Interview Back to Magazine

Together Frank Gerwer and Sheldon relive childhood traumas brought on by scary movies, and discuss their lack of plans for the immediate future.

WORMBURNER: The Strange World of Sheldon Meleshinski

INVISIBLE FORCES

They are one of the latest garage rock bands to come out of San Francisco, but they’re creating a sound of their own.

Off the Stage and In Your Face

After jumping off scaffolding and spending as much time playing on top of the crowd as in front of it, Monotonix take a relaxed break from their stage personas to sit down with us.

[ o ] MURPHY

HANS-PETER LINDSTRØM

wordsby michael barrow

Coconuts, Hawaiian sunsets, tropicalia, Scandinavia, dolphins. Scandinavia? Yes, specifically Norway, home to Hans-Peter Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas, their respective record labels Feedelity and Full Pupp, as well as Todd Terje, Diskjokke, Mungolian Jetset, Blackbelt Andersen, Rune Lindbaek, and Dolle Jolle. Despite their distance from the Mediterranean (or any warm, even mildly tropical coast, for that matter), this well-acquainted group of Norwegian producers are among the best-known purveyors of music categorized as “nu-disco” – a blanket term that loosely covers the resurgence of space-disco, italo-disco, disco edits, balearic disco, and tropicalia, or any combination thereof. California duo Windsurf also fall into the category, and describe themselves as “nu-balearic-cosmic-disco-slow-mo-awesome-house”. Tongue-in-cheek, but probably as good a description as we can ask for.

[ o ] MURPHY

HANS-PETER LINDSTRØM

wordsby michael barrow

Coconuts, Hawaiian sunsets, tropicalia, Scandinavia, dolphins. Scandinavia? Yes, specifically Norway, home to Hans-Peter Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas, their respective record labels Feedelity and Full Pupp, as well as Todd Terje, Diskjokke, Mungolian Jetset, Blackbelt Andersen, Rune Lindbaek, and Dolle Jolle. Despite their distance from the Mediterranean (or any warm, even mildly tropical coast, for that matter), this well-acquainted group of Norwegian producers are among the best-known purveyors of music categorized as “nu-disco” – a blanket term that loosely covers the resurgence of space-disco, italo-disco, disco edits, balearic disco, and tropicalia, or any combination thereof. California duo Windsurf also fall into the category, and describe themselves as “nu-balearic-cosmic-disco-slow-mo-awesome-house”. Tongue-in-cheek, but probably as good a description as we can ask for.

[ o ] HUMPHRIES

DANIEL SHIMIZU

wordsby benji wagner

It may seem that skateboarders have had a powerful influence on mainstream culture and. while this is undoubtedly the case, it is also true that the mainstream casts its influence on skateboarding as well, something that many would be loathe to admit. Nowhere is this relationship more evident than in the realm of fashion.

Michael Barrow writes on Buraka Som Sistema, a Brazilian group bringing the spicy Latin beats of the south to the great white north.

BRINGING THE WORLD TO THE WORLD

Buraka Som Sistema’s Global Dancefloor Dialogue

“We are now in the last months of the first decade of the 21st century and I can’t help but wonder which musical trend the 00s will be remembered for. Among other things, the 80s had punk rock, metal and great synth-pop, and we could easily associate 90s with grunge, college rock and the rise of rap. What of the 00s? I’d like to think that in the future when we think of this past decade, at least in terms of music, we think of it as the decade that brought the world to the world…”

Jenny Charlesworth talks to San Francisco psych-rockers Thee Oh Sees about their new album and melted cheese between bread.

image courtesy the band

PEANUT BUTTER LOVIN’

Thee Oh Sees Bring the Heat

wordsby jenny charlesworth

“It’s a sunny afternoon in San Francisco and according to John Dwyer, the offbeat and wildly charismatic frontman for Thee Oh Sees, there’s no better time to enjoy a grilled cheese sandwich…”

[ o ] NICHOLAS

BEARD CULTIVATORS

wordsby scott lyon

It’s late on a Thursday night when I show up outside Bison B.C.’s jam space. After being greeted enthusiastically by frontman James Farwell, I am ushered upstairs to where Bison B.C. are rehearsing for their upcoming European tour with The Ocean. The room is a treasure trove for can collectors: in the corner stands an intimidating pyramid of beer cans that would continue to build slowly throughout the course of the interview. Immediately, I get the sense that Bison B.C. would be the world’s greatest drinking buddies – drinking buddies who just happen to be in one of Canada’s most face-meltingly rad bands today. Had I known this beforehand, I wouldn’t have driven to the interview. When Bison B.C. offers you a swig of

Jager, you want to accept.

