Using headphones at the skatepark is not always ideal. It blocks your senses and you never know when a pro or a toddler will skate into your blindspot and cry about you ruining their line. That said, music can be a great way to set the tone of a skate sesh when the park is empty, cruising down the sidewalk or blasting a speaker if you have that “idgaf” energy. Here are 10 albums, listed in no particular order, for such situations.
- Death Grips – “Year of the Snitch”
Nothing says “smash my skateboard on the concrete ’til it breaks” like Death Grips. This record combines the guitar-driven ear-canal destruction of “The Powers that B” with the melody-centered songwriting of “The Money Store.” This is one of their shortest records at just 37 minutes, but the rapid-fire run of songs keeps the sound refreshing and eclectic. There’s a lot of intricate details in the production if you give it a close listen, but it just as easily falls to the background when you need to lock in.
- Bad Brains – “Bad Brains”
Listening to this album too much while skating will probably lead to breaking more bones. The reckless abandon across the record is nothing short of inspiring, and the reggae passages will help you wind down in the ambulance on the way to the ER. The sound quality is rugged and raw, but if you turn your headphones up loud enough you won’t notice it, and if anyone says your speaker is too loud, kill ’em.
- Earl Sweatshirt – “Some Rap Songs”
You ever listen to an album and ask yourself, “what the f*** is happening right now?” Sitting on the frayed edges of vaporwave and experimental hip-hop, “Some Rap Songs” is like dropping two tabs of acid before starting a 2 a.m. conversation with a wook down on Newport. It doesn’t matter where the conversation goes, but it’s definitely going SOMEWHERE. This is a great album for cruising city streets or a late-night boardwalk, but you might want to try it without the acid first.
- Pink Floyd – “Meddle”
Pink Floyd is often lauded as great skating music, but I don’t need to be questioning my mortality or the spiralling usefulness of society on the casual like that. Put away “Dark Side” or “The Wall” and throw on “Meddle.” The instrumentation is blissfully organic, consisting of nature sounds and 12-string guitars, but there’s enough compositional variety across its runtime to feel like a total trip. And finally, there’s no going back when those first little dings of “Echoes” usher in the final leg of the record. The 23-minute song will forever change your brain chemistry, and will euphorically transcend your chill cruise into an interstellar odyssey.
- Bikini Kill – “Pussy Whipped”
The perfect soundtrack for skate shenanigans, “Pussy Whipped” is the kind of album you want when you’re about to try something REALLY stupid. If you’re staring down one of those Point Loma hills, with no helmet and no one blocking traffic for you, this is the kind of album you need to give yourself that final push or rethink all the decisions that led you to that point. Bikini Kill is known for their feminist, revolutionary lyrics and ear shattering vocals, but this record in particular is also loaded with groovy bass riffs that set them apart from the rest of the hardcore scene. Grab a helmet, a friend to call 9-1-1 and this punk opus the next time you have a great idea you think will land you on the cover of Thrasher or the hood of a car.
- Otoboke Beaver – “Super Champon”
If you survived bombing that hill or “Pussy Whipped” talked you down, but still want that same energy, throw on “Super Champon” by the Japanese punk band Otoboke Beaver. The vocals across this record are energized, dynamic and commanding; if I knew what frontwoman Accorinrin was saying, I would do it without question. With an unrelenting sound, and the nuanced musicianship of jazz virtuoso’s, this colorful punk record will keep your feet on the ground or 6 feet under it.
- Linkin Park – “Hybrid Theory”
It’s ok to get in your feelings when you’re skating; crying at the park is acceptable and welcome. Just like My Chemical Romance’s “Black Parade” or System of a Down’s “Toxicity,” Linkin Park’s debut, “Hybrid Theory,” is one of the few millennial emo records that hasn’t grown cringe with age (sorry, Yellowcard, Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco – you’re done). Despite being released before 9/11, its passionate performances, depraved lyricism and millennial existential dread fit right in with the paradigm of the post-Y2K era.
- Charles Mingus – “The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady”
This is a people watching record, not something to listen to when learning a new trick. The juxtaposition between the bouncing rhythm section and the lolly-gagging winds creates a bustling atmosphere across the soundscape that can’t help but steal your attention any moment it gets. When you’re flying past folks on the sidewalk, or cruising down an empty street, this is a record that has the ability to color the world around you on a bleak day; it has the same effect as Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” but with a lot more bite. Pop it on, roll down the street and just watch what happens.
- Claud – “Supermodels”
Anyone else miss the wave of sad, gay indie-they/them records we got around the mid-2018s at the height of the first Trump presidency? While it looks like that genre has a chance at a comeback, this record by Claud, released in 2023, is late to the party, but falls neatly in that category as one of the best of them. Flip-flopping between confessional ballads and indie-rock head bangers, the entire record has a bedroom-pop aesthetic that throws me right in my feelings. Listen up: grab your board, go to Mission Bay Park around 5:30 p.m., put this album on and mourn all your ex’s as you skate down the park trying to avoid eye contact with strangers. 10/10 experience.
- Galcher Lustwerk – “Information”
House music has become a dime-a-dozen thanks to the internet age, so when someone drops a house record worthy of note, it makes waves. “Information” is the kind of album that will give your skate sesh a memorable sonic aesthetic, while also giving you the mental space to focus when you’re running the same line over and over again, looking for perfection. Or if you’re looking for a post-skate cooldown, this is just the right record to throw on in the car as you head home.
Nick Hancock 
Tessa Balc