US Trip.

A little late, whatever. Me and Tank spent the days between March 11th and April 12th across the pond and had a blast. We went over with no real plans other than to eat pizza, and the only thing we had to base anything on was a few gig dates in various cities. We made some amazing friends, saw alot of crazy shit, went to alot of incredible shows and came through with our plan to eat lots of pizza. A few highlights, from what I can remember:

(photos are up here - http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=3472909&albumId=2164916 )

New York: Flew into NYC, immediately shit ourselves as we realised we were in America on our own for 5 weeks and had no clue what we were doing. Took a cab into the city to our hostel, took about an hour and we took pictures of the stupidest shit ever the whole way. Heading into New York City for the first time was such an insane experience, very overwhelming.
Our hostel was right next to Central Park which was cool, and we were apparently two or three blocks from Harlem (a no-go area according to a dude from the hostel)! Walked pretty much the length of the park after we had checked in, just walking towards the huge skyscrapers. The walk from the end of the park through to Times Square and beyond was another thing i won't forget, I felt like I was in a cartoon or something. Shortly following this we had our first pizza of the trip at Ray's Pizza. Dead good.
The next few days were spent mainly walking around, riding the subway and eating pizza. Other than a few highlights like The Empire State Building, The Village (and the best record shop ever), the World Trade Center site and some other mad stuff, New York got boring pretty fast. So, after 5 days we decided to leave NYC. Now, our original plan was to head north to Boston for St. Patricks Day and spend a couple days there, but Boston being full of American Irish etc, everywhere was booked up. So we just decided to ease Paddys day and go south to Richmond in Virginia.

Richmond, Virigina: Jumped on a Greyhound bus to Richmond and just headed straight down there. The driver managed to get lost coming into DC on the way down and had to be directed by a passenger. We also passed a shop in a small town called 'Bombay Gaylord' and me + tank proceeded to absolutely crack up laughing for a good 5 minutes, while everyone else wondered why we were laughing...

We arrived in Richmond and realised we had no way of contacting the lads we were mean to be staying with, so Tank had to phone this girl Amanda whose number we had, and her and her friend came and picked us up. The next three days were spent floating around the Richmond suburbs, sleeping on the floors and in the cars of these two girls, it was pretty surreal. The second night we went into Richmond to see The Ladies, Shoot It Up and Cloak/Dagger in a tiny bar/cafe place called Ramakins, our first show of the trip. It was rad, especially The Ladies, as it was their first show and their set was about 5 minutes long, but perfect for all 5 of those minutes. We still hadn't gotten hold of the boys we were meant to stay with though, and we had no idea what they looked like which didn't help. We asked around a bit, but no luck. The next night was another show in the same venue, and was even better. The Ladies played again, also with Brutal Knights from Canada and local boys Wasted Time, who were amazing. There were people spilling out onto the street, diving off the bar, just going mental. This was an awesome night too because we finally found Judge and Kage, the guys we were supposed to be staying with.

Now, this was a very important turning point in our little trip. See, we thought we had been having a pretty good time up to that point already, and we were super grateful to Amanda and Tori for helping us out and being cool, but everything just got fucking amazing as soon as we threw our gear into Judge's car and headed to Trey Brown's house. We had gotten talking to Judge and Kage about 6 months prior to our trip through Kage responding to an email I had sent to Swamp Thing about 6 months before the trip (Kage played bass in Swamp Thing at the time), and it turned out that their dad was from Liverpool, and they said we were welcome to stay with them anytime which was cool as shit. Anyway, I think it must have been between midnight and 1am when we got back to Trey's house that night, and me and Tank just thought we would be getting in and going to sleep. But, over the next half an hour people just started coming into the house and chilling, and we were introduced to the likes of Dan (Snax), Brett, Trevor, Jessica and some others I think. It was just crazy that it was 1am on a wednesday night and these guys were just like 'So what are we doing tonight?'. They decided we had to experience 'Sheetz' which turned out to be a kind of petrol station/all night diner combo, so we all piled into cars and drove out there, where we met a bunch more hardcore kids and ate M&Ms + laughed til our faces hurt, it was boss.
(That night, and in the weeks to follow, we met easily some of the best, soundest and craziest fuckers we had ever encountered. Our holiday wouldn't have even come close to being as good as it was if it wasn't for the Richmond kids. I just want to say thanks to Judge for driving us absolutely everywhere (including Miami!!), taking time off work to chill and do cool stuff with us, and just being a boss dude; Kage/K-Pei/Belmar for being the funniest and weirdest guy ever; Dan (CEO of Snax Inc...) for driving us to Philly and moshing when excited; Trey Brown for putting up with us taking over his couch for like 3 weeks, thanks so much mate; Brett for being massive and from New York, for making fun of us non-stop for being English, for riding an FBM and for killing abot 45632 kids at United Blood; Trevor aka Space Trigg for doing the dance of death to Mind Eraser and trying to puke on purpose, and for being well funny; Mary for letting us ride in the back of her pickup truck, sorry we got you pulled over!; Ethan for being totally unhinged and having the best most intense rants about hardcore ever 'you know why he loves Bitter End? Coz he's never heard Void!!'; thanks also to James, Ashton, Anna, Caroline, CRAZY ZACK, Greg, Sean Patrick, Lil Lexxx, Sean from Naysayer, the crazy guy who worked in 7-11 that kept calling me New York, Swamp Thing, Mind Rot, COMA and STEP ABOVE!!! + anyone else who I've inevitably forgotten, thanks! We love Richmond.)

