It was a great year for skateboarding — especially in New York, but also beyond — despite being especially rough on humans otherwise. Let’s get this one rolling :)
Tag: #musicsupervision
The 2016 Quartersnacks Year in Review: 15-6
Keeping it moving with the new 10-10-5 format :) Previously in 2016: 25-16
Past Editions: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010
15. Astor Renovation
Two years ago, we lost a zen-like intersection of flatground that intertwined with all vibrant walks of life — the greatest non-spot in this history of skateboarding. It was, however, replaced with actual skateable obstacles this year: decent-enough beveled benches, a gap that replicated BAM’s ledge-to-street gap, and a Flushing-width flatground gap that Jason Byoun switch Muska flipped. The spot’s original meditative qualities dissolved into cement fairy dust, but at least it’s something to skate for now, even if the overall aesthetic of the new Astor Place is “we ran out of money.”
Big Up…To All My Haters
Shawty Lo died in a car crash early yesterday morning. No, Lo has no place in the canon of skate video music supervision. In fact, he’s exactly the sort of artist whose music geriatric skater types will insist you are using “ironically” in YouTube comments.
Quartersnacks has often utilized a #musicsupervision approach akin to a video like Trilogy: a 1996 video full of songs released in 1996, mirroring what the people involved in making it were actually listening to during the time. For that same reason, there has always been a special joy in major videos using songs that soundtracked a summer, or helped us power through a winter. I had an ear-to-ear smile on my face the second I heard the “I Love It” beat at the start of Biebel’s Fully Flared section for the first time. Even in those middle school years when RJD2 was cool, there was something validating about hearing it in Mosaic.
That same joy of skate videos using songs that pushpin memories into your mind doesn’t exist anymore. A mixtape will come out, and by the end of the week, there are three Insta clips to songs off it, and at least one new video in your YouTube subscription feed using the same tune for a trip clip. Nobody is going to skate to “Brocolli” in a major video next year, and if someone does, who cares.
It was the the start of 2008, and Jeezy hadn’t released an album in over a year. This was when he was at the height of his powers — the most effective motivational speaker on a desperate planet approaching a recession, and in need of a spark. To hold us over, he dropped Ice Cream Man Part 2, which included the remix to Shawty Lo’s “Dey Know.” The regular version was everywhere at that point: the horns were infectious, and the initial beat drop is the sonic equivalent of when the ball swishes through the hoop for the win at the buzzer. The remix gave it a second life, soundtracking every skate trip car ride that spring, and essential at the parties that we were able to sneak into.
Most skaters in 2008 didn’t take the Trilogy soundtracking approach. They’d rather edit to a Big L song, or a remix of a Big L song, or a remix of a remix of a Big L song remixed by a guy who specializes in remixing Big L songs. Someone skating to “Dey Know” in the year it peaked would’ve been massive; it’s the perfect fit for the second part of a video. In 2009, it would’ve been cool. Nobody skated to it until 2013.
Theotis’ part in the Shake Junt video isn’t particularly seminal or even well-edited. It looks like they slapped it together with what they had, but it’s the only thing I remember from that video. It made me remember those spring night drives to skate the Bridgeport ledges, and those nights skating midtown with the “Dey Know” remix on the iPod. Hearing those horns over any sort of skating gave me the same feeling of first hearing “I Love It” in Biebel’s part, even if Theotis’ part in the chicken bone video was nowhere near the generation-defining event Lakai’s was.
There hasn’t been as profound of a moment for one of those songs that encapsulates an entire season in much the same way since — probably because they only muffle under skate noises from iPhone speakers now, 60 seconds at a time.
R.I.P. Shawty Lo. Big up…to all my haters.
Better Thoughts, Better Vibes
DANY video filming deadline: 03/31/16 11:59 P.M. EST. 2016’s most anticipated video.
We have a light drop of new merch available in the webstore. There’s an online-only reissue of the “Ball is Life” hoodys originally made for Dover Street Market, plus two new caps for the spring. The full spring/summer merch line should be available in shops later in April, then on our webstore a bit later. Stay tuned ♥♥♥
Dude is this a 12th & A obstacle or an installation misplaced from a Chelsea gallery?
“Heaven’s Gate” is a new video from Tony Choy-Sutton that deserves an outstanding achievement in spot selection award, in that it remarkably avoids almost every single 2016 trap and blown out New York spot for fourteen minutes. Also, nosegrind down that round rail Quim drop-in 5050s on (with Muska’s help!) in Static 5 is insane.
Iron Claw + Watermelonism in Medellin, my fifth favorite city. Via The Man Who Films.
Pfft, like this isn’t an ABD a thousand times over…
“This skating is so sick but this song is so fucking terrible.” Roctakon began to review classic skate video soundtracks for Jenkem. The first installment is a review of Sight Unseen‘s #musicsupervision. “Tosh is kinda hot, for a blonde.”
New six-minute montage from Jesse Alba and Tucker V.W., in which Andrew Wilson 5050s between the knobs down the Dag Park hubba and Jason Byoun does a chill switch flip. It’s a VX.
Ellington cut his hair and advises against skating with a bandana. Also, who’s hosting a premiere of the new Baker video at their house? Let’s get a group text going…
New jazzy clip from Washington Heights’ Mira Conyo squad.
Early “Noseslide of the Year” contender #goldgoon$.
Wallride over the rollgate parallel to the Fish Gap is pretty cool.
The Astor renovation looks uniformly awful but there are these low round rails all around, which have small little knobs on them that prevent grinds but not really slides. Also, how is the cement ground already bad there?
Life of Boosie > Life of Pablo ♥ “I’m not a lyricist, I’m a storyteller.”
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: The tournament is impossible to follow, especially in March when it’s getting warmer outside, but you gotta love a good buzzer beater.
Quote of the Week: “Skateboarders are the only group of adults that hang out together. I’ll hit up all my friends who don’t skate on a 70-degree day and they’re either at work or with their girlfriends.” — Dylgr
2014 New York Skateboarding Year in Review: 20-16
Photo via Lurker Lou
Part two of our annual countdown series. Part one is here.
20. Marble at the T.F.
Throughout its history, Tompkins obstacles have been wood, steel, rubber, and sometimes even glass. The ability to move these materials without much manpower has been essential to the spot’s transient nature. Only the flat and The Crack™ remain — everything else is just passing through until some green-suited bandit musters up the nerve to remove it.
T.F. culture experienced a shock this summer when a foot-tall, slanted slab of marble mysteriously appeared inside the baseball diamond. It became the first marble obstacle in Tompkins history, and dubbed The Tombstone™. This two-foot-wide piece of rock broke the record once held by the blue rail for the longest-standing loose object of the post-Autumn era. Claims of liquid-nailing it to the ground were abound in May and June, except that was, like, way too much work for anyone to do. The spot was gone as mysteriously as it appeared by the end of the month.