SUGARCUBES
(From page 83)
from the Damned and we worked out
an arrangement where I started im-
porting Crass records to Iceland. We
decided to have a big peace festival
called "We Demand The Future" in
1983 when KUKL had just started.
We thought Crass would be the ideal
band. So one day I spoke with Andy
Palmer from Crass and convinced
him that they should come over to
play. We spent many days with them
and from that our friendship grew.
They offered us a chance to record
so we came up with a six-song
mini-Lp.
Do you espouse Crass' ideals?
Einar-There's just one song that
means anything to me and that's
"Big A Little A. The rest of their
songs are mostly about British
politics. I like what they do because
they are humans and they do
business like people, not musicians
or entrepeneurs. They stand for
humanity more than music or
business which is why we still stay
in the same circles.
Thor-I never fully agreed with
everything the Crass people did
which was the reason me and Einar
formed the Bad Taste company. We
had a sort of manifesto to put forward
our aims. The first was "Conquer the
world or die," which is very easy to
say since we all eventually die. But
we were interested in conquering the
world since we thought we could do
things better than the people in
charge. We wanted to be able to
publish all of our stuff ourselves and
distrubute it ourselves not just in
Iceland for ten or thirty friends.
Everyone told us that to get some-
where you had to go mainstream and
we thought that was wrong. You can
only change things by never becom
ing a part of the establishment and
we've proven that.
Didn't the Sugarcubes receive a
number of major label offers?
Thor-We laughed at those at first
but then came to the realization that
the people at major labels are either
very wicked, very stupid, or both.
They said that they'd pay us if we'd
work for six or seven years. That
meant making two records a year,
touring constantly and solo records
from each of us. We're a lot happier
with One Little Indian because we
never wanted to become slaves of a
big company. Maybe we're deman-
ding but we're happier working with
someone who understands what we
want and tries to do it.
How would you contrast American
and Icelandic fans?
Einar-More mania. Either they love
you or they hate you. Once you're on
stage you're a star and you get a
star's treatment. It's not strange
because we've seen it in the movies
but we try to add reality to it and see
what's going on. It's strange for us
in a lot of ways. Every show I've been
102
out front selling t-shirts and people
don't think that the guy selling shirts
is the guy in the band. A lot of pro-
moters think it's a nice touch to be
so personal with the fans, but those
are the people who matter. People
don't think that we're for real but if
you listen closely, what we say is
totally logical. Then, if you look closer
at it you'll see it's absolute madness.
It's a lot like fundamental Christiani-
ty, which on the outside seems to
make total sense, especially since
there is this great media behind it,
but look closer and you'll find it's
some crazy mania.
How are the Sugarcubes treated in
their homeland?
Einar-When all the hullaballoo
started with us they didn't believe
what was happening. They thought
that we were lying and creating
stories to make ourselves seem big-
ger than we really were. Then, they
realized that we were actually getting
a lot of attention. Now they want to
treat us like stars but we won't have
any of that.. They now want to make
us famous in Iceland but before they
even wanted to do that we were
already famous at home. We sold six
thousand records over there and that
amounts to six million here.
A lot of the subjects and themes
of your songs take a morbidly
playful outlook...
Einar-I don't think they're morbid.
We don't preach or write about third
person situations. We write about our
feelings. We want people to think
about what's going on in our heads
rather than being so literal and ob-
vious. We also want people to have
fun and be entertained which is why
the Sugarcubes came out of KUKL,
a band that was taken far too serious-
ly as this big arty band, which was
something we never intended. Our
songs don't come out and say "I love
you" because that's not the way we
feel. If you watch television or listen
to any sort of modern pop song you'll
find a standardized version of what
real life is like and how you should
relate to the people around you. We
see it in TV shows like Dallas, where
everything is stereotyped. Both you
and me know that a candlelight din-
ner isn't very romantic, but that is
what is made out to be romantic and
the acceptable norm. The only am-
biguous thing in our lyrics is that we
don't see a lot of the things that are
supposed to be romantic as roman-
tic Sexuality today is supposedly
things like Penthouse, but that isn't
the case for us. The only feeling con-
nected to that is either having a hard
on or not having a hard on. It's very
standardized and for us it's not that
way. Sometimes I think we don't want
to face up to our own feelings so
that's why our lyrics become am-
biguous. Our music is not something
a real musician would play. It's more
of an extension of what we are which
is why we sound the way we do.
