifelong fan of Dan Wolfe's Eastern Exposure 3(Underachievers) video, and these magazines are full of photos to go along with the footage. This shot of Fred Gall switch 50-50ing a rail at some contest/demo is one such photo.... look at those wheels....   Underachievers is still one of the best videos ever to watch before going skating. Timeless....

Park Report: Ohgoddammitthatsiti'mmoving

 I thought the end of the world was on December 21st ?

Aye, Dennis...Its Donnely And Someofyourotherteamates

  Busenitz and Donnelly have some sick clips in this....

Off the Record # 9 - 20 on the run

  This edition of OTR is keepin' it mafioso gangsta styles, with Kool G Rap's 1993 single "On the Run".... the Al Capone version. Kool G was ahead of his time and highly influential in the rap game, although the album that features the original version of this song almost didn't get released due to it's graphic subject matter. I think this remix is the best of the 3 versions I own, even found a clip of the music video re-dubbed with the Capone beat. 

  I got the single at Beatstreet in Vancouver for about $9-, and added another classic skateboard video soundtrack gem to the crate. This one appeared in the 101 section of 20 Shot Sequence, from 1994.... with a nice chunk of Gino footage to close it off. 

 Skating downtown Vancouver in the mid 90s after watching that part, with Kool G running though your head.... night sessions.... good times. Might have to bundle up and go for a roll if we get a dry evening this week....

Weekend Hype

  Went to the DGK "Parental Advisory" premiere at Fortune on Friday night .... do yourself a favor, get this video. Full parts from everyone and some high-budget skits in between that follow some lil' shits around as they exemplify the middle-american teenager's idea of dirty ghetto (skate) life. 

  Wade.... holy shit Wade..... sooo good. Ottawa has produced some unreal skateboarders, glad to have most of them lurking close by in Vancouver... some good homies right there. Other favorites include Jack Curtain, Marcus, Kalis ( duh ), Tags-on-hat ( Keelan ), Dane Vaughn and the Godfather, Stevie. Still got it. All day every day baby !

MagPile - Star Power

  Small human version of Freddy from a 1992 Tracker ad.... young and innocent ? Young at least....

Off the Record # 8 - Heat in the Streets

  Every once in a while I'll buy an album based solely on how it looks.... as with this 1972 self-titled debut album from Black Heat that I got at Audiopile a few years back. When I got home and threw it on I instantly started to recognize bits and pieces that had been sampled for some classic hip hop.... including one track, "Send my lover back", that was the main loop for a beat used in Transworld's 1997 video, Interface. Not sure who made the beat, but it perfectly compliments the smooth New York street skating of Keith Hufnagel and his east coast brethren. 

  Definitely a good impulse buy... this Black Heat album is still available as a re-issue.... dirt cheap and it actually sounds great ! Maybe if I get my hands on a hard copy of Interface I can figure out who created that beat...

MagPile - Skunk in the Trunk

  Not sure if you'd be likely to catch Rick in the back of the van with the Trunk Boys, but he's sitting pretty comfortably on the back seat of this 5-0 at an extinct Richmond bump-to-bar... taken from the pages of the July 1997 issue of Slap. Not too much went down on that thing.... but Rick made it look easy of course. One of the best styles ever, period.

Off the Record # 7 - "Lost my heart when I found it... "

  With all the talk about longtime riders leaving Blueprint skateboards as of late, it was a cool coincidence to come across this copy of Rodriguez's 1st album from 1970, Cold Fact, at Red Cat only yesterday. As soon as I saw it on the wall I remembered Danny Brady's part from Blueprint's 2005 video, Lost & Found.... which features Rodriguez's most well known track, "Sugar Man", as the soundtrack to the tail end of Danny's section.



  Rodriguez's brief, and then re-ignited years later, career makes for an interesting read.... this album came with a bonus booklet inside featuring the story of his unlikely road in music. Really happy to have found this 2009 re-issue .... I've never seen an original.

  "Sugar man" appears at 3:26

  Sad to hear about names that were so synonymous with Blueprint leaving the iconic UK brand, but times are changing in skateboarding.... you can find some of the rider's own words on the situation online if you're up for the search. Still excited as ever to see new things from Paul Shier, Danny Brady, Nick Jensen and the other blokes wherever they end up settling down.

