Caught the new Alien video premiere last night. Sick video. Brought me back to the Memory Screen days when Lee and I traveled down to Florida from Buffalo for Spring Break, skating every couple States, hopped up on hallucinogenics and Iced Cappios. Bottled Iced Coffee had just been droppped on the market and some cops almost arrested us on drunk driving before we showed them for what it was. Lee ripped the soundtrack from a stereo quality vhs onto a metal quality cassette and we listened to the tape all the way down to Tampa.
Intro was a throwback with Super 8/ 16mm footage and J.Mascis guitar solo. Good stuff. Same tight Alien feel with montages that make you feel like your tripping with b/w footage of cop parades on Segways, blind families walking with sticks, birds, bugs & all that great visuals you would expect fromt the crew out of Ohio.
Quick recap:
Omar Salazar first part. Crazy stuff, flying all over. Monster neck high Hubbas. Intro was craze & closer was a banger.
Jake Johnson- Very suprising part with huge wallrides reg & switch down double sets. Good part lots of handicap jumping like in ads. Switch Sheffey ollied over back of rail to 5050. Nice to see local NYC footage.
Arto- Crazy Evel Knieval jumping. Reminiscent of Geoff Rowley "Really Sorry" part. Super front board control. Back lip down long kinked rails. Huge huge tre flip into ditch that he switch bs 180d on recent Skateboarder cover. Looks so relaxed like Appleyard.
Mike Taylor- consistent but kinda saw most of footage from recent interview & ads(?) Like watching a P.Rod or Jereme Rogers part. Good but boring.
Grant Taylor- sick, good J.Mascis track. Complete part with tranny, ledge & rails. Good Dino song.
New kid, what's his name.. looks like McLovin, also on Fourstar... Tyler Bledsoe. Sick sick part. Ledge destruction but super clean. Footy of that gap to bsts to bsflip out from Fourstar Ad was butters.
Dyrdek- good but short part. Thought after 10yrs, he would have more footage. Caught a board to the grill after smith kickflip out front foot slip off to face smack. Too funny. I like Dyrdek but was hoping for more. Sick LA High footy. FS bluntslide the white banks in back.
Kalis- sick sick part. Good mix of tricks and steeze. Hasn't skipped a beat. Suprising tricks like ollie impossible noseslide bank to curb Gino bsts shove'd out in Yeah right. Clean ass switch bigspin bsts to fakie MACBA ledges. Switch bsflip Barca hump over bar. Closer was amazing big spin bsts to forward on pyramid ledges downtown. So steezy. Made me wanna get off my fat ass and hit up some ledges.
Classic LOVE Tre Ad. Nice DUB sweatpants. Where was the Stevie W. cameo?
Dill- kinda hate on Dill a little bit. Claims NY even though just some asshole from the IE. First footage in 10ys, just ok. Predictable- fs slappy to Jersey barrier wallride to hydrant ollie. Nice closer though. Knee high ledge switch fs 180 to manual to 360 ollie out. It's amazing how he can make a career out of one manual trick. Photsynthesis he did that manual bs slide to fakie manny. Did 10yrs of ads of just standing. Whatevs. Ain't fooling me.
AVE- Burly part. Lots of huge gaps, crazy ATL ditch lines, fakie pivot fakie grinds, good ledge stuff: bank to long ledge switch fsts to back tail to fwd, hip high 10ft long switch bsts to fsts to forward. Photosynthesis part was more aggro, but I think he was cranked out on coke & heron those days. This part was pretty banging though. Def fave next to Mclovin's & Kalis'.
Heath Kirchart- closer. Goes fucking huge. Picnic tables look like milkcrates. Skates rails like flat bars and goes like 10feet out on crete park hips. Backside flips a two lane street for closer out of bike pulled by a bike. Jaw dropper.
Video was great. True to classic Alien style. Some music was questionable but after starting with J.Mascis, you wanna hear it the whole movie. At least half of video was classic Memory Screen style. I'm partial cuz I've always been a fan and always ride their boards, but how Flared made me want to quit, Mind Field made me want to skate. Good shit.
