Sammy of Fang
M
him, so he was up there on stage
singing with just his tennies
on...Check out the MDC record give-
away inside this issue, free with a
subscription...By next issue you
should be hearing Skate Rock Vol.
2. The final list of bands is T.S.O.L,
J.F.A., The Big Boys, the King-
pins, McRad, Ancestors-Gods
of Sound, Borscht, The Sultans,
Tales of Terror, Los Olvidados,
and The Faction....Agent Orange
played a show at San Jose State
University. A Show complete with
no-brain-jock-types ruling the stage
as gorilla bouncers...Caballero's
compilation Beyond the Valley
has been gaining more and more
airplay on a lot of the college sta-
tions across the country. Super Stuff
from Grim Reality, The Faction,
Mistaken Identity and Ribzy
Black Flag stopped in town early in
May, packing the house. Now
they're off the Europe for some inva-
sion-type music assaults on those
countries... The persevering legend
of D.H. Peligro continues. The
"Skin-slapper finds himself on a
new day job, erecting a new building
for a skateboard truck manufacturer
in San Francisco. D.H. was also sto-
len from The Dead Kennedys, and
is now slapping skins for Max Vol-
ume's Legion of Doom. Or so they
say. Paolo Cattaruzza and his
friends of the band Upset Noise, in
Italy, are complaining to us here at
THRASHER about there being no
alternatives in their area besides
"drugs and disco-shits." We're tired
of hearing about it, so write to these
guys about music scenes. They
need "Collaboration and Friendship
(besides they do a radio program
and they accept tapes, records, leaf-
lets and opinions). So get in touch
with them, Paolo Cattaruzza V.
Milizie 9/5 34139 Trieste, Italy...
Rumors are sifting through the
phonelines concerning the pos-
sibilities of the Big Boys opening for
Public Image Limited in Los
Angeles in the upcoming months.
Hmmmmm...why were there so
many moms, dads and kiddies at the
Van Halen shows at the Cow
Palace? Because they don't care
anymore...and that's lame! Other fu-
ture interviews, M.D.C, D.O.A., Big
Boys, Jello, and more.
44
Craig Ramsay raging at Mile High, Tahoe.
THE
SHATE
KANGPONS
ROCK!
KINGPINS
Skatabilly Rockers!
Early last summer four skaters
from San Jose (Skaterville) got to-
gether in a dusty basement and
slammed through the Eddie Coc-
hran classic "20 Flight Rock." They
were all driven by the same brash
energy-that playful, yet powerful,
innocent, yet seductive sound that
characterizes Rockabilly. This early
rock and roll, played with reckless
abandon the way roots rockers like
Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent,
Carl Perkins, and Johnny Bur-
nette did, inspired these four to be-
come known as the Kingpins. Soon
they had people hootin' and stompin'
wherever they played.
The band line-up is as follows:
Frank Novicki, 22 (who used to
play with the Unaware), is on guitar;
Ross McGowan, 24 (owner of the
renowned Summit V Ramp), plays
bass; Craig Ramsay, 23 (THRASH-
ER staffer), is on drums; and Bob
Denike, 22 (also a staffer and a
sponsored rider), does the hiccups,
yodels and croons.
Their first demo, recorded on tour
in San Luis Obispo, resulted in one
song, "Crazy Mixed Up World." It
made the 1983 top 10 preferred list
at KFJC, a local radio station. Re-
cently, they recorded again in
THRASHER country (South San
Francisco), and an original, "Ready
to Rip," is receiving a lot of local at-
tention.
The Kingpins play with a passion
and skate-induced fury that makes
their stage show enthralling and
their crazy music infectious to the
feet. There's only one way to de-
scribe this rockabilly mayhem-fun!
Be sure to catch the Kingpins on
the Skate Rock Vol. II. They lend the
variety and flavor that makes it good
listenin
SLAM
SLAM, FROM SWEDEN
A dynamic rush of swirling speed,
accelerates a brawling bombard-
ment of lofty aggression, recogniz
ing a powerful thrust of action pack-
ed energy from Sweden. Enter into
the sweat and stamina realm of
SLAM, a carving grinds tour of
spewed out exultant thrash, deliv-
ered raw and furious in a storming
skate assault fashion. Maximum vol
tage cries out, whether musically
with a flood of vigorous thrills and
bouncing rhythms or skating at the
extreme edge of radical pleasure.
Five friends proving an entertain-
ment of pep and creative punches
exerted in extreme doses. Slam has
just released their debut album
which smokes in fiery combustion, a
potential mind bomb. Check into
Slam, write: Thomas Bjork,
Myrkantsvagen 1, 802 38 Gavie,
Sweden
How did "Slam" come about?
Why the name Slam? Who are the
members of Slam? Ages? Ori-
gins?