  Danny's whole part was sick... and then he just grew into his style for the second song.... solid and smooth like black pudding and mushy peas. Right then...

Conzie in the Cradle

Chris Connolly  [o]  Cassidy

   Is he a cow ? Is he a cousin ? Ask uncle Ricky ? Connie made the whole family proud when he skank planked the bejesus outta that there cradle piece..... roaring ensued.... beer was spilled. Footage to be seen in The G9 Summit.... next month.... hopefully...

New York is Burning

 A jenky film advance lever left me with a cool photo of the Chelsea Piers skatepark in Manhattan, appearing to be wiped out of existence by a wall of white fire. Might make a good postcard...

MagPile - DoppleBanger Danny

  One of the 90's gems hidden in my stack of magazines is this 1996 Droors ad featuring Danny Way and a wholesome looking young lass... which is a parody of an old Jordache jeans ad from a few years prior. When I was in New York last year I came across the original Jordache ad in an old Playboy, and luckily I had the trusty G9 with me, so I took a photo of it.

  ....ahhhh the 90's..... they were jacked.

Off the Record # 6 - Tangerine Boss

  Sharing a lesser-known Tommy James & The Shondells track today, the psychedelic thumper," I am a Tangerine". The hits from this 1968 album were the title track "Crimson & Clover", and "Crystal Blue Persuasion", though "..Tangerine" sounds as if it was created under the influence of just a little more help from their...ahem,  friends. Picked up this record at Zia Record Exchange in Tucson, a strange Blockbuster video-looking place that, for some reason, has a half decent vinyl selection.



  I wouldn't feel right about sharing any track from this album without paying homage to Andrew Reynolds' classic Baker 2G part from 2000, which starts off with "Crimson & Clover".





  Always been a fan of the Boss and Baker... Bake & Destroy was another great addition to their crispy bucket of videos. Short & simple for OTR today.... wiped out from late-November sunny day street skating. See ya tomorrow....

Marino's Episodes

  I met Steve Marino last winter while visiting Arizona, he was also visiting with some mutual friends from the east coast. You know how good skaters make awesome filmers/photographers ? That's Marino. Handling business on both sides of the lens. Both of us spent a lot of time behind the cameras on that trip, and Steve captured some great stuff. He's got a blog where you can check out some of his various work, plus entertaining posts covering his travels. Hope he makes it out to AZ this year.... here's an edit he made showcasing some of the attractions of the desert lands that keep us coming back every winter....

MagPile - Hey Jude

  I miss Slap Magazine.... the actual print version. It was a stylish representation of skateboarding and the culture built around it, that has had some obvious influence on more recent skate publications. I still have the January 97' issue that features an AM JAM with triple O.G, Judah Oakes, getting beastly on a rail at a Vancouver staple spot. I once saw Judah land on his board so hard, after doing a huge transfer at the old Clubhouse skatepark, that he basically put his footprint through the tail. He's power and style crammed into one humble package.... kinda like another old friend I found lurking in the pages of the same magazine....

... Stevie Denham ! Blasting out of the quick quarter at the new( at the time ) Ladner skatepark, curiously referred to as "Seattle Stevie". Not sure what accounts for the mistaken nickname, but Steve must have been stoked to get a photo in Slap when he was just a shirtless teenager. 

  Judah and Steve are two of the first people I met when I moved out west to Vancouver in 1995, and they're both still ripping with no end in sight. Love those guys.... definitely going to post some more of their old coverage as I come across it. Props to Slap for giving international exposure to lesser known Canadian skaters, and for just being an awesome magazine.  

  ...something familiar about that Stevie photo.... maybe I'll ask Geoff Dermer....

Suplexing the rest

    I got a tooth pulled recently, which isn't very noteworthy on it's own... but the ensuing nausea/confusion brought on by the pain killers I was given unfortunately kept me from making it out to the premiere of David Ehrenreich's new Suplex video, filmed entirely on VX1000. Luckily, hard copies just became available, in addition to the online release. This one is worth owning for the simple fact that it will motivate you to go out and skate... featuring a solid roster of ( mostly ) Vancouver-based rippers illustrating that there's still lots of potential in the streets if you get creative and bring the homies ( Tyler Warren, Cory Wilson, Jamie Maley, Will Blakley, Rob Rickaby, Mike Campbell & more ). Great skating, editing and music.... plus some classic Keith Henry moments.... everyone kills it in this video, watch it.

