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And no matter what tasty choice you make, you'll enjoy our everyday low prices, plus extra ways to save, like digital coupons worth over $600 each week, and up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with points, so you can get big flavors and big savings, king supers, fresh for everyone, fuel restrictions apply. I'm here to remind you to eat your cereal with a fork and do your homework in the dark. If you recognize that quote, then you know what today's episode is about. Well, you read the description so you know what it's about anyway, but we're going to talk about the pump up the volume soundtrack from 1990 from the film featuring Christian Slater. Yes, you can hear a little bit of a scratch still in my throat, but I'll tell you a little bit about what we've missed since I saw you last a lot has happened. But we're going to do an episode. We're going to talk about the soundtrack, which was a huge, huge part of my adolescence. And I'm excited to talk about it, even though it's not necessarily the best representation of soundtrack to film ratio, but you'll see what I'm talking about. So without further ado, it's time to talk about the pump up the volume soundtrack. Let's go. [Music] Welcome back. Let's talk first about my sponsor Distro Kid and how Distro Kid has helped make this show come together. I think for like three years now, Distro Kid has been with me forever and they have that special link that I share with you every single time, which is distrokid.com/vip/waterproof to get 30% off your first year. Distro Kid is the best way for you to share your music with the world quickly, easily. They have an app. You can share the profits from your streams and downloads and everybody checking out your amazing music on all platforms. So make sure you're checking out my link that I'm giving to you 30% off because that's a good amount of savings. I use it and you should use it too. So I'm already tripping over my words as I'm getting started. You can tell I'm like just trying to get my mouth around speaking. A lot has been going on. A lot. It's kind of hard to believe it because when I recorded the episode of the top 10 albums of 2024, I was recording that episode and within, I think it was like two days after recording it, the fires began in Los Angeles. So I had recorded that episode right as I was coming out of illness and I was like finally through the crazy holiday season, finally through this entire time of things being so wah. But I'm ready to start the world and get things back again. And within a day or two, after recording that episode, Los Angeles just completely caught on fire and the whole thing just was absolutely insane. And as somebody who lives here and those who live here know, we're used to wildfires and we're used to those things happening here. It's not out of the ordinary because we do get very dry. The brush gets overgrown in our mountains. So we've come to expect a certain amount of fire and fire seasons. But this one really took us all by surprise because as you've read on the news or heard from the story's first hand, second hand, third hand, they burned areas that just don't normally catch on fire. These are places that are surrounded by communities and neighborhoods and just don't have a tremendous amount of brush and trees. And so learning that the Pacific Palisades would go up as quickly as it did. And then also the Eaton Canyon, which is just right around the corner from me. We were on evacuation notice for a few days there. We lost power. It was a little scary. We've been through. We've been close to some fires in the past before, but that one was intense. I'm thankful to report that we are okay. Our path was never evacuated. We were just kind of like one stage outside of it and things are starting to get to get better. So that was one thing since I saw you last. And then right in the thick of all the fires, I ended up getting the flu. I had been sick for three weeks during the holiday season, which is like the most terrible cold ever. And right during the weekend, the first weekend during the fires, I got a fever and I got chills and aches. And I was hopeful that it was nothing but ended up going to the doctor and testing for I had influenza A, the flu type A, which is a pretty brutal one. And it really kicked my ass and kicked my ass. And it's just so crazy because I recorded that show. The fires happened. I got sick and it was just a rough start to 2025. I got to be honest. I don't know if it's like this every year and we just forget, but I feel like the year starts and you're all hopeful and you're like, here we go. It's time for new beginnings. It's time to really hit the ground running. And then you just get slapped in the face, you get punched in the face, knocked down. And I definitely did. And while my speaking voice is at least hopefully tolerable for this