All-powerful.
Any surfer, worth her salt, will certainly remember the importance place that punk, and punk-adjacent, music occupied in our glorious pastime during the 1990s into the 2000s. A surf movie was not a surf movie unless it featured Pennywise, Lagwagon, Unwritten Law etc. and what a wonderful epoch.
I always assumed that the music elevated the surfing but it has been revealed, in the recently-esque published Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion, that the world’s greatest surfer Kelly Slater is responsible for the very popular melodic hardcore band’s success.
Lead guitarist Brett Gurewitz recalls sitting in his office trying to figure out how to expand the fanbase when his phone rang, Slater on the other end of the line.
Slater: Hey, is this Brett?
Brett: Yeah.
Slater: My name is Kelly Slater and I’m a professional surfer.
Brett: I know who you are.
Slater: I’m putting out a surf video that I’m going to sell at skate and surf shops. How much would it cost to put your music in it?
Brett: It won’t cost you anything.
Slater: Really?
Brett: Put as much of my music in your video as you want for free. I would be stoked!
Slater did and the rest, as they say, is history with Bad Religion going on to stratospheric fame, headlining festivals, selling out auditoriums, etc. and all thanks to a little boy with big dreams from Cocoa Beach, Florida.
And Paul Roach.
Heart-warming.
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Wouldn’t hurt if they weren’t as self conscious but they do call themselves bad religion, bit of a giveaway they’ll try to pass on some opinions. Sick music though , saw them live in 2019 they were just as good. Proper middle age crowd enjoying the mosh pit, not a teenager in sight.
However BR do mention an occult-ish flat earth society on ‘No Destination’. Was that written by Kelly?
BTW from that sort of 90s surf punk , NOFX is way above the rest.
So you are punk rock. Rip it up!!!
How’s your mid-length ride? Smooth like Sade yeah.
Wasn’t Rick Devoe (Big Dummy Jam) the connection for Taylor Steele’s availability to music from the Epitaph Records family? We were all into BR way before Momentum so to us that made sense to hear it in a surf video. I still love 80-85.
*all* white kids getting dreads
Exactly
I’ve lived in both places too, and it’s always cracked me up how some Southern Californians are so into their idea of hardcore skate/surf wank punk.
And even funnier are people from the rest of the world who fall for the whole money making joke and buy into the crap.
Brainless turds…
Mutt by Blink-182 was written about Benji Weatherly, or so I was told through the grapevine
The only type of people who ever considered those momentum era bands as hardcore and/or punk are Joey Turps and Joey Turps’s mother, or adjacent…
Not true! There are still many many many 40-50 year old men in San Diego, Orange and Riverside counties that consider them punk/ hardcore. Just ask the ones with sleeve tattoos, Vans and socks pulled up to their Dickies shorts.
Hahaha
Exactly
Thanks for proving my point
I thought it said massive success of mediocre hardcore band.
Did Kelly tell you this? Did he tell you mid ADS post heat interview?
Yeah, that’s what I meant. Clearly a choice.
I think calling Bad Religion ‘melodic hardcore’ is one of the greatest inaccuracies ever reported on Beach Grit.
Edit: said with absolutely no due respect to Bad Religion or melodic hardcore
Melodic hardcore is a polite way of saying kiddy punk?
Aka; Bubblegum punk
I think you might be really bumming Blink 182 out. Don’t they have the trademark on bubblegum punk?
Nah, you’re thinking of pop-punk.
This is all you need to know.
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Thank you for that. What a great listen to start my Saturday.
Kiddy punk for sure. But man it was fun going to shows at 14 – 18 years old and go nuts to some kiddy punk.
Husker Du respects your opinion.
Lifetime, Dag Nasty. Saves the Day, AFI later then on and on..
Suffer, No Control, Against the Grain and Generator are still some of the best melodic punk records ever.
They really lost me when they did that “The Kids are Alt Right” garbage last year or so though. Nothing says punk like a bunch of grandpas telling kids what to do eh.
Contrast with JJF going over the ledge on a 20ft wave to the tune of violins this morning. We live in an enlightened age.
That’s some of the best surfing / surf footage I’ve seen in ages. JJF makes it all look so effortless.
Takes me back to my “pre-surf mix” CD in my early 20s… it didn’t help much. Now you’re more likely to hear me bumping some Waylon or Merle.
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Bonus track:
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
fuck yeah Voodo Glow Skulls!
Bubblegum punk defined right here
Bro Hymn is the absolute nadir for popular surf tunes
Our drummer came in and said he had learnt it on guitar for us to play as a possible cover. Guitarist and I gave him the ‘look’ that said “if you ever mention that again, …”
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
That would have been instant dismissal from my band.
Shortage of drummers who want to play “dumb, Australian punk rock” with us in the region. These beggars can’t be too choosy…
You seen?
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Yep. Have been in a long term affair with the Psychos. I was a young pup fresh from the country town of Brisbane who had just moved to Sydney. Was living in a sharehouse with a complete turkey who after rent and food and car payments, couldn’t afford tires for his shitbox two door sedan. The tires on it were so bald, he couldn’t drive it if it was wet.
One night he had a mate over. They were drinking a six pack of West Coast Coolers while watching Hey Hey it’s Saturday. When they started laughing uproariously at the sound of their fingers popping out of the bottles I knew I had to get out.
I hitched to the train station, caught three trains to get to Petersham. But the station was on the complete opposite side of the suburb. I had to walk about 3km through some of the sketchiest industrial landscape to get to the pub. There were about 40 people there.
The Psychos had just released their EP ‘Down on the Farm’ and this was their first ever trip to Sydney. The came out and played their set which was pretty much the EP and a few other songs. When they were done, they were the calls for ‘more, more’. Knighty says “Look, we don’t know anymore songs. But if you can whip around and buy us a bottle of tequila, we’ll play the same ones again for yas”.
Best night.
Sickness!!
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
Oh… yeah… this eterneal lame horse, Momentum something…
All this Momentum guys need to put this shit as their mid names…
Kalani “Momentum” R…
Ross “Momentum” W…
Rob “High Five Momentum” M…
Kelly “Fuck this High Five and Momentum Shit, Fuck These Goons, I Want Win All” S…
Taylor ” Momentum” K…
and so on…
Bad Religion was huge long before Slater sold his first pair of Quikky trunks
Were they huge though? You could argue that they only got popular when bubble gum punk took over and pushed true punk rock out the door a few years back. Greg Gaffin is a fucking genius and realized they needed to lighten up the sound. And for the record, Kelly did not make Momentum, Taylor Steele did.
Depends on your perspective I guess, but in certain circles they were. Mass appeal never appealed to me, and small things can still be huge- impact wise at least.
I thought it was more to do with having a t-shirt with a recognisable and easily graffitiable logo.
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
This would explain why Kelly acts like such a punk on Instagram.
Do you want us to start poking holes in this story Chas? Or should we just accept it as artistic embellishment?
I think probably best to accept.
Or, for the dinosaurs here like myself, who were into punk during the late 70s, disregard it altogether. Also, no such thing as “punk-adjacent”. There was punk, and then there was post-punk.
?? Bad Brains – 1979
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
So do what you must, do all you can
Break all the fucking rules and
Go to hell with Superman and
Die like a champion, yeah hey!