in celebrazionzzz of strung out touring north america this summer and performing their 2 most beloved albums in their entirety, 1996′s Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues and 1998′s Twisted by Design (tbh these albums are like 95% of the reason strung out matters and this tour possibly shows that the band might know this 2), i have decided to make a post to spread awareness about one of most favorite types of music – vintage 90′s skatepunk.
after the success of nofx and all of the early fat wreck chords signees in the mid-90′s, skatepunk became one of the more popular genres of music to play amongst teenz. back then, it was not uncommon to see kids walk around high school halls wearing oversized lagwagon shirts, baggy jeans (these used to actually exist – srs), short bleached blonde hair, puffy airwalks, and a wallet chain. the genre caused butthurt from tr00 80′s hardcore elitists due to excessive use of melodies and singing (god forbid that the singer actually SINGS omg) and actual songwriting skills. in spite of the oldfags, the genre still prevailed and remained prominent.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5omfFIDqlGA&w=420&h=315]
joystick was a siq band from santa barbara, california. back then, if a band wasnt able to grab the attention of epitaph or fat wreck, they had to settle for a label like lobster records, who’s claim to fame is releasing yellowcard‘s older material, back when they were like 1/5 of their current line-up and had 5 fans. anywayz, this band displays lots of entry-level influences: nasally singing, octave lead guitar riffs, harmonious back-up vocals. this song is about them getting scene cred becuz of their band and the music they play but i cant even imagine the look on kids faces if this band played today on a respectable tour. half the kids would look at them in confuzion waiting for the first non-existent breakdown to start, a quarter of them would leave the venue 2 go listen to emmure on their iphones in the parking lot, and then the other 25% would jizz their pants and start their own sk8punk bands to try and relive the 90s.
^ them robbing a convinience store, adding to their badass/2kewl4skool image
back before the drummer and singer from simple plan decided to go all mainstream pop-punk/radio rock, they played in a sweet fast and melodic band called reset. they were at the forefront of the 90s punk scene in quebec, canada. this type of music was rly popular there, probably caus ppl were 2 french to understand rap lyrics, so they decided 2 focus in on the epic melodies of sk8punk. reset were 1 of the first bands to display more of a metal influence in their guitar parts via their metalhead guitarist, who appears to be the blacksheep of the band. after chuck and pierre ditched the band to start simple plan & make some $$$, the guitarist actually attempted to continue the band on his own and recorded an entire album by himself under the name “reset” of him playing guitar and singing over a drum machine. he then found new members and they recorded a new music video. i think the band still plays shows with the new lineup in bars around quebec to like 10 ppl. i wonder if the simple plan guyz watch their vids from inside their mansions & laugh at them.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-axzDVh1v0&w=420&h=315]omg dis band was SO SIQ. since 90s skate punk is in a way an evolution of 80s hardcore punk, i think of it as like the reformed drug-addicted fuck-up kid who cleaned up his life and became an honor student, while still exhibiting some signs of his sketchy past. five knuckle chuckle would be a prime example of this. despite their melodic nature, they R not afraid to display their hardcore roots in their music. my fav parts of the song are at 3:07 where the music stops and the singers liek “kiss my ass” (totally badass omg) then he goes “fuck you granola boy!” vulgar lyrics over melodic music are jus the best combo EVER.
back in the 90s, bands would sell these things called “cds” which were basically discs that contained their music on it, and they would often come with booklets with artwork in it, and a popular trend was having a cool collage like the one above ^
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF9W8CfooBE&w=560&h=315]
7 foot midget is about as advanced as u can get. upon first glance, all u see is a dumb band name. upon first listen all u hear is crappy recording quality and adolescent barely-in tune vocals. keep listening - u will hear the most beautiful melodies sung since celine dion‘s my heart will go on, some of the most poetic lyrics known to man and vocal harmonies that sound liek a choir of angels who have descended down from heaven onto earth. despite the presentation being crappy, the content is actually beautiful , kinda liek a rose surrounded by thorns, or a person with down syndrome going up in front of 5 thousand ppl and giving a riveting speech that receives a 10 minute standing ovation applause. sometimes i wonder if prolific classical composers like Johann Sebastian Bach were alive today, what wuld they think of bands liek 7 foot midget? would they shed a single tear (happy tear) knowing that the influence of their masterpiece works of art have continued on into current modern-day music ? some1 is selling their cd for 60 dollars new on amazon, which might SEEM like alot , but actually alot of these bands albums have become rare collectibles over the last decade or so, so the album being sold at that price acctually makes sense.
