nic

Professor Denise Sandoval Ph.D. is a Professor of Chicano/a/x Studies at CSU Northridge and an expert on the culture and history of lowriding. Professor Sandoval has curated several museum exhibits including a current show Viva Viclas at CAM Gallery in Raleigh, NC and previous shows at the Petersen “La Vida Lowrider: Cruising the City of Angels (2007-08), Arte y Estilo: The Chicano Lowriding Tradition (2000), and The High Art of Riding Low: Ranflas, Corazón e Inspiración (2017-18). In this episode we talk about the history and origins of lowriding, the impact and influence of the Chicano/a/x identity on car culture, and a whole lot more. This episode was recorded in January 2020.

Ryan Cochran is the creator of the HAMB and the Jalopy Journal, he runs the Garage Journal, and is an incredibly talented writer with great taste in cars. In this episode we talk traditional hot rods, custom cars, Texas car culture, and a whole lot more. This episode has it all- hear how Ryan escaped being kidnapped at Paso Robles, his accidental inadvertent drug trafficking, and how he got banned from a bar for defending a cardboard cutout of Paul Walker & Vin Diesel.

RJ Diaz is a big part of the Bay Area custom car & traditional lowrider world and I was stoked to get a chance to talk cars with him for this episode of the podcast. His 1973 metalflaked and panel painted Buick Riviera “The Mothership” excellently showcased his taste and talents and is one of the many things we covered in this fun late-night episode. RJ has been building cars for a long time and he had a lot of great insight into how he approaches doing custom fabrication work & installing hydraulics at his new business RJ’s Hydraulics! Recorded in Newark, CA 2/21/19

The first ever Halloween Special is here! This episode is a joint-effort between Bob & Aaron of the Wheels of Confusion Podcast with Nic & Josie of Bomb City. In this episode we watch and discuss the John Carpenter & Steven King 1983 masterpiece “Christine”. If you haven’t seen this movie before we’d recommend watching it first, but there’s still plenty of non-Christine conversation that you can still appreciate without being too familiar with the film. Beware, shitters of the world! Recorded in an echoey hotel room in Lancaster, CA October 2018.

On this episode we have the incredibly talented painter Phil Leonard of Syrarium Studios! In this interview Phil talks about his style, inspiration, roots as a painter, and give some insight into how he creates the signature wild panels and beautiful color combos he’s known for. Recorded in Hollister, CA  8/2018

The long awaited Episode 20 is finally here! On this jam packed episode we’ve got Ross, the researcher and legendary instagrammer @46to64, talking custom cars, history, car clubs, and a whole lot more! Ross is a passionate researcher who goes through a lot to bring us some of the most important, interesting, and informative glances into custom car past that we’ve ever had access to. Looking through old yearbooks, magazines, newspaper archives, and the depths of the darkest corners of the internet (like Facebook) Ross has managed to breathe new life into the journalistic practices of the past and has used that to create a spectacular Instagram account for us all to enjoy. Recorded in Oakland and Michigan by way of Skype 5/26/18

Jason Webber of At the Risers (ATR), builder of the 1951 Panhead “Booger Sugar”, winner of the People’s Choice award at Born Free 7, joins Billy and Nic by phone to talk choppers, skateboarding, BMX, family, and a whole lot more in this episode of the podcast. Jason has been involved with Born Free since its inception and shared some great insight into what it was like to build a bike for the show, and talks about some lessons he’s learned while raising a family and building rad choppers. Recorded 8/24/17 in Oakland, CA

I had a great time checking out Skoty’s shop in Hayward and managed to grab a few pictures while I was there. Skoty had a awesome collection of Zephyr “stuff” in the office where we did the interview, as well as some killer in-progress kustoms, and some really impressive builds for customers on the floor of his shop. I had a great time checking it out and I hope you folks dig it too. Thanks for looking!  

