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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…

SHOOT FIRST / QUESTION LATER: MAGNUS HANSON

wordsby matthew meadows portraitsby alana paterson

Growing up is always hard. I think that is why they call it “Growing Pains”. As a teenager in suburbia you are constantly facing the pressures of friends, peers, teachers and parents. Most young adults become lemmings that follow one another off the proverbial cliff of drugs and partying and very few decide to opt for the road less traveled. That is unless you are Magnus Hanson. While most of his peer group are out testing their tolerance for booze and other substances, Magnus is out skating and taking care of business. A parent’s dream, a sponsorÂ’s desire and skateboardingÂ’s future. This is Magnus Hanson…

GLITTER RAP: MICKEY AVALON’S GLAMOROUS SLEAZE

wordsby dustin koop illustrationby ben tour

With the ugly/pretty sex appeal of an early Mick Jagger and the crude wit of Lenny Bruce, Mickey Avalon has developed a new genre of rap that deserves a place between 80s glam rock and Slick Rick’s pimpster storytelling.On his self titled album, Mickey boasts about his life as a former junkie and prostitute, rapping about the underbelly of Hollywood and all its sleaze. Back in 2005, Mickey “The Kosher Salami” released his album independently, wrapping the discs in pages from the L.A. Xpress newspaper, featuring ads from escorts, rub-n’-tug masseuses and grimy plastic surgery venues. Two years later Mickey became the first artist to be signed to Myspace Records, which led to an almost-immediate deal with Interscope to re-release his album to the masses…

LIMERICKS OF THE FUTURE: THE BLEAK HUMOR OF DAVID SHRIGLEY

wordsby saelan twerdy

In a drawing from a David Shrigley book entitled Human Achievement, a crudely drawn man stands proudly upright and walks across a white page, surrounded by text inked by Shrigley’s immediately-recognizable pen, with its misspellings and scratched-out phrases. The words read: “Music has lost its power. So has visual art. So has prose. Now it is the sole responsibility of the writers of limericks to describe the human condition.” What with Shrigley being a frequent collaborator with musicians and a successful visual artist, we don’t need to take his narrator literally, but those few lines sum up Shrigley’s approach to art in a nutshell.He gave up trying to be a cartoonist many years ago, but Shrigley’s absurd and abject little drawings are probably the funniest thing in contemporary art…

DEER MAN OF DARK WOODS

words&photosby dylan doubt

It has been a few years now since we first heard the rumblings and whispers that grew to manifest into a crude hand-assembled ‘zine that sparked the beginnings of the Barrier Kult (BAKU) movement. From there the next step was The “Vinter” Scroll, a piece based more in manifesto than physical skateboarding. Eventually, the BAKU Horde video dropped and with it the global recognition of Deer Man of Dark Woods, a man that has done for barrier skating what Rodney Mullen had done for freestyle. The rumblings that had drifted across the waters to the United Kingdom sparked movements in the Heroin skateboards camp, and the byproduct was his first pro model…

MISFIT MAGIC: DEERHOOF REINVENTS ROCK, AGAIN.

wordsby saelan twerdy illustrationby jonathan paulsen

Deerhoof is magic, and for the last decade the prolific San Francisco band has been charming everyone lucky enough to get in range. Over nine albums, their spazzy art-pop has remained consistently surprising, unpredictable, and dizzyingly creative. Careening between extremes of cute, sugary J-pop and explosive blasts of violently catchy noise, the band has never stopped reinventing itself, and that’s included shifts in personnel: founded in 1995 by guitarist Rob Fisk and drummer Greg Saunier (a tall man who plays a very small drum kit with legendary force), they picked up vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki (now married to Saunier) in time for their first album. Fisk left the band shortly after that, and was replaced by guitarist John Deiterich. In 2003, Deerhoof recruited bassist Chris Cohen. Recently, however, Cohen…

SOUND AND VISION: NORWAY’S GOOD TO LOOK AT

wordsby saelan twerdy illustrationby jonathan paulsen

Lots of people know that Scandinavia is famous for good design and sensible ideas. What’s less known is that cities like Bergen, Norway, are also home to some of the most groundbreaking contemporary jazz, experimental, and electronic music in the world. Bringing these two fields together is Smalltown Supersound/Superjazz…

HIS OWN MELLOW WAY

wordsby scott radnidge photosby david christian portraitsby jon west

Before interviewing Bradley Sheppard i did some digging around, lurking about asking people what they knew about him and what dirt they could divulge. Unfortunately to this writer’s ears, nobody could offer any scoops, dirt or shady background – at least no offered skeletons in closets or secret identities came my way. But the one thing that everyone agreed on was that although very quiet and uninterested in divulging his dirty laundry, Bradley Sheppard is a solid guy and above all else, someone who totally lives skateboarding 24/7, albeit quietly and in his own mellow way.