Thor, I understand that you're the
skateboarder of the band.
Thor-I bought a skateboard when
I came over here in June on a publi-
city trip before we toured. I gave that
one away but lan Astbury from the
Cult ended up giving me one of his.
There are a lot of young kids in
Iceland who are starting to skate, but
no one over twenty does so. People
think I'm crazy when they see me
skateboarding. I think people need
to see others doing what they want
and maybe they'll learn from that.
SWATCH TOUR
(From page 56)
It's easy to be skeptical of the idea
after living through the commer-
cialization of skateboarding in the 70s
and seeing the growing commer-
cialization today. Visions of
Skateboard Mania, a lame 70s
skateboard show that put skaters into
tacky costumes and made them per-
form routines to Top 40 music, comes
to mind.
"The first thing I thought was, 'Oh
no, Skateboard Mania again!""
laughed Joe Johnson.
"I knew it would be a good thing."
commented Kevin Staab. "I thought
it would be cool because we'd reach
lot of places that contests won't."
a
The tour hired athletic trainer Barry
Zaritzky to come along on the road
and he put the whole crew through
their paces with daily workouts,
stretching and warm-ups before and
after the show.
"Having Barry on the tour was a
great idea, Miller said. "His work-
outs and all the skating we did each
day enabled us to get more power
into our skating. At the next contest
everyone from the tour will be ripping
so hard."
The video screen comes to life and
MC John Hogan introduces the per-
formers one by one and they drop in
for a short run. Each skater is profiled
on the screen and gets a chance to
show his stuff on the ramp. The
screen also shows blasts from the
past, samples of street skating and
even safety clinics. Skaters and
bikers entertain the crowd with jam
sessions, a game of Add-On, a high
air contest and several segments of
doubles, triples and quadruple
routines. Staab and Johnson mock
each other trick for trick. There's a
triple routine involving Phillips, Miller
and rollerskater Scott. Miller does
360° airs over Phillips. Phillips does
a handplant on Scott's head.
Johnson does a rock and roll
between Staab's legs on Staab's
board and then Staab follows with a
tail tap on Johnson's board.
Rollerksater Jimi Scott widened
some eyes with 720s, handplants
and 360° airs. The crowds every
where loved every moment, scream-
ing at the tops of their lungs.
"This blows any contest away"
emphasized Miller. "The NSA should
concentrate more on the competition
and less on the show and leave the
show to things like this."
CHILL FACTOR
(From page 76)
Wolf Creek
N.A.S.B.A CONTEST SERIES
Rocky Mountain Series
January 14-15
January 21-22
February 4-5
February 18-19
March 4-5
March 10-12
Ski Sunlight
Copper Mtn.
Eldora Ski Area
Crested Butte
Purgatory
Kevin Duncan, PO Box 666, Durango,
CA 81302. Ph: 303 247-9000 x234
Northwestern Champ. Series
Super Bowl Sunday Mount Hood
49 Degrees West
2/12-13
3/4-5
Mount Hood
Bike Factory, 2237 140th NE, Bellvue,
WA 98005 Ph: 206 641-0051
New England Cup
Dates To Be Announced
Patty Edwards Ph: 603 745-6547
Midwest Snowboard Series
1/7, Chrystal Mtn-S, M, H
1/21-22, Mt. Wawasee-S, D, M, H
1/28-29, Ski Paoli Peaks-S, GS
2/18-19, Mt. La Crosse-S, GS, H
For Midwest Snowboard newsletter
or more info send S.A.S.E. to: Dean
Jones, 1412 Navajo Dr, Xenia, OH
45385 Ph: 513 427-7350 x7350 (days).
513 376-1970 (evenings)
TIMBERLINE CLASSIC
February 25-26
Timberline
4th annual prolam Slalom/H-pipe.
