“Snoballing off of my new ‘Tropicool’ alter ego and the success that has been attributed to the new set chocked full of steel drums, ocean and breeze samples, synth, cowbells and keys, I have a very special treat for you. I’ve been digging deep into the genre and the archives surfacing with many goodies hidden in both my sleeves and trunks. Within the next week, there will be 2 more installments of Waves ≠ Raves inspired by the tropicool beginning of summer sun-kissed weather. Also to top things off, our friends The Ampal Creative who we put this collab on with are releasing the Summer line of Aloha hats, that for the lack of better words, are the Frothiest lids from here to Bali.” – Tropicool aka Dr. Schlongo via GDD

Waves ≠ Raves vol. 8

Taragana Pyjarama – Ocean
Strange Talk – Eskimo Boy
K.BHTA – The Wave
Anoraak – Nightdrive With You
Familjen – Det Var Jag (Boeoes Kaelstigen’s Remix)
Penguin Prison – Golden Train (Penguin Prison Dub)
Pacific! – Unspoken (Anoraak Remix)
California Wives – Tokyo
Cosmic Kids – Reginald’s Groove (Classixx Remix)
Aeroplane – My Enemy
Jessica 6 – Prisoner of Love (ft. Antony)
Saint Etienne – Spring (Air France Remix)

¡¡Bonus!!
Dj Falcon & Thomas Bangalter – Together (Le Castle Vania & Computer Club Summer Bootleg Mix)

All Files Zipped —-> HERE <—-
Kick off your shoes, put on some chapstick, and keep it casual.

Toddy G‘s opened recently on 7th between Alameda and Santa Fe. It’s definitely the best pie in downtown – great crust, a delicious cheese blend and quality toppings thoughtfully combined. I had a slice of mushroom, sausage and onion and a sausage and pepper stromboli (pictured). I really want to try the Prosciutto & Arugula, featuring tomato sauce, mozzarella, La Quercia Prosciutto Americano, fresh arugula, shaved grana padano & olive oil. Roots skate legend Salmon Agah is a co-owner of the place so go grab a slice and support a good crew.

This last Saturday we teamed up with our friends over at Dub Frequency to throw a tropical summer kick off at the rooftop pool of the Standard Downtown LA. We were launching our summer collection and DF was launching its summertime party series “No Shoes/No Shirts.” If that wasn’t enough, we had POOLSIDE making their LA debut, along with sets from Futurecop!, Fiero and Tropicool of Waves ≠ Raves fame providing an amazing soundtrack to the beginning of summer.

POOLSIDE and Gomez Warren IV

By Friday we had over 700 rsvps and write-ups on Huffington Post and Flavorpill meant get there early. I tried to give everyone a heads up to get there at the start and my apologies if we were at capacity when you got there.

Steezlord Pro Skater/Downtown Legend Patrick Melchar and friend.

The SAH and friend getting frisky.

Laurel, Ian and Matthew – part of the DF team/experts in festivities thanks for a great event!

The best poolside attire had to be this man. Orange Docs, kilt, and an Axl airbrushed leather jacket!!!

This year, I had to choose between Coachella and a trip to Cabo with 22 of my childhood friends. Coachella is an amazing experience and I would insist that any music fan of our generation check it out. For me the lineup this year lacked the weight of previous years, since I had seen a lot of the acts in their earlier days. However, I was pretty bummed about missing this afternoon’s Sahara lineup. Our friend, 12th Planet, made his coachella debut. John is one of the nicest guys you could meet and has been making fans the world over with an intense year of touring. From all accounts he blew up.



Even though, Im 2 hours away in downtown I get a sense of how epic it was.

Instead of having to wait until tomorrow or even tonight, I had live pics and video via other fan’s twitters and facebook.

I know that Usher and a bunch of other A list musicians were there watching the set, I think Cee-lo’s set sucked (but it might have just been the webcast) and I just watched Interpol’s set on the live feed.

There in lies the inherent problem with the internet, blogs and the variety of “social media” platforms out there today. It offers instant accessibility and a wealth of knowledge if you dig deep, but more often than not it’s just a glimpse. I didn’t feel the desert heat and the energy of the crowd rocking 12th’s set, my body did not shake from his pounding dubstep – I did not experience the show. It’s a double edged sword, learn from the internet, see what interests you and what’s out there, but ultimately its up to you to live it, experience it and make it your own.

And yes, 12th’s wearing our WILD in the STREETS denim snapback.

Next week we’re dropping our new line of ALOHA snapbacks. We are offering two completely new ones – the super tropical SEVEN SEAS shown above and the APOCALYPSE WOW – below.

The SEVEN SEAS is an amazing reissued 50’s print from the Hoffman Archives. In production we used a natural cotton rope – a little bit of nautical inspiration. All of the Aloha hats now feature our cloud logo embroidered on the side as well.

