V/A - Thrasher Skate Rock Vol. 5

The Stupids - Born to Built to Grind
1987
Naked Lady Wrestlers - Scrapin'
1987

Around the time this album came out, I was a twelve-year old skate rat with all four walls of my bedroom covered in pictures from Thrasher magazine. All I did was think about skating. If I was doodling at school, I was probably drawing a skate ramp or a guy on a skateboard. If I was swimming, I had the board with me underwater. If I had a girl over (which happenned for the first time in 7th grade), we mostly talked about skateboarding. Thus, picking up this cassette when it came out was a no-brainer for me.

This was the only volume of Skate Rock I bought, but I certainly listened to it a lot. some of the songs scared me, and they still kind of do. I have never had a taste for hardcore, and can really only listen to punk stuff like this: simple, dumb, and catchy. But it was a great soundtrack for being 13 years old. By the time I was 14, I moved on to more sophisitcated fare - goth rock, the Meat Puppets, the Velvet Underground. Suddenly a song about being "born to skate" seemed pretty stupid. I filed this tape away and forgot about it - until now.

When I decided to post these songs, I looked around for some info on the bands that made them. The Stupids, it turns out, actually have a Best-of CD on a British label and a small cult following. I had no idea that "Born to Built to Grind" was a Bruce Springsteen rip-off/cover as a kid, but in hindsight this can be read as an early indicator of my more mainstream leanings, at least when it came to pop song structure. The Naked Lady Wresters, according to this website, were from Northern California and only appeared on this Thrasher comp and an Alternative Tentacles comp released by IRS records. Anybody got the dirt on them? Their contribution is actually something of a nugget. Dig that speed metal guitar solo!