Thrashin'

Southern California was the centre of the universe for skateboarding when Thrashin' delivered a skate-inspired gang war to the big screen in 1986. Featuring pros like Tony Hawk, Tony Alva, Steve Caballero and Lance Mountain standing in as stunt doubles, audiences were treated to top tier skate footage alongside a regional battle of sorts between The Ramp Locals and The Daggers. Join co-hosts Jon and Mark as they skate their way to the L.A. Massacre to see if nice guy Corey can take out the evil Hook like he promised.

Breakin' is a memory!

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Jon (00:00)
Tonight in the Rock N' Roll Theatre podcast. Hot, reckless, totally insane. Thrashin'.

Hello everybody, welcome back to the Rock N' Roll Theatre Podcast. My name is Jon. I'm joined by my co-host, my brother Mark. Each episode here in the Rock N' Roll Theatre we take a look at movies, pop culture, music, all sorts of things. And today we're looking at the nineteen eighty six movie Thrashin'.

Mark (00:31)
Thrashin' was released on august twenty ninth, nineteen eighty six. It runs ninety two minutes, rated PG thirteen. It is considered an action drama romance movie. It was directed by David Winners and written by Alan Sachs and Paul Brown. So in terms of how it did at the box office, we don't know.

Because the major box office tracking databases did not include Thrashin' in their figures. So there is no domestic gross figure for this movie.

Thrashin' revolves around the skateboarding scene in Southern California in the nineteen eighties, where we have the film's protagonist, Corey Webster, played by Josh Brolin, and his crew, the Ramp Locals. They face off with the rival skate gang, the Daggers, led by the film's main villain, Tommy Hook, played by Robert Rusler.

We also get some major Romeo and Juliet vibes here as Corey's love interest in the film just happens to be Hook's sister.

Jon (01:31)
That could be trouble later on. some of the actors here we have Josh Brolin, of course, was just off the Goonies a year before. his star was starting to rise. This is definitely before the Marvel movies or No Country for Old Men,

He's definitely the most well-known actor in the movie at this time. we also have in the role of Chrissy, Pamela Giggly, this is her first actual major role, but we may cover her in a later episode because she was also in the movie Dudes with Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers, who are also in this movie later on. We also have Robert Rusler, he was in Nightmare in Elm Street Part two, Weird Science, Episodes of Facts of Life, very known face, one of those I know I've seen this guy before type of actors. Also, Jonny Depp was auditioned for the role to play Hook, but he did not get the part.

Mark (02:08)
So, despite the cheesy nature of the film, it does feature very credible skateboarding scenes performed by professionals like Tony Hawk, Tony Alva, Christian Hosoi, Steve Caballero, and Lance Mountain. Tony Alva also served as a consultant to the film's production crew to ensure that skate culture was represented accurately. So this movie was filmed when skateboarding was in a bit of a weird place.

The large skate parks with vert ramps, they were dying off at that time. And the street skateboarding boom from the nineteen nineties, it hadn't happened yet.

The film never had an official soundtrack released, but music does play a big part in the film and many Southern California bands associated with skateboarding at the time are heard throughout various scenes.

Jon (02:54)
That's pretty much every big name in skateboarding from the 1980s, all in one place. And we're gonna get to all the skating, all the music, all the drama that is Thrashin'. But first, before we do that, just very, very quickly here before we kick things off. If you could like, subscribe, comment, follow, whatever you're doing, wherever you're at in the world, we appreciate you listening to us. We see lots of different countries checking in. We totally, totally appreciate that, guys. Now, Thrashin'.

Mark (03:20)
movie opens with a skateboarding sequence of a downhill race, but everything is blurry, sort of like a dream. So what's going on here? Then we see an alarm clock. 7 30 a.m. The alarm goes off. We meet our main character, Corey. He's getting ready in the morning. It's a montage. He's jumping out of bed, brushing his teeth. We see some money taped to the mirror, some post-it notes saying, Good luck at the LA Massacre, this type of thing. It's worth noting that his room is covered in

Very authentic skate magazine clippings and posters from the era. It looks really good, looks really cool. Anybody who skated in the late 80s, even early 90s, would be happy in that room. he proceeds to begin his day with an acid drop right off the roof. Just a huge trick that would probably take a professional days to film. He just does it like nothing, followed by a huge board slide down a ledge. So right away we're getting these almost superhuman skate abilities from a

You know, just a guy leaving his house for the morning. As he skates down the street, we see a pink Thrashin' logo coming across the screen and we hear the song Thrashin' by Meatloaf.