it was not uncommon for bands to look like this back then^
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrD5T8_BXjQ&w=420&h=315]
undeclinable ambuscade were from the netherlands, and they were signed to epitaph europe. back in 1996 they released this classic album “their greatest adventures”. they were set apart from other bands like dis at the time with a singer who actually sounds like he went through puberty and embraces his deep manly voice (no homo). in this song, he tells the epic tale of growing up and the trials& tribulations of transitioning into adulthood. it is very beautiful and i cant even do it justice by talking about it so ill jus post the lyrics here. (theyr dutch so dont give them a hard time for poor english):
You were playing outside with your friend. There wasn’t much on your mind. You were making war with your friend. Your innocent little minds. Do you really believe everything’s gonna be all right? Am I stupid? And then you’re growing older. Your fantasy and your imagination have to make place for your wisdom, your knowledge and too many explanations. You must go to school. Satisfy your parents. You have to be cool, or you’ll have no friends. And then you’re going to live on your own, realising there must be money to pay the rent. So you apply for a silly job, but get rejected ‘you’re not what we were looking for’. You’re thinking of the days that you were younger. You didn’t have to worry about a thing. Three meals a day, a mom who does your laundry. Daddy takes you to a field and plays ball with you.
<3 beautiful
now that it is all gone, all we’re left with is broken links to old geocities pages, broken skateboard decks and broken dreams. band shirts with too many holes in them to be worn publicly, cds that have too many scratches to play properly. but this music can live on… in our hearts.. and souls. 90s skatepunk… gone but not forgotten.
do u see this style making a comeback due to the 90′s revival trend? what r your favorite 90′s skate punk bands? do u call these bands “pop punk”? did u used to buy “cds” back in the day?
how do people put music on a disc??
i think its liek a harddrive u take with u…u know?
idk wat a hardrive is my best boy friend does all my computer stuff 4 me
u mean like a nice lil round flash drive?? hmm..i heard these things played on a piece of plastic called a see-dee player.. fucken gross
i heard these would “scratch” easily.. doe I do have quite a collection though via having an oldfag brother and i do say that they make great excellent coasters for drinks =]
shedded a tear @ the last paragraph…
kikass post on a kickass genre brah… loved this when i was a lad even doe I was too poor for a zero jamie thomas deck i was def mirin’ back when there was nothing but blind stickers galore posted all over the place n had to settle for a shitty swapmeet fat-kid-mobile aka a fucken skewter via being first generation poor =/ …
anyways digging da tunes n def L’d my “A” off hearing 7 foot midget…
UA def grabbed my guts n hit home… growing up/old definitely sux ballz =/
im ashamed to admit that i have a fucken screaching weasel CD (that i got for free n am now using as a coaster btw) w/ that ubiquitious fucken collage… who knew that in due time people would later on take pics of every fucking thing w/ their phones and become “photographers” via instagram n shit =/
glad u enjoyed it man! yea sorry if i got a little emotional towards the end, im liek that with things im passionate about. agree with comment about UA, def a very powerful song, and i cant tell if the comment about 7 foot midget is good or bad? haha
<3 undiclinable
also teh first day of the rest of my lief was when i bought the strung outs "stwg", lagwagin "hoss" and ten foot pope "rev"
it was like a week long orgasm
oh man. that ten foot pole album is so siq. they kinda fell off after scott left the band and one of the guitarists took over vocal duty.