episode, it's still not 100% back. I am hoping every day that heals, I have some performances coming up. I'm going to be performing this upcoming weekend for a David Bowie kind of, it's like an event to raise awareness and money for music, education for kids, but we're also doing some fundraising for LAFD. And then the temple of the dads have a show coming up at roguelike tavern soon. So I just need my voice back. And I need to not be sick for a very, very, very long time. So that's what's been going on with me. I hope you're doing great. I hope that this is the beginning of our 2025 and we can really get things going in the right direction. I wanted to do pump up the volume. I had been thinking about doing this one for a while. And also, since we spoke last David Lynch has passed on. And I was also thinking to myself, I was like, Oh, I should do like a lost highway soundtrack. But maybe I'll do that for another one coming up very soon. I had already kind of planned on doing pump up the volume, but RIP David Lynch, huge fan, big influence on me, cinematically, and also just in tone and style. So that has also been a thing that happens since we spoke last. Like I said, so much stuff. But pump up the volume, a film that came out in summer of 1990 would have probably been on VHS by 1991 summer. I'm I'm pretty sure that the first time I saw this, somebody had probably taped it off of HBO. I had a neighbor growing up who had a ton of taped movies off of HBO and Cinemax and we would go to his house and we would borrow these tapes. And I think that's the only way I could have gotten my hands on something that was this R rated and this controversial from my young eyes and ears to be witnessing. But this is a very revolutionary soundtrack for me musically. And it really does open up so many doors and windows and some that I wouldn't even know how important they would be until years later. It's quite an eclectic soundtrack. You know, the single soundtrack gets the number one top billing as like the ultimate 90s grunge and alternative film soundtrack that opens the door for so many artists. And I do believe it gets that title that award because of who's on it, just how you can still listen to an album to this day. And it really is a snapshot, a window of time. But this one feels like a little bit of a nice precursor kind of one that gets you a glimpse of where we're headed musically in the 90s without it even knowing or maybe it did know. But this film was directed by I have his name, Alan Moyle. And Alan Moyle would go on to do Empire Records, a few other films that you might recognize. The original score composer for this was Cliff Martinez and the music supervisor was Kathy Nelson. She did repo man high fidelity. And they did this soundtrack. So one of the things if you lived and grew up when I did, you'll know about this film is it was one of those movies where so many of the songs in the movie were like, yes, I want this. I cannot wait to get the soundtrack. And then you would get your hands on the soundtrack. And you were like, why aren't 50% or more of the songs from this movie on this soundtrack? It was and that's what I meant upfront, which it was film to soundtrack ratios, not the best match. And interestingly enough, it wasn't necessarily their fault because when putting a film together about an underground DJ who's playing this edgy kind of off-kilter music, they put a ton of stuff in the movie. And when it came time to put together the soundtrack, they really had to pair it down. Kathy Nelson had to pair down 40 plus pieces of music and she had to put them down to 11, 12 pieces of music that would end up on this soundtrack. And so they had to whittle it down. And they had powers that be, new line cinema, people that were like, we need this thing to be popular. We needed to connect with the kids. We needed to have pop sensibilities. We needed to have like bands that they'll recognize and will resonate. We don't want to have a soundtrack full of a bunch of weird stuff and it won't sell. So I know that Alan Moyle and Kathy Nelson wanted to give us all the songs from the movie, but they were limited. And it truly is one of those soundtracks that when you got it home, you're like, first, where is everybody knows by learning to Cohen? That is the signature song of the movie. And really, what everybody thought, you're going to buy the soundtrack and come home and you're going to have Leonard Cohen going, everybody knows that the dice and noted, you know, you're going to have it. That's you're waiting for that. For those of you who don't know the story of pump up the volume, it's essentially something that, you know, now we kind of have in reality with people having podcasts, their own radio shows, blogs, programming streams, YouTube's, whatever. But in 1990, the idea of a high schooler broadcasting a pirate radio station from the basement of his parents' house and connecting