Sometimes the choice for a weekly topic isn’t a choice at all. As Nas once said, “so unforgivin’ is the universe when you don’t listen.”
It started when I was reading through The Hard Times book the other day and I snapped a picture of the THPS vs Punk-O-Rama article. I was thinking I’d share it with Sles at some point.
On Monday, I stumbled across today’s second video, a solo acoustic version of “No Cigar”. I was quickly nostalgic for the forgivable restarts within 10ish seconds, making sure you had the right song playing to finally land that tricky combo, and the reconvening of old friends in the familiar Steenson location. (1607, with the big tree, once occupied by a very protective mama bird, out front.)
The final straw came via text from Adam, informing me they were remastering and re-releasing Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1-2. For a kid that wasn’t allowed video game systems growing up, I spent a ton of time wrapped up in these games. My mind raced with thoughts of teaching my daughter the joys of collecting S-K-A-T-E and landing 200k point tricks.
So there you have it, today’s topic is Tony Hawk Pro Skater songs revisited.
Note: Unsurprisingly, I ended up seeing each of today’s artists at Warped Tours ’00 – ’02. The ’00 Warped was particularly memorable from the night before as well. I was sitting (standing) Row 1 Seat 1 at the Metallica make-up show for Jamz (terrible way to spell James) missing the Summer Sanitarium tour. After the show, I met up with Sles and the rest of Code 21 to stay the night at Jon’s house so we could all go to warped in the morning. All day Saturday was spent rocking out in the August Texas heat to the likes of Rancid, One Man Army (during the Hippos set… oops), LTJ, Suicide Machines (of “New Girl” on THPS 1 soundtrack fame) and one of today’s artists Millencolin. Despite ears ringing and surely dehydrated, I was a happy kid that day.
Goldfinger “Superman” (Quarantine Video)
Tony Hawk Pro Skater game: 1
Warped Tour: 2002 (and a bunch of others)
Goldfinger has been releasing a series of videos recorded in quarantine of their various hits including “Here in Your Bedroom” and their “99 Balloons” cover. Turns out Mike from MxPx is the bassist in the band now? Something 17 year old me might have taken exception to for no good reason.
In its original form, this was the best song to backflip over the pipe, through the glass room, and grab the Secret Tape to.
Millencolin “No Cigar” (Acoustic)
Tony Hawk Pro Skater game: 2
Warped Tour: 2000
Random fact: Their Warped Tour 2000 performance in Dallas included Steve Caballero (noted skater / THPS character) on bass for the song “Fox”.
Other random fact: Most of the Millencolin tracks I downloaded in the late 90s/early 2000s had an audio copyright credit to their record label that sounded like a Norweigen robot saying “Copyright Burning Heart Records”. I can still hear it in my head when any of those songs are played now, great marketing moves apparently.
Despite hearing the song thousands of times, I didn’t realize this was one of the lyrics. It’s good design and a11y advice as well.
I don’t think contrast is a sin.
Nikola Sarcevic – Millencolin
Dub Pistols “Cyclone”
Tony Hawk Pro Skater game: 2
Warped Tour Year: 2000
I was interested to learn that the song is built on a sample of the Skatalites’ track “Silver Dollar”. That is a great record in its own right, but it’s for a different theme than the nostalgic one of today. You can checkout the comparison between the two songs on whosampled (a great site that some producers refer to as “The Feds” for how well the samples are identified).
Apologies in advance for this line looping in your head the rest of the day:
You got me runnin’ in a cy-ca-lone.
Dub Pistols