The three weeks we spent in Richmond have kinda melded into a big blur in my mind now, but I'll try and remember some individual incidents.
Earth Crisis night was a good one haha. Me, Tank, Dan and Trevor went to see Earth Crisis, Terror, Sworn Enemy, Shai Hulud and Down To Nothing at Alley Katz. We missed DTN and the rest of the show was fucking crap, afterwards was awesome though. After the show everyone went a few blocks down to this club where one of the local hc kids was doing a rap set at a dance party under the name Lil Lexxx. It was crazy, about a hundred hardcore kids just crashed this club, went crazy for Lexxx then left haha. After 'Da x God' was done, a few of us drove around looking for pizza places that had closed and put leftovers in the bins out back. After a fruitless search, we went to this guy's flat and one of the lads we were with just walked in, took a pizza from the kitchen and ate it outside. We chilled outside this guys flat for about an hour or two, during which we pissed off the whole neighbourhood by shouting at student houses, setting cardboard on fire and having Crazy Zack piss on it, and Dan screaming at some drunk girls while trying to pull a street sign out of the ground. We had the police called on us twice that night...
I'm at the point now in this recollection where I have realised that to carry on like this would take me days, so I'm just going to list some other highlights and leave my memories in my head.
Boss shit: Our trip to DC to see 86 Mentality's last ever show, which was one of the best/scariest things I've ever been to. Judge driving us almost non-stop for 24hrs from Richmond to Miami then staying for one night and driving back so Ana could go to a job interview. United Blood fest being amazing, and getting to see THE WRONG SIDE and MIND ERASER. Illegally going onto Belle Isle, then getting stopped by the police for riding in the back of a pickup at 3am, and being put on the Richmond City Police gang files. Oh and Tegan getting royally fucked with haha. So much more.

Thanks lads.

Road Fools 8

is amazing. matt beringer is a beast. that is all.

Life updates.

Alot of this probably won't concern you unless you're my mate or you like one of my crappy bands. as usual, read on anyway.

On tuesday the 11th (in like 3 days time), myself and my good friend Tank are embarking on a 5 week exploration of the east coast of the United States of America. This can only be absolutely brilliant, as our borderline-ridiculously loose plan involves eating huge slices of pizza, spending St Patrick's day in Boston, shooting guns and seeing 86 Mentality's last show, as well as United Blood festival and numerous other amazing punk rock related ditties. Effort will be made to make it to the Deep South, because even though the idea scares me it looks worth a visit for the hick factor alone.

Because of this, I am having to record in two bands this weekend to ensure we can deliver the goods without a huge wait. Tomorrow myself, Tank, Ad and Joe will be going in to record four or five songs for the Nowhere Fast demo. We are a new band, about 4 practices deep, with yours truly on vocal duties. We basically want to sound like SSD, SOA, Negative Approach, Minor Threat, Negative FX, Adolescents etc, so in short it's going to be fresh sounding and creative...ha. Look out for the demo soon.
www.myspace.com/nowherefast81

Cold Ones are also 'hitting the (makeshift) studio' this weekend, recording one song for the Town Clock Records compilation and a few more new jams for one, or perhaps two, new releases due out in the near future. Keep em fuckin peeled, they won't be shit.

I think that's all for now. So if I don't post anything else, and I don't see you, IN A BIT.

The state of BMX.

I'm sure those of you that frequent the BMX related websites, blogs and messageboards are well and truly sick of hearing stuff like this. If this is the case, the following might do your head in but read it anyway.
Really, whats going on? I may not be out there putting the hours in everyday anymore, but I am definetly aware of BMX changing for what I see as the worse.