with high school kids. I mean, when I tell you all, that was the dream. That was the dream. I, this is one of those movies that when I saw it, I was like, I want this so bad. I wanted to have his life. I wanted to be broadcasting pirate radio to my high school. I wanted to be this anonymous, coolest fuck DJ who was sharing unbelievable music and everybody in the halls would walk around and be like, man, did you listen to that incredible show with the music and that guy? He's so clever and they wouldn't know who I was. If you've seen this film, that was the fantasy. That was what we wanted. We wanted that so bad to have our own pirate radio station. The filmmaker Alan Moyle had come up with a storyline because I guess in England, there were pirate radio stations off of abandoned oil drilling rigs. There was a movie made about it with Philip Seymour Hoffman, I think in like 2000 or something like that about the actual thing. So that's where he got this idea for the pirate radio stations. But this idea came about in his head and he wrote a script about a guy who was going to try to kill himself and he was going to tell how he was going to do it on this pirate radio station in his high school. He wrote this thing, shared it with a fellow creative and she was like, this thing is way too dark. I think you need to make it more friendly. People can connect to it more. By the way, I will say right now, just a little bit of a trigger warning. Just for the subject of this episode, I am going to be talking a little bit about suicide because that's a heavy topic in this movie. It was a big topic at the time and I think it's worth not glazing over it or nowadays everybody's using terms like unalive to kind of skirt the issue and change the dialogue. But no, I'm going to just say, right up front, I'm going to just talk about it. And so I'm just letting you know, as a trigger warning, if that makes you uncomfortable, you may not want to move any further on this because I am going to talk about the word suicide. So the screenwriter, I mean, so Alan Moyell, director screenwriter, he was told like, make this a little bit more friendly. And so the story is essentially, Christian Slater plays this, he's, I think his character's name is Mark, and he's broadcasting a radio station and then when the movie starts out, maybe a handful of kids at his high school are hearing him and he's created this character called Happy Harry Hardon. So for me, it's 1991 when I'm seeing this, this is that perfect time that adolescence, you know, like the the dick and fart jokes and like the kind of the adolescent humor, like that edge, that that borderline of perversion and weird and things that are controversial. And you go through this soundtrack and the things that don't end up on the soundtrack. And so much of my fascination with the songs in the movie is yeah, they were like pieces of music that would piss off your parents or teachers or youth pastors or whatever. This whole movie is about music where parents would walk in and be like, what are you listening to? It happens over and over again. And so I was perversely fascinated in this idea. So Christian Slater plays this DJ and he's broadcasting and he's connecting with kids. And then this kid is struggling with depression. And he basically calls in on the radio show and says he's going to kill himself. And he actually does it. And so it's very heavy. And people in authority figures start to blame Christian Slater's character that they don't know who he is. That it's his fault that he's leading kids down there this road. And this really was a topic at the time of the influence of music and songs and lyrics and artists being responsible for leading kids into depression, suicide, the devil, the satanic panic. So this was all very real that parents who were just, you know, clutching their pearls and saying, Oh my God, it's the music. That's the reason why my kid was unhappy. And I was like, No, I think their kid was listening to the music because he was unhappy. And I personally could relate to this a lot because around this time was where I started to have those thoughts and feelings. And this is some of the stuff that was going on for me at the time. And I said would be a little bit on the heavier side. But I definitely in my adolescent years struggled with thoughts of suicide. And that seemed to be for anybody who felt on the outside of the norm or the popular circle to be pretty normal. There was a life before Columbine and before shootings and students shooting up schools. And the line before that was a lot of times the isolated alone and miserable kids lean towards taking their own life. That that was really the thing that was happening when people were struggling with mood disorders and depression. And people didn't quite know how to treat them. You know, songs like Jeremy by Pearl Jam where you're taking your life in front of your