If you’ve ever said to yourself “I wonder what Steve Caballero is up to,” wonder no more. Just go check out his blog Have you seen him? The “him” isn’t capitalized, so I assume it’s a reference to Animal Chin and not the Him. The first real skateboard I ever had was a Steve Caballero dragon on the bearing pig. I also saw The Faction play a show in a garage in suburban Illinois. There was a small half pipe in an adjacent field. Most people were there for the punk rock, but there were some skaters as well. Caballero was very accommodating and encouraging to those who weren’t in his league. It was amazing seeing him at a crappy little ramp in the Midwest. I don’t remember much from that day and I think he only took a handful of runs, but I have a recollection of looking up at him on the deck and thinking what a nice guy he was. He was one of the biggest names in skateboarding at that time, and he showed up with no attitude or sense of entitlement whatsoever. It was like anyone else dropping by for a session, except, well, he…

Worn Free will sell you a reproduction of t-shirts worn by famous rock ‘n’ roll personalities including this rad shirt worn by Joey Ramone The website has notes for each of the shirts which make interesting reading if you are into punk rock trivia. Some of the shirts are cool but forty bucks seems kind of steep. I’m tempted to make my own personal bootleg transfer.

Remember the Texas Skatepunk Scrapbook? Bill Daniel has been on the road touring with his many artistic endeavors. He had a show with the same base of material under the title Texas Punx Pix. Check out the link for coverage as well as a chance to buy some prints (old school darkroom, not digital!) for the very reasonable price of $25. That’s my kind of art! The show pics are different form the ones we host on Skate and Annoy. I think Bill said he has something like 10,000 negatives to chose from, so it’s a different show all the time. He basically photographed every band, local or touring, that came through his part of Texas in the early 80’s. What do you shoot when there are no shows to go to? The skate scene! Photos Clockwise – Top left: Pfluerville ditch, Misfits, Back Flag.

MC hipped me to this interview but declined to post it for some reason. He said it wasn’t skateboard related, and I had to remind him that we also cover rock and/or roll on occasion. I am here to tell you that you should check out the Mark Mothersbaugh interview on Fecal Face Dot Com conducted by Andreas Trolf. Andreas is an admitted fanboy, but he also tackled the tough questions like WTF is up with all the DEVO songs in TV commercials. As a fanboy myself, I was afraid that the answer and indeed the whole interview would be as unsatisfying as Smooth Noodles, but after reading it I am pleased to pronounce that I remain as devolved as I ever was. We are all Devo. The shot above is Mark is standing front of one of the handmade rugs he is currently exhibiting. It’s good stuff. There was something a bit odd about them, and I didn’t realize they were rugs just by looking at the pictures. You may have seen Mark as a recurring guest doing sketches on the kids show Yo Gabba Gabba. Strangely, that didn’t come up in the interview, or maybe it isn’t so…

Just because Tony Hawk has financial stake in ShredorDie.com doesn’t mean he has turn over every embarrassing bit of memorabilia, but it looks like he has to some extent. I was sent to Japan to be on a show called “Incredible Kids” (or something like that) when I was 14. They asked me to demonstrate tricks, but to change some of the names to be “Japanese friendly.” I was just excited to be overseas on my own, so I went along with it. Tony says he was 14 at the time but he looks more like a 12 year old Macaulay Culkin in some of these shots. It’s pretty entertaining stuff. Part of the show has Tony attempting a few launch ramp gap jumps over an increasingly large number of audience members. No, the distance doesn’t get any greater, they just stuff more people in between. It’s pretty crazy how young he looks. It’s even crazier that these people think helmets will help them if Tony comes up short. Tony even grabs for the jumps. Nowadays he’d ollie it or 360 air over it. Check out the takeoff ramp. It looks like one of those old Firestone metal frame and…

OK, that’s a lie, there is some Rolling Stones. But by “Rock” they generally mean a heavier sound and have interestingly and thankfully avoided any mention of Elvis and the Beatles. VH1 Classics.com (Wait! dont go!) is running a series this week (and I’m sure it’ll rerun for a long time) produced by the BBC called 7 Ages of Rock. The fact that it was made by the BBC and not VH1/MTV means that it’s a level above the typical fare you find on the US channels. You know, where they play the same clips over and over again as teasers before the commercials so by the time they are actually highlighting the band or event you’re already numb to the footage. 7 Ages of Rock has seven hour long episodes: The Birth of Rock, Art Rock, Punk Rock, Stadium Rock, Heavy Metal, American Alternative and British Indie. On Monday the aired the Birth of Rock, which was quite interesting from the editorial skew of not considering Elvis ROCK, but still digging up the old bluesmen that fueled rock. Tuesday they aired the Art Rock episode (which includes psychedelic) which was also pretty good, but a little disappointing. Thankfully, you…

Really, this still image of Mr Orange (?) is about all you need to see from the M&M’s commercial that is still airing, unless you are wondering what Paul Weller would look like if he was a candy coated chocolate that came to life. And it’s vintage The The in the soundtrack. Speaking of the Jam, did you know Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler are touring without Weller as the appropriately titled From the Jam? Now that’s brutal honesty for you! I don’t know where/what/when Weller replacement Russell Hastings is from, but he looks the part and the reviews are good. Coming to North America and Japan in 2008.

This is for motorcycles, but why not skateboarders? I smell a potential Misfits Fiend Club marketing tie in. Why not? Jerry Only has whored out the name diversified themselves to shoes, purses, lunch boxes, pencils, Japanese bands and god (excuse me, Satan) knows what else. If you close your eyes you can almost see a scrawny kid with his black jeans (spray painted on) working on his flyouts in one of these. Check out the skull helmet at Santiago Chopper. [Source: Boing Boing]

I can’t believe how remiss I’ve been in posting the news that aside from reuniting to play Riot Fest last year, Naked Raygun has continued to perform in Chicago as well as embarking on a West Coast tour, something they rarely did in their heyday! They’re in Portland Oregon on December 1st at the rather smallish Dantes. Tour dates are up on the Naked Raygun site. If you want to get a video fix, check out EPM’s post. Raygun is arguably the definitive punk band to come from Chicago, although the Effigies, Articles of Faith, and Big Black also come to mind. The concert images above are from a not-so-secret secret performance by the band under the name Holyy Lazarski Nahane back in November of 2006. And now on to schilling product: Naked Raygun skateboards available.

Intercooler is either a heat exchange device used on turbocharged internal combustion engines to improve their volumetric efficiency, or an Australian band. Take your pick. This music video (or is it a commercial for Element?) for Intercooler’s You’re Not Gonna Hurt Us Again features two people I’ve never heard of: Australian pro skateboarder Corbin Harris and director Michael Ebner. That’s OK, I don’t live in Australia, but I’m making up for it with Australia day on SnA. The production company that made this video is also shooting “Bondi 3000: The Making Of.” which covers “the schizoid, snail-paced production of a futuristic English epic, about how in the year 3000 the British will reclaim Bondi from Australia.” It must be skatepark envy. And yes, Lorem Ipsum is my favorite perfume. What am I talking about? Watch the video, a heartbreaking story of a hot chick who dumps her boyfriend because he won’t stop skating a miniature mashed potato half pipe with his sausage. I kid you not. (Insert fingerboard joke here.)