Free to Read Sounds: Alien Workshop and Dinosaur Jr. | Memory Screen Part One
Become a Paid Subscriber to access future installments. This one covers Memory Screen's Introduction and Rob Dyrdek's opening section!
Here’s the first in a new series focusing on the relationship between Alien Workshop and Dinosaur Jr. Throughout the series, we’ll be taking a look at each Dinosaur Jr.-soundtracked section, with a high-level focus on what the song brings to the skating, the feelings evoked, and how well each song fits with the skater. For the first edition in the series, we’re starting at the beginning, with 1991’s Memory Screen.
This first edition in the series is free-to-read, consider becoming a Paid Subscriber to read the future editions in the series, which will go on to feature Habitat’s Mosaic, Mind Field and more.
Introduction, A Little Ethnic Song
The intro of the video begins with the instrumental A Little Ethnic Song by J Mascis, straight away beginning to build that signature Alien Workshop feel with a series of accompanying Super 8 vignets. These range from animals, riders and their names, street encounters, vehicles, various nature scenes and plenty of other things that you come to associate with those Alien Workshop interlude pieces that are so intrinsically linked to what we think of Alien Workshop as being! Quite remarkable considering this is their first release, and how these themes are carried through each of their future releases. I guess it shows just how Alien became so iconic, nailing their aesthetic early on and sticking to it.
A Little Ethnic Song starts of quietly with just the core riff, before building to a crescendo towards the end of the intro. At the end of the song appears the words “J Mascis - A Little Ethnic Song” which doesn’t really happen during many typical skate videos, which, again, links J Mascis and therefore Dinosaur Jr. before the video even really begins.
The tune along with the accompanying super 8 images give an upbeat vibe, putting you in a good place before the video kicks off proper.
Rob Dyrdek, The Lung
Early Rob Drydek footage is pretty jarring when compared to what came later due to the prominence of transition footage included. I guess that’s partly to do with the period of release, a lot of parts around this time featured mixed disciplines as street skating was in it’s infancy. Later in his career he became solely committed to street skating, in particular, incredibly technical street skating.
Some of the clips in this part are pretty prescient of this, particularly the various types of nosegrind. Included are a great example of a balanced backside nosegrind popped out, a staple of later Alien riders (Wenning!) as well as a frontside nosegrind frontside revert on a handrail, still a rare trick to this day.
You can view the soundtrack of The Lung in two different ways, either how it feels on a current watch and how it would have felt at the time. At the time, I imagine the pretty upbeat, quick song went some way to introducing Dyrdek to the wider populace, showing plenty of youthful exuberance in the variety of terrain he skates. On the current watch, it feels to me like this choice of track, while of course still a great choice, seems to make the viewer yearn for simpler times and feelings of freedom. Or maybe that’s just me…