Off the Record # 5 - The Girls of War

 Sometimes you gotta jump on the bandwagon when the wagons bangin'.... so to speak. With Chocolate Skateboards' Pretty Sweet video hot on the premiere tour, it seems fitting to share one of the short, but pretty sweet parts from Mouse, featuring the bosses themselves - Mike Carroll & Rick Howard, and the soundtrack that helped to create a classic. Choosing Slippin' into darkness by War for the music in their part, the Girl guys kept it all quality... while keeping it funky. 

  I got this random blue vinyl for about $6- at Red Cat a couple years ago, almost solely for Slippin' into darkness, although there's lots of great tracks on this promo compilation. Slippin' was the 1st big single War recorded after the departure of Eric Burdon, selling over a million copies and appearing on their 1971 All Day Music album. The heavy drum beat falls at an ideal pace for some of the most stylish skateboarding ever condensed into a minute and a half... leaving the viewer/listener wanting a bit more of both.





  ... would have loved to see more of the O.G. Girl guys in Pretty Sweet... maybe the bonus DVD has some surprises. Congrats to Guy for bangin' it out hard as hell instead of fading away, dude is unbelievable. Go listen to some War.

The Fountain of Youth

Willy Akers  [o]  Cassidy

 As the rain begins to make itself comfortable in Vancouver, Arizona seems closer and closer. Driving down the coast with some old friends this winter to meet up with Willy and the usual suspects is sure to provide a few good stories.... keep posted for a recap in February....

Happy Birthday Kreep !

 Bud Patterson is even older and creepier today, and he stands a good chance of getting so Newfie drunk tonight that he'll miss the Pretty Sweet premiere tomorrow.... but that back tail is pretty sweet, so he gets a pass. He's the unknowing star of the upcoming new drama The G9 Summit, which also premieres soon, but for an audience about the size of a group of people with an iphone in the kitchen of a basement suite. Happy Birthday Kreep !





 Bud made these edits a few years back, featuring some of his future co-stars in The G9 Summit.

MagPile - Mini Mega

No way.

  Yup, that's Sam. Already raging at 15 ( from the March 92' issue of Transworld ). Another find from the dusty box of old magazines at Ultimate Distribution. Sam was back on a board not long ago, ripping noseblunt slides at the Plaza like he never left... hope he's doing OK. 

Off the Record # 4 - Ultraviolet Mud

 "That guitar sounds like a cat - meowww." Muddy Waters' own words regarding the sound of his 1968 concept album Electric Mud give a nod to the subject of this edition of OTR, the psych-blues "Tom Cat ". The album was put out on Cadet, a subsidiary of Chess, in hopes of breathing life into Muddy's career by pairing him with a backing band of psych rockers from label-mates The Rotary Connection. Tom Cat does a great job of blending the two sounds together, heavy on the trip, deep in the blues.... and even though a good deal of Psych/Garage bands of the time started by doing blues covers or blues based rock & roll, this approach at the same idea gets a few extra points for including an O.G. Blues man in the mix.



 I found this sealed, 1981 Canadian pressing at RedCat in Vancouver about a year ago for under $30. It got crossed of my list of albums containing samples from classic hip hop songs that I'm looking for, as Tom Cat appeared on Cypress Hill's self titled 1991 album in an interlude entitled "Ultraviolet Dreams". Although not even a minute long, Ultraviolet Dreams' simple loop of Tom Cat sets the smoked out scene behind some mumblings from unidentified loccs that are about to light another...

  Love that fuzz-wah... and the whole Cypress Hill album in general. I've found more samples/breaks used by Cypress that will be featured in future installments of OTR... Jimmy McGriff comes to mind...

Happy Friday !

David Elson  [o]  Cassidy

  That high flyin' guy up there is Lil' Dave, just havin' a time cause' he got the derf. Originally from Red Deer, AB, Dave moved to Vancouver a few years back and brought with him a taste for so-called "out dated " video cameras. Hi 8, Digi 8, DV Cam... whatever. Dave's got a good sense of humor and a knack for putting together entertaining edits under the Gnartang empire. Skateboarding doesn't need to be in HD... nothing wrong with that, but Red Telephone always appreciates the nostalgic eye. Check out one of the Gnartang's edits below.... Jah ?