Skoty Chops has a true passion for building cars, pushing his limits, and for self-improvement. In this interview Skoty sits down with Nic to talk about his craft and motivation for working on hot rods, building customs, learning and teaching metalshaping, coachbuilt cars, and about his passion for Lincoln Zephyrs. Recorded 7/30/17 at Skoty Chops shop in Hayward, CA

Roger Miret, singer of Agnostic Front, Roger Miret and the Disasters, and founding member of the Rumblers Car Club sits down with Nic & Billy at his Arizona home to talk cars, punk rock, architecture, records, and a little bit of everything in this episode of the Bomb City Podcast. Roger talks through the build of his radical custom 1954 Chevy ‘Morphine’, tells some great stories from the early days of the New York Hardcore scene, talks about working on their amazing 1961 Schreiber home, and a whole lot more! Recorded 6/4/17 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Freddy Corbin of Temple Tattoo and Tattoo 13 in Oakland, CA has been tattooing in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 30 years, and sat down with Nic on the 19th anniversary of Temple Tattoo’s opening to talk about tattooing, tradition, Temple Tattoo, and talk through how the recent “Tattoo School” controversy went down in this episode of the Bomb City Podcast. Recorded 5/5/17 in Oakland, CA.

‘Fabulous’ Freddie Nandin of Fabulous Freddie’s Custom paint in Arizona and guest cohost Billy Parker from Los Boulevardos Car Club Arizona join Nic over the phones to talk about custom cars and traditional lowriders, talk about custom paint, crack jokes, share stories about haunted auto shops, runaway wheels, and building custom cars made to be driven in this episode of the Podcast. If you like breakdown stories and close calls you’re going to dig this episode.  Recorded 3/30/17 in Oakland, CA and Phoenix, AZ by way of Skype.

Jeremy Jack and Kyle Martin of the new shop Martin Kolor and Style are members of the Squires Car Club,  residents of Napa CA, and are this episode’s guests on the show. For Kyle Martin building hot rods and customs is a family tradition, and with the help and support of his friend and business partner Jeremy he’s able to put his special touch on a lot more cars through their shop Martin Kolor and Style. Both Kyle and Jeremy have some great stories and strong opinions on how to make a custom car special, and you can hear all that and more in this episode of the podcast. Recorded 2/24/17 in Napa, CA

Dirty Donny sits down with Nic & returning guest Mike LaVella for a great conversation about art, cars, vans, pinball, D&D, punk rock, wizards, monsters, and a whole lot more! Dirty Donny is a huge artist in the Kustom Kulture art world and has recently branched out in a ton of new and interesting directions, including doing custom pinball machines for bands like Metallica, Aerosmith, and the Hellacopters. If that mix of bands sounds strange, check out this interview, it’ll all make sense. Recorded 1/11/17 in San Francisco, CA.

Gene Winfield- Legendary custom car builder, hot rodder, metal fabricator, and designer sat down with Matchstick, Josie, and Nic to talk about everything from how Gene got his start lowering cars and building hot rods in his mom’s chicken coop in Modesto, CA to the present day where a nearly 90 year old Gene still swings a hammer and continues to innovate creating some of the most unique and futuristic designs of all time. Gene really opened up in this interview and gave some fascinating insight into his time building hot rods and drag racing in Japan in the 1950’s, working on the Ford Custom Car Caravan, his friendship with Syd Mead, his work building TV and Movie cars with AMT like the Galileo shuttlecraft for Star Trek, what he’s thinking about when he lays out his signature blend paintjobs, and more in this incredible interview. It’s a great podcast to wrap up the first year of this show and an great look forward into some of the exciting stuff going on in the custom car world for 2017.

This time of year means a lot of things to me, everyone is constantly scrambling from place to place getting ready for the holidays, the weather in California finally catches up to us and we bust out the winter gear for our few frigid nights in the sub 50’s, and bloggers like me get a little time to get caught up on unfinished business while our coworkers are enjoying eachother’s company at holiday parties. Before I sign off for the end of the year I wanted to revisit a post I made a while back on the Los Boulevardos Forum, which was the first place I got to dip my toes into the world of online communication and longer form writing. This one always comes to mind this time of year because I can still feel the cold hopelessness of banging on an empty warehouse door looking for answers and not knowing how this was all going to end. If you’re a romantic like me about old metal shops and local hot rodding history I think you’ll get a kick out of it too, so here it is: my story of  (to the best of my knowledge) the last Mor Drop axle.

