It’s a bit of an urban myth that The Ramones always wore Converse. Sometimes they did, especially later on in their career, but if you were to look through photos of their past, they were not permanently embedded in their Chuck Taylors like history suggests.

The Ramones do fit one of the two distinct types of musician that fit the culture of Converse though. Marky Ramone himself once explained that “the Ramones were greasers. We were Fonzie with longer hair. The greasers and gangs in Brooklyn all wore Chuck Taylors and leather jackets”. Fellow New Yorkers The Strokes… now there is a band who love their Converse. They fit that stereotype again. The leather jacket and Converse. That’s New York style.

It’s not just New York though. Probably the most famous Converse wearing musician of all time was from the other side of the States. The North West to be exact. Go to Google Images now and try and find a photo of Kurt Cobain wearing any shoe other than Converse. It’s not easy. Again though, Nirvana grew from what Marky Ramones calls ‘the greasers’, albeit grunge rather than rock. Converse are perfect for getting trodden on, dropping beer on and generally getting in a right state at a gig. For many years I had a pair of All Stars hanging pinned to my wall. I’d worn them non stop at Reading Festival. When I returned home, there was no chance of ever wearing them again, but those shoes has taken so much abuse and held so many memories I couldn’t discard them. In fact, although they are no longer pinned to the wall, I still have them on my shoe rack. I don’t think I’ve ever thrown away a pair of Converse. It’s that abuse they accept and the fact that they’re such an antidote to perfect white sneaker that holds their appeal to the Cobains and Casablancas of this world.

The second set to have an affinity with the Chuck Taylor are West Coast rappers. While the East Coast were wearing Adidas Shell Toes or over the top Nikes, groups like N.W.A. went for Converse. In addition to the obvious basketball links, the story is that it was gang culture that started the trend. Thanks to, even back then, the choice of colours available, the Crips could wear their blue while the Bloods wore their red. That was the culture that N.W.A. came from. Ice Cube says it best. “Black Chuck Taylors worked with that raw, hard-core street feel that N.W.A wanted, even if some people were more into Jordans and shit.”

Competition
You have the chance to win a pair of Converse for yourself by voting for them ahead of 11 other types of trainer. All you have to do is tweet your support by using the #ConverseJD hashtag. Click the hashtag back there, and I’ve done the hard work for you. One lucky person will win all twelve pairs too. You can find the other, lesser, brands nominated by watching the video below. If you don’t win, why not go and buy these. In fact, buy them anyway and then choose another pair when you win. You can never have too many pairs of Converse.

album review: the strokes. angles. 21 march 2011. rough trade records
(buy here)

i’m going to go against popular opinion here i think. i do not hate the strokes’ new album. i’m basing the fact that i think most people hate it on my twitter feed as i haven’t read any other reviews yet. am i right? it doesn’t matter because i do not hate it.

is this it? changed my life a little bit. or more exactly ‘new york city cops’ did. i remember driving to colne engaine (i’m sure you’ve all heard of it) and this amazing, jangly, rough, energetic, exciting, amazing (have i said amazing?) track came on. i got to my friend’s house and told him about it instantly. i was sold straight away. i loved this band. if it wasn’t for them maybe i would never have bothered listening to the libertines. maybe i wouldn’t have gone back and discovered daydream nation. i could still be listening to usher. the strokes literally (not literally) saved my life.

i’m not trying to pretend that angles will have the same affect on anybody today. it is not a patch on that album, but it is still a very good record. the free download ‘under the cover of darkness’ is superb, as is ‘taken for a fool’. i’m firmly in the pro camp of the track that seems to have mixed opinion more than any other as well, ‘machu picchu’.

the hipsters will hate it, but it has taken the strokes four albums to reach that level. that is two more than most bands and even an extra album than it took arctic monkeys and bloc party.

7

snappy title, eh?

my very first thoughts are that the site couldn’t have finally let me on at a better time. it’s half time in the football. i mean i could have easily muted the tv, but this just means i didn’t miss any of the first half, and won’t miss any of the forthcoming dull second half.

the track itself starts with a nice little instrumental with what sounds likes a bit of a strained guitar. julian’s vocals kick in with a definite nod towards ‘last nite’, before touching on what sounds like new terrority for the strokes. dare i say a little poppy?

it’s a very catchy tune that i am well aware i will be humming almost all of tomorrow. i hope it’s a decent indication to the rest of the album. not because it’s up there with the best of the strokes. because it certainly isn’t. what it is though is a track that has the distinctive sound of the band, but then something extra. i’ll have to have another few listens to see if i stick with my “poppy” description.

then it ends. very suddenly. just like that.

you have until about 7.45pm on friday to get it for free from here. otherwise you’ll have to shell out 79p in a few weeks.

a few weeks ago, while trying to avoid my daily mind numbing workload, i decided to write a festival guide. not just a load of text with a “don’t forget your wellies and wet-wipes” note to round it off, no this was on a new level of festival geek. written with a load of ‘computer code’, this all singing, all dancing guide would tell you everything; prices, line-ups, directions, photos, toilet cleanliness etc but it also included the odd sly dig at festivals that had failed to impress me in the past, or those that for some unknown deep-rooted reason i felt particular negativity towards. the isle of wight festival was one of those. i’m not sure why, i’d never been. it was possibly because i went to bestival last year and had one of the best weekends of my life, and therefore had decided that if you were ever going to go to this small island to enjoy music, you’d do what i’d do (which is surely right?) and go to bestival…

all this changed massively when a couple of weeks ago i was greeted with the news from my other/better half that she had got us free tickets to the isle of wight festival! never one to pass up a freebie, all ill feeling quickly disappeared. i was going to the isle of wight! for free! woo! and to top it off, the tickets were vip meaning i’d get the opportunity to run over the geldof sisters backstage in a golf buggy!

musically the line up was not up to much, it was quite v-like, in terms of acts like the saturdays and pink drawing bigger crowds than the brilliant bombay bicycle club. but there were two names on the bill that got my heart beating slightly quicker than the off-road golf buggies… the strokes and paul mccartney. obvious choices? yes, but the strokes are possibly my third favourite band of all time (we’ve all got a top five in our heads) and macca is just macca, the closest thing i’ll ever get to seeing those scallys from merseyside, so it was a gig i was never going to miss.

both were brilliant. paul mccartney was amazing in a kumbaya round the campfire, one massive jolly sing-a-long way. it was a night i’ll never forget but i do wish i’d been a little closer to the action just to throw him some ‘macca guns’*. the strokes played a classic set, all the songs we, the fans wanted to hear and throw our drunken sun burnt arms aloft to – the kind of set noel gallagher always threatens when oasis play, but then throws in some crap liam song just to piss everyone off. we heard ‘someday’, ‘last night’, ‘new york city cops’, ‘under control’, ‘reptilia’ and many more but sadly one of my favourites ’12:51′ was omitted. but 12:51 or no 12:51, i found myself moved by their set. emotionally moved, i couldn’t take it all in. i’d been drinking (heavily) in the sun all day and there i was watching the strokes blow thousands away with their thumping drums and amazing guitars. oh, and a leather-biker-jacket-clad jules wasn’t too bad on vox either. not wanting to look like a big baby, i held back the tears in front of the girlfriend, but i’m not ashamed to admit this gig, this festival, isle of wight did something to me. maybe it was the sun, maybe it was the booze, or maybe, just maybe, ’cause it was the fucking strokes.

(*apologies, in-house joke)

words by jamie day (twitter, blog)