I’ll through out a couple of other bands worth mentioning:
Bigwig: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNXSuHijZ0I
Pulley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_BvpQ9uOMo
MxPx: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dh5QPLLm90
Slick Shoes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQlUwmslaow
The Bouncing Souls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufDZ5b7fSrs
The Vandals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD3KBNwC_yA
bcuz i was a 90′s kid that grew up in the middle of nowhere I never really got what made a band “Skatepunk” and my best guess was that it was melodic hardcore/pop-punk from the 90′s.
siq post anyways, def loved that 7 Foot Midget video
ok this might be a bit long and idk if any1 will care but i want to clear this up…
this stuff became known as “skate punk” because it was rly popular amongst skaterz in the 90s and lots of skate videos would feature songs by bands like this. idk exactly when the term caught on (via being 2 young) but back when i collected cds, there was this band from finland who self released an ep in 1997 and on the disc it said the city they were from and then below it “skate punk” so im guessing it caught on pretty quickly after this style got popular.
there were also lots of bands that called themselves “skate punk” in the 80s and wuld have lots of lyrics about skateboarding via being skaterz themselves but since im not into 80s stuff, it just sounds like most the other hardcore punk bands from that time, so idk if theres a distinct difference in the actual sound.
in MY hood atleast (ottawa canada), growing up and when i started going to alot of shows (2002-2004ish era), this style, although it was pretty much totally dead by that point, was widely known as “skate punk”. the label melodic hardcore was used to describe stuff like uhm, comeback kid’s first album, if youve heard it (that band was RLY RLY popular at the time amongst hardcore bros) and pop punk would be used to describe new found glory and similar bands (or in the case of tr00 punx, screeching weasel-type bands.. or “ramonescore”).
pop punk would be a bad label for this stuff caus its alot faster than most pop punk and alot of its not necessarily poppy, jus really melodic. calling it melodic HARDCORE could be accurate cause its in a way a cleaner melodic version of 80s hardcore punk but HARDCORE pretty much is synonymous with vocalists who yell all of da lyrics instead of sing them, so that label doesnt really work well either.
/essay
pop punk would be a bad label for this stuff caus its alot faster than most pop punk and alot of its not necessarily poppy, jus really melodic. calling it melodic HARDCORE could be accurate cause its in a way a cleaner melodic version of 80s hardcore punk but HARDCORE pretty much is synonymous with vocalists who yell all of da lyrics instead of sing them, so that label doesnt really work well either.
Well put. Thanks for this wonderful post (srs)
glad you think so, i was afraid i was rambling incoherently there
and glad u liked the post! this one rly means alot to me caus i spent a good amount of my youth listenin to dis stuff
Most people at the time just called it ‘punk’ and were oblivious that any other style existed. Fat wreck chords kids HATED ‘pop punk’ such as blink182 even though they sound almost exactly the same as nofx and propaghandi.
lmao yeah youre right, “dude ranch” is pretty much a skatepunk album, thats funny those kids would hate on them. in the “dammit” video i spotted a strung out sticker on tom’s guitar, and in an old blink interview i remember one of them wearing a lagwagon shirt. they were obviously down with fat wreck. i guess they toured with those types of bands before they got big.
They did. They toured with Pennywise and Lagwagon in the 90s, I know that much.
they played where i live (ottawa canada) in 1996 to like 20-30 people apparently. fuck i wish i was at that show ): but i was in like third grade at da time
I missed the whole skatepunk thing by a few years. I grew up with the bands that grew up with skate punk. Green Day, Blink-182, Simple Plan, and Sum 41 were my jams.
so did i!! i wish i went to showz in the 90s.. :( im a youngfag
“band shirts with too many holes in them to be worn publicly,”
They make for fantastic gym shirts doe.
true dat!
“band shirts with too many holes in them to be worn publicly,”
IMO you guys are just giving way too many fucks.
Holes in shirts make you look poor. Who wants to look poor??
who cares about looking poor, i wear my dad’s old lallapalooza shirts from 92, 93 to bars and shit and I get more attention wearing those than dressing nice.
I went to Lollapalooza in 92 and 93 :(
sorry i just had to put this tee hee x-D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAS82pANkUM
Myself when I was a teenager. Fuck that guy
Same scene as Reset, From Grass To Cheese were pretty great as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G05pA7Zii0w
yea man. “even if i fall” is a sick album by them. quebec had like 8493043984093 bands like this in the mid-late 90s
pretty much the only genre I’ll never stop listening! no fux given =P
same here brah
This post reminds me of a dude I used to know when I was working as a pizza delivery driver back in 06. He was about 25 and dressed pretty much exactly how you described, except you omitted the long dickies shorts with socks pulled up really high and converse/vans/fat DC shoes. He always took the pizzas out to the truck with an attitude and blasted Mellincollin/pennywise/old AFI on his portable cd player hooked up to the tape deck via cassette converter (DAT 90′s format). He would drive on people’s lawns and drive extremely fast for no reason, and take up multiple parking spots. He had worked there since the 90′s, so the owner didn’t want to let him go due to the already high turnover. He didn’t like anyone except me and my GF who worked there (via understanding wtf he was listening to), I went mountain biking with him a few times.
