You know my love for the Surf Punks. Futurismo is adding a rerelease of Locals Only to compliment the My Beach reissue. Unlike the My Beach reissue, Locals Only has two bonus tracks, and I’ve never heard them before. This is exciting to me, and at least one other person I’m sure. Be happy for me. Then take a moment to reflect on the fact that a band like the Surf Punks could not have crawled out of the primordial slime in any other time and place than late 70’s Southern California, and yet you have the import these masterful reissues from the UK.

This is issue #48 of Reggie’s Wise Guy Jokes, published in January of 1979 by the Archie Comics Group. It’s got skateboarding on the cover as well as two single page stories that feature skateboarding, including what just might be the first ever guitar-as-skateboard!

With sadness I learned that founding member of the Surf Punks, Drew Steele has passed away after a battle with cancer. Against all odds, the Surf Punks had a huge influence on me as a teenager growing up in the Midwest. I first heard them on the Dr. Demento show, and saw them briefly mentioned in a blurb about “violent surf culture punk music” in Time magazine of all places. The picture above is from Drew’s Instagram feed shortly after Dennis Dragon passed in 2017. Bonus shot of the making of the iconic cover of My Beach featuring the first (?) skateboard-as-guitar after the jump.

These pics of David Lee Roth on a skateboard have been floating around the interwebs for more than a decade. I’ve never been able to track down the original source. Also, I don’t really care about Eddie so much, but there he is. The real reason for this post is that I just learned that the single Pretty Woman was recorded in Dennis Dragon’s studio in Malibu California. This tidbit came from The Van Halen News Desk, a brief blurb in their post on the story behind Van Halen’s (Oh) Pretty Woman. They don’t even mention him by name: “Van Halen’s original demo for the song (which remains uncirculated) was recorded in Malibu, CA, in a 16-track studio owned by the brother of Daryl Dragon (one-half of the 1970s singing duo the Captain and Tennille).”

Dennis Dragon died unexpectedly yesterday. It hasn’t been reported officially, but rather through friends and relatives of his on Facebook. Skateboarders know and love him as a founding member of the Surf Punks, and musical director for those famous Bones Brigade movies. He also appeared uncredited in the movie Skateboard Madness as the character Dick Damage. I can tell you, as a high school age kid who grew up in the Midwest, the Surf Punks had an abnormally large impact on me. I knew that he lived in Southern Oregon and had often thought about trying to locate him and meet him. I’m sure he would have been annoyed, but maybe not. A sad day on Skate and Annoy, enough to get me out of retirement and make a post again.

If you don’t like Annette Funicello you’re some kind of a dick. It’s like not liking puppies or ice cream. She was a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse kid AND she made a movie (Back to the Beach) with Pee Wee Herman. I thought both Surf Punks were in that too, but only Drew Steele shows up on IMDB. Annettes’s Got the Hits is pretty much my favorite Red Kross/ Red Cross song. Annette Sings Golden Surfin’ Hits will set you back $260 if you want it still sealed in the original shrink-wrap. Ironically, an unopened soundtrack to Back to the Beach starts at $383! (?) I didn’t know Annette had a record with a skateboard on the cover until I saw Doc Skaterock post it on Facebook. (Instead of here for some reason. He must be hanging out with Jim Gray…) I must have missed it in his book. R.I.P. Annette.

HOT LUNCH from San Francisco is one of the hottest Skaterock bands around at the moment. Their label describes them as “heavy, hard-driving punk ‘n’ roll” and I have nothing to add there. If you like heavy rock from the 70s and Skaterock from the 80s, I am pretty sure you will love HOT LUNCH.

I gaped. I couldn’t believe what I’d seen. He’d ridden the wall. I jerked my head around to share with everyone else’s amazement, and no one, not one single person seemed to have even noticed what Christian had done. Stecyk knew though, and said, “You’ve got some catching up to do.” There’s an excellent in-depth interview with Jim Fitzpatrick interview on I Skate, therefore I am blog. It’s five parts long ( 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5) ! Fitzpatrick has seen some interesting times in skateboarding, including being involved in two hugely influential companies like Makaha and Powell Peralta, and spearheading the fight to have skateboarding classified as a hazardous activity. For those of you who scratch your head at that one, it’s one of the reasons that municipalities don’t have to carry massive skateboard-specific insurance riders for skateboard parks. Because, as an inherently dangerous activity, the rider assumes a certain amount of risk while engaging in the activity. The interview covers other aspects of Jim’s life as well, from surfing to being a Montessori school teacher. There’s even a Surf Punks reference. Definitely worth reading if you enjoy learning about key figures in skateboarding history.…

This is the Skateboard Bill single by surfing icon Corky Carroll. He retired from the professional surfing circuit in 1972 at the age of 24, about the same time he began his recording career. The engineer on this session was none other than future Surf Punk and member of Johnny Rad’s house band, Dennis Dragon. Dennis handled soundtrack and audio effects in the early Bones Brigade videos. On top of that, he lives in Oregon now. I might go stalk him.

Born Ugly Magazine is still chugging along. Issue #4 just came out. You can download it online at BornUglyMag.com or if your are fast enough you can pick up a hard copy in some skate shops around the country. No joke, even in the opposite end of the country here in Portland, Oregon at such fine establishments as Cal Skates and Shrunken Head. Born Ugly is in a unique position to become teh heir apparent to Concussion, albeit with a different vibe. I hope they do, but I have to take issue with the review of the cult classic Surf Punks album. If your friends don’t like to listen to My Beach, then it’s time to get new friends! Issue #4 has a spotlight on the old friend of the site Bill Daniel. You may remember him from such stellar appearances as the Texas Skatepunk Scrapbook, Bill’s old site hosted here on Skate and Annoy.