Customer Reviews

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland / Game O.S.T.

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

It would seem many people are upset over all these 'poser' bands covering these punk classics, but it seems that they got so bogged down in complaining that they didn't actually listen to the music, which is actually quite good. Sure some of the bands might typically be not worth listening to, they go out of character here to pay homage to the bands that did these great songs.

Institutionalized: Senses Fail does an excellent job in portraying the angst and frustration from the original version (by Suicidal Tendancies)

Suburban Home/I Like Food: This one stays roughly similar to the original(s) except it gets a little more over the top. It's one of my favorites on the album, possibly because I enjoyed the originals anyway.

Astro Zombies: I'm certainly not a fan of MCR but I must admit they did a good job representing the Misfits here. It sounds a lot like the classic but with a little original flair.

Search and Destroy: Emanuel was excellent at covering Iggy and the Stooges here. It sounds almost like the same song except with better recording quality. I like it a lot.

Sonic Reducer: Now here's a song that everyone will have heard of even if they haven't heard of any of the others. Sonic Reducer is legendary, and Saves the Day actually covers it well. While it's different than the original, it retains the liveliness the Dead Boys put in it.

Who is Who: Eh, this one is one of the few I think is only mediocre. It's a basically faithful reproduction I guess...

Seeing Red/Screaming At A Wall: Thrice is one of my favorite bands right now, and very different from the other cover bands here. Needless to say, their cover of two Minor Threat songs is very good, they even cheapen the sound quality to make it sound more similar. It's ironic for Thrice to cover Minor Threat, as they tend to be very melodically focused.

House of Suffering: Well I don't like The Bled, but they did a decent job with this song. Tey put a little spin on it but keep what made it good originally.

Time to Escape: Hot Snakes does about the same thing Government Issue did originally, and it works just as well

Start Today: I was worried when I saw a poppy band like Fall Out Boy was doing a Gorilla Biscuits song but to my surprise it actually works well. One of the few cases that a cover band puts their own spin on it.

Wash Away: Alkaline Trio does a great cover of TSOL here, keeping it mostly the same except placing more emphasis on the vocals. Great cover.

Ever Fallen in Love?: Thursday was a perfect choice to cover the Buzzcocks here. The cover is nearly flawless, definitely one fo the best here.

Let's Have A War: Ugh well I wasn't happy with this one. From Autumn to Ashes completely strips this greaf Fear song of its trademark cynicism. It even replaces 'queers' with 'Bush twins' making it more politically correct. The original is much better.

Fix Me: Rise Against has portrayed Black Flag in the past and done a decent job, and here they do it even better. The vocals are appropiately angry and the song is covered well.

In short, if you can get past the bands that cover the songs, you'll see that they actually do them very well, giving us a great nostalgic collection of punk legends.

The music on this CD is great. It seems to me that anyone who is anti-scene and loves "true" punk, made it a point to not buy this CD, and still comment on it. So tip your hats, sharpen the spikes on your belts holding up your checkered, too tight pants, and grease your hair up into your "different" mohawk, because, you are in fact making a scene. Talk about ushering in a new wave of fake people.

well i personally was not as angry to hear about this cd as a lot of people seem to be. i personally dont see why everyone is so mad about this cd...after all im pretty sure that the old punk rock bands had to give their consent for this cd to be made. yes, i will admit that the covers by fall out boy and senses fail are nothing short of terrible, but... there are some good songs on here. hot snakes for instance... a very punk band... especially if you trace them back to the days of drive like jehu. and then theres bad brains...deemed the creators of hardcore by many. it was interesting to hear one of the most popular acts in hardcore today cover the creators of a genre. i also am a sucker for saves the day so i liked their cover too. but i will say that this album does not do the originals justice.
p.s: i hate all of these trendy, sterotypical lables that all of you thrust on these bands. emo...please. screamo...what on earth does that even mean...how does that even begin to describe anything. these terms were given birth by the dogmatic mtv and should never be used in intellegent conversation... ever!!

Well, I'm 15, but I don't have an account.

Right, well, I am a fan of many of the songs on this cd's original artists and also the artists who did the covers. My personal favourite has to be MCR's cover of the Misfit's song. It's a good rendition, in my opinion, and manages to retain the original feel of the song while bringing in the influence of one of the bands that I truly like.

Other than that and a few choice other songs, it somewhat shames the original recordings...sorry, all.

Grading Criteria:
1 star- Blows.
2 stars- Fair, bordering on bad.
3 stars- Decent.
4 stars- Very good.
5 stars- Classic.

I usually don't buy a CD on a whim, but the thought of a bunch of emo and pop punkers covering hardcore was irresistable to me. You really got to give these bands an A for effort. Being that most of them are totally out of their element doing this kind of thing, you have to expect that this CD would just be awful. Supprissingly though, some of the covers are decent, like Thrice's Minor Threat cover and the Adolescents cover by the Dropkick Murphys. Rise Against did well with "Fix Me"(all 50 seconds of it). And as much as I loathe MCR, their cover of "Astro Zombies" was respectable, at least. And then of course their were bands that just fell flat on their faces, like Fallout Boys god awful cover of Gorilla Biscuits.

Do NOT buy this album, however. If you are even remotely interested in the songs on here, download the originals individually of the net and put them on one disc. I am pretty sure they are all available on iTunes. It will cost you a couple more dollars that this, but it is well worth it.