classroom. That was the idea I think that was around my universe and around the kids that I knew that there was a fear of suicide and that this idea of like taking out your sadness and depression on an act of aggression amongst your class, that was something that happened at the end of the 90s. I mean, I'm not saying that there weren't shootings before then or there weren't incidents of violence before then. But most of us who were struggling with this were like internalizing it, listening to music, I'm thinking about how we could escape and not take everybody with us. So there was definitely a violent turn that began to happen amongst the isolated and depressed students of the world. By the time I was already leaving high school. But this back then this was this seemed to be enough of an issue that it ended up in in films and television and made for, you know, after school programs to teach people not to do these things. But the soundtrack, the choice of having Mark begin his show with Everybody Knows by Leonard Cohen. Alan Moyle had previously been married to a woman who was very close to Leonard Cohen, so he had a good relationship with them. So he had Leonard's permission to use not only this song in the film for way less, but also if it be your will, which appears during the more somber scene in the film after the student dies. This was my window into Leonard Cohen, who would become one of my biggest artists and really one of my favorite artists of all time. And I didn't even know how much of an impact it would be because I loved Everybody Knows and I loved If It Be Your Will, but it would be another, you know, maybe another year or two before I bought various positions and bought the best of learned Cohen and really got turned on to Suzanne and burnt on a wire and famous Blue Raincoat and all the incredible songs before Leonard's voice drops down to the register that you hear on Everybody Knows. So the director puts Everybody Knows in the film and the head of New Line is like, man, that song is a drag. That's a real bummer. I don't know. And so they had already hired Concrete Blonde, you know, and paid them money. And so they decided to have them cover Everybody Knows. And they use that version in the film kind of at the end. And so they put that one on the soundtrack hoping that that would help the soundtrack sell. But I know you like me, when you got the pump up the volume soundtrack, you wanted to come home, pop it in and hear those keyboards of the beginning of Everybody Knows. And you wanted to hear his voice because you wanted to feel like I'm about to start my radio show. I'm about to start my show and here goes like this. Everybody Knows and the days are loaded. Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed. Everybody Knows. The war is over. Everybody Knows. The good guys lost. Everybody Knows. The fight was fixed. The poor staple. The rich get a rich sense how it goes. But it's okay. It's not on the soundtrack. Concrete Blonde does a great job. Concrete Blonde, known primarily by you, you know, great band. Been around for a long time for songs like Joey, Bloodletting, The Vampire Song, you know, had a lot of other hit songs. But they did a fantastic job and really brought their own touch to the song there. But it's all about Leonard Cohen's on this one. And then let's get to the second song on the album. "Why Can't I Fall in Love?" performed by Ivan Neville, Aaron Neville's brother. And this is a cover that was originally written by Canadian songwriter John Finley. This is a cover of that song. And I really enjoy this song. And this would be one of those songs that if we were in the car together and I put this on, you'd be like, "Jacob, you like this?" And I do. And sometimes these kinds of songs, these soulful with organ pieces of music creep into my head and they stay there forever. And I'll give you an example. One time I was driving in the car and I was playing "Living Colors" times up. And love rears up. It's ugly head comes on. And my wife hears me just like, sing along. And she's like, "You like this?" Because it just does seem a little bit outside of my normal scope. But I love that album, which I should do on the show at some point in time. And I love that song. And there's just a soulfulness that just really gets to me. But "Why Can't I Fall Love?" I mean, it probably made an impact because I'm a teenager. I'm watching Christian Slater, slow dance shirtless with Samantha Mathis. And she is also shirtless in his little basement bedroom. And, you know, it did things to my little brain, my little mind. And it was the sexual, sensual energy is there. And the way that they just kind of like look at each other. And they just kind of stand across from one another. Just skin exposed. You know, if I hear that song, "Why Can't I Fall in Love?" takes me right back. Think about how I was daydreaming about a girl I liked. And how I might be in a