PRIDE TIGER: SHOTGUNNING A SIXER OF BOOGIE ROCK

Considering how hard pride tiger likes to rock ‘n’ roll, Mike Payette is surprisingly soft spoken when I reach him by phone en route to Portland. His restrained mood – that one might chalk up to his being “a little hungover” – is a stark contrast to the last time I saw him, when he was amongst a dozen others, joyously crashing a golf cart into the side of his band’s tour van…

GAILEA MOMOLU: A BOLT FROM THE BLUE

wordsby sandro grison photoby nic fensom

Gailea Momolu doesn’t consider himself a “contest skater” although he’s dominated the majority of the best trick competitions in the past year. He has an imposing presence wherever he is, yet he’s never owned a vehicle, never been in a fight, and is more inclined to be a dancer than a rapper. Between filming for his current part in the Digital video, Land Tricks or Die Trying (where he’s portrayed as a gangster on the box), ample coverage in skateboard magazines, and a weekly club night, he can generally be found eating out at his favorite dining lounges in Vancouver. And though he’s consumed with contributing to skate culture, it’s apparent that the man who’s got everything out of skateboarding rarely has the time to enjoy his valued home life.

HIGH ON FIRE: AS BRUTAL AS POSSIBLE

wordsby scott lyon illustrationby fighting

Formed from the ashes of frontman Matt Pike’s former band Sleep, Oakland’s High On Fire have been instrumental in a “back to basics” renaissance in heavy metal. Their current release Blessed Black Wings fuses Black Sabbath riffs with warlike drums, creating dark, hypnotic music that could well serve as the soundtrack to a marauding army of orcs. We recently spoke with High On Fire’s “god of thunder”, drummer Des Kensel, and asked him about the band’s sound, the upcoming tour, and their forthcoming album…

PIERRE ANDRE SENIZERGUES

Skating in the 80s was different, that’s for sure. Though everyone I knew street skated, when you picked up a skate mag, 90 per cent of the pictures and articles were about vert skating. And that was skating. Sure, in the videos you’d see a bit of street skating, usually the guys cruising between vert sessions, but it was predominantly vert, vert and more vert.

DOUGLAS COUPLAND

With ten published fiction novels, five non-fiction books, and numerous art installations under his belt, Douglas Coupland seems to be the busiest person in the literature/art world. His career is one of a creative dynamo, him constantly enlarging the boundaries of the written word, all while finishing multiple projects that run the length of the mediums he actively pursues.

NECRO

Through the years rap has spawned its fair share of artists that have exhibited a shitload of controversial aspects in their lyrical expression. These so-called offenders of pure thought have left the mommies and daddies worldwide all snippy and protective of their Sean John-wearing, baby powder-smelling offspring. Acts like 50 Cent and Eminem have fucked around with the notion of pissing people off. However, all of the current commercial rapstars right now ain’t shit when it comes to laying down some real deal, dirty ass filth when paired with Brooklyn native MC, Necro.

NIERATKO & CARNIE

A long time ago I used to be a radio DJ at a local college station. My show was popular for reasons different from why most shows gain popularity. Although I played good music, my listeners tuned in for the fights. The show was a big local hit here in Calgary, Alberta, because people love to be abused. Chris Nieratko joined Big Brother Magazine around the same time I left my radio show when I decided to go back to school to become a teacher. In Big Brother interviews Nieratko always sparked confrontation similar to how I used to fight with my listeners so when it came time for me to find myself a new assignment here at Color Magazine I decided to track down Nieratko and perhaps verbally sock him in the face and find out what would happen. Unfortunately the first interview was lost due to the ultimate rookie move of not pressing record on the recorder, yet one thing stuck out in that first conversation…