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Soundtrack Listing
Intro: Amon Düül II – Jail House Frog
Anthony Schultz: Iron Claw – Pavement Artist
Pat Burke: Brotha Lynch Hung – Rest in Piss
Frecks: Icecross – Jesus Freaks
Conhuir Lynn / Friends: Witch – Changing
Danny Dicola: MC5 – Over and Over
Matt Mumford: GOD – My Pal
Jon Allie: Dark – Zero Time
Jon Goemann: The Rolling Stones – 2000 Lightyears From Home
Credits: Louis Armstrong – What A Wonderful World
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Credit goes to skatevideosite.com for soundtrack listing
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Introductory Musings
I wasn’t even hyped for this video, hell I didn’t even know $lave (with the dollar sign) had actually gotten off the ground or even had a team. I first heard of this when I watched God Save The Label and underwent massive withdrawal due to lack of Anthony Schultz. When Zero’s Strange World premiered, I stumbled upon this video in my searches for that one, and was basically blown away. The ‘blown away’ occurred not really from the skating, but from the production of the video, the stying of the footage, the chosen soundtrack, and the guys contained within that I’d never heard of. The video uses no titles, and the order the skaters are introduced in during the intro is the order they fall in during the video. The footage is edited to look older, and there are tons of mainstream media clips intermingled with the skating, my particular favorites being historical video clips, like the student in Tianenman Square in 1989 blocking the government tanks. This video is perhaps overkill on the intelligent/socially responsible/artsy video format that’s become popular this year, but I personally enjoyed the hell out of it. This is not to say that the ‘big’ names in the video don’t deliver; Schultz has my favorite part, Jon Allie delivers his first interesting, diverse part ever, and Matt Mumford delivers as always. Basically, this isn’t the stereotypical Black Box distribution release, and appeals to a grungy, more underground lifer-type audience than either Zero or Fallen can really reach.
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Intro
The intro kicks off with a brief history of the advances in Radio and Television, hence describing the title. It also gives you a sense of skating in relation to the outside world through imagery of crowd masses, or maybe that’s just me being too introspective. We get introduced to the team here, and for those of you that lurk those ‘Somethin’ Else’ sections in the end of Skateboard Mag (or is it Transworld? who cares), you might remember Danny Dicola’s tail drop to boardslide which they labeled particularly dangerous. That shows up here, along with the typical brutal slams, the introduction of Jon Allie’s odd facial ‘stache, and a pretty gnarly switch ollie over a block and into a hill. After that clip it gets pretty eerie, to the point of disturbing actually, with images of monkeys being tested scientifically and mass chicken hatchlings ready for uh…… destruction. Plus some crazy chanting in the song adds an element of foreboding, and all in all it’s a pretty sick intro which could have functioned brilliantly as a stand-alone promo in my opinion. At this point the titles show fittingly with a backdrop of atomic explosion, and a very Black Box-ish segment follows, with a handrail, a massive tranny gap, lots of bails, and a Schultz front three hill bomb to lead into his part. The political statement by the presumably blind guy = entirely worth pondering on.
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Anthony Schultz
The opener from Black Label’s Back In Black strikes again with first part, this time more matured, dirty-faced, and overall sketchier yet more creative. The style that made him a standout in the Label’s previous release shows through yet again, starting with his beautifully imperfect opening line. After that is what I’m pretty sure is a massive triple flip, followed by a bit of creativity at New York City’s most massacred spot. Shots of ants or larvae follow, and then we really get into his lengthy opus of an opener. Each clip seems well thought out, each trick proper, each angle amateur yet professional all at once. How Chris Troy overshadowed this guy is beyond me. He actually hauls some surprising ass throughout his part, and although as a whole the video is lacking the technicality that we have grown accustomed to after the release of the damned Flare two years ago, it’s hard hitting in it’s simplicity and overall skate-nerd feel. Particularly in this part and Dicola’s, it feels like they will just skate anything for the sake of skating. Although I’m a fan of the current era of progressive videos, this is refreshing in a good retro way, while still keeping up with modern levels of ability. The song is one of the best in the video as well, grungy and reminiscent of his Label opening song. Watch out for a retardedly Schultzy kickflip tucknee, some surprising no-comply glimpses, and a pop shuv front 180 on a bank. The only clip I don’t really care for is his switch 5-0/half-cab flip line at that ledge to stair spot thats been basically destroyed before the onset of January 2009. It’s worth noting that his feebles are some of the best in the business, and check out his actual pop to back lip out of one. Classic. His ender is a bit ambiguous, ballsy but not really a challenging trick. Insert kickflip tucknee here? Coulda Shoulda Woulda.
