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Music

'Dave Mirra's Freestyle BMX' Changed My Musical Landscape Forever

It was a lot more than Tech Decks, CCS Catalogs, and video games. It was a life.

It’s a tired task to point out the tremendous amount of grief with which the entertainment industry has been stricken over the past few months. But this week brought us a unique pair of lost talent. Maurice White, founding member of iconic funk band Earth, Wind & Fire passed away at 74. My mother is devastated; she’s a longtime fan who used to show me her EW&F ticket stubs and passed down her 7” record collection to me. But the loss of Maurice White didn’t hit me quite like the loss of pioneering BMX rider Dave Mirra, who has reportedly taken his own life at the age of 41. I think it’s pretty obvious why. I can’t sit here and pretend like I was ever a huge fan of Dave Mirra, BMX or extreme sports. I haven’t had interest in any of that stuff for years. But what I do have is an overly sentimental streak where I associate certain objects, people, or places with time periods in my life. Maybe that’s why I’m typing this in a Red Hot Chili Pepper’s tour shirt I bought in a parking lot in 2003 or why my GT Air is still crammed into the back of my shed with flat tires, pegs, and chromies I’m assuming I stole off a car. It was Christmas Day, 2000, at my dad’s apartment in Queens, NY. As a present, he gave me my first video game system, a Playstation. It came with two games, my sister was given Crash Bandicoot: Warped and I received Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX. I must’ve played that damn game until my hands bled.

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I was born in 1991. By the time I was nine, I had a few CDs of my own: greatest hits albums of The Monkees and Steppenwolf. When I was in the car with my dad, he would play Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin, but a majority of the time, my sister controlled the radio. There was a lot of Spice Girls. When I first played Freestyle BMX, I was introduced to a world of music I had never heard before. Bands like Rancid, Pennywise, and Sublime were instrumental in developing my musical taste throughout my teen years, which would extend into adulthood, and therein my career writing about music. When I heard that Dave Mirra passed away, I felt like I needed to write something in appreciation of what he contributed to my life, and no doubt the life of many other people like me. It was a lot more than Tech Decks, CCS Catalogs, and video games. It was a life.

Sublime – “What I Got”

Of course, Sublime is a bit exhausted by now. The inflated legacy, the cliché references by people who set their alarms to smoke at 4:20 and the existence of Rome have left the well running a bit dry. Keep in mind, at the time I’m nine-years-old and riding down a digital dirt path on a BMX bike. “What I Got” was a great introduction into the various incarnations of SoCal punk and ska. Finding out the band had been kicked off of 95 Warped Tour because Bradley Nowell’s Dalmatian had the munchies was an added bonus. I see Sublime like I see Nirvana, even if that’s not the “cool” thing to say. There’s a part of me that will always love these songs.

Cypress Hill – “Dust”

This was the first time I heard Cypress Hill. They were the first rap group on my radar that felt oddly comfortably with a group of rock bands. Fast forward to the nu-metal revolution of the aughts, it’s not surprising that B-Real and the guys later collaborated with the likes of Tim Armstrong, Tom Morello, and Mike Shinoda. “Dust” was released the same year the game came out on an album called Skull & Bones, which also featured “(Rap) Superstar.” I remember blasting that song through my Sony Walkman that sported a sticker reading “SICK.” Give me a break people; in 2000, you were probably listening to those Backstreet Boys CDs they sold at the Burger King drive-thru or that Brian McKnight song.

Rancid – “Maxwell Murder”

When I first heard the bass solo from “Maxwell Murder,” I lost my fucking mind. How could someone’s fingers move that fast? A copy of …And Out Come The Wolves was probably the first punk album I ever bought. Then I moved back in time buying used records of The Clash’s Combat Rock and Dead Kennedy’s Bedtime For Democracy, destroying turntable needles in the process. Throughout high school, Rancid would become intertwined with bands like Blink-182 with the emergence of The Transplants. The first time I photographed Rancid and The Transplants up-close in 2013, my inner-child was in awe of Lars Frederiksen and Tim Armstrong. Little did I know I’d be pulling a photo from that night out of my vault for my 2015 tell-all with Travis Barker.