1. EVERYONES's bike looks like one of those stupid fucking Monty trials bikes. You know, brakeless, seat slammed, no pegs and them huge bars that look completely daft. Seth K's bike on Road Fools 12 = perfect.

2. Videos never have good music anymore. Electro and plastic 'gangsta' rap should be banned from BMX. What happened to videos having amazing soundtracks? Nowhere Fast with Slayer, Black Flag, Bad Brains, Redman, Black Sabbath etc, the first Animal video with The Jam, Deltron, Jefferson Airplane, Four Walls Falling etc, Who Brought The Dicks? with The Misfits, Buzzcocks, Distillers, Iggy and the Stooges, Dead Kennedys...need I go on? I'm so sick of seeing mincers in their sisters pants doing barspins to fucking Kanye West. Bring back the punk rock, the thrash metal, the real hiphop.

3. The fact that being a brakeless 'street rider' used to be rare and fun. I know it sounds a bit lame, but the brakeless thing and the 'street' style used to belong solely to those who learned to ride in carparks and city centres. This seems to have now gone out the window, as every little meff who learned all their moves down the skatepark on their tech as fuck featherweight bike has now ditched their brakes and started to do 180s and barspins, essentially ruining it for those who have always rode street and learned everything that way. This doesn't concern myself too much as I'm not big on learning tricks anymore, but i know alot of riders who are probably overlooked because some little park-trained fruit is whipping down 500 stairs or something. Not that these lads give a fuck about being overlooked anyway...
But yeah, this recent trend has kind of ruined the feel. So kindly take your progression and fuck off so this lone fair-weather rider feels a bit better about things.

4. Taking it too seriously. I think myself, and Jack from Wrexham, got our first videos finished about a year before the start of the 'web video' boom, so I didn't really keep up with this until it really got going. When me and my friends were making that video, I never could have imagined that people would be arguing, or even bothered, about people filming the same tricks at spots and whatnot. I've heard so many people moaning on websites about 'footage poaching' or whatever that I wouldn't be surprised if people starting asking you to fill out fucking forms before you get your camera out. RELAX.

5. All of the above, coupled with the obsession with platinum-plated new era caps and girls pants (a completely rinsed subject, but an issue that can't be raised enough. dads need to get strict) and the fact that almost everyone on these web vids I'm seeing is apeing the exact same style, means that while BMX is progressing at a faster rate than ever before, it bores me to death. I may be speculatiing a bit, but it seems to me that filming videos and taking pictures for the internet is probably a bigger concern for BMX kids these days than just chilling and talking crap with your mates at a good spot on a nice day. While I probably seem irrationally concerned about BMX issues that may appear trivial to you, the latter was, and still is most definetly the main agenda for me and my friends.

More moaning probably to come when it enters my head. Watch Dave Parrick's classic NOWHERE FAST.

Working.

Most people with a bit of sense and who aren't custard donut testers hate their job. Due to this, most punk bands take a minute or two to tell you this really loud. I am all for this, and here is one of my favourites, lyrically speaking anyway.

'Slavedriver' by Colin Of Arabia:

9 to 5, daily grind
no double time for overtime
i have to save every dime
christ sakes i steal to eat sometimes
i'm still stuck inside this dump
all for a few measley bucks
i hate all you stupid fucks
i won't miss this place, it sucks
monday mornings killing me
this slave driver won't free me
days i want to call in dead
show up late chop off your head
i won't miss this fucking shit
fuck off, die, i fucking quit.

Should have just copied this out and handed it in as my notice.

Spiked bat.

First of all, Career Suicide (and this guy) are amazing. Perfect hardcore punk band. Attempted Suicide is, upon an in-depth listen- absolutely superb. First song is such a rager.


In general Tom news (haha), I've handed my notice in to work, started a new band and on the 11th of March me and my esteemed colleague Tank are embarking on a month-long unplanned adventure to east coast (and hopefully Deep South) USA. This is going to be brilliant. We are going to see rednecks, bears, insane nutters, eat loads of huge crazy food and also get to see bands such as 86 Mentality, Wasted Time, Mind Eraser, The Wrong Side, Bracewar, Cardiac Arrest, COA, Breakdown, Cold World, Living Hell etc. Life is pretty good eh?

Re: My last post...

I am going to the last show over in DC.


86 Mentality
Wasted Time
Cardiac Arrest
Baltimore Bastards


I win.

Review: 86 MENTALITY - 'FINAL EXIT' 7"

Typical, one of the hardest hardcore bands of recent times just casually drops one of THE records of 2007, then announces they are breaking up, and laughs in my face by playing a one off show over in Belgium before heading back to DC forever. Bastards.

