Skateboarding

Whether you're a Tony Hawk in training or still learning how to land a kick flip, skateboarding isn't the same without the right soundtrack. That's why we're here — to get those wheels spinning with a fast-and-furious set of heavy metal and punk, including the band that counts Bam Margera's brother, drummer Jess Margera, among its prank-pulling, hook-slinging ranks (CKY, which shares its name with Bam's best-selling series of skate videos). They're joined by the chord-climbing thrash tracks of Exodus and Municipal Waste, the Clash-schooled circle-pit anthems of Rancid, and the fist-swinging hardcore of 7 Seconds and Black Flag.

Everything's still cranked up in our Next Steps, too, with gnarly slabs of indie rock and hip-hop tossed in for good measure.

A skateboarding playlist just wouldn't be a skateboarding playlist without such half-pipe heroes as Slayer (the hasty highway-to-hell melodies of "Dead Skin Mask"), the Circle Jerks (the groundbreaking L.A. hardcore of "Wild In the Streets"), and Dropkick Murphys (the pub-crawling punk of "Captain Kelly's Kitchen"). Classics aside, it doesn't hurt to cue up left-field cuts when you're trying to nail a insanely wicked trick. That's why we balance the pogo punk of Green Day and the Ramones with the gritty grindcore of "Gravedancer," the spastic, drum 'n' bass-powered hip-hop of "B.O.B.," and the sarcastic but oh-so-catchy college rock of "Slack M**********r."

Not sure you can make it through another hour of flips and falls? Our Deep Cuts will make you forget all about your scabbed knees and sore back in no time.

Just when you thought things might slow to a steady, manageable crawl, our Skateboarding Deep Cuts speeds right up with the help of mosh-pit favorites like "Drink Drank Punk," "Jaks," "Did You Wanna Die," and "McShred" — featuring world-renowned skater Chuck Treece, a session player for Billy Joel and Bad Brains. Not to mention such molten metal masterpieces as the melodic yet masochistic "Wait and Bleed," the dizzying "Iron Tusk," and the bass-thumping, noise-spewing tendencies of "Committed." Basically, we're not leaving you much room to breathe here, except for maybe the block-party rap of Eric B. & Rakim, and even that's bursting at the grooves with boom-bap breaks and swift turntable scratches.

If you're going to spend an entire afternoon rolling across sun-baked asphalt — all while churning out lip tricks, aerials, and crooked grinds — then you might as well have some music to match your every move. Not just obvious old- (Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies, the Misfits, Bad Brains) and new- (NOFX, Pennywise, AFI, Rancid) school punk icons, either. Nothing screams a day at the (skate) park quite like the pedal-to-the-floor tempos and searing guitar leads of thrash metal (Bonded By Blood, Evile, the almighty Exodus). And if that's not enough to make you scream "skate or die!" on the way up a vert ramp, there's always straight-up hardcore: whether or not you know their names, bands like Agent Orange, Wasted Youth, and Gang Green are like a blow to the head with benefits. Now, onto some freestyle and flip trick action . . .