Listen to one of Tommy Guerrero’s newest tracks, dubbed “Organism”, above but ignore the rest of this post if you were never a skateboarder.

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Remember Tommy Guerrero, one of the inventors of modern street skating? Member in good standing of Powell & Peralta’s Bones Brigade? Sideshow star of influential skateboarding stoke flicks like Future Primitive, The Search For Animal Chin, Public Domain, and Ban This? Skinny SF dude with big ollies and really smooth style; big frontside tuck airs; fast carves down Frisco hills?

He was later the co-founder of Real skateboards (the company my brother rode for in the early 90’s), and will go down as one of the most mimicked riders of all time (his patented arm flails and knee bends were awesome, a relief from the stiffness of Rodney Mullen and the repetitive pump/lip/land/pump that made contemporary vert masters like Steve Caballero and Mike McGill seem a little boring after watching the video for the 60th time).

Via Wikipedia:

After his success in the world of skateboarding, he moved on to his second passion – music. Guerrero was a member of the skate rock band Free Beer and the experimental group Jet Black Crayon, but has had more success as a solo artist. His critically acclaimed albums, EPs, and singles combine various types of music from rock, rap, funk, soul, and jazz.

It’s nice music, sure, but should you need a reminder of his flow, behold this clip from the Future Primitive video, circa 1985. For best results and a sweet generational juxtaposition, start the tune above (loud) and then click play on the video below with its volume slide turned down to zero. Full on Guerrero awesomeness starts at 2:04 when he hits the park:

More LIFE & CULTURE…