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Pat Burke
A fellow Virginian and a friend of a good friend. This guy really surprised me actually; his local video parts weren’t nearly as retardedly sick as this one, and either the ability to travel or a massive skill progression took effect since a year and a half ago. Pat’s got the kind of style that’s rare in a professional production; it’s sketchy in spots, individual, unique and unplanned. How he lands is how he lands; I may be wrong but I’m pretty sure he’s not a redo-until-perfect kinda guy. He fakes his ‘title’ with some kind of water bottle unless he really held his uh… urine for a while. The nerdy man on the bike that eats curb after slipping on Pat’s board is worth watching at high volumes. Rap and alot of wild animal clips add to the general chaotic definitionlessness of this part, and it’s enjoyable as hell. A dirty nollie backside flip to bank and a potent noseblunt slide show off his about-to-die-at-every-turn style, and you get a decent vibe of fun shredding from this. There’s a murky flatland kickflip near the end thats worth a chuckle, and his back 3 over that river gap that just got tre flipped in two separate vids (Digital’s F.Y.I. and Zero’s Strange World) should be noted for the apparent ease with which he landed it. He also pulls off the best gap switch tre I’ve seen since Johnny Layton’s double trouble effort in Toy Machine’s Suffer The Joy, and a surprising gap flick to miniature bank catches you off guard as well. A surprising pension for fakie heelflips almost keeps you from thinking that this is a decidedly adult skate video whilst watching the various carnivores shred the carcasses of animals that liberal activists would highly object to. His ender is in the vain of Virginia’s Ben Hatchell from Powell’s Fun, and this part probably falls as my second favorite of the entire video.
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Frecks
Real Name: Sean Stewart. A burly red-haired bastard with a crazy beard and an apparent fondness for humor, Frecks rips his way through a weird Jesus song while remind me of a steezy Gareth Stehr. Back to back clips of a no-comply switch crook on a bank and a tre tailgrab over that big hip from the Vox Black & Blue DVDs are highlights, although his general ability to get buck on dangerous rails, small polejams, awkward angles and steep transition all keep his destruction-oriented part flowing from start to finish. His last two clips seem equally able to nail down the banger status, and his part reads like some kind of war film upon second and third viewings.
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Conhuir Lynn and Friends
Hauling through some tremendous concrete tranny and some speedy lines (particularly his opening one to the epic intro chords), Conhuir’s brief amounts of footage line up nicely with the footage of nature’s destruction and the song about black magic. Once the friends section begins, we’re subject to more tranny shredding, a gnarly wallie frontside 180, a huge picnic table kickflip line, a beautiful late fs shuv on a bump to bar, and what i feel like is footage from guys that already had parts, unless someone else who curiously looks like Pat Burke hucked a back 3 over that ledge to ledge fountain drop gap at the end. Fantastic song in terms of riffs anchors down the tornado and volcano footage and makes this section worthwhile, although I would have liked to see more of Lynn himself.
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Danny Dicola
Ripping tranny to the MC5 track from the Darkstar Batallion extras montage that nobody remembers, Danny is in close competition with Pat Burke for second best part, but the locality thing and the song made me go with Pat. Danny is another one with style you wouldn’t normally see in a video like this, and tricks like his ollie to rock grab out on a rather tall bank to bar make his part standout in terms of variety and originality. Although tricks like fakie tailslides on ditches and no-pop tranny back tails can seem questionable, he pulls off the latter particularly well. He also rips over channels and corners, but its surprising street clips like his front blunt to fakie on the ditch of And Now fame and a strange rock shifty to fakie make his part, including a surprising 5050 gap to 5050 line before some tremendous grab efforts and ballsy concrete ollies. He also ventures a risky 540 boneless on a legitimate spot, and his last three tricks are ridiculous, watch for a closing trick after a faux-closer. His part champions revolution, possibly because of his flowing hair and woodsman clothing. Either way, with a foot-tapping song to guide it his part comes out strong and interesting, a step up from the Conhuir Lynn part and dare I say even frecks himself, considering this is in close quarters with the first two parts of the video in terms of overall strength and lamely termed ‘watchability’.