Jon (04:31)
Right away, we're off to an odd choice here for the music. Meatloaf is not associated with skateboarding in any way. This is a very 80s style type of song. We'll talk more about it when we get to the soundtrack. And for fans here in the Rock N' Roll Theatre, we all know that Meatloaf drives the Spice Girls bus. We covered that back on, I think, episode nine around that episode. So give that a listen too as well if you want to know what Meatloaf really does during the day.

We go into a montage of a lot more skate tricks. We see some five o grinds, power slides, all the big kinda style of tricks of the day. I liked how this was filmed. It was really well done. there's definitely what I'd call POV point of view style shots where someone's clearly following along on a board filming and getting all the footage.

Corey then meets up with his buddies and he plans to live with them in an RV in their backyard for the summer. They're called the Ramp Locals, and they're finishing building their half pipe, so it's time to skate. This is a very nice ramp. They put a lot of work into it. It's pretty well done. We also notice here that Corey's wearing an SST records t-shirt, and fans of music will know that that means one thing. That means Greg Gin means black flag, means all those types of bands from that era, from that area of the country too, in California. So a nice little local shout out there.

once they're done with that, they have a big vert session. We see some method grabs, some judo airs, hand plants, tail slides, all the things that were done back in the day. But it's clearly the pros pulling off the tricks, not the actors. you can definitely catch some wigs on some of the skaters, as well as if you look closely in the blue t-shirt, that's Tony Hawk.

Mark (05:53)
Time for Corey and his buddies to take a drive down to the beach. They're in Bozo's Volkswagen, which doesn't look too cool. He has to explain to his friends that he did really want a convertible, but you know, his dad talked him into being more sensible and he went for the Volkswagen. They're pulled up at a stop sign. They turn around, and at the top of the hill, they see the Daggers.

The Daggers are a very tough, almost biker looking style of skate gang. Maybe something like the movie The Warriors along those lines. They look tough. You don't want to mess with the Daggers. So the Daggers bomb down the hill. They skate right up behind the Volkswagen. They're popping a boneless off the roof. They're leaving dents in the Volkswagen. The ramp locals just stare out the windows in horror, like, my God, that's hooking the Daggers. We don't know what to do.

We follow now the Daggers on their little journey through Venice down to the beach. We see them stop in front of a delivery truck. The delivery truck has Jaks, J A K S spray painted on its side. Legendary villain style skate crew from that area in the time, the Jaks, most famously led by Duane Peters of the U.S. Bombs. If you've never heard the album War Birth by U.S. Bombs, you need to.

Hook's a great skater too. He rolls up to the delivery truck and does a backflip jump and lands one foot on his board. Can you believe that? So the Daggers continue to carve through everyone along the sidewalk and the beach front. They're very menacing in their appearance and they're bullying everybody. They pull up to a group of breakdancers and they look at the breakdancers like, what are you, what are you doing? Like this isn't cool. Breakin' is a memory.

Is a famous quote that Hook says.

Jon (07:46)
Good line.

Mark (07:49)
Then we see the ramp locals off in the distance, and they just want to have a nice time skateboarding. They don't want to be menacing to anybody. They're trying to stay out of the way of the Daggers. They don't want any trouble. It's also worth noting here that Radley, one of the buddies in the ramp locals, he's wearing a Vice Squad t-shirt. That's a classic UK 82 punk band. The song Last Rockers is iconic.

Jon (08:15)
Sadly, not on the soundtrack. Corey mistakenly skates into the dagger's Venice Beach kind of hangout they have. They have this really nice ramp as well, it has a huge dagger spray painted on it. And Cory busts to the very top of the ramp and lands this huge hand plant, like I don't know, 15, 16 feet in the air, and comes back down flawlessly. And the Daggers seem a little shook by this. I don't think any of them could pull off that move and thought to go that high off the ramp. So they're not really feeling Corey's energy or vibe at all. we see a flat land session done by Per Wilender.

And skateboarding still kinda had fringe categories like this, where not everything was a ramp, not everything was downhill. They're kind of broken into these different sort of genres of skating, the Daggers are clearly not down with the freestyle tricks. We also learned that Corey is in the pool competition tomorrow. And as he's leaving, he sees Chrissy, Hook's sister for the very first time. But her friend, or I guess Hook's girlfriend, Velvet pulls her away. You can't hang out with the other valley kids. Come on.

