Really shouldn't be doing this now. Should be packing to get out of the soon-to-be-Atlantis I call home.
But anyway, Rocket Jockey is one of my favorite video games. While the sense of humor was a little fresher when I was 14, it remains unlike anything I've ever played. But as much as I like them, this isn't a video game blog so I'll put you in the good hands of
Home of the Underdogs where you can download it.
But what that download is missing is the soundtrack. Actually, the days of my youth were missing it too because I couldn't get it to work. I read on a forum somewhere that the soundtrack was done by Dick Dale and immediately dug for my CD, looked at the back and thought "oh god" and to my surprise it played magnificently. I mean, having already loved this game and finding out that a musician I loved did the soundtrack... it was like finding out Natalie Portman was your next door neighbor or something.
From the little I know about this soundtrack, Dick Dale is backed by The Ultras... or Alpha 60. Maybe some songs are by the Ultras or Alpha 60s. I don't know. It is good though, sorta late Dick Dale (even another version of Nitrus on here) with a different recording quality that works really well. And surf fans should check out the game too: there's certainly a hot rod sort of thing going on in the aesthetic that works well with the music.
The tracklisting for the mp3s isn't my own, just taken from CDDB. Link attached in comments
edit:
Thanks to Brian from
Surfguitar101 for scoring this info
Hi Brian,
just listened back to Rocket Jockey. Here is my recollection.
The Ultras were hired by the music director of the project (forgot his name - I don't have the packaging box handy).
He had his own surf group (I don't know the name of the group or if it even had a name. I think it was basically just him and a friend).
The Ultras contributed 6 tracks all together.
3 were previously recorded by the Ultras and licensed by Rocket Science. (2 of these were from Surf Pop Sludge)
The other 3 tracks were recorded by the Ultras for the occasion at a recording session Rocket Science set up.
In my track listings I have excluded the original track 1 which was all the video encoding for the game.
Track 7 (1:25) Surrounded By Assassins - an Ultras original we had previously recorded but not released.
Track 8 (2:43) was written by the music director and performed and recorded for the occasion by The Ultras. It may be called "Vashton"
Track 9 (2:32) (don’t know the title) - was also written by the music director and performed and recorded for the occasion by The Ultras.
Track 10 (2:52) Magic Wand – from Surf-Pop-Sludge
Track 11 (4:14) Death Tube - from Surf-Pop-Sludge
Track 12 (4:41) UltraMan - an Ultras original performed and recorded for the occasion by The Ultras. (never recorded or released anywhere else)
Tracks 3, 4, 5, 6 all sound like Dick Dale to me - at least a couple of those were previously released by him, maybe all – I don’t know.
I believe Tracks 1, 2, and 13-20 are all the music director’s band.
Some other notes – Rocket Science went out of business not long after Rocket jockey was released.
The Ultras opened a bunch of shows for Dick Dale in the 90’s – at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, at Slim’s in San Francisco, in San Jose, and elsewhere. Dick Dale was particularly amazing at the Phoenix Theater.
The Ultras (actually just me on guitar and Trey Sabatelli on drums) collaborated with Morey Goldstein (keyboards, sax, producer) on another video game soundtrack from 1995 called Jet Ski. I don’t think it ever got released.
Hope this clears up some of the confusion.
Best,
Eric Lenchner
P.S. The Ultras never jammed or recorded with Dick Dale, though we did submit Magic Wand and Death Tube to him through our mutual producer, Scott Mathews. My guess is that Dick never listened to the songs.
