I was in high school when a friend turned me onto JFA. He had a sarcastic sense of humor and found JFA’s “Beach Blanket Bongout” to be the most brilliant thing ever. The Valley of the Yakes EP had skatefish on skateboasrds all over it, so that was an instant turn on. Then there the subtleties of “We Know You Suck.” In college I bought the Mad Garden EP just for the Peanuts theme song, and wore that record out. JFA could come off as seemingly inane, but at the same time often brilliant when it comes to distilling an emotion into a couple minutes of barraging vocals and guitars. The end results were greater than the sum of the parts. Some 25 plus years later, JFA is still out there. They’ve got a new live album on DC Jam Records titled “To all our friends.” This is the Brian Brannon interview on Skate and Annoy. [Photo: Pat McGinnis]

Just a quick note to let you know that an excellent interview with Brian Brannon is coming to Skate and Annoy as soon as I get a little bit more of this hosting mess sorted out. The image above is from the Vintage T-Shirts book by Lisa Kidner and Sam Knee. Brian said that shirt was a little embarrassing.

My friend is going to burst a gasket if I don’t post about this Caustic Defiance/Negative Element split CD release. It seems a Japanese label called Akashic Records has decided to release his 80’s hardcore band’s demo tapes. It happens to everyone doesn’t it? House of Neil and I are still waiting for a very polite call… Caustic Defiance rings a bell, you say? That’s because their promo shot was featured as a Shot of the Week here back in 07. Why Dr. Brad is “up in my grill” about mentioning it here is a bit of a mystery. It’s not like he needs the buzz to get laid or anything. I mean he’s a grown man with a wife and responsible job. Maybe it’s because 80’s skate legends have recently been spotted chatting up his old lady. The CD of C.D. is getting good reviews on PunkNews.org, PunkVinyl.com. You can pick it up at Interpunk.com or preview some tracks on MySpace. Can a Caustic Defiance model on Backstage Skateboards be far behind?

Another Powell Ripper tribute, this time in the opening of the Teenage Bottlerockets video for “Skate or Die.” Catch it after the jump. Shut, and get rad, because now it’s time to skate or die.

I haven’t seen this many band boards since Punk Rock Skateboards. Remember Punk Rock Skateboards? I mean, the company? They burned bright, and then disappeared. But I digress. DC Jam, home to skate rock bands of legend and today has a new venture called Backstage Skateboards. Check out the lineup: Narcoleptic Youth, JFA, BYO Records Aggression Youth Brigrade, Dr. Strange Records, Teenage Bottle Rockets, Fishbone, Meat Puppets, T.S.O.L., 300 Pounds, Frontside Five, Goverment Issue, DC Jam Records and McRad.

An unnamed Domino Records band wants to shoot a music video in an empty pool in the L.A. area. They say it will take a good day of shooting, so it sounds like it will need to be a permission pool. I told the rep that it sounded like a lazy scam to find an empty pool to skate, but he assured me it was legit. They need skaters too, and there will be some sort of compensation involved. You can contact Robert Nell if you want to hook him up. In the mean time, let’s revisit a brief (incomplete) history of skateboarding in pool like structures in music videos. In the top row there are two shots from the current running band AFS (Arthritic Foot Soldiers) that has a video shot in a wooden bowl for the song “Chicks, Beer, Fame & Money” off the album Immature Nobodies. Check out the longboard guitar. It’s an interesting application, but not nearly as well done as the one featured on the cover of the Surf Punks first album My Beach. Then of course there is the grandaddy of all bowl riding skate videos, any of Agent Orange’s segments from SkateVisions. Another…

Famous words from parents, grandparents, and relations everywhere when it comes to skateboarding and/or punk rock, but this time applied to J.F.A. singer Brian Brannon in relation to the headline “JFA frontman knocked unconscious while playing a show in Arizona” – “We were playing the song “Lowrider” and when I sang “The Low-rid-er, he gets a little higher,” I jumped into the crowd and depending on who you ask, I either jumped too far or people moved out of my way,” stated Brannon. “It knocked me out cold and then paramedics arrived to make sure I was OK”. They had to cancel the show, but Brian got back on the horse the very next night. The quote is from a strange press release issued by JFA,s current label DC Jam records. The photo of Brian is from JFA’s current board manufacturer, Factory 13.