Best Music for a Part #1: Beirut

Beirut's songs alone really don't naturally associate themselves with ideas of skateboarding, yet when their songs are used in video parts, the skating elegantly comes alive. I wouldn't ordinarily listen to most Beirut songs offhand, but now that I have the visuals of some pretty great parts connected to the songs, I love being carried away by the music into those very video parts. Beirut's style is particularly hard to put into words, especially as to why they make video parts so special. I'll leave it at this: the skating becomes extremely graceful, the vibes are relaxing for the senses, and the skills of the skaters are brought out by the memorable melodies.
Joey Brezinski's part in Cliche's Cle (above) was the first time I'd ever heard a song by Beirut, so when Joey specifically asks Junior during the opening conversation to check out a song, my interest was peaked. Moving from the dialogue to the video part as "Carousels" starts playing, you can already tell that Joey's wild manual combos and energetic style would fit well with the song. The main tune for Carousels is extremely catchy, making me want to pull up Joey's part again and again at the most random times simply to appease my craving for Beirut-edited skateboarding. One clip that sticks out for me is at 2:14 where Joey does a fakie manual kickflip to switch manual down a kinked pad to the singing of "It's a long way down..."
Before Stevie Perez blew up with Chocolate he came out with this part in Good Luck to Beirut's "Vagabond". The slow intro is fitting for both the song and the edit, and then the somewhat syncopated tune repeating in the background keeps things very up tempo and happy-go-lucky for Stevie to casually get a lot of tricks in with his quick feet and have fun while doing it. Stevie's make-everything-look-easy style also works rather well with the smooth song and keeps you craving more of those buttery lines from him.
One song that is high in my iTunes rotation from Beirut is "The Rip Tide" because it was used in Mark Suciu's Cross Continental, which is easily in my top 5 favorite video parts overall. The opening piano keys and old film capturing techniques settle you in for a great work of art and at about 0:44 unleashes the aesthetic energy when Mark properly lands bolts on a switch backside kickflip down a set. For the rest of the use of "The Rip Tide", every trick Mark does is technically impressive in some way or another (you know, classic Suciu) but with his insane control over his board and body, he oozes an incredibly smooth style that could not fit any better with the song. The trailing note on the trumpet as Mark ends his Washington DC line from 1:51 with the fast back tail gap out leaves your brain running through everything that just happened but wanting so much more of the flawless skating at the same time.
Lastly, looking at The Philadelphia Experiment again, the zoom in on the flowing LOVE park fountain about 4 minutes in together with the introductory chimes of "Payne's Bay" from Beirut provide you with the perfect mind state to witness a very appealing piece of videography, while engraining tricks like Ishod's front heel over the LOVE plaza garbage can into your head.
It helps that the lead singer of Beirut has a voice that will throw you into a trance of focusing on the skating. Not only that but the sheer intrigue behind all of Beirut's songs keeps you wanting more after you finish watching the skating that goes with it. Whatever mysterious aspect this is just works and I don't mind one bit.

Best Music for a Part #4: Future Islands

A lot of types of indie/rock music seem to work rather well in skateboarding. Whether it's the beats that tricks are landed to or the memorable melodies that climax with a banging trick, something about this genre brings out the right vibes in a skate video. One band that seems to have a solid collection of video parts is Future Islands.
I first remember hearing Future Islands through Austyn Gillette's awesome Unlimited part last year (above). As soon as images of Austyn's travels start popping up with the opening beat and entertaining jingle of "Tin Man", you're instantly captivated. From the start, as the part was advertised to be, you can tell that the next 7 minutes are going to be a visual journey simply from the tune and the visuals. (To add to that, Austyn came out with some pretty incredible skating as well, which is why this part turned out so great all around.) The first major change in chords around 1:56 accompanies Austyn's super long front board very well: "as time goes by..." so does Austyn sliding along the rail. The rest of the part is extremely well-edited and keeps this very appealing theme throughout it all, the music keeping you in a trance as Austyn smoothly and powerfully skates by.
Now the first time most people probably heard of Future Islands was with their song "Balance" through this part from Jason Park. Creativity, style, insane board control, etc. You name it, Jason Park has it. If only this guy could continue producing footage like this in the skateboarding spotlight. Personally, I first heard this same song in Lakai's "A Postcard from Paris" feature. Much like in Unlimited, the song works well here with the beautiful scenery and adds to the well-edited piece. Between the spots and the skating from the sick Lakai crew, Future Islands knows how to bring out the cheerful vibes from videos like this.
While browsing the many videos online over the past year or so I came upon this clip of Steve Stinson skating in his hometown park in Mililani, HI. The edit was to Future Islands' "Close to None" and again works very well. Some cool editing effects and very solid park skating from Steve are made very graceful and majestic with the song's melody and consistent bass.
Also, Joey Brezinski dropped an incredible part for Cliche's Bon Voyage this past spring. (Unfortunately I think all videos of that part were taken down from the internet.) Not only were Joey's manual combos and lines yet another step up from his last part, but the whole part exuded a positive feeling because of Future Islands' "Vireo's Eye". It's a very upbeat song and complements Joey's constant flipping in or shove-itting out of manuals and such. Bon Voyage as a whole was definitely well-edited (shoutout to Boris Proust!) but this was a stand out part for sure.

Manny Maniacs #1: Joey Brezinski

When I think of manuals, I think of Joey Brezinski. His abilities are one of a kind and it takes his creativity (and goofiness) to come up with the video parts he does.  And even though they are filled with manual tricks, they all are interesting because Joey knows how to keep his tricks varied enough. I mean he even started a whole contest for manuals! Pretty much everyone would agree that Joey is the king (or at least one of the kings) of manuals so I will just post the three parts from him that really cemented my astonishment with his manuals tricks.
Above, in Hello Jojo, he keeps it fun at 0:53 with a mini nosepick 270 manual (NBD for sure!), and personal favorites at 1:12 and 3:01 with a front 180 fakie manual fakie frontside 360 shove out and a manual double heelflip out respectively. (The setup on the switch flip out of the 180 switch manny just before the double heel clip is also pretty awesome.) And the manual up and down line at 3:44 strikes the perfect balance in fun, quick action and skilled control of spinning, flipping, and balancing.
In his Right Foot Forward part for Transworld, he comes out swinging right from the start with a lot of cool combinations (manuals and ledges), throwing in tricks midway through his manuals or just continuing the lines when one good manny trick isn't enough apparently.  The inward heel nose manual at 1:22 looks quite nice and the ledge is rather high too, and then the manual wallride nose manual at 1:39 is also pretty awesome.  It takes a lot of control for that front blunt fakie manual fs half cab out at 2:40.  3:18 - 3:29 has a series of technically impressive and fun to watch manual combos, just like the body varials in the line at 3:52. And the last trick is also really crazy with how he manages to smoothly put together three tricks in one.
In his latest video part in Cliche's Bon Voyage, there are so many great manual tricks, as expected.  So I will let the clever lines and crazy combos speak for themselves. There's nothing quite like watching Joey skate.