Bruce Gossett is an insanely talented painter, illustrator, and hot rodder. In this episode Bruce and Nic sit down at Bruce’s workshop in Sacramento to talk about how Bruce found his way into a career in art, hot rods, screenprinting and almost standup comedy. Recorded in West Sacramento, 11/5/16

Below are some pictures I took at Rollin’ and Rocking at Thee Parkside a few weeks ago. This show was a lot of firsts for me, I’d never been to Thee Parkside before, which is something of an anomaly since I’ve been to nearly every other venue in the Bay, so it was great to finally see the stage that I’d always historically passed on seeing some great bands on. That much is definitely my mistake, Thee Parkside (good lord, it frustrates me more and more every time I type out that vestigial “e”. Were we confusing this with another Parkside? Did this fix it? Anyways…) was a great venue in a surprisingly chill part of the City, I have a feeling we’ll be back to this place again soon. Another first for me was, perhaps also surprisingly, this was my first “van show”. Sure, I’ve seen vans at car shows before, but this was something different, a place where the oddball vanner life accessories and aesthetic is cherished, a show where people have nicknames, a show that starts late, people park wherever, and the show goes on “until it’s over”. Based solely on my now one experience with van shows they seem to be on a whole other level than your typical car show, and that much I really dug. No one seemed to be trying to prove much of anything, the crowd was chill, there was no urgency…

No matter what your political party or affiliation, no matter what your stance on the big issues is today, I think we can all agree that this election cycle has beat the hell out of us, and I think we’ll all be glad when it’s over. If you, like me, have found yourself surfing between news websites, political blogs, and strange YouTube channels today and finding yourself stressed out about the results at the ballots today I think you’d appreciate some solace, so here’s my contribution to that. Below are a few links to interesting stuff on the web that is wonderfully politically neutral, there are no attack ads or threats of impending doom. Enjoy, and remember in a few days this is all history.

Creator of Gearhead Magazine, Author of “The Hot Rod World of Robt. Williams” and “Cole Foster and Salinas Boyz Customs: Style. Substance”, Member of Pittsburgh, PA’s seminal hardcore punk bands Half-Life and Real Enemy,  Mike LaVella sits down with Nic and Josie to talk about self publishing, punk rock, cars, hot rods, careers, and trace back Mike’s roots in the early days of Pittsburgh’s hardcore scene. Recorded 10/10/16 in Oakland, CA.

Intergalactus: a psychedelic art show from another world. Glittering cacti & fluorescent succulents made from resin casting, rubber casting, blown glass, and more. Recorded 10/8/16 at Somewhere Else To Go gallery in Berkeley, CA. Art show by Elrod and Mayra “Hellabreezy” featuring their work as well as Bay Area artists Brandy Esparza, Josie Celeste, Aetherspark, and O.Traux. Soundtrack by Kenn Chron(icles) BLOVED Music.

  Here are some of the pictures I took of Brian Jennings’s incredible mild custom 1960 Chevy Biscayne from our recent interview. You can hear all about this build, the crazy schedule, the mild custom touches, and what inspired  Brian in  Episode 9 of the Podcast.

Video by Josie Celeste

Billetproof in Antioch 2016 was one of my favorite years of this show so far. Was it because of the clear skies? The great variety of cars? Was it because I didn’t have anything to do besides wander through the show, take pictures, avoid roasting to death under the burning sun and enjoy the scenery?

