Check out this 1989 CBS Records compilation titled “Skate Hard.” Nothing says “Skate Hard” in the 80’s like a skeleton shredding the wasteland, or a garbage can for that matter. The board may say early 80’s but the Rectors and fingerless gloves say… well, early to late 80’s as well. It’s got a curious lineup of bands, many that I know and sometimes love, and a few that I’ve never heard of. The vast majority of the acts hail from Australia. There are many that are comparatively well known like the Hard-Ons, Cosmic Psychos, Celibate Rifles, and Screaming Tribesmen. Then there are those that are more (globally) obscure, like Ratcat, Ya Ya Choral, Hitmen, Massappeal, Proton Energy Pills, Voodoo Lust, Hellmen, Psychotic Turnbuckles, Splatterheads, and the Kryptonics. Did the Kryptonics get their name from the wheels? I have not been able to discern this. This compilation seems like a great time capsule of a musical scene in Australia, except for the bands that aren’t only out-of-place geographically, but musically as well. Why include Ozzy Osbourne, Living Colour, The Godfathers, and 24-7 Spyz? Probably because the brass thought those names might expose fans to the Australian scene. Here’s a worthless tidbit…

Normally I might push this post off to the Broken Kingpins section without comment but the Tubuloids video for It’s Getting Weird connected with me on a primal level. I think GVK missed his calling. Their album on Beer City Records doesn’t come out until October, but you can preorder it now.

I can imagine that a lot of people (including myself) waited for a release like this by Wheezing Maniac, an obscure band out of San Diego that was featured on the soundtrack for H-Street´s Hokus Pokus video with two songs (“Dollar on a platter” and “Don´t come close”). Sadly, this is NOT an LP or CD release, but just a bunch of audio files that can be downloaded via iTunes and probably some other sources. It´s just my guess that this is the complete discography of the band, and hopefully it´s authorized.

To be honest, I am not a big fan of Christmas songs, but this one is different. THE CROSSFIRES recorded this novelty kinda tune in late 1964. It´s a story about a shopping-mall Santa and a little boy with a huge list of things he wants for Christmas, but listen for yourself.

The first half of the 1960s were the hey-days for Surf Music with a high percentage of bands being from California. Many of those bands also wrote songs about Skateboarding or what then was known as “Sidewalk Surfing” (I counted about 30 releases so far from that era, including bands from other genres). But there were also bands from such “exotic” places like Texas.

New video from San Francisco’s Hot Lunch for the song She Wants More. Catch it after the jump.

Thanks to the Facebook-Site “Skateboarding Hall o Fame” for finding that rare video from 1965, featuring italian-born Piccola Pupa on the microphone and Wendy Bull on the skateboard.

Do you remember the catalogues that came with the old JFA records? Most of them also offered JFA skateboards in various sick shapes. I always wanted one of those, but they don´t pop up that often nowadays and I am pretty sure that I don´t want / can´t afford an original one.

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

You won’t learn anything new about the Big Boys here, but it’s noteworthy that NPR picked up on the re-release of Industry Standard.