in the
CROWD
in the
CROWD
Chuck
Treece
If you have been checking out the
music notes over the years and
remember some of our earliest
East Coast skate coverage you may
recognize the name Chuck Treece.
Between his musical interests and
various skate activities, Chuck
always seems to have several pro-
jects working at once. We phoned
him up recently to find out what's
new.
Ring
ring.
Hello...?
Hello, is Chuck there?
Yeah, this is Chuck.
Chuck, this is KT at THRASHER.
Dude, I've got the recorder rigged
to the phone right now, so what's
happening with Chuck Treece, the
East Coast connection from
Philadelphia, PA?
Right now? I just got a new band
together, McShred, and we're play-
ing a lot of different shows around
Philadelphia. It's mostly reggae, but
we're going to start fusing a lot of dif-
ferent music into it. I want to get that
together hopefully and do a tour
sometime soon.
Is this a new line-up?
Yeah. My brother Chris is on guitar,
the drummer is John, the bass player
is Ron and the organ player is Paul
and I play guitars and sing.
What is the McShred concept,
Chuck?
Basically it started out when McRad
first got together. It was me and three
other skaters-Jason, Dicken
Greene and Dave-and we just call-
ed ourselves McShred because we
were basically the first street skaters
around Philly. There were other
skaters in the city but they weren't in-
to doing street stuff. We were up on,
and keeping in touch with California
and all that. It started with skating in
Philly and it just flowed into music
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after McRad broke up. I was kind of
bummed out and the concept was to
pick things up and do whatever you
want to do, whether it's skating or
music or whatever.
How is the music scene in Philly
right now?
The music scene is pretty wild right
now. There's a new wave of hardcore
kids, for awhile it was getting kind of
stale, but now it's like when I go to a
show I don't even know anyone. It's
a whole new thing. Most of them are
from the suburbs. The average age
is like 14-16. There are a lot of under-
age shows and it's definitely cool.
What about future releases from
McShred?
Music man, skate man.
Chuck Treece working the
street on a recent visit to
S.F's Golden Gate Park
I'm just trying to do as much different
music as I can right now. I don't want
to center myself around one par-
ticular type of music so I'm really go
ing to work out in the studio and try
and get something good. It may be
a solo project with just me doing it in
the studio.
How about skate spots in Philly?
We had a bank, called the McShred
bank. It was on the University of
Penn. campus and they thrashed it
due to some new construction going
up. We have a sundial/fountain thing
at Penn's Landing that we've skated
off and on. But security's starting to
get pretty hectic. They're starting to
catch on to the skaters since there
are a bunch of them now. We have
a street ramp here and there but we
definitely need some more spots.
There are ramps around the PA area
and tons of street skaters in the city.
The spots are few and far, but they're
good.
How's the other half of the East
Cost connection, Tom Groholski,
doing?
Tom's alright. He's back at his house
skating his ramp. He just got his ramp
relayered with plexiglass so every-
one's been skating that and every-
one's really excited about it. He's just
having a lot of fun and working with
his father. We are going to start do-
ing some demos and work out a
system where we can get a ramp and
go around to shops and do some
shows.
What's the travel agenda look like
for the tail end of the skate season
there?
Well, Oregon, for the street style com-
petition and then basically demos
everywhere possible and hopefully
some shows with the band in New
Jersey and on down to Florida some
time after Christmas. I would like to
get back out to California for awhile.
because the atmosphere is a lot bet-
ter for pushing yourself. Too many
people here think skateboarding is a
stone age type of activity.
Okay, well that was kind of short
and sweet, do you have anything
else to add, Chuck?
Well, I want to thank you guys and my
sponsors for all the help. And just that
as long as you have your skate and
your mind intact, nothing else really
matters
Okay Chuck, we'll see you out
there somewhere?
Bye!
Хност
Chet Darmstoedter A.K.A.
XNO
Chet Darmstaedter speaks with a
quiet, southern accent. He is mar-
ried, has two children and resides in
Memphis, Tennessee. With all that in
focus, you'd never think that he was
responsible for the ghastly illustra
tions of horror that he scratches out
under the pen name of XNO
Still, at thirty, Chet is rapidly finding
underground success with his album
cover work, drawings for Weirdo and
THRASHER (Igor, Arnold and A-
Head), plus numerous appearances
in other mags and zines.
Chet chose the pen name "XNO"
because he loved the letters X and
O, which were important as ancient
symbols. O, the circle, is the symbol
originally used to represent God and
everything. The X, or cross, is a sym-
bol of four forces. XNO represents
the point at which Chet was able to
break from the restrictive art-school
way of thinking that had previously
kept him from fulfilling his true
creative needs. Chet lists his in-
fluences as Roth, Weird-Ohs, Creepy
Magazine and Frazetta, among
others, all of which lend to the the uni-
que XNO style.
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