A love letter to skate video soundtracks

As cringeworthy as it may sound, my favorite band for a little while was Minor Threat. Yes, that Minor Threat; the somewhat preachy hardcore punk band who coined the term “straight edge.” Now, I’m not saying that they were my favorite band any time recently, but I do have to give them credit for turning me onto a lot of the more hardcore-style punk bands that led me to what I listen to today. 

Okay, so I know what you’re thinking. Why is he talking about how he used to like Minor Threat when he was 13 when this is supposed to be an article about skate videos? Long story short, the first time I ever heard Minor Threat was in a skate video. 

The aural component of a skate video is extremely important to the enjoyment of whoever’s watching it. Nothing really compares to watching a well-put-together clip in which the pacing of the songs matches the intensity of the skating. Soundtracks set the mood, build the hype, and also serve as a means of getting skate rats, young and old, into music they never would have heard otherwise. Without further ado, this is both a look back and a love letter to some of my favorite soundtracks, beginning in 1984 and ending here in 2019. 

The Original Soundtrack/Songs About Skateboarding

Ah yes, the original soundtrack. These are extremely uncommon, as it’s become less and less “cool” to have songs actually about skateboarding in your skate videos. It’s like when you see a record cover that has a drawing of a saxophone on it. I can’t speak for anyone else, but, for me, that sort of thing screams “don’t listen to me.” 

When it comes to songs that only ever appeared in skate soundtracks, the Bones Brigade is by far the biggest culprit. Released in 1984, The Bones Brigade Video Show was the first of a series of videos by Powell-Peralta, showcasing the talents of the titular Bones Brigade. In it we get to see a young — and I mean very young — Tony Hawk busting out invert variations in a Southern California pool, Lance Mountain cruising around Los Angeles looking for spots, and Per Werlinder freestyling on Venice Beach not at all unlike his cameo in Thrashin’ (1986). All of this is set to a soundtrack credited to the Rad Boys, a group that yields very little information after some deep Discogs dives. It appears that they only ever made an appearance on this exact soundtrack, gifting us with such cornball songs as “Skateboard Blues” and “Bones Brigade Shuffle.” 

Although the Rad Boys may have significantly upped the cheese factor in the Bones Brigade Video Show, it undoubtedly lends a certain mid-80s goofy charm that I can’t help but appreciate. 

Interestingly enough, songs about skateboarding recently reared their heads again in a much gnarlier context, by way of the legend that is Grindline the Band. Their song “Hellride in the Holy Land” appears in an Antihero tour video from 2015, showcasing one of the most buck teams in skateboarding in, you guessed it, Israel. The key difference between Grindline the Band and the Rad Boys is that Grindline exist as a band outside of their appearance in Antihero videos. It just so happens that a lot of their subject matter relates to skateboarding and most of their fans are skateboarders themselves. And guess what? Everybody loves them for it. 

The Super Hesh Soundtrack

Okay, quick jump to the late 1990s, early 2000s here. This is where we see the rise of what I shall refer to as the “Hesh” video soundtrack. The word “hesh” is derived from “hessian,” used to describe a German mercenary during the time of the American revolution. In the 1980s, it was shortened and used to describe long-haired thrasher types that skated really fast, listened to heavy metal, and smoked a lot of weed. By the late 1990s to the early 2000s, the hair may have gotten shorter, but the lifestyle was completely unchanged, and out of this we were gifted such videos as Antihero’s Cow (1998) and Baker 2G (2000). 

The former of these two was an exercise in total carnage. Essentially a group of punk dudes living in San Francisco that wanted to drink a lot, be angry, and skate harder than anyone else. The soundtrack mirrors these sentiments perfectly, with tracks by horrorcore pioneer Brotha Lynch Hung and hardcore weirdos Void accompanying some of the most agro skating San Francisco has ever seen. 

The “hesh” tradition was embodied in SoCal by none other than the Baker team, the hardest partying, most huck-oriented crew in the game. The soundtrack of Baker 2G fit the bill perfectly, again pairing stylish hip-hop with punk freakouts, ranging from Andre Nickatina to The Locust. 

However, another important trait about the soundtracks to harder-hitting videos is their versatility. While Baker and Antihero both featured some of the heaviest music, they showed they had good taste with cuts from Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, alongside Tommy James and the Shondells. As hard as they may have been, the most hesh soundtracks still had a lot of soul. 

90s Mostly Hip Hop Soundtracks

While Antihero and Baker were raging, The Shorty’s Skateboards team — assembled by the one and only Chad Muska — were putting on baggier and baggier pants and styling out to classic rap tracks. Fulfill the Dream (1998) is a perfect time capsule of the much more hip-hop-oriented street-skating that was at its peak in the mid-late 1990s. Peter Smolik was flipping in and out of ledge tricks to “If You Don’t Got a Keg,” now a classic among anyone that watched this video when it dropped. Steve Olson hucks to Gravediggaz, and Muska busts out some signature frontside flips to a Hi-Fi Killers track. 

This soundtrack is so perfect because it matches the tempo and attitude of the skating on screen. Where hardcore punk is usually reserved for fast, unrestrained skating, the mid-tempo hip-hop flow fit perfectly for stylish, more tech clips. 

This style was also perfected by the World Industries team in the mid nineties, in videos such as 20 Shot Sequence (1995) and New World Order (1993). Not unlike Shorty’s a few years later, the World team was on the cutting edge of what was stylish and what was technical, bringing new faces like Daewon Song and Kareem Campbell to everyone’s attention. And of course, the songs were great too. New World Order sees Daewon song get the last part to De La Soul’s “Eye Know,” while Kareem Campbell gets the opening part to “Shifftee” by Onyx. Again, the style of music matches the tempo of skating perfectly, making for the hyper-cool, inimitable beast that we now know as 1990s World Industries. 

Late 2010s Indie/Small Brand Weird Soundtrack

As I probably haven’t discussed enough, most skate video soundtracks are incredibly versatile. I’ve been focusing on very distinct types so far, but most (good) videos you’ll watch make a point of working in all different directions. This seems to have reached its peak with all the hype over small brands and independent videos in the late 2010s, where alt-rock bands like Ash feature alongside powerviolence rippers like Charles Bronson. The culprit of this specific combo is Daniel Dent’s independent video World Peath (2018), which gathered a crew featuring rippers like Nick Michel, Krazy Frankie, and Noah Lora, and wrapped it all together in a genuinely fun, lighthearted package. 

Videos like World Peath are showcasing the groups of skaters that are really in it to goof off (except for the fact that they’re also stupidly good at skating). This style has been increasingly soundtracked by some of the goofiest music to grace our ears since the original music for Animal Chin (1986). Frog Skateboards and most of the videos on the YouTube channel “Just Nipples” are both in on the joke, using songs by (Sandy) Alex G, royalty-free funk music, and weird European dance stuff. The “core” crowd might hate it, but I’m a sucker for this nerdy, fun-loving stuff and whatever strange songs might accompany it. 

All told, if you have the better part of an hour to kill, watching a classic skate video is never a bad choice. You don’t even have to skate to get down to some good hucks and bob your head to some choice tunes. And if you do, I don’t even have to be telling you all this. As long as you’re not watching Nyjah parts you’re pretty set. 

Article by Kieran Zimmer