SLUG Contributor Limelight
October 2, 2014
Contributor Limelight: Jordan Deveraux
Jordan Deveraux is a man who wears many hats around SLUG Mag. Whether it’s scoping out spots for our annual Roughside of the Trax skate comp or copy editing the issue, Deveraux’s an eager, community-minded guy who’s got a sharp noggin on him to boot. Deveraux graduated from Weber State University in the summer of 2014 with a Bachelor’s degree in English. He is happy to do whatever SLUG humbly asks of him—skate-related reviews and recaps, helping properly clear skate spots of drug-related detritus, or copy editing the meticulous Music Reviews. Deveraux enjoys skating and hanging out with his homies, and it’s well-deserved: He puts in the man hours!
Articles by contributor
Review: The Warlocks – Skull Worship
Most of the record, much like their prior effort, The Mirror Explodes, is a shoegazy affair redolent of ethereal My Bloody Valentine static and dreampoppy vocal melodies. But for the fans of the jaunty hooks and crunch of Phoenix, don’t be daunted by the airy melodies of this one, for this is easily corrected with volume. … read more
Review: The Traps – Boom Pow Awesome Wow
Fans of the old Sun Records artists will find themselves at home in the blues number “Get Up,” both in the lack of pretentious musical build-up and sound quality. But there is a GG Allin brand of perversion here that might repel listeners who like their rock n’ roll with a hint of cute irony, because there’s none of that. … read more
Review: The Builders and the Butchers – Western Medicine
The Builders and the Butchers channel a dustbowl-era feeling in this itinerant carousal of the post-apocalyptic West. … read more
Review: The Icarus Line – Slave Vows
On this, their sixth full-length release, The Icarus Line deliver brain-straining intensity in the form of dirty, spastic guitar flares and embittered lyrics sung in an Iggy Pop kind of quiver. … read more
Review: Sleepy Sun – Maui Tears
Maui Tears is the band’s finest work yet. It’s a perfection of everything good from Fever and Spine Hits. The record opens with “The Lane”—an angelic little ditty featuring guitars that soar through the clouds and rip through the ether in search of a realm of permanent shapes. … read more
Review: Pow! – Hi-Tech Boom
This record buzzes like a Brookstone orgasm chair, especially the track “Switchboard Scientist,” which swoons like a Funkadelic groove minus the big-band instruments, with added Prozac and guitar dirge. It’s no downer, though. … read more
Review: Harsh Toke – Light Up and Live
The fact that bassist Richie Belton and guitarist Justin “Figgy” Figueroa are at the forefront of professional skateboarding is a mere footnote when talking about these SoCal shredders. The music speaks for itself—and loudly it speaks. … read more
Local Review: Get Stakerized! – Self-Titled EP
Get Stakerized! Self-Titled EP Midnight Records Street: 04.28 Get Stakerized! = Dinosaur-era Dinosaur Jr. x Locust Abortion Technician-era Butthole Surfers After finishing the first listen of Get Stakerized!, I became paranoid. I was unsure whether Get Stakerized! was serious, or if the album is just an experiment to see what sort of hifalutin stretch they
Review: Creepy Murdle – Midnight Ghost of California
Imagine the grinding din of a metal shop when all the machinery goes haywire, throw in a multicolored spark celebration arcing out of the windows and roof for visual effect, and that’s Midnight Ghost of California. … read more
Review: Blackout – We Are Here
While this may sound like a formula for your garden-variety sludge, Blackout spare no opportunity to reimagine the genre. Oh yeah, and don’t forget your bong. … read more
Review: Big Star – Playlist: The Very Best of Big...
In the latest catalog of the preeminent power pop group Big Star, Playlist outlines all the incarnations of this influential band. … read more
Review: Act Rights – Sweat Equity
Act Rights are too drunk to be the Raconteurs and they’re not drunk enough to be the Black Lips. … read more
Not Another Cog: An Interview with Matt Nelson of Saltair...