And the Volkswagen is is getting a little hot. They're riding around it. They they kinda look like dorks. So they decide, let's cut the roof off and make it a convertible. It's a funny scene. Radster has good skills. He welds off the entire roof. Then they spray paint the whole thing.

Mark (09:22)
We move along, we see the Daggers hang out there, sort of punk rock house. It's got ramps in the yard, it's got graffiti everywhere. There's no parents to be found at all. It's just pure chaos.

Hook is explaining to Chrissy, you don't see those kind of freaks in Indiana, talking about the different people they saw down at the beach that day. So

Jon (09:42)
Axel Rose is from

Indiana, okay hook.

Mark (09:46)
Hook is we're getting the vibe that Hook really wants Chrissy to be tough, like the Daggers. But she actually says that she liked the break dancers. Come on, that's not tough.

Jon (09:56)
What Hook does think is tough is his skull and dagger earring that he's very proud to put on and show off to everybody. we'll see how that plays out for Hook later on. So they all head out to a nightclub, and it's like a flatland like skating in the pit going on. Like they're actually skateboarding in the in the pit in front of the stage. It's pretty it's pretty cool, it's pretty different. In the background, we hear Want You by the Bangles, definitely an earlier Bangles song, and maybe not what you think of when you think of the Bangles.

Mark (10:23)
So then the ramp locals show up to the same club. I was a little bit shocked by this. The bouncer stops Radley from sneaking in booze.

Then we see the Daggers showing up. They're bringing the trouble. They're bullying everybody again. I don't understand how the bouncer could let them in. Like they look like they're just menacing everyone.

Jon (10:39)
If I'm the bouncer, not letting them in for sure. We see our only live performance of the movie, which is the Red Hot Chili Peppers, a band everybody knows, of course. But it's kind of an odd choice. I don't really associate them the sort of a skate vibe, and I don't think they ever really were. the chilies were definitely a different style of band than what you think of them today. Earlier on their career, they were very much kind of almost like fishbone, that sort of thing. And they're doing the song Black Eyed Blonde.

Which I like. It's a good song. And it does fit well for the mood, though, of the movie. Even if maybe if it's not a traditional skate song. I also like how the all the girls in the in the crowd seem to be dressed like they're in the Pat Benatar Warrior video. So we got that going on too.

Mark (11:17)
So Corey, he sees Chrissy again and he's like, this is my chance. I need to talk to her. So he asks her to go outside. They have a conversation behind the club. There's a few memorable quotes here. What is what is Thrashin'? And he explains it to her. Thrashin's just an aggressive style of skating. She says, What do you thrash? And he says, What do you got? So then Chrissy admits to Corey that Hook is her brother. Like, no.

Corey's hanging his head against the fence outside. Like, what am I doing? Like, I'm never gonna hear the end of this.

But he decides like he's got something here with Chrissy. So he he kinda, you know, he keeps talking to her and he says, Why don't you try using my board?

Jon (11:58)
He informs that Hook is a punk poser. Poser is like the biggest insult you could level in 1986 in California. Chrissy does a little skate session with them, he we wheels her around basically. But she ditches her high heels, which she's always wearing. I think it's a smart move. from there on, we see them they head out for the night. There's a huge montage of them going around. I'm assuming Ben Venice Beach, that type of area, doing a bunch of different stuff. we hear an odd choice for a song in the background, France Jolie, don't think twice.

Not really a skateboarding type of song, very 80s-ish disco era type of song, if you want to leave more older than that. And she comes home in the morning, I don't know, like 8:30, 9 o'clock in the morning, and hook's pretty pissed off. He's basically saying, hey, go back to Indiana. However, he immediately backtracks on that, but he's like, hey, I'm trying to keep you safe here. This is, you know, California. It's not Indiana. And Christy tells him that she met Corey from the Valley. Uh-oh, that is not gonna fly. The rules are the rules. She's only allowed to hang around with the Daggers only.

Mark (12:54)
So now it's time for the pool competition. We're at Del Mar Skate Park. This is a very famous skate park. It was actually closed in real life, but it was opened just for the movie. So it was a all the pros were really happy to skate there because they couldn't at the time it was closed. So we see all kinds of professionals busting tricks. We hear the song Touch the Sky by White's sister. That's a very 80s classic movie kind of song.