Brian Jennings of Kustoms By Jennings in Concord, CA sits down with Nic to talk about Brian’s freshly finished panel-painted  mild custom 1960 Chevy Biscayne, tell some great stories about drag racing motorcycles, discuss how he learned the trade, talk about his plans for Kustoms By Jennings, and a whole lot more! Recorded 9/24/16 in Concord, CA

I awoke that morning in shock, incredulous at the electric glowing phone in my hand that was proudly displaying the time with myriad of bells, whistles, and lights emanating from its cold façade. Four AM. I hadn’t seen this side of the clock in quite some time. Begrudgingly, I dragged myself out of bed, slipped myself into the pile of clothes I’d set out the night before, and washed my face in the sink, doing my damnedest to make sense of the world at this ungodly hour. Four fifteen, time to hit the road. I took my dog out back and stared at the misty halo surrounding the moon as he took care of his business in the cold. I put my dog back to bed, gathered my things, and hugged my sleeping wife tightly and kissed her forehead while she muttered some soft-spoken broken sentences of encouragement half asleep to me. I grabbed my gear, started the car, and punched the address into my phone. Lancaster, CA, a decent little trip from my house in East Oakland, I was on schedule to be there somewhere around 10am. It’d been a while since I was out on the open road by myself. When I was younger, I drove a truck for a construction company and delivered parts to jobsites all over the state. The long hauls down endless highways to all corners of the Golden state are where I discovered…

Matchstick, creator of Custom Vanner Magazine, sits down with Nic and Bob Helfrich to talk about his shop Matchstick Customs, Custom Vanner Magazine, working with Gene Winfield, learning from Fay Butler, Custom vans, Vanning culture, hot rods, customs, metal shaping, screenprinting, publishing, psychology, and more! Recorded 8/20 in Lancaster, CA.

Joe Compani, Ryan Campi, and Travis Duffy are the outstanding team at Compani Color and have body worked and painted some amazing and award-winning cars. In this episode Nic sat down with them at their shop in Hayward, CA to talk hot rods, customs, muscle cars, and hear stories about some of the incredible cars they’ve worked on. From their humble beginnings working in a local collision repair shop or pushing a broom at Roy Brizio’s Street Rods in South San Francisco, Joe and Ryan have been friends since High School and worked their way up to opening up a shop of their own, where they’ve recently been joined by Travis and continue to put in hard work and crank out flawless paint jobs on some of our generations most significant cars.

Here’s a few pics from Instagram that show some of the cars we talked about in the interview. I know in these interviews we sometimes cover a lot of ground pretty quickly, so I wanted to make some attempt to make these more accessible for people less familiar with the work that these guys do and give you something to look at when you listen to the episodes. Thanks for listening!

The Dragoons Car Club’s annual “Nite of the Hot Rods” is one of my favorite shows in the Bay Area. I’m not sure what exactly it is about this show that makes it so unique; is it the fact that the Riverview Lodge is the perfect venue? Is it the goofy and good-natured spirit of the host club The Dragoons? Is it the fact that it’s free? Is it the local punk rock bands, the ever-present wind over the Suisun Bay and the setting sun as this show goes on into the evening? I don’t know, but there’s something special about this show that I really enjoy. It reminds me of simpler times where friends met up in person instead of by smartphone, where new builds were discovered by going out to a show or cruise night instead of on social media, and where new bands were discovered because they were playing at a show instead of popping up on your streaming service of choice. With that said, here are a handful of pics I managed to squeeze in between the crowd, I can’t wait until next time.

Here are a few pics I took last weekend at the Third Annual Custom Capital car show in Prunedale, CA. A lot of work went into making this happen, and I owe a huge thanks to Juan, Jesus, and the whole Deadend Magazine family for all the effort that they put into creating what’s become one of my new favorite NorCal car shows. We had a great time down there, and I look forward to making it down for the next one.  

