Bottles.

Retodd

IT'S THE SAN ONOFRE NUCLEAR REACTOR. It's gotta be. Those big concrete boobs spewing hot water into the Pacific Ocean just fuck with people. No, no one's glowing green, no aliens are in a '64 Malibu's trunk yet, but people around there are just plain weird, like the world's running at a different speed. It's off balance, similar to a record with a warped posthole. San Juan Capistrano's Broken, Bottles, how else can you explain their perfect mutation of heavy-eye-mascara-era Social Distortion, Repo Man, and Smogtown? Reagan's monumental hard-on for nuclear power is just down the street from these real-life fuckups. Lead singer and songwriter Jes "The Mess" got his teeth knocked out by a cop and was sued by said cop for splitting his knuckle while jamming it down Jes' throat. Currently, he's kicking scabies. Travis, Jes' brother, eight years his senior, is the emotional rock. He's a forklift operator by day and is slowly learning all the strings on his bass. He's Jes' trustee and cashes Jes' SSI disability chec ks. The two collaborated on the first songs while Jes was still in the looney bin. On guitar is Darren, who dodged each and every one of his juvenile sentences then went three years stone sober to escape a 15-year-run as an adult. Drew learned drums listening to the Circle Jerks cranked high on the headphones. Jes' mom pays him money if he can be unnegative for five minutes straight. Their genetically-altered songs leap from the vinyl like a grinning disease.

Have you ever had a ramp in your own back yard?

Travis: I've built plenty of ramps in back yards, but not in my own. I wish.

How long have you been skating for?

Travis: Since I was a little kid. Just mainly cruising around.

Jes: He made me a skateboard when I was three.

Travis: My mom used to drive us down to the old skateboard park in Del Mar and Jes would cruise, They didn't make little skateboards for little kids, so I was like, "Oh. I can make one." I got some plywood. It was all flat as flick I put rad Duane Peters stripes on it. Mainly it was transpo to get around. I got lucky from one thing. At least in my time period, of being a younger kid down here, is that there was always the San Juan Capistrano ramps in the backyards. There were pools to skate and stuff like that. Nothing insane, but I can ride. If you go to Lohrman's, you're going to see some fuckin' skating. It's all hairy to drop in. "My turn." You're all stoked if you get your 50/50 or a rock, you know. The other guys are just rippin' it.

Jes: I like to skateboard I like to fail down. I like to hurt myself.

What's the worst fall you've ever taken?

Travis: Being older, when you slam, you go, "Ungh, I'm done. It's cool."

Jes: I had a backpack with four 40s on me, skating straight down a hill and I hit an acorn. It went ooowwaah and my face just fuckin' grinds against the sidewalk. It was the most beautiful thing. People justdrove by and laughed.

Jes: Yeah. They didn't break.

Did you save the 40s?

Good instincts. If you could re-write Thrashin', would the Daggers win?

Jes: We've been talking about that all fuckin' day.

Drew: "Oh, it's the Ramp Locals."

Jes: "Valley Jerks."

Drew: "I want my money." I know that movie by heart Daggers... What was the question?

If you could rewrite it.

Jes: If I was Corey Webster, I would have just thrashed. The Daggers, they had it down: you can't hang out with my sister, you can't flick my sister. You can build a ramp but you can't hang out, you Val Jerk. I just didn't believe what they said because if I was from The Valley, I'd just be a violent bop. Beat up people and hang out at Nordstroms.

Travis: We were taking a break earlier, and he was fuckin' goin' off on Dagger theory. He knows all about it. You've got to quote some Dagger.

Ever skated Bronson Canyon ditch, where they filmed the Q-tip joust?

Drew Recently, Gabe of the Starvations was telling me I've got to go. I don't even know where the flick it is.

Someone recently patched the roll-in crack so you can get a lot of speed into it, and quick-creted some square coping on the far side.

Travis: The most recent photos I've seen is from the Team Goon guy. I guess he took some kids to go skate and he had clips of it. I can handle that.

Darren: Team Goon's going to do a skateboard for us. A Broken Bottles skateboard. Jessie did the art. It's got a guy flushing himself down the toilet. <www.brokenbottles.com>