It's Corey's turn to have a run in the pool. He skates in, he's he's doing lots of big airs, he's doing some grinds, he's he's really putting together a winning run here. But the Daggers show up. Uh-oh. Time for trouble. The Daggers go to the edge of the pool and they throw a handful of steel jacks into the pool, causing Corey to crash and fall and scrape against the bottom of the pool.

Jon (13:52)
That is super not cool, Daggers. Like, what the hell? Also, are there no judges or like you know, competition officials didn't see him just throw a handful of jacks on so Corey crashed anything? Like,

Mark (14:00)
Security maybe? Security somewhere?

Jon (14:02)
come on. You know, I I'm crying foul on that one. Poor Corey. But even though his run is cut short, he meets the owner of Smash Skates, which is not a real skateboarding company, but for this movie, it is. This is one of our classic 80s tropes, one of the plot line scenes we have seen so many times in the Rock N' Roll Theatre.

The owner of Smash Skates, who looks like he has nothing to do with skateboarding, lets him know that if he wants to turn pro, if he wins the LA Massacre, he's got a spot on the roster. sure, okay, we'll see how that plays out. But also I did like their logo though, and I think a a classic Smash Skate shirts from the eighties would be cool.

Mark (14:38)
We move along to the ramp locals having a street skating session along Hollywood Boulevard. This is a pretty good montage. I I really like this one. We hear the song in the background, Playground by The Truth. Maybe an odd choice there. But it it's a really well-shot scene. It's there's a lot of tricks going on here. There's wall rides, there's all these over by standards. There's 180s off the curb, all types of stuff.

The locals in these shots look like they have no idea what's going on. It does look pretty busy, so it's very cool to see how this was filmed. After the skate session, Corey makes his way to a payphone and he calls Chrissy, but Hook answers the phone.

Jon (15:18)
He's surprisingly polite on the phone, has very good phone manners, but is still very menacing towards Corey and basically just hangs up in the middle of the phone call. And so instead, Cory decides to go out and skate for the night to blow off some steam. and guess where he skates to? Right to the Dagger's punk house. They're inside, they're moshing to the song Hey by Fear. Good choice. And Chrissy finds him hanging in a tree, trying to snoop on her, I guess. But doesn't seem to bother her. They head to the bowling alley restaurant together.

Also, Corey's wearing a Susie in the Banshees t shirt. Nice. Corey gives Chrissy his necklace. They head back to his RV and they hook up.

Mark (15:52)
So Corey decides to hit the streets again for another night session. It's a pretty big night here.

After dropping off Chrissy, he skates away down the street, but the Daggers see him and they decide to start chasing him. We hear the song Wild in the Streets by the Circle Jerks, it's actually a cover. This is one of the best scenes in the movie. Things are ramping up, things are going fast, there's trouble.

Jon (16:15)
Runnin', running, wild in the streets. Also thought this was the best scene of the movie as well, and the music made the most sense at the time. Of course, Circle Jerks are fronted by Keith Morris from Black Flag, from the Circle Jerks, and later on off. in a future episode, we'll be covering a lot more about Keith Morris and his film Free LSD.

I felt this scene captured the tone perfectly of what the skating would be, what the you know rivalry would be, that sort of thing, and it kind of fits better than anything else that we hear so far.

Mark (16:42)
This sequence is really good. It's a downhill skate chase scene. All the Daggers are wiping out along the way. In order to escape, Corey ends up going into a parking garage, but the Daggers, they keep chasing him. He even goes down the spiral ramp, so they must be getting a lot of speed here.

Jon (17:01)
That's a really cool shot in the film and it must have been lot of fun to actually film it.

Mark (17:05)
After he gets out of the parking garage, he actually escapes by getting onto a city bus and he hides on the roof. So Hook and the remaining Daggers, the ones who didn't wipe out yet, they catch up to the bus and they demand that they want to get on the bus. So they storm the door and walk up. The bus driver says to Hook, that'll be 75 cents. Hook completely ignores him, doesn't even turn around, I don't think.

Jon (17:30)
The Daggers aren't gonna let Corey off the hook that easily. They're gonna burn down his ramp that the ramp locals just built for their new half pipe. So, of course, they head over, they burn it down, they're quite proud of themselves. High five, and this night goes on forever. The amount of different things that happen. Okay, a little plot line weirdness there. So the next day, the they escape the Daggers' punk house saying, Hey.

