The Master Blog — June 2012 Archive

New video coming from your friends at Roger Skateboards.

Coming from the rough streets of Boston, Suede Peach will be here soon. A video by Tin Tran.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon in L.A. I met up with Danny Garcia for a beer and a song. It's always a good time hanging out with Danny so I filmed this little video to prove it. You likely know Danny for his role with Habitat but what you probably don't know is that he's also musically inclined. Danny continues to progress with his music, even playing guitar alongside his dear old pal Matt Costa and touring around the world. Eventually it will be to the point that he is recognized for his career in music and not for his one in skateboarding. I'm pretty sure Danny will be entirely okay with that.

Watch, chill, enjoy.

The Quiet Life, Stacks, Heel Bruise and Glassy are doing a sample sale in LA tomorrow. If you're in the area it's not to be missed with great prices on boards, shades and clothing. Some of which may be one of a kind samples that never mde it into production.

Gravis has some stoke for your Friday featuring Jake Johnson and Sammy Winter in the form of a edit filmed on a VX-1000 (non digital) camera. Polish and newness of technology is great and all, but there is nothing like the warm tones and look of a VX.

Magenta Skateboards just added the 98 pound wonder from DC, Zach Lyons to the team. You'll be seeing more footage of Zach in the upcoming SF Hill St. Blues pt. 2 and Japan Tour videos that are coming out later this year. Check out what Zach has to say about it all over on Live.

A graphic for a Washington State skate shop that's also suitable for the entire Pacific Northwest region (above and below boarder) by Ben Horton and $lave for the 35th Ave. shop in Federal Way, WA. It was already a project in the mind of the shop and $lave but it was a visit from the team while on the Discount Tent trip that made it all come together, "they stopped by the store for new gear and to hang out. After getting to know them it seemed like a natural fit to do a collab., so we have a board and t shirt available. Boards come in 8,8.25,8.38 $40 with grip and t shirts are $18 and come in 3 colors. Quantities are limited." Get one before they are gone!

Vans checked in with Geoff Rowley on his upcoming Summer plans with the Flip team, Arto's gnarly slam and the re-release of his first Vans shoe!

All throughout this week, Color contributor Aidan Johnston will be blogging daily from the NXNE Festival in Toronto. Make sure to check back everyday for great photos, stories and reviews from around the festival!

The city's buskers and breakdancers had a hard go of it this weekend when their home turf of Yonge & Dundas square was invaded for a run of free shows by some of the biggest names at NXNE. Out of respect for the old guy who plays the bucket drums and the infamous Jesus screamer, I opted not to attend. So while people divided their Saturday evening between losing their children in the sea of people at the Flaming Lips concert and finding washrooms that weren’t for customers only, I sought out a mellower scene. To be more exact I was in the market for backyard>beers> BBQ and if it wasn’t too much to ask, a set by Montreal indie rock popsters TOPS.

[ o ] Brent Goldsmith

Milk Glass Co., the latest gallery edition that’s transforming this strip of Dundas from little Portugal to little Berlin, answered the call of my classified ad and provided all of the above. Low slung fairy lights lit the block of concrete behind the gallery, with TOPS occupying a stage towards the back just before the space leaked out onto an alleyway. Hailing from Montreal, TOPS boasts four members, 1 album, and loads of fuzzy feelings. You can picture a Record label exec pitching them; “They’ve got the surf rock of Best Coast, the warmth of Beach House and the grunge of Bleached.” But comparisons like these don’t justify what TOPS have accomplished with their own original sound. The attractive pepsi generation group makes music with a youthful reverb, harkening me back to when my voice first cracked, though this could also be attributed to finding myself instantly besotted with the lead singer. It’s melancholic rock, narrating relationships, nights out and introspective dreaming.

Music is at its best when it sparks the desire to share, and TOPS did exactly that, making me want find someone to turn these songs into ‘our songs’ with. And with the amount of babes in that backyard, I now had one more thing in common with them.

Top TOPS tracks- ‘Turn Your Love Around’, ‘Rings of Saturn’, ‘Evening’

Purchase the digital album for less than a club sandwich on their site

This marked the end of my NXNE tour and after living on a diet comprised mainly of dipping sauce and inhabiting a body whose bloodstream was now technically property of Labatt 50, I’d reached my own personal venue capacity. I pull off my festival pass, the stench it leaves behind resembling that of removing a plastered cast. I’m burnt physically and mentally and the thought of coming up with another word to describe a guitar riff triggers an internal self-destruct button. Whatever—in two days I’ll be screaming encore. I’ve been exposed to a plethora of great music, and the next few days will be spent overhauling my iTunes as the next generation of ’25 most played’ prepares to take over. There's a saying I want to finish with, but I don’t think I could ever take myself seriously when quoting Plato, so I’m going to quote my friend Geoff who told me the quote instead.

“We don’t make music, we find it”- Geoff

And for the music ‘greek’ in all of us, there’s no better place for discovery than NXNE.

- Aidan Johnston

If you're going to be in Calgary for Sled Island this week you'll want to check out the Market Collective Block Party on Thursday night (June 21) down in the East Village.

They are going to have a mini-Market Collective art market featuring some of the best local artists, live music, food trucks, and of course a street-style skate competition courtesy of Vans and the Source.

The Best part is, it's all FREE!
Location: The River Walk in East Village outside of the Simmons Building
Time: 4 pm - 10 pm

And you don't want to forget that on Friday night Color is presenting CFCF and Timber Timbre down at the Theatre Junction Grand.

Doors open at 7pm and it's only $20 or FREE if you have festival pass!