Video: The Historics, “A Lot Less” + H-Street’s Hokus Pokus

October 03, 2009


In FADER terms, The Historics are a supergroup: Vietnam's Josh Grubb plays guitar, Icarus Line/Amazing Baby's Don Devore sings and plays another guitar and Mickey Madden of Maroon 5 plays bass. The first two of those three bands have been on the cover of our magazine and the last is cherished by a few former editors in a way that some would deem unreasonable. However, the new video for The Historics's cover of Sub Society's "A Lot Less" is something we can all agree is good for a rainy day. Shot by Patrick O'Dell, the video pays tribute to Matt Hensley's part in the 1989 H-Street skate video Hokus Pokus. Several modern day skaters interpret Hensley's ridiculous tricks, striped socks, cargo shorts and blowfish trick face, and the song interprets the original scummy love song into, well, a new scummy love song. Without going full History Channel, H-Street and Hokus Pokus were heavily influential on future street skating but rarely get the accolades outside of skaters that some other companies and videos do. But thanks to the internet, you can watch Hokus Pokus in its entirety on YouTube (part 5 includes the original Hensley part), get pretty much every Sub Society song for free from the band's former bassist Hesh One, buy The Historics album Strategies For Apprehension here and weave all of it into your life as if the last 20 years have not passed. If only the internet could heal the broken nuts you're going to get when you attempt a 180 no comply after watching all this crap.

Video: The Historics, “A Lot Less” + H-Street’s Hokus Pokus