Look, like you burned down our ramp. And Hook walks out and we see another classic of eighties movies we cover here in the Rock N' Roll Theatre, product placement. Although this time Hook's not rocking Doritos or a Pepsi, he's eating out of a box of life cereal. It's super prominent and obviously product placement.

Mark (18:08)
Looks like a good breakfast. So Tyler, one of Corey's buddies in the ramp local, he speaks up. Hey man, I want some money for my ramp. Hook's not having that. Hook starts kicking ass. He comes down off the stoop where he's standing. He starts punching everyone, kicking everyone. So Corey's a little late to the party here. We see Corey eventually pull up and he's like, no, I gotta help my friends. So we have this elaborate fight scene where Corey jumps in.

Hook actually ends up getting his earring ripped out. Ouch. We gotta have some resolution. Hook challenges Corey to a joust at Bronson Canyon.

It's gonna go down late at night. We also see that Chrissy was kind of showing some support for the ramp locals in this big melee. So that's not cool. We see Velvet scolding her. And Chrissy starts to feel, I guess, some distance with the Daggers. So she starts to plan her trip home back to Indiana.

Jon (19:05)
We have some more warrior movie inspired looks here, which I'm I'm thinking was a big, big influence on the costumes for this movie. Or the makeup also could be the misfits. you know, take your pick there. also you can joast in Nintendo game skate or die. That's when I first heard of this. And the joust scene is kind of dumb. They just they they're trying to swing around these like homemade maces at each other while they're skating. Clearly, the stunt guys are having a hard time doing this. They're going very slowly, it doesn't look good.

And in the end, it kind of just breaks down to a fist fight, which is like, why didn't you just have the fist fight in the first place? What was with this big joust thing that really didn't look good once you filmed it? But well. So it ends up though, Corey breaks his arm during the fight, and the cops would show up, they pull up, they were everyone runs away, but except for poor Cory, he's messed up. The next day, Chrissy stops by his RV and tells Corey she's gonna move back. And he's pretty bummed out about that. So he goes to the dagger's punk house trying to, you know, find her.

Talk to her, see if she will stay. But Velvet stops him and she says Chrissy is already leaving. And but on the way out, Velvet kind of checks him out and kind of flirts with him, so she's not really the best friend to Chrissy. Meanwhile, we got Hook he needs to drive Chrissy to the bus station. But first he does this weird thirty second air guitar competition with his buddies in the living room before he'll actually get her in the car and drive her out.

Mark (20:21)
Chrissy is at the bus station. She's buying a ticket. What we're hearing right now is staring down the demons by Animotion. So Corey keeps training. He keeps grinding through the pain of the broken arm. It's it's kind of hindering him. He can't really do what he wants to.

We actually see a Greyhound bus drive by the hill where he's training, and Chrissy just happens to be on it. That's some good timing.

So Chrissy is she's looking through her purse, she's looking through different things that she has, and she actually finds Corey's necklace that he gave her I guess a few days ago. And it's really speaking to her. It struck a nerve, so she decides to get off the bus and hitchhike back to Los Angeles.

Jon (21:04)
This is a fun montage of her hitchhiking, but I definitely don't recommend that young women hitchhike from I don't know, Northern California down to LA, especially in the 80s. If we were a true crime podcast, there's a lot of stories about hitchhikers in the eighties in California. But meanwhile though, the Daggers, they're ready for their downhill race. Hook got himself a new spiky glove. It's totally given off Judas Priest vibes, the 80s look, that sort of thing.

Also, their van, we didn't get a good look of their van yet. It's it's spray painted pretty sweet. There's some nice airbrushing done on it. It's probably somebody's real van from California, would be my guess.

Mark (21:38)
So Hook kind of intimidates the ramp locals. He walks by them. He gives, you know, he's mean mugging them. He's he's really showing his presence. We do see Corey show up. He's almost late. I'm not sure why, but like, I don't know, he was maybe not considering he was gonna skate. But anyway, he's there and he reassures his buddies in the ramp locals he's gonna get Hook. We also hear some announcer comments over the PA that this is a 20 mile course. This is the longest in the world. There's over a hundred competitors.

Jon (22:07)
See at the bottom.

Mark (22:09)
The race starts, everybody's going fast, people are wiping out everywhere. Like every few seconds somebody goes down.

Jon (22:16)
This is a wild scene. There's great camera work. There's even some helicopter shots too of the guys skating, which is really well done and really cool. Also, if you see a guy being carried off by the medics, he really broke his leg.

