As 2020 thankfully draws to a close, let’s hop in the time machine, shall we?
Back in the 1980s, as skateboarding really began to take off, Swedish skateboarder Tony Mag and his board company H-Street made a string of videos that revolutionized the way skate videos were produced. While obviously focusing on skateboarding footage, music also featured prominently in the videos, and they helped expose the world to a host of bands.
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Tony Mag explains:
“When H-Street made Shackle Me Not and Hokus Pokus back in the 80s, using original music was a huge priority and we were able to find bands that no one had ever heard of at that time. One such band was Kirk & The Jerks from Lancaster, PA. They had a number of classic titles that helped make the videos legendary, along with the unique riders at that time, like Ron Allen, Danny Way, Matt Hensley, Tony Mag and so many more. Of course, The Jerks weren’t the only band, there was also Sub Society, Operation Ivy, Ron Allen’s MC Intelligent and so many bands that helped make the videos what they are. It is also true that we helped put these bands on the map in a rather unprecedented way, so it was a great partnership for us and the bands.
Kirk and The Jerks was a classic back east garage rock band for a number of years in the late 80s and 90s, had a couple of different goes at it and broke up sometime in the 90s, but the band members are still around and an effort to create a complete discography of their recorded material was undertaken by Division Street Sounds Records, who called us and asked if we had an interested in the project. When Tony Mag got to hear this news, a resounding “Hell yeah we do” forged a very special colab project that includes a Jerks vinyl record with 12 of their best songs, two CD's with all their available material, 37 in all, and a download code. We also made a special edition deck graphic in two shapes and two T-Shirt designs. The shaped deck is 32.5 X 9, with a 15.25 Wheelbase and the Pop Shape decks is 8.75.”
Premiering below is a cut from the Kirk and the Jerks discography, “One Way to Do It.” The collection releases tomorrow digitally on Division Street Sounds and can be ordered here. The vinyl release is set to drop in February. Also check out live footage of the band from 1996.