similar situation being this cool underground DJ. Now, not every song on this album is going to get a lot of attention from me. Because singles, I would say, was like played almost every song. Like I covered on the episode the Paul Westerberg songs. I didn't get into them when I was listening to it when I was younger. But this is an album where I would skip. I would skip because not everything was like, "I don't love this. I don't love this." Because there were so many things in the movie that I loved and weren't on the CD. And the next song, "Stand" by Liquid Jesus, it's fine. Liquid Jesus was a band that was a LA band. They were getting a lot of notoriety and playing a lot of live shows and being hailed as the next James addiction and being signed by Geffen. And they released a major release. And then I think it just fell apart. Liquid Jesus, I think a lot of people thought they were going to go on and be this big thing. And they just didn't have the career. And this song, "Stand" is a cover of a Sly and the Family Stone song from 1969, "Stand." I don't think I knew that it was a cover until recently because it was honestly a song that I didn't spend that much time with. But yeah, Liquid Jesus covering "Stand" by Sly and the Family Stone. "Stand" and then we tried to make you cry. And they know what you say and make sense at all. "Stand" and don't you go out of your own breeze. When they're placed in your mind if you want to be. But now a total hard right turn into, oh my God, one of my favorite songs of all time, now track four, pixies, wave of mutilation, UK surf. I'm actually kicking myself right now because in my house I have a vinyl of "The Here Comes Your Man" single that I bought in like 1993. And I bought it because on it is the wave of mutilation UK surf because this is my favorite version of this song. I love this version of wave of mutilation way more than the do little rocky fast one. I love this slowed down version. Oh my God. I love it so much. I would say it's almost my favorite pixie song. My favorite pixie song of all time is probably "Valoria" off of Bossa Nova. But this is one of my favorite pixie songs of all time. There is something about the sleepy, dreamy way this song takes me. Yeah, I will forever be Christian Slater leading in a chair leaning back. I think he's smoking a cigarette totally with that surfy, reverb-y guitar and just this song. This song can chill me out any day of the week, any day of the week. And this is almost worth doing the entire episode just to talk about how much I love pixie's wave of mutilation. [Music] I didn't know but I guess that the opening lyrics cease to resist. That is a reference to a Charles Manson lyric and a Beach Boys lyric. And they're kind of a reference of something that they were doing. And I only caught that because Alan Moyle really loves this song on the soundtrack as well. And he referenced the fact that it uses Manson lyrics. And that's kind of half true pixie's told hand. They're like, yeah, we used. It's kind of a reference to something that a song and music that that Manson was writing. So but it's really about, you know, businessmen driving their cars into the ocean. Wave of mutilation. Fantastic song. All right. And then here we go. This is the life of a CD player. Play, skip, play, skip. Okay. I like Peter Murphy. I like Bauhaus. I think he's an incredibly talented artist and musician. But when I heard I've got a secret miniature camera wasn't for me. It's in the movie. It was definitely just a kind of, I don't know, the energy of the song just, it was a skipper. I mean, you know, please listen to it, connect with it. Bauhaus. Come on, Peter Murphy legend. But I've got a secret miniature camera. Not one of the ones that really had a lasting impression for me. And then we get to kick out the jams, bad brains featuring Henry Rollins. Now this is a cover of the MC5 song from 1969 that was famous also back then for MC5 him shouting kick out the jams and motherfuckers, which was controversial then. So here I was, like I talked about listening to a soundtrack and watching a film where every single song would get you into trouble. Here's a song right out of the way. She says kick out the jams motherfuckers and I was like, yeah, a little, a little Jacob's just like yeah. Good old Henry Rollins and there were bad brains, iconic punk band. And then a number seven freedom of speech. I listened to this one. But again, you know me, I was never much of a hip hop guy. Above the law, the hip hop group was from Pomona, California. It was founded by an artist named Cold 187. Also known as Big Hutch, his full name was Gregory Bernard Hutchison. He was the son of songwriter Richard Hutchison and nephew of late R&B singer Willie Hutch. So above the law, hip hop group, freedom of speech, cool sound, very 1990s sounding hip hop song with the way that the piano, the shuffle of it all, definitely takes me