Eventually we were both fired when they renovated the place, haven’t seen him since. I assess a 50% likelihood that he is exactly the same as I last saw him.
LOL
thank u for sharing this. in a way it really comforts me knowing there are ppl like that on this earth. we’ve all known “that one guy”.
NP thank YOU for sharing THIS blog. I wonder if the strung out tour came to california already
AWWWW YEAHHHHH just answered my own question: they’re coming to the Catalyst in Santa Cruz in October!
Speaking of Santa Cruz, I should mention that its a haven for 90′s skate punk (hometown of Good Riddance/Fury 66), and you can totally start a band like this and people will non ironically come to your shows and circle pit till the cows come home. In fact, “hardcore” in Santa Cruz terminology pretty much means “slightly harder version of skate punk.”
You should totally check out a band from SC called Among the Living (random anthrax name for literally no reason, I PROMISE no imn shit). They weren’t around very long, but played an interesting mix of skate punk, melodic hardcore and easy core.
Can’t find any dl links I’ll get back to you when I do.
mm “but played an interesting mix of skate punk, melodic hardcore and easy core.” that sounds siq i wanna hear.
yeaa i used to bump fury 66 and good riddance occasionally, i know what you mean by “slightly harder version of skatepunk”.
california in general was jus filled with sk8punk doe. i feel like alot of these bands were all from places that started with a “santa” or “san” or somethin’. i guess because most of the early fat wreck/epitaph bands of that nature were all from cali (nofx, lagwagon, strung out, no use for a name, ten foot pole etc).
if you want a check out an early underrated cali band, check out donuts n glory, they released one album in 1996 that goes hard. and they seem to have a small but dedicated fanbase who are all gung-ho bout them, even 15+ years later. http://youtu.be/6V5XLyJPXaQ
edit: WOW , just searched them and found this link. http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/donuts-n'-glory and i think , damn this “hermitologist” guy is really fanboying over DNG. i go to his page and find out its the drummer of thrice. hahahaha whaaaaaaa
“back then, it was not uncommon to see kids walk around high school halls wearing oversized lagwagon shirts, baggy jeans (these used to actually exist – srs), short bleached blonde hair, puffy airwalks, and a wallet chain”
THIS WAS MY LIEF N THA 90s!
when i listened to undeclinable ambuscade a single tear rolled from my eye
hello is this Tony hawk Pro Skater
fux yes it dis!!!! <3<3<3 #N64power#PS1bitches!!!#nfg<3
I met one of my friends dads and the dude was like 39 and still wore shorts and knee socks. He was telling me all about how he was a punk and wouldn’t quit talking about it. Then he made me listen to half a lagwagon cd. I was like whadafaq? but I pretended to give a shit cause I couldn’t get away. Then one of my friends came by so I was able to duck out. Sadly it was my friend that only listens to soundgarden cause he thinks they are tru-hard rock or something. fucking sucks, I’ll tell ya that.
not kidding at all btw, I forgot about it till I read this post.
lmaooo what. thats funny. 39 seems a bit old for a lagwagon fan (and a bit young to be someone on here’s friend’s dad lmao). im guessing most OG lagwagon fans are late 20s/early 30s now. but then again joey cape (singer) is 45 so who knowz.
knee socks ftw
Reading this post reminded me of the Colombian “neo-punk” genre that i grew up with, which is pretty much “skate punk.” Obviously since Colombians are about a decade behind this happened in the 00′s. and especially this band Poca Ley via ” crappy recording quality and adolescent barely-in tune vocals. keep listening – u will hear the most beautiful melodies sung since celine dion‘s my heart will go on, some of the most poetic lyrics known to man and vocal harmonies.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuJcM5dXJk4&feature=related Enjoy.