Coby Gewertz is the creator of Church Magazine,  Church Equipped, and the legendary custom 1963 Econoline Van Go. In this interview he sat down with Nic and Josie to talk about his past, present, and future projects, hot rods, customs, drag racing, photography, art, and more! Recorded 6/18/16 at Wyldwood Studios in Berkeley, CA

In a subculture rooted in nostalgia, moving forward and creating something new can be extremely difficult. There will always be naysayers clutching firmly to tradition shaking their heads at anything new or different, simply refusing to participate in the new out of some strange allegiance to a faded past. It’s no surprise that moving the West Coast Kustoms show from Paso Robles to Santa Maria in 2009 would have been met with this same obstinacy, because Paso was truly something special to be a part of. However, after spending last weekend at the 8th Cruisin’ Nationals in Santa Maria I’m confident in saying the reluctance to accept this place as the new home of WCK’s show has been at best misguided, and at worst hindered the evolution of our corner of the automotive world.   I will always hold my time at Paso dear to my heart, but in hindsight can now appreciate that the thing that made Paso so special wasn’t just the town, it wasn’t just the park, and it wasn’t just the little hangouts scattered about all over at night. Paso was special because we made it mean something, we assigned value to it, we embraced it, and we made it happen. Santa Maria is no different. My nostalgia for pulling off the freeway and cruising down Spring Street into a wild world ground scraping hot rods, flame spitting customs, glittering kandy dipped lowriders, and the cacophony…

In this episode Nic talks with Donny Welch and Bill Ganahl at South City Rod and Custom. It’s a fun conversation that is rich in custom car history, goes deep into hot rodding philosophy, and is full of great stories about working on such legendary cars as the Pierson coupe, the Breece coupe, the Lepesh pickup, the Calori car, and more! . Recorded 5/21/16 at South City Rod and Custom in Hayward, CA.

Last weekend was the grand opening of our friends at Deadend Magazine’s new flagship store in Salinas, CA. It was a great time, every time I make it down to Salinas I find myself wondering why I don’t make it out to this town more often. Their shop at 16 Midtown Lane seems to be in the perfect neighborhood, it’s a charming part of town that reminds me a lot of my hometown (as it was when I was a kid, at least). The street was packed with exactly the wide range of cars and bikes you’d expect for a Deadend event; customs, hot rods, and lowriders were parked in every open spot down Midtown Lane.

Last night’s opening of the TEASE(D) show at Somewhere Else at 1212 San Pablo in Berkeley was a huge success. The show featured “Big Hair” Themed art pieces curated by the Bay Area artist Elrod at the new gallery that she opened with Mayra “Hellabreezy”.

Elrod (@mexakitsch) and Mayra (@hellabreezy)   have been contributing to the Bay Area art community and custom culture for years, and recently they opened up a gallery space in Berkeley called Somewhere Else . In this  episode Elrod, Mayra, my wife Josie and I sat down late at night in Elrod’s glitter-packed studio in Oakland and talked about Art, Culture, their upcoming TEASE(D) show, and the conversation quickly turned into one of the goofiest episodes of the podcast yet. Recorded in Oakland, CA 3-30-16

Aaron Groesbeck and Brandon Flaner are the incredibly talented builders behind East Bay Speed & Custom. In this interview I went out to their shop in Concord, CA to talk with these two about their most recent project Mickey’s Mouse, a hot rod with deep roots in the Bay Area show scene from the early 60’s. The conversation gives you a pretty good insight into how these young guys are putting out the amazing work that they do, and why legendary custom car builders Art & Mickey Himsl trusted them to handle the restoration of a car so important to them. Aaron and Brandon have a great reverence for tradition and  are overflowing with hot rod and Custom car history, so it was great to hear what’s important to them and what goes into a East Bay custom. We touch on just about everything in this interview from what draws them to the type of early Ford customs that the shop is known for, how they got started working on Hot Rods & customs, and what makes the Bay Area such a great place for the community of custom car builders. This interview was a ton of fun, and I can’t wait to see what rolls out of their shop next. Recorded 2/24/16 in Concord, CA

My rage is quiet, it seemed to have slipped out of bed hours before me and circled the house before I awoke. I found my rage sitting silently in the bathroom, seeping into the broken tiles, lurking behind the peeling wallpaper. I thought I saw my rage hiding in the bare cupboards, in the maggots in the rice, the eyes on the potatoes that grow completely unswayed by their lack of earth. I go to turn on the stove but my rage snuffs the flame. Not today. Today you don’t get comfort. Today I win, today I control you.