The APOCALYPSE WOW was inspired by a photo and travel tale one of our friends recounted about an Indo motorcycle mission. Its a respectful nod to the darkside of paradise.

We’re re-releasing our most popular SHAKA ZULU in the original black and white colorway, along with a new Kona Red Colorway.

Another little tweak from the originals is the full lining in Shaka Zulu aloha fabric. Aloha fabrics are too thin on their own to give the hat enough structure. Instead of fusing the fabric with a backing, we sewed the lining layer of shaka to give the hat proper structure and maintain a good shape. Its a small revision, but the feels great in hand in on head because of it.

They say imitation is a form of flattery, but Im not happy about this one. Headwear giant NEFF came out with an “ALOHA” snapback of their own. Ours were out Summer 10, their copy is out now for Spring 11. Its pretty hideous, and also really lame that they chose to use the same ALOHA name. Neff is now sold in 3500+ stores so if you want a mass produced aloha hat made by the thousands in China that you will also see on the heads of Zumiez mall rat hype forum kids buy theirs. Otherwise our’s will be up next week.

CicLAvia took over the streets of Los Angeles today. It was amazing to look out the window and see the streets teaming with life instead of frustrated drivers and aggressive buses. I saw everything from aerospokers and girls on cruisers to tall bikes and families of all ages. I started snapping a few pics and decided to do a timelapse of sorts.

LA really needs to do this more often and work toward implementing better bicycle lanes and safety. Our city is so flat, its perfect for easy commuting. After biking to work for over a year, the city had really sucked the fun out of riding for me. Events like this really want me to get out there and ride more.

Big ups to Matt Powers for taking 2nd in Formula D in Long Beach on saturday.

Matt rocked a pretty DIY set up for the last few years, yet made it to Formula D, the highest level of professional drifting. This season he finally has the backing to take it to the next level, and they slammed a 500+ hp v8 in his trademark 240sx. Keep in mind this is against guys like Tanner Foust and Rhys Millen in fully factory backed 6 figure set ups.

Matt’s pretty rock n roll – if you couldn’t tell from his paint job. He didn’t spend his youth mastering Gran Tourismo, he grew up surfing with us in La Jolla. He was one of the best groms and could have pursued a surfing career, however at 16 he got behind the wheel and discovered how fun it was to go fast. Matt asked us to make him a sponsor hat. Take a look at the pic above, and check out how lame most of them are. In pole position we have a standard lo-pro flexfit that looks like it came free with a tire rotation at Jiffy Lube. Peeping up in the lower right is a white visor that is perfect for showing off your faux hawk and matching white oakleys. Matt does not belong in either.

We ended up customizing one of our Wild n the Streets black washed denim snapbacks, the perfect hat for him. This was a last minute request and we didn’t have time to digitize his NITTO and Need 4 Speed logos, so we just had to use the pattern from his race suit. We threw on a few studs to rock it out and this is the result. Matt really wanted everyone to see it, so he tore shit up to a second place finish. We’re gonna do a proper one for later in the season, but its a start. Congrats again to Matt and his Crue. Best of luck for the rest of the season.

A lot of you have been emailing about the sold out DOPE hats we did with our friends over at Stampd’ LA.

We’re currently working on a new colorway – sign up for our newsletter and we will let you know before we release it. Its under “Get Ampal in your Inbox” on the right side of our webpage.

Enjoy these Dope Girl shots from the Stampd’ Blog in the meantime.

DOPE!

Sorry it took so long, but we’re, back again with another glistening Waves for all you beach sluts and wave whores alike. The weather outside is sun-kissed and teetering around 75, pretty good for early spring in Socal. So grab your ghetto blaster, head down to ze beach, and play this 14-song flowing ‘Tropicool’ theme as you get baked with the sand beneath your toes. This installment actually doubles as baby making music, so if the test comes up positive, don’t say I didn’t warn you! – Dr. Schlongo, G.D.D.

Brought to you with our friends over at Gotta Dance Dirty.

Waves ≠ Raves vol. 7

Amtrac – Midnight (ft. Jenna O’Gara)
Beni – It’s a bubble (The Magician Remix)
Breakbot – Shades of Black
Chilly Gonzales – You can Dance (Edwin Van Cleef Remix)
Dutch Rhythm Combo – Cartagenera (Ray Mang Remix)
Frankie Valli – Grease (Flight Facilities Remix)
Holy Ghost! – Wait & See (Flight Facilities Remix)
Housse De Racket – Champions (Edwin Van Cleef Remix)
Little Comets – Joanna (Amtrac Remix)
Lord of Isles – We Were There (Dancin’ Freestyle)
Marius – Jet Set (Ray Mang Version)
Orange Juice – Rip it Up
Pharao Black Magic – Yeah Yeah Yeah
Zimmer – Cruisin’ (Discotexas 2011)

All files Zipped —> HERE <—- Kick off your shoes and simmer in the sunlight. And always remember, keep it casual.