Mark (22:28)
We see that most of the Daggers, they're not wearing helmets. Pretty much everyone else has a helmet on.

Jon (22:33)
Posers.

Mark (22:35)
Hook, of course, is in the lead, but Corey's getting closer. He's catching up. Eventually, it's just down to Hook and Corey. We see Chrissy, though. She's there. I guess the hitchhiking worked out. Now she's at the finish line, waiting for the race to end. So the final scene here is that Hook ends up sliding off the hill. Corey wins. He's clocked at 63 miles per hour.

Jon (23:00)
There's a cop at the finish line with a radar gun clocking him.

Mark (23:05)
As part of his victory, Corey is also celebrated now as a pro for Smash Skates. Did you forget about this storyline?

Jon (23:12)
I absolutely forgot about this storyline 'cause only mentioned once about an hour ago in the movie. So yes, totally forgot.

Mark (23:18)
Corey ends up seeing Chrissy, of course. And I thought this was kind of weird. Hook comes over to both of them, and well, first of all, he's not that hurt, even though his wipeout looked pretty bad. But he's kind of friendly and happy and wishing them well. And like he's cool with Corey now. Like what's going on here?

Jon (23:38)
Hook is a complicated man.

Mark (23:39)
Corey and Chrissy end up kissing.

Jon (23:42)
The ramp locals rule.

Mark (23:44)
And that's the end of Thrashin'.

Let's look at the film soundtrack. This film does not have an official soundtrack. But many people over the years have compiled their own versions with the songs heard in the film. You can find these on various bootleg products. I'm sure you can also find various playlists on platforms online. So if you really are in need of hearing what's in Thrashin', you can seek those out. So let's go through what we got here.

First up, we have the feature song from the film, Meat Loaf Thrashin'.

Jon (24:15)
This is a weird choice to start off right off the bat. this song was actually never really released. It's one that is pretty hard to seek out. you can't find it on YouTube. That's where I heard it on. And it was never released in any sort of physical format that I know of, other than like my brother said, there are maybe some bootleg CDs that are floating around or that sort of thing. it's a super repetitive song. It's just like one like eight bar thing looped over and over again. not would not my favorite. Not a strong start to this soundtrack.

Mark (24:43)
It sounds really, really eighties. There's tons of echo effect. It it basically can't get any more eighties rock than this.

Next up, Devo. That's good.

Jon (24:56)
Devo's second appearance here in the Rock N' Roll Theatre. We covered them when we covered the movie Heavy Metal a few episodes back. Devo fit more of the vibe, more of that alternative scene that skateboarding is adjacent to. So I think they're a little more of a better choice here than, I don't know, Meatloaf. you can always recognize their vibe too and their sound. this is also very heavy 80s sounding as well, but it's always good to hear some Devo.

Mark (25:19)
I even remember reading a Devo interview in Thrasher.

Next, the champs, tequila.

Jon (25:28)
This is the classic song you all know where everybody else. Tequila, you've heard a million times. the the gang did sing it in the car on the way down. So I guess that's why they include it here.

Mark (25:39)
Jimmy Demmers arrow through your heart.

Jon (25:41)
very 80s again as we keep saying. I mean, but hey, that's what this this album is. It's very similar to Animation, who we'll be talking about in a little bit. It's not that bad. They're not very well known. I didn't know much about them. But it also has like that spimmy right round vibe that Deader and Live had later on, later 80s music. So yeah, it fits in with that that genre, that style.

Mark (26:02)
Next we have the Bengals want you.

Jon (26:05)
This is not Walk again Egyptian or Manic Monday, which are the Bengals' two big hits that I'm sure everyone out there listening has heard. This is when they were more, I guess part more of like the California independence scene. And it sounds almost more like Blondie or the B-52s, maybe a little bit of go-go's thrown in there. Also, why were the go-go's not on the soundtrack? I don't know. And it has a fast guitar, it's almost surf rock inspired song. It's only two minutes. I thought it was good.

Mark (26:29)
It's a solid one for sure. Up next, we have the song that was featured in the live music scene. So this is a Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Eyed Blonde.

Jon (26:39)
Yeah, the only thing that was actually performed in the movie. This is a good early Chili Peppers song, but man, they have changed. Let me tell you, I am not a fan of the later work of the Chili Peppers, that's for sure. this is almost like along the lines of Jungle Man, their their first video, I do believe, and Fight Like a Brave from that era of the Chili's. And then they went on to Mother's Milk and totally changed.