MagPile - The Cool Ranch twins

  I was investigating some upper levels of the racks at Ultimate Distribution when I came across a small, incredibly dusty box of magazines from the mid-late 80s.... including the 1st magazine I ever owned. Even more interesting was finding a copy of the December 89' Transworld with O.G. NVLOC, and my good friend, George Faulkner on the cover.

All [o] Grant Brittain

  When this issue came out, I got 2 copies via 2 different people giving me them at Christmas... long before I ever met George... and to this day I think it's an awesome cover photo. Imagine being a kid skating your local spot, and then one day you end up on the cover of the biggest skateboard magazine of the time.... must have felt amazing. Not only that, but this sucka got another photo inside the magazine for an article on the Richmond Skate Ranch, along with his twin brother Gordon, and friends Sluggo, John Munroe, Colin McKay and a few other locs.

George & Sluggo

John & Gordon

..and this little guy skating the biggest wheels Powell made.

    John is teaching on the east coast these days, Colin McKay is most likely sitting on some ridiculous footage that his fans will get to see in the near-ish future, Sluggo's been on a bit of a charge the last few years marathon ripping every bowl contest... and the twins are still both naturally awesome on skateboards and in life. I'm gonna keep digging through those dusty shelves to see what's been forgotten. You should see how many boxes of Rat Nuts are up there....

President Booze n' Tits

  I had something else lined up for today but Busenitz trumps all. If you don't like his skating your brain is jacked. His filmer probably lost 5 pounds during that line. Love it.

Off the Record # 3 - KaBoom !

   OTR takes a small side step in this edition to give respect to a classic underground mix tape, Hiero Oldies. If you were lucky enough to catch any of Hiero's mid/late 1990s concerts, these tapes were for sale, along with the Hiero B-Sides mix tape and other various merch. A few highlight tracks would be a remix of "Cab Fare", "Our Secret" and the self-titled "Souls of Mischief", the latter being used as the music for Tony Ferguson's section in the classic 1993 skateboard video, Virtual Reality, by Plan B. 

    Tony's part is such a great representation of that era in skating.... the music, the kit ( light blue jeans, white tee, tan suede shoes )... and footage from the heyday of classic spots. The essentially un-released  "Souls of Mischief" track became somewhat of a hiero-holy-grail that had lots of people wondering how to get their hands on a copy. Finding this mixtape at a concert a few years later was like finding gold. 

   Tony Ferguson is living in Vancouver again these days, still stylish as ever on a board.... though maybe freestyle rapping a bit less. Souls of Mischief have definitely crept a bit further into the underground, with some low key solo projects by a few members... but they've earned their place in Hip Hop history with a grip of early 90s west coast classics. OTR returns to the usual all vinyl format for the next installment, maybe keep your third eye out for a spotlight on the Hiero B-Sides tape somewhere down the line...

" What seems to be the occifer problem ? "

 Ahhhh, skateboarding..... so refreshing. One of the best things to ever come inside the shrink wrap of a new deck, the Anti Hero stealth coozie. Just havin' a soda ya know, no big D.

Silver lining

   Rodney Torres looked at the glass half full and came up on a skater's dream in the aftermath of Sandy Piss. 

Off the Record # 2 - Bass Melter

 When I was a kid, the 1st album I can remember choosing on my own, out of my parent's limited record collection, was Booker T & The M.G's .... one of the albums with "Green Onions" on it. I loved it. Years later, I heard "Hip Hug Her" as the soundtrack behind a classic Jeremy Wray video part... and then a couple years after that, in 93' I heard a song in a 411 video during the Zoo York industry section that HAD to be the same band. Turns out it was, and the song "Melting Pot" is the focus of this OTR pick. I picked up the record at Twist & Shout Records in Tucson, AZ for something like $7.... sadly, that store closed last year. Tucson's a tough one....