[ o ] FREY

CATCHING WAVVES

wordsby saelan twerdy

Wavves is a pure product of California: equal parts Black Flag and the Beach Boys, this one-man band (22-year-old San Diego native Nathan Williams) filters irrepressible sun-baked melodies through the warped warble of primitive home recording techniques. His poppy, blown-out punk jams capture the whole range of classic teenage rock n’ roll tropes. For example, the cover of Wavves’ first self-titled EP features a washed-out photo of a kid skateboarding on a wooden wheelbarrow in the sunshine, while the Beach Demon/Weed Demon 7-inch comes adorned with two hands clad in leather biker gloves holding a long-haired face that’s smoking a joint. That’s the Wavves vibe all the way: disaffected angst and reckless fun at the same time. The album is the same way, ranging from shouted anthems that leap out of the speakers (preferably from your ancient car stereo) with quieter, Beat Happening-esque tunes and quasi-ambient drone tracks of casually picked guitar and loopy, bleepy synthesizers.

click here for full interview with Nathan Williams of WAVVES.

[ o ] CASSIE

PAUL MACHNAU

interviewby sandro grison and jay revelle

It was an honour for me to pick up the last big piece of this puzzle – the following interview – from Jay Revelle, who interviewed over 40 participants in Shoot To Thrill by this point, particularly because I’m not always available to do these things myself. Just seeing Paul Machnau again is a treat as it takes me back to a really exciting time for me just before I began publishing Color.

It was early 2002, and Machnau had recently solidified himself as one of the few Canadians at that time to really break through to the predominately American skateboarding industry. The great thing about it is that he didn’t do it by winning contests—no, he wasn’t that kind of crowd pleaser. He was among the few skaters at the time really pushing the gnar factor, skating faster and hitting handrails a little bigger, always one notch above with his trick selection too. In my eyes, Paul Machnau was Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso in The Karate Kid movies, only Paul didn’t stop after playing his role in RDS FSU 2002, Digital #7 Difference, and Darkstar’s Battalion video.

[ o ] JANSEN

FUCKED UP

wordsby jenny charlesworth

Getting banned from MTV is no easy task – not even the piss-fueled antics of Black Lips have warranted such a dramatic barring. But leave it to Canadian thrashers Fucked Up to wind up blacklisted from the Top Twenty hype machine on account of their raucous live show and total disregard for the establishment.

JORDAN HOFFART

wordsby jay revelle.

Hailing from Maple Ridge, BC, 23-year-old Jordan Hoffart has steadily become a well-recognized name in the world of skateboarding. Through life’s long and often windy road, amidst growing from “kid” to “adult”, Hoffart has transformed himself countless times, fulfilling a multitude of different and dynamic roles: young sponsored skate rat, contemporary responsible skateboarding adult, and actor, stuntboy, and child movie star. Unafraid of life, he’s donned suits, lived out of suitcases, and taken lead roles in countless commercials and feature films.

PATRICK O’DELL

introductionby jeff thorburn portraitby jody rogac

The host of vbs.tv’s Epicly Later’d show sits down with Color on the other side of the interview desk.

Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, Patrick O’Dell had high hopes of traveling the world with his friends and their skateboards. He got his chance to live out his dream [in 2001] when he was taken on as a staff photographer and writer at Thrasher Magazine. Realizing he’d had enough of going on long van rides with random amateur skaters, he moved on to a position as Photo Editor at Vice Magazine. When Vice started their online television website, vbs.tv, O’Dell was brought on to put together a skateboard show. Epicly Later’d as we know it was born. The show was an instant hit with skateboarders, showing a mix of current interviews and skating, as well as past video clips. Focusing on a different skateboarder each week, the diversity of the subjects makes the show appealing to all kinds of skateboarders. The show’s name was taken from O’Dell’s online photo journal, epiclylaterd.com, which was beginning to gain notoriety beyond his circle of friends. O’Dell makes the distinction between the two different Epicly Later’ds: “My website is a personal photo journal. The show is like skate history, and the show is a public thing. I want more people to watch the show. My website, I don’t really care; I want less people to look at it.”