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Matt Mumford
Mumford seems to switch his sponsors up a little too frequently for me to keep up with these days. His song may just be the most noteworthy of the entire video, although as I’ve said multiple times before the whole soundtrack is good. Unfortunately I seem to attempt to find something good in every video nowadays, perhaps to an overbearing extent. But shit, if you’re gonna spend time watching something….. well may as well find what’s good with it when it comes to full length videos. Anyways, with less street in this part than his last one, he rips through concrete about as hard as he did in his Globe footage this past year. Watching him spin padless through a concrete loop of apparent death and launching risky indy to fakies, inverts, and backside variations doesn’t even remotely remind me of the handrail wizard from Dying To Live, which is a good thing for sure. His boneless and back lip across the ending channel are both tremendous, but in an entire part full of concrete shredding, basically any trick could have been his ender.
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Jon Allie
The first of the back to back video closing ‘Jon’ parts, the mostly boring and unmemorable Zero young blood has grown into himself quite a bit apparently. After shredding up his car throughout his intro, he kills some surprising tranny tricks including a perfect kickflip nosepick, and then provides evidence again that his smooth Dill-esque style may well be a reviving point for his career thus far. I believe he also did the picnic table kickflip line in Lynn’s part, although I haven’t bothered to watch the credits enough to really clarify. Half his part is filmed in that baseball-type blue and white shirt though, and on clips like his floated fakie fs flip line and his hubba kickflip front fifty you can still see his zero roots. The song for this part is the most unremarkable of the video, and although Allie keeps it fairly interesting, he’s still the weakest part in the video and by far the most conventional in terms of footage, past his first five clips or so. This is not to say I don’t like his part; his switch frontside noseslide, fs 180 switch backside crook, and ending tremendous handrail line are the kinds of handrail tricks I like to see. On the topic of his closing line…… holy shit.
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Jon Goemann
The part that turned him pro. Jon eats shit in his intro in a way that makes me question the longevity of his career, but his opening lines are sick beyond question. His part is edited with a lot of space age footage, which I’m not really a fan of, and the song doesn’t have the same hype to it as the others up until Jon Allie’s part. He powers through some really hard tricks while living with the curse of making things look a bit too easy; I don’t like how he comes out of his handrail 5-0 fs 180, but that’s an ugly trick in the first place. I’m also not a fan of the purposeful slowdown on the backside boneless. However, his bigspin disaster line, back lip to fakie, impossible variations, tailslide 270, and kickflip manny pool roll in more than make up for these. He 5050 gap outs the same rail with the concrete wall of sandbag look-alikes at the bottom that David Gravette did in And Now, which is kind of a bummer because he’s not Mark Appleyard and ABD’s are still not really in style. On the flip side, he makes the usually ugly kinked bank spot look sick with all three tricks he pulls off on it, and by this point I’m convinced that his non-traditional terrain skating is his strength by far. His ender is sick, but I would have liked another angle. Overall the space/chill theme de-hypes what could have been an epic ending part, although trickwise he still delivers the goods.
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Credits
Filled with clapping and whistling and written credits, watch out for a couple of crucial Goemann clips and some pretty funny shenanigans at the end, in addition to Mumford pummeling fakie over a doorway. At the end…. cops that kickflip?
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Outroductory Musings
Goemann and Allie somehow have the weakest overall parts of the video, not really so much in terms of skating but moreso because of how the parts were edited. The first three-quarters of the video is full of hard-hitting dirty footage and distorted rock songs, followed by a surprisingly opposite ending quarter full of songs that chill the mood. Risky decision for the end of a video for sure. However, the overall editing and music selection fused with the skating makes this video worthwhile without a doubt, and although it clocks in at 51 minutes such a lengthy video is a steal for the $10 price tag on it. Check it out for sure, watch with an open mind, and be ready for a very different skate video experience.
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