New Jersey Classics: Andy Bautista & German Nieves in ‘New Thirsty’ (2008)

german sw crook hoboken

This photo is technically from a different era, but is sick regardless. By Jonathan Mehring. Shout out to anyone who ever skated Lackawanna Ledges (R.I.P.)

One of the somewhat obscurer inclusions on Ross One’s Hopps mix was “Come Back To Me” by Cheyenne’s Comin’, which, personally speaking, is one of my favorite songs that I’ve ever discovered from a skate video. It was used for Andy Bautista and German Nieves’ ender part in Justin White’s New Thirsty video from 2008.

Andy and German’s shared part is a semi-sequel to Andy’s section in Logic #6, a part that has been discussed on this website before. Logic #6 was an unofficial City Stars Street Cinema prequel, as it had breakout parts from P-Rod, Mike Taylor and Justin Case, with a 50-percent New York/Jersey, 50-percent L.A. Andy Bautista part oddly nudged between. In 2001, it was pretty great to see Lodi, Newport and Hoboken footage sit alongside mythical L.A. schoolyards; it made those places feel as significant in the bigger, video magazine-ized portrait of skateboarding, at least for three minutes. The part also started a ten-year obsession with wanting to skate that yellow tile bank in downtown L.A. (We made it there last summer, and predictably got kicked out in one minute. The cracks are a lot bigger than they look in footage, too.)

Justin did the original great justice, right down to music supervision that captures the vibe of the Logic part, despite not being as “mad hip hop, yo.” Andy even revisited Lodi for it, though he didn’t make it back out L.A.

If you need skate “culture” stuff to do this weekend: Our homie B.K. is having a release party (#freebuzz) for a zine he made with several friends that showcases bodega-centric photography and art, Hopps, etc. is doing another “Bum Rush the Spot” event at an “undisclosed” location that shouldn’t be too hard to figure out based on the flyer image, and there’s skate art stuff at da Fish on Sunday. We’ll be watching basketball during the aforementioned events. Hopefully not a Knicks Game 7, but probably. Have a good one.

INFMS: All fifteen minutes of it

Infamous Skateboards’ fifteen-minute video has avoided a one-part internet revival for quite some time. It has occasionally been chopped up on YouTube, but most of the music is usually stripped away thanks to WMG’s notoriety for clinging to an outdated business model. I *think* this was released around 1999 or 2000 (there’s no date in the credits), a few years before Infamous folded altogether. Puleo’s part gets all the YouTube accolades (and has been on there for probably as long as YouTube has existed), but there are some other solid portions throughout the video’s concise duration, including Nikhil Thayer’s demonstrations of how to properly perform flip tricks, Moya skating in Peter Smolik’s pro model, some young Ian Reid footage, a few bits of Jahmal Williams, some pre-Logic 6 footage of Andy Bautista, and a really sick throwaway montage set to John Lee Hooker after the credits that’s as long as the actual video. Not to mention a glimpse at the less friendly days of Pyramid Ledge security guards. (“You dreadhead muhfucker!!!”) Infamous always had pretty nice, subdued art direction that didn’t shove “East coast, yo!” down your throat and still maintained an identity, so with a to-the-point video like this, it would’ve been sick to see where it could’ve went if it was around for a few more years.

It’s kind of crazy that this and 511 are the only videos from New York based hard goods companies (besides the Zoo videos) to exist from this period. But not as crazy as Funkmaster Flex doing voiceovers for Rawkus commercials at the end of skate videos.

Have a good weekend.