Social Distortion – “Don’t Drag Me Down”

“Don’t Drag Me Down” was one of the earlier middle fingers to the status quo I can remember hearing. Do you remember the feeling you had when your realized music taught you we don’t have to believe what the news or politicians or our parents are telling us? By the time 2003 rolled around I got my hands on a copy of Anti-Flag’s The Terror State, which eventually sent me back into A New Kind of Army and Die For The Government. Between The Terror State and NOFX’s The War on Errorism, I must’ve thought I was a class-act anti-fascist punk. But let’s be honest, I was also listening to A.F.I.’s Sing the Sorrow and Less Than Jake’s Anthem. And I was a 12-year-old.

Deftones – “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)”

This track off of 1997’s Around the Fur left an impression, but I wouldn’t truly discover the Deftones until the self-titled record came out in 2003 and I experienced “Minerva” for the first time. That summer the band embarked on the Summer Sanitarium Tour with Metallica, Linkin Park, Mudvayne, and Limp Bizkit (seriously that’s a real lineup). My friend Chris saw the show in New Jersey with his uncle but I wasn’t allowed to go. He saw Limp Bizkit use a flamethrower on stage. I’ll never forgive my parents. Whatever, at least I didn’t have to hear “St. Anger” performed live.

Primer 55 – “Loose”

This song never stuck with me but its video did inspire my current-day fashion and dance moves.

Pennywise – “Greed”

When I first got into the sing-a-longs of vocalist Jim Lindberg and antics of gargantuan guitarist Fletcher Dragge, I hadn’t even hit puberty. Little did I know that a decade later I’d be writing about music and watching them play with the Descendents. By 2011, both Lindberg and I had grown much older. He, along with aforementioned Frederiksen, Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath, NOFX’s Fat Mike, and more would become the faces of a documentary film called The Other F Word. The film about fatherhood and aging in the music community put my life in perspective, not only by how far I’d come since I’d first heard these bands, but by how tremendously their own lifestyles had changed.

Dropkick Murphys – “Never Alone”

My knowledge of Dropkick Murphys never went much further than Sing Loud, Sing Proud! (2001) and Blackout (2003), but it did lead to my discovery of Flogging Molly’s Drunken Lullabies (2002) and Within a Mile of Home (2004). When it was announced that Roseland Ballroom in New York City would be closing in 2014, I was able to photograph Flogging Molly there just a few days before the venue shuttered its doors. My fondest memory at Roseland: a Deftones show in 2007, see how all this ties together? As it turns out, I did see Dropkick Murphys perform at Warped Tour in 2005 at Randall’s Island. It was a riot. Everyone was drunk, wearing kilts, and throwing mud! By the time I was 16, I would drink Irish Car Bombs while listening to Dropkick in my friend’s kitchen. I was really cool, right?

59 Times The Pain – “Got It All In Sight”

Admittedly, I had to look up and revisit this song. While I’m unfamiliar with the band, they sat alongside the likes of the Bouncing Souls, Agnostic Front, and ALL on one of the Punk-O-Rama compilations in 1999. When it comes to referencing Swedish punk bands, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 won my attention with Millencolin’s “No Cigar.”

Swingin’ Utters – “Stupid Lullabies”

Between this track and “Five Lessons Learned” (another THPS2 banger) Swingin’ Utters was an easy fit to round out a punk soundtrack. While the band fits the geographical theme of California punks, they aren’t exactly from down South. I was never a big Utters fan, but the association with Fat Wreck Chords and the community as a whole always held value in my head. As a native New Yorker, I took my first trip to California last year. For whatever reason, I remembered that the band was from Santa Cruz. After some Las Palmas tacos and a walk on the boardwalk, I had to peruse through Streetlight Records. Low and behold, they were right there on the shelf. Derek Scancarelli had the OG Playstation controller. He’s on Twitter.