Best Song: "Who is Who"
Worst Song: "Start Today"

This soundtrack suffers from extremes- they picked some great bands to cover (Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Misfits) and picked some decent modern groups to cover these songs (Thursday, Rise Against). But on the other hand, they chose some awful bands to over (TSOL??!!) and some even worse modern groups, again, to cover these songs (post-'Through Being Cool' Saves The Day, Taking Back Sunday, Senses Fail). Also, if you're going to go with emo and pop punk groups, why not pick AFI to do a Misfits cover? They did start out as a Misfits cover band... Hopefully, a kid or two follows up on some of the groups that inspired these covers and learns about how great they were/are, what it means to be 'straightedge', what a dogtown is, et al. Oh, and if this post makes you want to do that...do yourself a favor and don't chose TSOL to begin your journey into the discography of hardcore punk.

Buy the original albums by the ORIGINAL artists! Not this corporate bullcrap! These artists doing the covers are all unoriginal and they're the kind of sellouts that sold out before they even started. Buy these albums instead:

Suicidal Tendencies "Suicidal Tendencies"
Descendents "Milo Goes to College" and "Bonus Fat"
Misfits "Walk Among Us"
Iggy and the Stooges "Raw Power"
The Dead Boys "Young, Loud, and Snotty"
The Adolescents "The Adolescents"
Minor Threat "Complete Discography" or "Out of Step"
Bad Brains "I Against I"
Government Issue "Complete History, Vol. 1"
Gorilla Biscuits "Start Today"
T.S.O.L. "Dance With Me"
Buzzcocks "Singles Going Steady"
Fear "The Record"
Black Flag "First Four Years" or "Nervous Breakdown"

Other albums I recommend:
Black Flag "Damaged"
Dead Kennedys "Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables"
Bad Brains "Bad Brains"
The Germs "MIA"
The Stooges "The Stooges"
MC-5 "Kick Out the Jams"
The Misfits "Earth A.D."

Also if you want to listen to ACTUAL emo/screamo, not the new wave corporate versions, check out these bands:
Rites of Spring
Embrace
Moss Icon
Fugazi
Grey Matter
Fire Party
Sunny Day Real Estate
Texas Is the Reason
Saetia
Orchid
Off Minor
Funeral Diner
etc.

[/End]

the approach is great: the best new punk bands covering some of the greatest punk bands of the past. however, as far as a selling point goes, the creators of this album forgot one thing:

hardcore punks hate emo bands.

it doesn't matter that senses fail's cover of the ledgendary suicidal tendencies song "institutionalized" excels at conveying the raw anger and frustration in the song, they're still a sub-par emocore band so punks won't like them.

it doesn't matter that taking back sunday convey everything 80's punk is about with their cover of "suburban home" with "I like food" thrown in, they're still too sugary of a band for punks to stomach.

and even though my chemical romance shows obvious punk instincts in their first two albums, punks may despute their credibility as a true punk band worthy of covering the misfits. hell, they played saturday night live!

well, as goes with anyone who goes against something just because they don't like one particular thing about it,they are missing out.

although the album isn't perfect, it is extroardinary and there may be no tribute album or soundtrack as good as this one in the punk world, save for the ramones tribute album.

emanuel, who also did one of the few decent covers for the recent lackluster smashing pumpkins tribute album, does an amazing cover of the stooges' "search and destroy", combined with one of the best decisions on what to cover.

the dropkick murphys and saves the day do relatively forgettable covers of their chosen songs, but perform them well enough to get by.

thrice tear through with two mminor threat covers that make you want to dust off their discology and play it all day. the bled's cover of "house of suffering" doesn't show any added creativity to the original song, but bad brains fans will be happy just to finally hear someone cover the band without sucking the life out of it.

the biggest surprise is that fall out boy's entry isn't terrible. the band probably belongs away from this album more than any other band here, and even though they turn their chosen gorilla biscuits into their own a little too much, it's still pretty damn catchy.

thursday's buzzcocks cover fares well, rise against make an odd choice by doing a black flag song from the post-henry rollins era, but it excels nonetheless.

alkaline trio's t.s.o.l. cover is absolutely flawless. it becomes clear while listening to it that alkaline trio was made to cover "wash away".

overall, it is an album that anyone who THINKS they're a punk (and especially anyone who has an obsession with music) should give a listen to. Even though today's punks descrtiminate when it comes to what modern punk has evolved into, it still fits.

...And hell, they didn't make that many copies, so that means more for the rest of us.

Being someone who has never played the game before (but wants to), I think that the Tony Hawk's American Wasteland sondtrack is pretty good, with a couple of slightly rough edges. I approve of the idea of having modern hardcore bands do older punk songs, as most of them did a fairly respectable job. My favorite tracks on the album are "Astro Zombies" (My Chemical Romance), "Wash Away" (Alkaline Trio), "Suburban Home/I Like Food" (Taking Back Sunday), and "Ever Fallen In Love" (Thursday), since they all do good jobs at remaining loyal to the originals but still adding their own little twists. [I don't think that these bands are THAT mainstream, compared to a lot of bands (***cough**greenday**cough***), except for Fall Out Boy]. So, yeah, unless you're already prejudiced against the bands on the album like a lot of the poeple that reviewed this album on Amazon, or if you just don't like punk, I would definitely suggest this album.

this cd is good, i like most of the bands, but i was really looking for a song from the end of the game. when it has the film of all the real skaters theres a song playing that goes something like "everybody is somebody in LA". and it says LA over and over. IF ANYONE KNOWS WHAT THAT SONG IS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!! kel_shmel333@hotmail.com