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.

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.

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.

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.

Thing is, I get distracted easily, and to me, the internet is like a strobe light for epileptics. While trying to track down a copy of the Carvells L.A. Run, I accidentally learned about a Danish relic from the past known as Mabel. These guy look like a bunch of Rod Stewart clones from the Hot Legs era. never heard of them? I guess they didn’t make it that far out of Denmark. Turns out it’s not that expensive to get 7″ vinyl records from Sweden, where I ended up getting this one. I got the hideous cover on the bottom right, which is so bad that it’s actually better than the understated one, which is a full length album. There’s also a Japanese version of the Skateboard Rider single, but the only place is turns up on the internet is a postage stamp sized dead link on someone’s very extensive Mabel fan page. Calling 1978.

I saw this album cover over at the exotic blog of Kahuna Kawentzmann. According to Hodad Heaven, it’s a re-issue that dates back to the 80’s. The original release was credited to the Good Guys. The Good Guys release has a different track listing from the Challengers. You can download MP3’s for a price from Amazon, or free from other places… (Hodad, Ahem.) For some reason the 80’s rerelease is collectable, New copies ago from $49 – $112, and remember this is a CD rerelease! The original LP was up as a vinyl rip for a time, but it’s been archived. You can pick up a copy of the Good Guys version on vinyl via eBay. Right now there is one listed at $25. Check out the cover! You gotta love the original Roller Derby board used as an exclamation point. The back has what may be the first ever monkey on a skateboard too.

“I Get Around” is a compilation from Ontario’s famous (?) TeeVee Records that might be related to the current operation named TeeVee operating out of Nashville Tennessee. The original TeeVee was pretty much the same as K-Tel records, which is also based in Canada. If you were lucky the record you bought would be a compilations of popular or formerly popular songs. If you were unlucky, it would be a compilation of cover versions of those songs. Sometimes you might find something more interesting, like a moog synthesizer studio band covering tripped out ABBA instrumentals. Today’s TeeVee appears to be focused on country music greatest hits compilations from yesteryear.