hahahaha dude. no joke. first thing that came to mind when you said “colombian neo punk” was that band poca ley. back in like 2002, they had one song on their mp3.com page called “brutal force” which i thought was EPIC as fuck (cant find it on youtube, i might upload it). i remember searching for a long time for more stuff by them but couldnt find any. then when i finally did, i was super bummed out to find out that it was their only song in english and all their other songs were in spanish :*(
HAhahaha i know exactly what song you are talking about! i had it in a Neobox compilation (via the colombian punk-o-rama). lots of good shit on those!
hahah siq. my friend alessandro from peru plays in a band like that (play attenchon) and hes shown me youtube videos of fat wreck-type bands (except they sing in spanish) playing to HUGE crowds in south america, like literally thousands upon thousands of ppl. crazy shit, its like not only did punk not die down there, but its also really really big, like rockstar status.
http://youtu.be/wOLFmAmgS2s jammin out to this now \m/
ska was still relatively popular there a few years ago too
THE LAND TIME FORGOT
vid is kinda old (2006) but nu-metal band playing in like a stadium in peru http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJmJP0fdtLg
Yea! Rock al Parque is this fest the’ve been doing since the 90′s in Bogota. i was actually just checking this out NOFX down there like a month ago… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWBul4Yry7E&feature=related and Sarge Ska is HUGE down there, notable mentions: Mojiganga, 2 minutos, and Desorden Publico
damn @ dat crowd! and hard lol @ fat mike’s mohawk. so punxx
and lol@ that show being this year and the video quality looks like that of some home movie from like 1995
praying every day 4 a skatepunk revival. punk that is faster, smarterer and funnier than punk, played by normal fuckups, not fggts in leather jackets
it *can* happen brah, we gotta jus keep prayin’ for it
There’s actually a site called skatepunkers that I do a few bits for that is spitting into the wind and trying to keep skate punk going. One of the best bands featured there are Symphony of Distraction. They could pretty much be put on any classic epifat line up from back in the day, sweet band – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei8Sa2-Q3es
ah yeah i know this band. they used to be called secondshot. “7 years bad luck” by secondshot is a really sick skatepunk album from the “post-skatepunk” era
skatepunkers is a dope site for sure!
Second Shot had the same singer but some other guys too. *takes off music nerd hat*
7 foot midget would be so sick, but the vocals! :/
hee hee http://youtu.be/MJzh9vIBfII
That is a beautiful man (srs).
i love the vocals and pretty much everything about them! (srs)
lol yea i got into online rap beef
people who listen to this genre of music are like the new skinheads. Meaning they never expand past this style of music and just continue to listen to the same old lagwagon or whatever records over thinking its still relevant. At least that’s what its like around where i live.
lol it goes both ways though. theres tons of people who used to be into this stuff and moved onto other types of music. i know that it is no way “relevant” to the current scene (and i think most other people know that) but doesnt stop me from enjoying it.
on a related note, RIP Tony Sly http://s3.fatwreck.com/498.html
The fact there’s a post about skate punk on SYWH shows that skate punk fans can turn out to be well rounded people who only listen to fast music, music with breakdowns or music with cute girl singers.
Hey there, Nick V. from 7FM here. Came across this post after finding Idiotic Patriotic on YouTube. Loved your write-up of our band – hilarious & completely accurate. Weirdest thing is seeing that CD on Amazon for $60, because we still have brand new CDs in the shrink wrap “for sale” on http://www.7footmidget.com for $6 a pop. Hate to see anybody get ripped off like that, the disc is in no way rare or worth that much. Anyway, seriously, thanks for making my day!
nick my man! i am glad you stumbled upon this post!
i remember many years ago, hearing 7 foot midget, and being instantly impressed by your guys’ sophisticated songwriting and technical musicianship. the more i kept listening, the more i realized i could connect with your songs on an emotional level (tightrope without a net, toys r us kid, miracle grow +more). i actually bought a copy of the cd off your website many many years ago, and although im kinda disappointed the album doesnt fall into the “rare collectible” category yet, im happy that youre still selling it for a discount price.
long live nerdcore!!