Everything about this record is just spot on, easily their best work. Guitar sound is just fucking mean, and the vocals sound way better than the previous records. Opens with a slow Sabbath-style outro, then just rages through six tracks of unbelievable hardcore punk. If you're into State Of Alert, Last Rights, Fucked Up, Stars And Stripes etc, get onto this. If you're into hardcore, get onto this. If you're a two-stepping, rapper-hands throwing meff, get a haircut, do some pushups, and get onto this. I've listened to this daily since picking it up at Inepsy in London. Top ten of 2007 easy.
The bit where 'Outro' goes into 'Anti Society' on the first track is like being punched in the face. HARD.

Load of old BMX photos.

I've started a folder up on my myspazzzzzz of old BMX photos I've taken in the past three years or so. Some proper good times were had in those pictures, might be worth checking out, you might be in there haha.
I have apple pie and custard at 4am, this is mega.


Here's the link: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewAlbums&friendID=3472909

Photo.

This is an old photo I took of Lee Williams at Dev Green skatepark in Sheffield. I remember it was early Novemeber 2005, because we were missing the Trial reunion in London due to lack of funds. It was really cold that day.

Long time no see.

Been a while on here. Didn't really hold it together for too long did I...hoping to get back in the swing of things. I have work in about an hour and I'm gutted.


Last weekend was amazing, cheers to Rob Camp for putting us on the show, had a blast. Nice one to anyone who was into our crappy out of tune performance haha. Photos up soon, along with any interesting shit I can think of. Peas.

Breakfast Of Champions.

What you will need: one normal bowl, a box of your favourite cereal, bag of grapes, semi skimmed milk, spoon.


Take the bowl, and line the bottom with about 10-15 grapes. Next take the box of cereal. Stay with me. Pour it over the top of the grapes as normal. Next cover the delicacy in milk. Now, use the spoon to shovel it into your mush and enjoy.

Justice

What the hell happened?? How do you go from this,





...to this?!





Used to be so good as well. Insane.

Rad show this sunday!

Gents = best band in the world.

Plot Loss 2007

Just come back from a boss trip to Leeds with my boys Tank and The Don to visit our boy Mackem. It was brilliant. Although I denounced going out with great vigour last week, we went to Cockpit last night and it was funny as fuck. Plus, they played B52s, The Specials and Chuck Berry. Ate enough pizza to kill a small child. The Don is Al Murray, Pub Landlord. RTAs and Midweek Plotto Rollover set the scene. Mega.

Rowley is king.

I love this part so much. I even like the song (sorry Dad / Howard!). Check the style.

Geoff Rowley Part Flip Really Sorry

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Aaron Ross...

...cannot be human.

High Wasters.

Girls, don't do it. These make you look fucking stupid. They give the impression that you have no torso, only arms, legs and a head.
For example, note the similarites between this girl who thinks she is amazing, and Mr Happy:





I rest my case.

The rumours were true

Weather has shit the bed. I can hear wheelie bins flying about outside.

Here, check this out http://cantknockthehustle.i.ph/

Get Real

my boy Greg has just started his own site, check it out for all your Kirkby/scooter/ginger related news.
http://getfuckingreal.blogspot.com/

Well 'ard.

THIS POST HAS BEEN CENSORED. HERE'S SSD INSTEAD.

Is this for real?!

Nicked this off one of Danny's myspace posts. So funny, hope its for real.

A game of chess is like a swordfight.

With the site being called The Jump Off it was only a matter of time before the first classic Wu Tang video was posted up.
I love this song, and it's from the first album I ever paid money for. Ghostface's bit in this song is one of my favourite rap verses ever. So aggro. Wu Tang love spiked bats.

Dee 'erb

Rad video of the Ras Cats on the Fit Bikes flow team. Im guessing they're rastas or they just love a fat jeff or two. Some amazingly dialled manual/grind lines. Also, get onto the last trick it's fucking plotty.

Going out.

Going out on a saturday night is rubbish. You know it's rubbish. When was the last time you actually had a good 'night out'? Stop lying to me. No need to convince yourself it was good because you blew 80 quid on fuck all. Realistically its probably good about once or twice a year. So you might as well just invite your mates around, get a fat munch in, some brews if you're that way inclined, and have a well better night (saving yourself significant wedge while you're at it).
I went out last night and lasted about an hour. Town at night is possibly the best example of why I don't drink; going out is the highlight of these people's lives and they don't even have fun hahahahaha. Yeah mate, is right, you look well solid in your sparkly t-shirt and shitty loafers. And your bird is rank. Fucking fairy...