Over 200 riders last year.
Cal Skate, 213 NW Couch St.,
Portland, OR 97209 Ph: 503 223-0245
COPPER MOUNTAIN SERIES
12/31, 1/14, 1/28, 2/11, 2/25, 3/11
Seven event series open to public-
Giant Slalom, Slalom (possible Half-
There will be a permanent half-pipe
pipe). Weekly and overall awards.
on Copper Mountain this season.
Copper Mountain Series, PO Box
3001, Copper Mountain, CO 80443
Ph: 303 968-2882 x6301.
1989 WESTERN SNOWBOARD
GRANDSLAM
March 4-5
June Mountain
Inclyne Sports presents: Dual
Slalom, Freestyle, Mogul and Half-
Pipe competition. $25,000 purse.
ESPN and MTV coverage. For more
info contact: Judy Reece, June Moun-
tain Ski Area, PO Box 146, June Lake,
CA 93529. Ph: 619 648-7733.
K2 SHRED THE EDGE SERIES
During the 1988/89 season K2 and
18 leading snowboard centers will be
co-sponsoring a series that will con-
sist of 38 slalom and halfpipe events.
Events will be scheduled in the
following areas: Big Mountain, MT;
Bromley, VT, Dodge Ridge, CA; June
Mountain, CA; Boreal, CA: Snow
Summit, CA; Soda Springs, CA;
Purgatory, CO; Vail, CO; Eldora, CO;
Sugarloaf, ME, Crystal Mtn., MI; Mt.
Bachelor, OR; Ski Acres, WA; Sno-
qualamie Summit, WA; Waterville
Valley, NH. Ski Liberty, PA; and
Tussey Mtn., PA, For full details con-
tact the individual ski areas or: Brent
Turner, K2 Snowboard Marketing
Manager, Ph: 206 463-3631.
T-SHIRTS $11.95 EACH
MEN'S SIZE: S, M, L, XL
165
HOW TO ORDER
BY PHONE:
SINS-1625 PIPE
Sims
BATMAN III
ULTRA EQUIPE
SNOWboarding
SESSIONS
SKATEBOARD SHOP
A FULL SERVICE SNOWBOARD/SKATEBOARD SHOP
(408) 735-1138
BY MAIL:
SEND CHECK or MONEY ORDER
(Including Shipping)
TO: SESSIONS
SIMS HIGHBACK BINDINGS...$96.00 PAIR
SIMS DELUXE SNOWBOARD BAG
FITS BOARDS UP TO 1712. PADDED
W/CARRYING STRAP......$59.95 EA.
AVALANCHE BOARD BAGS
2 SIZES: 165 AND SMALLER OR
180CM. HEAVY WEIGHT NYLON
W/STRAP $34.95 EA.
989 EAST CALIFORNIA AVENUE SUITE 3
SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA 94087
SNOWBOARD
ARE
OUT OF BOUNDS
PROTOTYPE SHOES
SNOW
Shredders
SNOW SHREDDERS VIDEO
60 MINUTES OF THE LATEST FOOTAGE OF TEAM
SIMS, FOOTAGE INCLUDES THE WORLD'S
SNOWBOARDING CHAMPIONSHIPS FROM
BRECKENRIDGE CO. UNREEL PRODUCTIONS, IN
STEREO. $29.95 EA.
NEW SHIPPING INFORMATION
Merchandise
Subtotal
Shipping and
Handling Charge
Under $45.
$4.50
$45-$75
$5.25
$75-$100
$5.00
$100-$295
$6.75
Snowboards
$14.00
For UPS Blue Label Air add $3.50 to
ground prices. Snowboards, add
$14.00
APO & FPO orders please add $3.00
Foreign Orders, please call for prices
and special instructions Canadian
snowboard orders, add $10.00, al
other Canadian orders add $4.00
WINTER CATALOG W/STICKERS $2.00
OUT OF BOUNDS