back to that time to the artists that were coming around back then. It was signed by EZE's ruthless records and so you can hear some references in there talking to about some of those NWA guys that were starting to fall apart around that time. Now I'm going to kick away. I'll stop that smooth and unusual. It's from above the law for C. It's crucial. I beat to kick it and rip it. You're with a funky touch. It's done to root this racist. It's too much. P.O.P.E. please don't miss the finding. That's the way that I live. And that's the style of my rhymes. That's what I'm telling. It's like you watch deep stick it hand-g on my side so that my knowledge keeps sticking. Now what's really known as a radio cut, well you can't say it and you can't say it. I really think you want to hear it. And then we get to Heretic by Soundgarden. I'm only moving quickly because there's several songs that are not on the soundtrack that I am going to reference that I wanted to talk about before we wrap up the episode. Again sorry for my speaking. I don't really have my speech. Speech has been struggling since I've gotten better. Heretic by Soundgarden. Cool thing about this. This is so quintessential Soundgarden in sound I think just with the way that there's the harmonics Chris Cornell screaming. And then there's that the way that they kind of scale over the plucking of the instruments in this song. This is one of the first songs that Soundgarden writes together as a band. It's featured on a compilation called Deep Six in 1986. compilation of all these bands in Seattle like Green River, malfunction, the Melvins, skin yard, Soundgarden, and Newman. And this song amongst a few others is on this compilation Deep Six heretic. And it's provided for the soundtrack. And yeah this is also probably the first Soundgarden I'm ever hearing. Because of course I would hear stuff from Bad Motorfinger on 120 minutes and Headbanger's ball like Rusty Cage and Jesus Christ Bose and the things that are coming out then. But I have a feeling that my ears might have stumbled across Heretic as one of the first ones. And then birth ritual from the single soundtrack being not too far after that. It's all blurring together for me at this point in time. But Heretic is a just quintessential mid 1980s Soundgarden sound of them really diving in and finding what their dynamic is. And I think they even record that song before they have Matt Cameron on drums. And then we get to titanium exposé by Sonic Youth which is of course on the album Goo which I've covered on Waterproof Records before. A great album. I think I said on that episode where I covered that album that that was probably the first time I heard Sonic Youth. It's kind of hard to put it to paint a picture for if you weren't there. But this film is just hitting you one after the next with kickass, cool, underground, college radio stuff. And it's kind of a miracle that it got thrown in this movie. It wasn't a hugely popular film. But I felt really lucky to see it because I'm music junkie like me sees a film like this. And you're like, yes, this is what I want. I want a film that's going to show me what the kids 10 years older are listening to. You know, what are on the boomboxes and the walkmans and the things that I'm not allowed to hear? What are the things that are going to scare the shit out of my parents? And what's so controversial? And I mean, I'm getting thrown Soundgarden and Sonic Youth back-to-back titanium expose, which is just noisy, wonderful, amazing Sonic Youth. But we're closing on the end of the soundtrack itself. And really, I don't have much to say about these last two songs that are on the soundtrack. But then we're going to talk about some of the pieces that aren't that are so memorable from the film. So track 10 is me and the devil blues covered by cowboy junkies. You would know cowboy junkies for their biggest hit, which is sweet Jane. But me and the devil blues is actually them covering a Robert Johnson old blues song and it's their take on and they do a nice, very, you know, the mood of this piece of music is excellent. I can't remember where it is being utilized in the film, but I listened, you know, to the soundtrack several times today while getting ready for the episode. And it really does set a mood and tone. And it's a good cover of that Robert Johnson song. And then I would say we close out on kind of a wamp, wamp, tale of the tale of the twister by Shigal Rivera. This band is a assembly of a bunch of different musicians and artists that were you know, famously part of the Christian rock scene. And then they started a band that was outside of the Christian rock scene. But because of their association with Christian rock, they often got lumped in, but it was named after the painter Shigal and the revolutionary check of Guavera. And so it was meant to be like revolutionary music. And it's not that it's a bad song. It's just, it