Alex Valdez and Mario Meza-Murillo are two of the most talented custom painters on the planet, and in this episode Nic sits down with them in Pittsburgh, Ca to talk about paint, cars, and what’s going through their minds as they lay out some of the wildest paint jobs around. Recorded in Pittsburgh, CA 1/24/15

When I was a child, he was the Goblin King. When I was a teenager, he was Ziggy Stardust. As an adult, he is and will forever be David Bowie.

For the past 15 years of my life, without fail at some point while I’m drifting off to sleep this car enters my thoughts. I’ve built it a million times over in my head, in my mind it’s been a dozen colors, had endless wheel and tire combinations, and countless custom touches. The reality of this car, however, until very recently had been much less exciting. In the past year I finally was able to start breathing new life into it, and I’ve finally been comfortable sharing my work and vision for my 56 Chevy with the world. I try and keep a build thread over on the Los Boulevardos forum maintained http://www.losboulevardosmessageboard.com/showthread.php?7472 , but for those of you not familiar with the forum here’s the story so far: I bought the 56 when I was 16 years old. At the time I worked during the week at 6am-9 am and full days on the weekend at our local bagel shop in Livermore. Being in a small town, the bagel shop was one of the few places that weird looking punk rock kids like me could find regular employment, so every morning I’d hop on the 10 bus across town to bust my ass stocking shelves in the freezer and making breakfast for rich people on the way to their jobs. Every day I’d walk to school and daydream of finding and buying my first car. I really didn’t know…

Juan and Jesus Espinoza of Deadend Magazine sit down for an interview with Nic in Salinas, CA to talk about their hometown, their humble beginnings, car culture in social media, Deadend Japan, and the upcoming documentary “On the Road Since 2004”. If you’ve ever wondered who the guys behind this cornerstone of modern car culture are, then you should definitely check out this episode. Recorded in Salinas Ca 11/29/15.

Welcome to the first episode of the brand new Car Culture show, the Bomb City Podcast! In this short episode you’ll get a brief intro to the show, to your host, and you’ll get the answer to a question that probably no one has ever asked- why “Bomb City”? Hit “subscribe” on your favorite podcasting app and you’ll get a monthly look into the people that make the wild world of hot rods, custom cars, lowriders, lowbrow art and music happen. Recorded 11/27/15 in Oakland, Ca.

Here’s some video from the event posted to the Stiff Little Fingers Twitter feed (@RigidDigits): SLF performed last night to a sea of welcoming fans as one of the first bands to play that city after the November 13th terror attacks. It’s tough to find the words to express how inspiring it is to see a band persevere and refuse to change their plans out of fear. SLF is no stranger to tragedy, and posted this moving statement to their Facebook page announcing their plans for this event: Our sincere condolences go out to everyone affected by the Parisian tragedies. The music business is often sheltered from the harsh realities of life and this weekend they have come home with a dreadful finality. As you may know, Stiff Little Fingers are scheduled to play in Paris tomorrow evening (Tuesday) and there is a lot of confusion around this date as shows are being cancelled or re-scheduled and so on. When we were growing up in Belfast, I was always saddened by the fact that groups would never come and play there because of the political situation. I was deprived of another “normal” part of life. With this in mind, and with the wonderful co-operation of our Parisian promoter, the S.L.F. show at Backstage at the Mill, WILL GO AHEAD AS ADVERTISED tomorrow (Tuesday) night. https://www.facebook.com/StiffLittleFingers/posts/10153081725267096   I’m not going spend much time to attempt to wax intellectual on the nature of…

I felt the chill of the last cool breeze of the morning on my face as I saw the Sun start to creep over the hills to my left and light Highway 5. Only a few hours into the drive and already a strange battle between my old friends Tired, Scared, Excited, and  Anxious were all fighting each other for dominance in my mind  as I sped down the empty towards Southern California.