Low; Jocko Weyland; Peaches/Chicks on Speed; J Mascis/Cobra Verde/Lo-Hi; Mr. Airplane Man/Porch Ghouls; Rube Waddell; Julie Jensen's Cheat; "Rock Night" at Tapis Rouge

You can write them off as skate rats or Generation X's new breed of jock, but the oft-maligned sport of skateboarding has increased in popularity through the 90s to substantially challenge the future of traditional American sports like football and baseball. On Thurs., Oct. 10, New York artist/photographer Jocko Weyland demonstrates that skateboarding can also be a thinking man's sport, discussing his book The Answer Is Never: A Skateboarder's History of the World, which traces the unbelievable evolution of a 60s "sidewalk surfing" fad into trick-laden extreme sport and fixture of international urban, suburban and even rural, youth landscape. At the Astor Pl. Barnes & Noble, 4 Astor Pl. (betw. Lafayette St. & B'way), 420-1322; 7:30.

Hands up, all those of you whose theatergoing is wholly dictated by casting developments on The Sopranos. Chances are you've already been to see Edie Falco in the revival of Terence McNally's Frankie & Johnny in the Claire de Lune. Still, good news is on the horizon. It seems that Julie Jensen's new play, Cheat, at the Women's Project, features Karen Young, an actress who's about to become familiar to HBO audiences as well. Jensen's play, set at the close of WWII, concerns the wartime friendship between two former workers in a munitions plant?but you don't really care about that, do you? Any more than you care that this season marks the Women's Project's 25th anniversary, or that Jensen's play is directed by the incomparable Joan Vail Thorne. You just want to know what we were able to find out about Karen Young's role on The Sopranos. Not a lot, actually. Only that she plays an FBI agent and that her first episode airs this Sunday. In fact, the "arc" of Young's character perfectly coincides with the four-week run of the play at the Women's Project. Damn, that's timing! Cheat starts previews Thurs., Oct. 10, opens Oct. 16 and runs Tues.-Sat. at 8, Sat.-Sun. at 3. 424 W. 55th St. (betw. 9th & 10th Aves.), 239-6200.

What to make of a white girl who raps aggro porn lines like "Suckin' on my titties like you wanted me" and "Motherfuckers want to get with me, lay with me, love with me, all right" over clunky-funky electrobeats that sound like Von Lmo by way of Laptop? Is Peaches serious, a joke or a serious joke? Sexy in a slutty performance-art kind of way or kinda repulsive? Figure her out for yourself Fri., Oct. 11, at Warsaw. Chicks on Speed, another sexy-deadpan-girlpower electroid deal who similarly teeter on the thin line between art-smart and merely annoying, are also on the bill. Expect a large turnout of Henrietta Hudson regulars. 261 Driggs Ave. (betw. Eckford & Leonard Sts.), Greenpoint; 718-387-0505.

W hen we heard Dinosaur Jr.'s first LP was selling on eBay for lots of loot we were tempted to sell. The '94 Without a Sound had a couple memorable tracks, but it was no You're Living All Over Me or even Where You Been. So yeah, we had basically written off Dinosaur, Dinosaur Jr. and J Mascis?but then we walked in on a show he was playing with Mike Watt last year and it sounded great, as does J Mascis & the Fog's Free So Free, which is out this week. Mascis plays two sets at Northsix, Sat., Oct. 12?one solo acoustic, and one plugged-in set with Cobra Verde. Also with Lo-Hi, who share members of Boss Hog and Speedball Baby. 66 N. 6th St. (betw. Kent & Wythe Aves.), Williamsburg, 718-599-5103; $15.

Mr. Airplane Man is a drums/guitar female duo whose debut Red Lite and new LP Moanin' both came out on Sympathy for the Record Industry, responsible for the Detroit Cobras and the White Stripes. (Maybe that's why a colleague has dubbed the raw, two-girl group the Stripe Girls.) After one listen, Moanin' has been on our stereo nonstop. For two white girls they sure know how to play Delta blues, like the title cut. "Sun Sinking Low" tilts its hat to Junior Kimbrough, while others crank up the guitar and add twang. The raunchy guitar and Kim Gordon-ish vocals on "Uptight" almost make us climax. They play with the gritty Memphis blues band Porch Ghouls on Tues, Oct. 15, at Luxx. 256 Grand St. (betw. Driggs Ave. & Roebling St.), Williamsburg, 718-599-1000; $6.

The wacky, mostly acoustic and unbalanced Tin Pan onslaught of Rube Waddell, a trio of SF-based street musicians, brings the carnival to town at Williamsburg's Galapagos on Mon., Oct. 14, at 10:30. Their new album, Bound for the Gates of Hell (Vaccination), finds them whipping up a mix of Irish folk-rock, Americana, junkyard blues, bluegrass and an extended (and dead-on) Tom Waits tribute ("Born to Suffer"). In a way, they're sort of like an acoustic Ween?if Ween played slide guitar, mandolin, trumpet, sousaphone, tabla, ukulele, marimba, kazoo, harmonica, electric guitar, toy keyboard, accordion, banjo, tin whistle and a few dozen other found and homemade instruments. Their live show is both a juggling act and a musical thrill show that'll make you smile but good. 70 N. 6th St. (Betw. Wythe & Kent Aves.), Williamsburg, 718-782-5188; $5.

We all know that Tuesday nights have sucked since Happy Days went off the air, and That's Incredible wasn't that impressive anymore. But hey, if you're looking for fun on Tues. Oct. 15, you can't find more of it than at the new "Rock Night" at Tapis Rouge in the East Village. At $5 for guys, and free for chicks, how can you really go wrong? The party is hosted by none other than GiGi from local rock celebs Push, while Ancel, also in said band, is behind the turntable spinning everything from Joan Jett to Buckcherry to Marilyn Manson. Besides meeting lots and lots of hot chicks and guys who ride motorcycles to make up for their small dicks, we enjoy the great company of the last of the cool people of the East Village. The night is promoted by Elizabeth Bowmen, who is so cool she knows COC from back in the day and understands what rocks and what doesn't. So come, have a great time and try, if you own a hog, for the sake of the rest of us, not to brag about it. You know our penises are bigger. 9 Ave. A (betw. 1st & 2nd Sts.), 358-1440.