Tony Hawk’s soundtracks provided a gateway to contemporary rock music – here’s some that fit the bill for the new games…
Last week it was announced that the first two Tony Hawk's games were going to be remastered for this generation's consoles to the delight of 20-and-30-somethings everywhere. The Tony Hawk franchise was a gateway into the world of punk and metal for the countless skaters and gamers, with its iconic soundtrack featuring the likes of Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Rage Against The Machine and Bad Religion.
But if the games are being reimagined for 2020, should the soundtrack be given an update too? Sure, we all want to bust out a Christ Air while listening to Primus, but there should be some room for newer bands who fit the Tony Hawk soundtrack ethos. Here are a handful of our picks…
Few bands merge the worlds of punk and slacker as effortlessly as Canadian noisemakers PUP, making them perfect for soundtracking an afternoon sitting in your underwear trying to win a game of HORSE against a stranger on the internet. Their track Kids from the sensational 2019 album Morbid Stuff is chock-full of nihilism and confused love, just like we felt as teens when the first Tony Hawk’s game came out. Plus it slams.
It’s no secret that we love Turnstile at Kerrang!. We’ve rinsed their Time & Space album on the office stereo since it came out back in 2018 and featured them on the magazine cover – and this bombastic opening track feels tailor-made for speeding down the initial descent on the Woodland Hills Warehouse. If your heart-rate doesn’t increase when that opening pounding hits then you’re probably dead inside.
A slightly more aggro tip than Culture Abuse and one that will no doubt lend itself to countless rage quits, Amyl And The Sniffers’ high-octane screamer details all the worries and strife that the world hands out on the regs, while keeping a chugging, snotty attitude rolling throughout. Something to shred to, if you ask us.
There’s got to be a song from a British band in there somewhere – especially if we’re going to spend hours playing as Geoff Rowley, trying to nail that darkslide. Frank Carter’s latest LP End Of Suffering is a staggeringly good, raucous piece of rock’n’roll, and Crowbar’s short-but-sweet blast of firepower is just the right length to soundtrack a round of Graffiti.
Of course there should be a ska-punk song on Tony Hawk’s and it should be from the modern-day torchbearers The Interrupters. Their huge track She’s Kerosene from Fight The Good Fight is pure, unadulterated fun. Just hearing that skanktastic chorus makes us yearn for a sesh of street skating with a boombox hanging out of our backpack. Natch.
‘Well I’m crackin’ one open with the boys, by myself,’ certainly sounds like the mantra we’re all living by at the moment, and will no doubt continue to do so when playing Tony Hawk’s in our bedrooms. This jovial, tongue-in-cheek ode to alone time could easily be attributed to our gaming habits, although it doesn’t talk about the sheer amount of Cheetos and 7UP we ingest.
With its fuzzed-up guitars, Spielbergs’ brand of rock is less snotty than some songs here, allowing much more room to breathe while skating around the schools and pools of North America. Its huge chorus – ‘4am I feel like givin’ up’ – is a call out to those of us who really should go to bed, but need to nail all those gaps for the perfect score. Those who know, know.
This antagonistic diatribe against bullshit authority figures sits right at home in the anarchic playground of Tony Hawk’s. Come home after a crummy day at work, pick up your controller and blast this loud while soaring through the air, screaming along about ‘A born asshole’. In less-quarantined times, this would also work when some jobsworth tells you to move along for skating on some steps.
If one band symbolises an anti-authoritarian mindset right now it’s FEVER 333, whose DIY, independent ethic goes in tandem with that skater lifestyle. What’s more, frontman Jason Aalon Butler grew up skateboarding (actually getting into punk rock because of it), and probably knows the Cali Warehouse and School II levels in real life. How awesome would it be if you could unlock him as a character?
Because fucking obviously.
