The Raging Peasants – Ballad of the headless skateboarder 7“

Sometimes it´s really weird what kinda artists recorded songs about skateboarding or let´s say at least with a connection to skateboarding.

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DAVE O`BRIAN – Skateboard Rider

The German pressing of this rare 70´s skatesploitation record was already shown on SNA some time ago. I knew that there also was a French pressing on Polydor Records (1997, cat.nr. 2056 743) with a different cover.

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Dear Patients …

… this is Doc Skaterock a.k.a. Flow writing from Germany. Kilwag asked me, if I wanted to be an author for sna, and hell yeah, I want to be a part of that site. What an honor, thank you Kilwag!! So what am I going to write here about? Skaterock? Yes! Skatesploitation? Yes! And for sure some other trash, too. We will see. For those who don´t know me so far, I´ve been writing about my passion Skaterock for more than one and a half decade now, starting with my own fanzine in 1996 (simply called “Skaterock”) and then writing and photographing for the German skatemag Boardstein from the beginning (2000) till the end of it (2008 or was it 2009?). This year I finished and self-published my book about what I dared to call “Vintage Skaterock“, the skateboard music that was performed and recorded before the term “Skaterock” was officially created.
I hope you are also interested in that kinda stuff. Please fell free to comment, sent tips, leave feedback, give away your record collection….

… enjoy life!

yours sincerely
Dr. Skaterock

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I have evolved

I have evolved, but I still get around. Here’s a true exchange I had about this recent eBay purchase:

Friend: How the hell are you going to listen to an 8-track?

ME: It’s OK, I have it on vinyl too.

Friend: Your wife must hate you.

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Chemistry

Since I can’t afford or seem to get the hang of buying old skateboards on eBay, I’ve taken to collecting skatesploitation records instead. It seems like there is handful of the same records that are well circulated. Sometimes they go for $50, but you can pick them up for $10-$15 if you are patient. So I don’t get too bummed if I don’t win an auction. The first time I saw this record I thought I’d be able to pick it up for a few bucks plus postage, but I was shocked when it went for over $100 in the last 24 hours. I thought it was a fluke until I lost another auction to a seemingly ridiculous high bid. There must be cutthroat market out there for really obscure funk bands. Here’s another listing of this record, this time with an opening bid of $89. I’ve seen it on record collecting sites for as high as $258! It sounds very 70′s but the popular consensus is that is was released in 1980 or 81. Well fortunately for my wallet, you can download the mp3. In the mean time I’ll be lurking around the Goodwills looking for stray copies of Skateboard B/W Closer by Chemistry. It’s mainly an instrumental with a few random and hilarious sounding chants. Do the skateboard after the jump.

[Image: Matlo 44]

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Doot Doola Doot Doo Doot Doo!

Nardwuar the Human Serviette had a guest DJ Roger Allen on his radio show to present the history of Skate Rock. It’s was an entertaining show to be sure, but I think Roger confused Skate Rock with music that a lot of skateboarders listen to. He started off on a high note with a soundtrack clip from the 60′s film Skater Dater, and a few good skatesploitation tracks from the 70′s before getting derailed by Led Zepplin, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and a bunch of other bands that certainly were listened to by a lot of the skating population, but can hardly be considered authentic “skate rock,” Bad Brains included. It’s something I’d actually enjoy getting into a scholarly debate about with Allen. It’s a good listen anyway. 80′s centric but bookended by decades on both sides. Check out Nardwuar vs. Roger Allen. I love Nardwuar.

- Thanks to Dale Pidlisny for the tip. [Photo: William R. Jans]

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The Mixtures – Skateboard Jive

I curse the audiophile who sniped me on this eBay auction for Skateboard Jive by the Mixtures. What kind of loser bids on crappy skatesploitation music? ME. There’s a fan page set up on MySpace, so I guess at least two people care. The Mixtures were an Australian band from 1965-1976. Skateboard Jive came out in 1975, and it was the last thing the Mixtures released before disbanding. There’s a bunch of skatesploitation records that come up on eBay all the time, pretty much the group, if you miss once you can most likely try again in a month, but I’ve never seen this one before. I covet this.

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Skateboard Rider by Dave O’Brian

The internet is magic. How esle would I be able to buy some obscure 7″ single from a guy nobody’s ever heard of, or at least remembers. Skateboard Rider was released in 1977 on a German label called Metronome Muzik. Check out the cool Van Halen style lettering. This came out a year before Van Halen’s first album, which sounds like it came from a different planet compared to this. The B-side is called Sunshine in Your Face, and although the view from the awesome cover calls to mind something else on your face, the b-side is absolutely horrible without any skateboard kitsch to fall back on. Skateboard Rider was about $15 delivered, from Deutschland.

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Skateboard Bill

This is the Skateboard Bill single by surfing icon Corky Carroll. He retired from the professional surfing circuit in 1972 at the age of 24, about the same time he began his recording career. The engineer on this session was none other than future Surf Punk and member of Johnny Rad’s house band, Dennis Dragon. Dennis handled soundtrack and audio effects in the early Bones Brigade videos. On top of that, he lives in Oregon now. I might go stalk him.

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Megamouth 2 and the Great Skateboard Adventure

In my never ending quest to acquire vintage skateboard exploitation music that nobody wants to hear but me and maybe one other guy, I found this 1988 cassette only release by the Christian rap group called Megamouth. This ons is listed on eBay for $80, and that’s no typo. I asked the seller about it:

This cassette’s rarity and value are due to the fact that it is among the more obscure releases from Terry Taylor, a wunderkind in the Christian alternative music field (both as a producer and as an artist himself, with his bands Daniel Amos, Swirling Eddies, and Lost Dogs). Since this was a cassette-only release aimed at the Christian children’s market, a very small niche market, this title is pretty rare.

I thought I’d shop around and look for a more reasonably priced way to hear Getting Vertical (By Trustin’ The Lord), but the only other option is spending $100 at Amazon. Knowledgeable sources like the Holy Hip Hop DataBASE say the two Megamouth releases didn’t find much of an audience. Maybe it was ahead of it’s time, predating Colby’s Place by a year.

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