Mark (26:59)
Next, France Joli, don't think twice.

Jon (27:03)
Okay, this one had me f stumped for a second. I was like, France Jolie, do they mean that like Quebec disco singer from Montreal in the late 70s? I had to Google it, and yes, that's exactly who it is. there's no mention of this song on Wikipedia though. it's so random, it's bizarre that on a movie about California skate skateboarding, that a Quebec disco singer is on it. Weird.

Mark (27:26)
I didn't think that one was that bad. I thought it actually fit the vibe and it it held its own.

Jon (27:30)
Yeah, I'm not saying it's bad. Just if if you knew anything about her or find some of other songs, this would just totally floor you that this was on here. But I guess she was doing studio work. I don't know.

Mark (27:40)
White sister touched the sky.

Jon (27:43)
White Sister are a band made for movie soundtracks from my research here. this song sounds like every 80s anthem you've ever heard. Very predictable, but I mean it does its job. So they're basically a studio band that would write these types of songs for all different sorts of 80s movies. I'm like, yeah, this sounds like back to school. This sounds like it could be in Top Gun. This sounds like it could be in any one of those 80s movies. this merely exists to exist, I guess you would say. They'd write soundtrack songs, they all sound like this.

Mark (28:09)
Truth playground.

Jon (28:11)
This is when they're filming the downhill scene. It kind of rips off the who's won't get fooled again. That's the kind of the vibes I got off the intro. The lyrics are pretty creepy. mean people playing in a playground. it's not for me, but okay.

Mark (28:25)
Fear, hey.

Jon (28:27)
fear. A legendary California punk rock band, still around to this day. this song is only 40 seconds, and I there's one lyric, which is Hey. That's all you need. And for the scene in the movie where they're just moshing in the living room, it works perfect.

Mark (28:46)
It's a good fit. Up next the Screamin' Sirens Maniac.

Jon (28:51)
this is kind of like a they call themselves a Hollywood Cow Punk Band. So it's kind of a sixties rock type of vibe with also kind of the eighties sound to it as well. I thought it was fun. apparently the album this is on Fiesta is highly collectible. So if you have a copy of it there, you know, check out Discogs.

Mark (29:08)
Up next, we have one of the featured songs from the film, The Circle Jerks, Wild in the Streets. That's actually a cover song originally by Garland Jeffries.

Jon (29:18)
In the movie, you actually hear the Garland Jeffries version for a few seconds before it kicks into the Circle Jerks version. this is the perfect song for this soundtrack. It's my favorite on the soundtrack, and one of my favorite songs of all time as well, too. it fits just perfect.

I've heard the song so many times, but still fresh to this day.

Mark (29:36)
I saw the Circle Jerks open up for NOFX in their final show in Canada ever and they played this song.

Jon (29:41)
I saw him at Babylon nightclub in I think two thousand and they played this song.

Mark (29:45)
Jimmy Demmers and Carol Sue Hill Let the Love Begin.

Jon (29:49)
This is the ballad for when Corey and Chrissy hook up. It's super cheesy. It's it's even like for we said a lot of stuff is cheesy eighties music here. This goes above and beyond that. It sounds like a whole new world from like the Aladdin movie. not my type of thing.

Mark (30:05)
Rebel faction burning for you.

Jon (30:08)
I like the band name. That's a cool name, Rebel Faction. also when you Google it, you get a lot of Star Wars stuff. this is played when they're doing the ramp and they're doing a bunch of different tricks. It's pretty good. I liked it. you can't find much about them online, however. I'm not sure how long they were a band, but the song's all right.

Mark (30:23)
I think it's one of the stronger cuts. Next, Animotion Staring Down the Demons.

Jon (30:29)
They're better known for their song Obsession, which everyone would know. It's been in a million commercials, every 80s compilation ever made. So I guess this is kind of like the B side of that, if you want to call it that. Very similar vibes to that song. And it's featured rather prominently in the movie. It's it's okay.

Mark (30:45)
Fine young cannibals couldn't care more.

Jon (30:48)
Much better known for other songs like Good Things, She Drives Me Crazy, Jonny Come Home. I don't understand why this was on the movie. It's barely in the movie, so I'm not really sure why it's even on the soundtrack. you can find better Fine Young Cannibal songs out there if you would like. Overall, I found this soundtrack a lot of times didn't fit the vibe of what I saw on screen. But hey, with licensing, that sort of stuff, who knows why some of these decisions were made. I definitely would have put some different songs in some different spots.