  Melting Pot is carried by a rolling bass line, and it was begging to be used as a soundtrack to something. Throw in early footage of Zoo York's humble beginnings ( not to mention a heavy cameo by Bobbito ) with some raw New York skating, and you have a classic clip that's fairly interesting to take another look at after all these years. ....and if Melting Pot sounds familiar to anyone, it may be due to it's use as the key sample/loop in Big Daddy Kane's "Another Victory", from his classic 1989 album "It's a Big Daddy Thing". You will have this bass line stuck in your head after listening - DTZ.

MagPile - Strange Hero

97' ad of Julien hopping up on one hell of a sketchy ledge. I remember ending up at that hubba on the hill once, couldn't believe it. Tall, outward curving, peaked surface.... with a kink.... on a downhill into a busy park. Cool park though. San Fran is tops.

Off the Record #1 - Jersey boys

 Off the Record is a re-occurring feature I'll be doing from now on that showcases some of my favorite albums in my ever-growing vinyl collection. The focus will be placed mostly on golden era hip hop and the soul/funk/jazz music that was sampled to create it's classics. If you like what you see/hear, then you should check out Endless Summer at The Waldorf on Saturday nights.... my sets are always full of this stuff.... enjoy !

 Inaugural post honors go to Newark, New Jersey's own Artifacts... specifically the "Wrong side of the tracks" single from 1994. Pretty sure I heard this in a skateboard video 1st, probably an old 411. Backed with "C'mon wit the git down", it was well worth the 4 dollars. Now I just need to find that 9th Creation track, Bubble gum, that it samples... and a crowd that will actually know the song.



  ....did this post for my good friends in Newark... see ya soon boys !

Fuji Reala 100 ( expired )

 1st roll on the Hasselblad 503cx had a couple gems. Bud above and Cory below.

Procrastagram ( Arizona & California winter get-away 2012 )

Some people think the world is going to end in 2012. I'm glad to say I don't share that opinion, for if I did then it would mean the end of annual trips to the southern United States in the winter months. Nah son. I'm going again and again.

This year I met up with my re-occurring skate travel crew ( Andrew, Willy, Suskibeatz etc... )and followed them to over 10 backyard pools in Tucson and Phoenix. You can't stick around for long at each pool, so except for a few timid carves here and there, I mostly shot photos of the homies who knew what they were doing. Willy just turned pro for 5BORO and he was all-in at every spot... the proof is in the photos below.

Above : Drew gets a bite of gold dust.

Above : Willy gets a crail in the deep.

Early in the trip I drove 9 hours up to Santa Barbara to meet up with no other than Frank Tanklin and Cam Wisehorse for the premiere of the new Bones Brigade documentary.... we even got a personal tour of the Powell factory by George Powell himself, a great experience all around.

Above, left to right : Mike McGill, Alan Gelfand, Tommy Guererro, Rodney Mullen, Stacy Peralta, Steve Caballero, Craig Stecyk and Lance Mountain at the Santa Barbara premiere of The Bones Brigade Documentary. ( Photo: Daniello ... on the G-Nizzy )

Above : Quick stop to buy records in L.A. and I got a chance to see the Hollywood sign.

Below: This sign was right behind me when I shot the other photo above.

Above : Rolled into San Diego for a day on the way back to Tucson and met up with brother Hoffart for a quick skate and hang.... he's got some cute pups lurking around.

Below : This school was sick. There were perfect Cali tables in back that were set up after a nice bump, and this ramp to rail that Jordan easily heel flipped out front. Wish I had more time there...

Above : Foundation trooper Dakota Servold came out for a shred and was hopping up on this classic spot like it was ankle high. I hit the road for Tucson after he TCB'd that jam.

Above: Our good friend in Tucson and gracious host on many occasions, Jesse, has made some progress on his back yard concrete dreamland. Time trials went down...something like 8 seconds around the yard without pushing.

Below: The only photo of me from the trip is a pivot fakie on the smallest thing in the yard. Balls.

Above and below: It's hard to do pools justice in photos and video. These 2 photos can at least give you an idea of the steepness. JD was grinding off the 1st drop in.

Above: Willy, backside tailslide.

I may have been gone for 2 weeks, but it flew by. Next year I plan to stay for a month. There's some solid homies down in Arizona... big thanks to my folks, Suski, Jesse, Andrew, Willy, Steve, Brad, Jason, Jordan and everyone else for making it a memorable trip ! .... and can't forget Tula Faye !

WOOF !