Adam Crofts sent me a beat up copy of the Keane Brothers debut album from 1977 because it had skateboard on the cover. I listened to it, hoping that the song Keep On Rollin’ was skateboard related, but it wasn’t. The album is a truly awful mix of 70’s disco, soul, rock, country and bubblegum. It’s a freaking awesome train wreck. I noticed the producer also had the last name Keane, so I figured this was a showbiz father trying to get rich off his kids, and that this was probably the last time anyone ever heard of the Keane Brothers, if anyone ever heard of them at all. Of course I was wrong. The Keane Brothers had one of those variety shows that were all over the 70’s like flies on shitty music, and they appeared on the Tonight Show and the Mike Douglas Show. On top of that, the opening sequence of their variety show prominently features the Keane brothers on skateboards.

French Furniture designer Hervet-Manufacturier makes some really interesting looking angular furniture the looks like it what people thought the future was going to look like in the 70’s. It’s got a heavy Space 1999 vibe to it. And of course they also make some expensive hardwood retro “artisanal” cruisers. While they were at it, they released a formica laminated, laser engraved, limited edition Daft Punk skateboard that sold for $288. Hervet-Manyfacturier went with a retro mail order catalog inspired promo image, while Daft Punk’s chose a glossy 70’s skatemag style advertisement. [Source: DesignBoom] – Thanks to MC for the tip.

It’s Joe Strummer hanging out in an unidentified West London skatepark (UPDATE: It’s Meanwhile Gardens) during an interview that took place some time between 1988 and 1991. Footage from the same interview also appears in the 2007 Joe Strummer documentary The Future is Unwritten, which I haven’t actually seen yet, but maybe it lists the source in the credits. This particular digitization is pretty rough. If anyone finds clearer footage and can identify the source please let me know.

Lemmy Kilmister dead at 70, two days after being diagnosed with cancer. His bandmates have explicit instructions on honoring his life. Long live Lemmy. [Photo: Independent]

Dwight Yoakum was photographed on a skateboard in London sometime in 1986. His FB page doesn’t say what it was published in, but here it is. A double billing of Dwight with Jason and the Scorchers would be a show I’d love to see.

Burnside Benefit show at Dante’s in Portland on Friday, October 9th.

Check out this clip of Jan and Dean lip-syncing Sidewalk Surfin’ on American Bandstand. August 22, 1964. Dick Clark talks with audience a little bit about skateboarding (a young man’s game?) and half the “band” actually does sidewalk surf on the stage. There’s even a little bit of dorking around during the lip sync session. See what passes for a “trick” in 1964. All in all, a very interesting clip showing skateboarding and skatesploitation in mid-60’s popular culture.

Here’s more guitars made from used skateboards, this time from Prisma Guitars. These are more common now, but Prisma looks like they’ve taken the craftsmanship up a level. I was going to hassle Nick Pourfard about showing no love for bass players, but he can do them, and has done them for Steve Harris of Iron Maiden no less. Even if you don’t like Iron Maiden you should check out Iron Maiden: Flight 666. Those guys are surprisingly down to earth and funny. It almost made me want to listen to their music, but it definitely left with respect for them as human beings.

It’s Earth Day, so if you want to listen to your old 7″ singles you might consider picking up one of these 45 Dome Shots, a collaboration with Maple XO and John Cardiel. Earth day?? This should have been a collab for Record Store Day.

These are pretty fuzzy pictures of a craptacular skateboard from Valterra. It’s a Beach Boys model, which is shocking to think that someone thought they would still be able to help sell skateboards in the 80’s. Check out the built in handles on this “Grip Stick” and the weird solid black caricature. It reminds me of the comic strip where all the characters have bulging eyes and their heads look like they are made from a pile of bubbles. I think it uses the same sort of negative color space too. Anyone know what I’m talking about? (MC does, it was John Crawford’s Baboon Dooley )The picture quality of this auction would have made me pass on posting it were it not that I’ve been looking for an excuse to repost the “Beach Boys Shred I Get Round” video, still one of my favorite things in the world.