RUSS MILLIGAN STICKS TO HIS STORY

photoby dan zaslavsky interviewby mike christie illustration by porous walker

Even if he can’t tell the truth to U.S. border guards when they ask about the true purpose of his visit, it’s been one heck of a busy year for Russ Milligan. After a stunning part in the City video, he’s turned pro, traveled extensively, and racked up a small mound of high quality coverage in the process. Let’s admit that if you are going to defy the statutes of modern skateboarding and actually go pro without jumping off a whole lot of huge shit, you’re going to need something special. Many kids set off upon this route. They shun rails and the instant glory of the monster gap. But most often these kids either go into a spiral of “the industry is wack” bitterness, never to make it out of their town, or they sell the farm and launch themselves off everything in sight the minute someone dangles a free t-shirt in their face…

STAYING FREE

wordsby saelan twerdy illustrationby niall mccleland

For most of Stephen McBean’s adult life, East Vancouver has been his kingdom and home to the many bands he’s played in over the last fifteen-odd years: noisy punk bands, wired indie-rock bands, sparse and dirge-y folk outfits, and most recently, the miniature empire of Black Mountain and its related projects. East Van is also home to Canada’s most troubled area code, the Downtown East Side where four out of Black Mountain’s five members work for a nonprofit social organization…

NEW AGE / NOTHING TO CRY ABOUT

wordsby saelan twerdy photosby chris glancy

There’s a cultural renaissance going on in Los Angeles right now, and No Age are right at the heart of it. Dean Allen Spunt and Randy Randall, the band’s two members, both used to play in a noise-rock trio called Wives, and now they help run The Smell, an all-ages venue that doubles as a virtual community center for L.A.’s vibrant young scene. They curated an art show called Get Hurt earlier this year that featured unfuckwithable artists like Ashley Macomber, Ron Rege, Jr., Devendra Banhart, and Susan Cianciolo, and Randall also runs PPM! Records, who put out one of the five 7-inch EPs that No Age released all at once, on five different labels, as their first output…

CLEARING THE AIR

wordsby saelan twerdy illustrationby john antoski

For nearly twenty years now, Bill Callahan has roamed the American musical underground as Smog, sketching the dark corners of the everyday with his unmistakable drawling baritone. Throughout the twelve full-length albums heÂ’s recorded for ChicagoÂ’s Drag City label, Callahan has explored an interior landscape of emotional devastation with single-minded implacability. Initially notorious for his hissy lo-fi recordings and fatalistic depictions of obsession, dimly-remembered trauma, and love gone sour (not to mention his ill-fated affair with Cat PowerÂ’s equally-depressed Chan Marshall), Callahan moved throughout the mid-90s towards a more meditative and polished acoustic approach…

BEING THERE

wordsby mike christie photosby dylan doubt

I’m sitting out front of an organic grocery store drinking a coffee, waiting for Rick, trying to think of questions to ask him. His daughter, Kalea, is sick and he’s coming to buy her some herbal medicine as well as to pick me up so we can do his interview.

Not trying to start a pointless message-board style battle over this, but I think it could be safely said that Rick is one of the best and most severely rad skateboarders of all time, in the world, ever. When I think about it, I totally believe this is true. But the weird thing is, when we are hanging out, I completely forget he is that good. He’s just this regular dude who cracks jokes, likes different stuff, plays music, gives people the occasional hug…

CROSSING THE LINE

words and photosby dylan doubt

We are Cascadia. It is only natural that we be drawn to just south of the border in search of exotic lands, foreign candy bars, and gas station chicken. Drive one hour south and you quickly find yourself in strange waters. There is a different aesthetic the moment you cross the border, smells change, and people attitudes are slightly different. Concrete, bricks, mortar, and even wood all seem to have come from another source. There is a general feeling that floats in the air. Liberty? Patriotism? ItÂ’s hard to put a name on it. Still we have a strong connection. We can relate to skateboarders like Steve Olson, Matt Beach, Brent Atchley and Silas Baxter-Neal. They almost feel like hometown kids…