Mark (31:18)
Looking at the critical reception for Thrashin', it's pretty easy because there's not much going on. The film does not have a tomato meter score, so not enough critics have actually submitted review or rating for it. And it has 72% on its popcorn meter, which I think is pretty generous, but it depends through the lens that you're looking at it through. If you're looking at it through the f lens of skateboarding authenticity, I do think it does.

deserves a seventy plus. if you're looking at it through the lens of a quality film with an exciting plot and great dialogue, then no.

Jon (31:55)
72 does seem a little high. but if you're really into skateboarding culture and history and that sort of thing, it would definitely be around that for you. the internet movie database gave it 6.4 out of 10, which I think is more where I land with this movie because some of the plot lines and the acting was just really not very well.

Mark (32:13)
There are no awards.

Jon (32:15)
Is that a first in the Rock N' Roll Theatre?

Mark (32:18)
No.

Jon (32:20)
Okay.

no awards. That's rough. But for everything we look at here in the Rock N' Roll Theatre, my brother scours the internet for a one star review of everything that we watch. I'm guessing today it wasn't too hard to track one down. So what do you got for us today?

Mark (32:32)
We are on Rotten Tomatoes, where we have a review from 2009. It is one star. It goes like this.

Thrashin' is the quintessential bad 80s movie. There's an anemic plot involving two warring skateboarding gangs and a boy who falls in love with a sister of a rival gang member. It's a goofy Romeo and Juliet on Wheels, where none of the kids have parents and most of life's mysteries are answered with a good musical montage. Thrashin' is really just a term for extreme skateboarding. If you're not into it,

Then don't watch the movie. Because there's nothing else in this stinker worth diving for. Not even Josh Brolin. Brolin is a good actor today in brackets. He's even got an Oscar nomination under his belt, but in Thrashin', he's got the charisma and personality of a petrified turd.

Jon (33:33)
I disagree with this review. There's a lot that could be answered with a good musical montage.

Mark (33:37)
The Legacy of Thrashin'.

It is considered a cult classic for all things 1980s. I would agree with that. It definitely is a legitimate documentation of the 80s skateboarding culture. There are really good skating sequences involving all the big name pros that we've talked about. This is still kind of considered rare in a mainstream movie. You don't always see legit pros getting asked to take part. It's also worth noting that most of the pros that are in the movie, as well as Josh Brolin, don't like it. They dislike it.

And have over the years, they've sort of stopped softened their stance on this, though, a little bit. And when people tell them that it meant something to them or that they really liked it, they do sort of, softened their stance. They're not as opposed to it as maybe they once were. and Jackass on MTV, they actually paid homage to the jousting scene with their own scene called Maces and Man Purse.

Jon (34:30)
This movie came out in 1986. I started skateboarding in 1988, I want to say, 1989. So all the old school logos and boards and all of that are totally bring back huge nostalgia for me and that part of that era. However, this movie did exist when I was a teenager. I remember maybe watching it once. It was not big with my friends who were into music and skateboarding and all that sort of stuff, which I was totally involved with.

No one really talked about this movie very much. It there are parts that are really not very well done. Some of the acting is really questionable. Even Josh Brolin, you know, he goes on to much bigger, higher heights in his career. But in this movie, I'm not really buying sometimes that he's a pro skateboarder. Having said all that, though, if you are interested in the history of subcultures of things like like the things we cover here in the Rock N' Roll Theatre, I do think this is worth checking out just once. I gotta admit, it was hard to watch it twice to review it here for the podcast, but I got through it.

And it shows you too where the skateboarding culture came from, its roots in California that were kind of violent at times and did involve gangs and all sorts of nefarious stuff going on. So if you're interested, it's not a documentary by any stretch of the imagination, but does give you a little glimpse into how skateboarding culture came to be. And now, of course, there are great skate parks probably in every town in the world. There's a great one right down the street from my house the kids love. And you can see skateboarding in the Olympics. So it's really gone to big heights and shows you you're gonna have some athletic skill in order to do this.

So Thrashin' may not be for everybody, but if you're interested in the kind of things we're interested in, I think you'd like it. I think you should check it out.

Thank you very much for joining us tonight here in the Rock N' Roll Theatre. One quick thing before you leave the theatre, if you could like, subscribe, comment, share with a friend, let them know what we're doing up here, we'd really appreciate it. But for now, the theatre is closed.