In 2011, Nelson attended the United Bicycle Institute—or UBI—in Portland, Oregon, and has been building bikes ever since. … read more
Review: Love Child
Love Child is a photo journal dedicated to the skate culture of Israel. However, the photography does not showcase skateboarding—nobody lands any tricks, and very few capture moments of the act of skating itself. … read more
What’s Doin’ at The RUIN
Just outside the hubbub of the recently bustling granite district of Sugar House is a bar that doesn’t care how fast you can chug a beer. … read more
Review: Natural Cause Skateboard
The first thing I noticed about this board was its good shape, something that I didn’t expect from a local company. Most likely, Natural Cause borrowed their board shapes from a time-tested company, though which one, exactly, I couldn’t say … read more
Hoodlum Day Parade: A Go Skateboard Day Reflection
It was like a war-raid with all the busy horns honking in protest and the freshly road-rashed participants lining the gutters, who were looking over their carnage while yelling, “fuck yeah!” or “whoo!” in support of the bombers. … read more
Treefort Music Festival 03.20-23
Just five hours to the north, through the enchanted land of highway juniper, roadside rivers, and abounding Perkins restaurants, a little festival was born. … read more
Static IV Premier @ Post Theater 05.12
I’m now dated because owning the physical copy of a skate video was once necessary. This film and its constituent parts will be someday scattered into the vortex of YouTube, but do yourself a favor and get a copy anyway. … read more
Summer of Death: Go Skateboarding Day
The Summer of Death contests have served as a springboard for countless Utah rippers to go from snot-nosed kids who anihilate local spots and parks to permanent fixtures in the skate community, including local all-star Lizard King, who earned a spot at the Tampa Am for his win at a Summer of Death Contest when he was knee-high to a grasshopper. This summer’s first installment of SLUG’s 15th annual Summer of Death skate series took place at the indoor Crossroads Skate Park in Ogden on June 21.
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Words with Caleb Orton: A Very Beautiful Thing
I was ordering tea and a dainty little slice of raspberry crème cake when Caleb Orton swaggered into the Salt Lake Roasting Co. With his son, Otto, in the crook of his arm, he rushed into the bathroom to change a dirty diaper, asking for a stiff cup of coffee. For a guy that juggles
Reasonable Transit: UTA Petitioned
Many diverse voices were heard at UTA’s monthly board of trustees meeting last Wednesday. … read more
SLUG Goes to Treefort Music Festival
Viet Cong were all smiles when they took the stage for a near packed house at the El Korah Shrine. I couldn’t be more appreciative of the weight they threw into their performance, considering the beforehand knowledge that many of the spectators were probably just arriving early for the Omar Souleyman show that followed. … read more
Localized
This month’s Localized features the dynamic lineup of Eons and Oxcross, with Yaktooth opening up. Drop what you’re doing on April 12 and come check out these up-and-comers rage real hard at Urban Lounge. 10 p.m., 21+, $5. … read more
Summer in the Winter: Words with Logan Summers
The origin of Logan Summers’ skate career isn’t typical. He got his first skateboard for his birthday when he was about 7, only to let it collect dust for another year or so. Then, for no reason that he could recall, he picked it back up, telling me, “I kinda did it on my own, for the most part. I didn’t really have any friends that [skated].” Now, kid is prolific, skating in national amateur competitions like the Damn Ams and Tampa Am, and wrangling big sponsorships. … read more
20 Years of Madness: A Meeting of Minds with Filmmakers...
In the ’90s, a group of friends in Michigan decided to get serious about film and took to their local public-access studio to capture what were then landmark documents in adolescent hijinks. The show, appropriately called 30 Minutes of Madness, aired 13 episodes composed of visually and, at times, conceptually cohesive comedy skits. However, it eventually met its end, and took with it the film aspirations of most of the cast.
Aiden Chamberlain: The Northern Light
It happened that I skated with Aiden Chamberlain once before at a spot with rails set against a white-brick building. We skated those for a while until someone decided that we’d check out a hulking rail that was just across the street. Only two of the group of about eight had the guts to huck themselves down the green, daunting monster. One of those kids was Mr. Chamberlain. … read more
Blue Skate
If you’ve ever eaten at the locally famous Blue Plate Diner, you may have noticed that more than one employee is zipping around the restaurant in shoes with blown-out toes. And if you’ve any reckoning of the talent that graces our streets and skateparks on four wheels and a narrow mass of plywood, then you know that some of Salt Lake’s finest shred-sledders are also employees of one of Salt Lake’s finest diners … read more