As I continue writing these posts, one per day, with varying quality, I can see recurring themes. And if you’ve been reading them daily, you probably picked up on them too. Also, thanks for reading them!

Videogames have been an integral part of my life. From the simple bleep blop beeps of Intellivision, to the majesty of arcades, to the ever expanding generations of consoles and PCs, videogames have always been around me. 2006 was a good time for catching up on games and music. I had a PS2, went to the gym daily, and wasted my free time writing and playing videogames. My source of music was videogames and since the GTA juggernaut of III, Vice City, and San Andreas were money printing machines for Rockstar, all developers went for the open sandbox mine, see if they can strike gold too.

It was a given that games like FIFA would have nicely curated soundtracks. Same for movie based games like Scarface and Reservoir Dogs. Driver: Parallel Lines had the misfortune of following the trainwreck that was Driv3r and it’s a shame, because the game’s storyline, encompassing a thirty year time jump, is pure 70s schlock action. The cars handled well, the music for both 70s and 00s was a cornucopia of well known and up and coming acts.

New Health Rock by TV on the Radio caught my eye and I would crank the tv’s volume whenever the song came up. I’d just drive around near the hangout, swerving and being chased for crashing a donut stand (!) There was something otherworldly with New Health Rock. Perhaps it was that it sounded rough, almost like a demo. Probably because it didn’t need to be crisp, its rough facade went well with TK’s revenge epic on New York’s corrupt police force and dark underworld.

TV on the Radio are a fantastic band and I was lucky enough to see them live at Just like heaven 2025, which, according to rumours, was the very last edition. Shame, I loved the venue in Pasadena and the two times I attended were wonderful times in my life. And I gotta say, Wolf like me is a thing of beauty in its live version.

Have a good week.

-Sam J. Valdés López