We were five friends who wanted
to do something which was fun,
creative, and felt important to us. We
also wanted to express our feelings.
opinions and aggressions against
wars, racism, oppression and many
other things. We chose the name
"Slam" because it fit well to our
music. Slam members are (and
have always been): Zune
Nordqvist-vocals, age 18; Thomas
Bjork-guitar, vocals, age 18; Uffe
Westberg-guitar, age 19; Johan
Ullstrom-bass, age 18: Tony
Jansson-drums, age 20. We
formed in the beginning of '82 and
we were all beginners on our instru-
ments then.
Do you consider "Slam" a
"Skate Punk band or
"Hardcore Punk" band or both?
We don't want to put any labels on
us. We're just ourselves and we do
what we want to do.
What are Slam's Influences?
Who writes the lyrics and who
writes the music? What does the
logo represent?
We're influenced by everything
that happens around us, like friends,
music opinions, life, wars and so on.
As for music, we listen to American
hardcore/Punk bands. Zune and
Thomas write the lyrics, Thomas
and Uff write the music, but we all
shape it together. Our symbol repre-
sents mankind being shut up in soci
ety.
Does everyone in the band
skate? What does skateboarding
mean to you in a personal as
pect?
All members of the band skate,
more or less. Tony, Zune and
Thomas skate the most, and have
been skating for about seven years.
Johan also started skating seven
years ago and Uffe just skates
sometimes. It's mostly ramps and
streets. Skateboarding means to us:
great fun, great friends, freedom,
something to do to get rid of aggres-
sions.
"Slam" has a song called "Wild
Rider," could you explain the
song? Also what are "Robot"
skaters to you, or is this just
"California slang" that you saw in
a magazine?
In "Wild Riders" we sing about
skating and with "nurds" we don't
mean any skaters, with nurds we
mean the ones who try to stop us
from skating. Skateboarding is for
everyone who wants to and there-
fore we call them who are against it;
nurds. With robot skaters, we mean
the ones who aren't skating for fun,
the ones who just want to win con-
tests, money, etc.
What does competition in skat-
ing mean to "Slam?"
Competition in skating means dif-
ferent things to us: Zune, Thomas,
Johan and Uffe think of skating as
freedom and don't see any freedom
in competing. Tony thinks that con-
tests are fun and therefore he com-
petes
How does "Slam" feel about
their lyrics? Is graffitti a support
of a skate spot?
We think that everybody has the
right to say whatever he or she
wants to say. We think The Faction's
lyrics do more harm to themselves
than to society. The lyrics are very
important for us and we don't play a
song if we don't totally agree about
the lyrics. Our ramp here in Gavle
has never been destroyed or any-
thing like that and we don't mind
graffiti as long as it doesn't destroy
for skating.
What kind of skate spots are av-
ailable in Sweden. Explain the
Swedish skate scene?
Tony Jansson built the ramp
we've here in Gavle and it's real
good. Mostly there are ramp skaters
who are into it. A few contests every
year, the Eurocana summer camp,
etc. We have Swedish skateboard
association called S.S.F. and they
give out a 'zine called Uppat Vag-
garna which means "Off the walls.
Is "Slam" a political band?
What are "Slam's" beliefs on
these
subjects: drink/drugs,
police, government, church, free-
dom, exploitation, racism? And
what is skate harassment to you?
We think that everyone has to
have his own freedom and we think
that's possible 'cause people would
behave better in a better society. We
don't believe in any form of state
'cause (states) lead to oppression,
wars, and therefore you can say we
are anarchists. Zune, Johan and
Tony drink beer but Thomas and
Uffe don't drink or use any drugs.
We see no reason for using any
stronger drugs. Police are support
ing this fucking system and use vio-
lence too often. We're totally against
violence. Governments don't
change things so much, they make
laws and rules which they think we
shall follow. You can't change soci-
ety by voting, if you could, they
would have forbidden it. Churches
are fooling persons who need con-
solation, love and answers to things
they can't explain. We think
everyone strives for freedom, so do
we. Exploitation is nothing for us.
Racism is maybe the most unfair
and disgusting thing that exists and
therefore we are totally against it.
We have never been in contact with
any skate harassment and we're of
course glad of that.
Any vinyl out, or any coming?
We're having an LP coming and
it's our vinyl debut. Before, we made
a cassette.
What lies ahead for Slam?
Vinyl? Concerts? Skating? etc.
Our LP. More concerts (two in
Stockholm) and a lot of concerts in
our own areas. We're just waiting for
when the snow will leave so we can
ride our ramp again.
What is a Slam concert like?
A Slam concert lasts for about 30-
50 minutes and we want to give the
crowd 100% of ourselves and some-
times the crowd gives 100% 100.
Our major problem is that we have
so few concerts outside our own
area.
Any last words? Thank yous?
We would like to thank everyone
who has helped us with our LP and
thanks to Pushead for getting us in
this great mag. Keep skating
45