really doesn't stand the test of time in terms of like a piece of music from the film. And you know, if I were to have done this soundtrack for them, I would have finished. I would have closed out the soundtrack with everybody knows by Concrete Blonde and opened it with Leonard Cohen just bookend it like that, you know, because Concrete Blonde ends everybody knows on that big belching out note of everybody everybody knows. And that's such a great way, because that's how the movie ends. But instead they use Taylor's Wister, no shade to Shigal Rivera. I hear that they reunited a few years ago, they've been playing live, there is a fan base for that group of artists and musicians. And I'm sure they're very great at what they do. But it really is kind of a wind out of the sails on the end of the soundtrack, in my opinion. [Music] But we're talking about because of its status for movie soundtracks. And if you're a die-hard fan of Shigal Rivera and Taylor the Twister, don't kill me, don't kill me. [Music] But let's talk about some of the things that happen in the film that you go that I bought the soundtrack hoping that I would get. Okay, so I already talked about Leonard Cohen's, you know, "Everybody Knows And Also If It Be Your Will," which is another one of my favorite songs of his, of all time. But there's a part of the movie where he plays this piece of music and he goes, "Hello, Dad, I'm in jail." And that was an artist by the name of "Was Not Was," the band was, "Was Not Was." And you'll know, "Was Not Was" for doing, "Oh, but don't get on the floor. Everybody walk the dinosaur." Boom, boom, shakalaka, like a boom. Boom, boom, shakalaka, boom, boom. It's the same band, same album. Walk the dinosaur and, "Hello, Dad, I'm in jail." I just remember my brother and I going, "Hello, Dad, I'm in jail." "Hello, Dad, I'm in jail." Then also in the film is the song "Fast Lane" by Urban Dance Squad. Which is a, you know, definitely of the times, good, high energy piece of music that doesn't end up on the soundtrack. [Music] And then this was a big one. Wiener Schnitzel by the Descendants. There's this great scene in the film where he plays Wiener Schnitzel, which is just a couple seconds song. It's like nine seconds of a, of a order at a drive-in at Derwin, Wiener Schnitzel. And he plays it in the movie and, you know, everybody's like reacting to this like Descendants punk, which Descendants are great. I got a chance to see them at Riot Fest. You know, such a great punk band iconic known for these incredibly fun, fast, high energy punk songs. And here's Wiener Schnitzel. And he plays the song. It's so fast. He plays it twice in the film. So I remember wanting to get that soundtrack home. And I just wanted the Wiener Schnitzel on there. Welcome to the Wiener Schnitzel. May I take your order, please? Yeah. I want to... [Music] That comes off of their 1981 EP, "Fat." Then there's songs like "Love Comes and Spirts" by Richard Helen of Vadoids from their '77 album blank generation. I remember that one a little bit. And then we have "Talk Hard" by Stan Ridgeway, which is actually a big phrase in the film. Lots of like buzz clip kind of graffiti tag-worthy phrases like "So Be It" and "Talk Hard." These happy, hairy hard-on expressions that are used in the film. And who could forget iced teas? The name of the song is "Girls, L-G-B-N-A-F." "Girls, L-G-B-N-A-F." And what that stands for, ladies and gentlemen, is iced teas on "Girls, let's get butt naked and fuck." And I... I so distinctly, it's playing on the boom box. It's playing out by the school. And they're playing it. You can hear iced teas going, "Girls, let's get butt naked and fuck tonight." And then they stop it like right in the middle of it. And that scene just, "Oh, it makes me feel all the feels of getting caught with troublesome lyrics by your parents." I'm listening to something naughty, you know? Listening to something really, really naughty and your parents being like, "What is that? What's that racket?" I wish y'all were up here with me. You know that. You dry me crazy with the big old buds. "Girls, let's get butt naked and fuck tonight." I'm trying to make this real clear, dear. I'm no time to whisper in your ear. No time for that. No time to remove your fears. I just wanna get near. Get butt naked and roll around. Move our bodies like up and down. Do that stuff that your mama calls smart, girls. Let's get butt naked and fuck. Come on. So thanks, iced tea for "Girls, LGB and AF." Girls, let's get butt naked and fuck. And then one of the last things to mention that isn't on the soundtrack, but probably for good reason. It had kind of a cool edge factor, which was a beastie boy song called "The Scenario." Now, the scenario, at the time, it was an outtake from license to ill produced by Rick Rubin, and it didn't end up on the album because it was considered to be too controversial to, you know, like not one of that things that's gonna fit on the album, and it's a good thing it wasn't. Because it's not great. You know, he says in the film, Christian Slater comes on the thing and he goes, "Now, here's a song for my close personal buddies. The Beastie Boys, a song that was so controversial, they couldn't put it on their first album." So controversial, but it's just really a repetitive synthesizer drum beat. And they're rapping over it, but it's not very good rap. They just keep saying, "And then I shot him in his fucking face." And it's, "Mama, fuck." You know, it just keeps doing this thing, like, shot him in his face. So it has this like overly aggressive, violent tone do it. And they were just a bunch of dewebs. You know, everything the license to ill is a much better like kind of really childish, you know, fun rap album, but they're like little boys on that album. And then they mature and they become the Beastie Boys. And you know, they really disavow themselves from so much of license to ill because it's not really who they are as artists. It was like kind of a way to market themselves. Like, they're these like punk ass New York brats. And they end up just being so much smarter and more interesting and clever and talented than that. So it doesn't end up on the album. And I've heard the scenario. It's an okay song. But it is, it is that moment in the film where he plays it. And it's another piece of that underground DJ giving us things that would get us in trouble. This whole soundtrack just endlessly getting us in trouble. And I loved every minute of it. Listen to my voice here at the end, like a DJ. You hear that? This is me here. I'm becoming, I'm finally becoming the underground, the independent artist who's going to. Oh, you know, I sound like I sound like the actor from Westworld. Anyway, this is where I'm going to wrap up the show. Did you know that the director originally wanted to have John Cusack play this part that Christian Slater played? But John Cusack got the script, liked it. And he said, I stopped playing high schoolers last year. I'm sorry. Love the script. But you just missed it. I'm done playing high schoolers and probably rightfully so. I would say by 1990, it was time for Cusack to move on to some other stuff. But Christian Slater was perfect for this role. He was absolutely perfect. He was so cool. Yeah, he had that Nicholson quality. I was a big Christian Slater fan. I loved films like cuffs. I love gleaming the cube. I love pump up the volume. I was really into just his kind of understated, you know, squinty eyed kind of Jack Nicholson kind of persona that he was giving us. I loved it. I ate it up. I was a Christian Slater fan. And I thought he was perfect for this. He made me want to be happy Harry Hart on in that film. So I don't know if you ever got into pump the volume the way that I did, but I watch this movie many times over dreaming of being an underground DJ and my basement and influencing people. And look at me now, guys. I'm in my 40s and I have my own underground radio show. It's not really underground, but you know, hey, there's just your, your, my audience. I get to either reminisce about art and music and things that you already know about, or I'm teaching you about stuff. Maybe I am. So that was the latest episode of waterproof records. I'm blanking on my own show. I have not been myself, y'all. I promise I will get back to myself. I will, I will, I will recover. I'm hoping to have a full clear, beautiful voice on the next episode. So thank you for hanging in there with me. Thank you for being so patient. I owe you a lot of episodes. I definitely short changed you over the holidays. So there'll be a couple weeks there where you'll get like episode, episode, episode, episode. I've got some guests coming up soon that I've been talking to that are being scheduled as we speak. So some fun ones on the horizon. So thank you for joining me. Once again, I want to give a huge shout out to Pantheon podcast, my home, my family. Pantheon podcast takes such good care of me on this massive network of music podcasts that I am so happy to be a part of. So thank you so much to Pantheon podcast for supporting me and helping me spread this underground, pump up the volume to the masses so that everybody can be reminded that I am happy Harry Hart on and I am on Pantheon podcast. And also don't forget to use district kid.com slash VIP slash waterproof to get your 30% off your first year. Thank you everybody for joining me for waterproof records with Jacob Gibbons. I'll see you next time. Talk hard. [Music] Hey, this is John Moses and Tyler Morrison for the Fight Stories podcast. And we want to welcome everyone from Pantheon to check out the podcast that goes from pros to average shows. We got MMA champs, boxing champs, NHL tough guys, funniest comedians in the world. And of course, stories from guys like your drunk Uncle Tommy on Thanksgiving. That's right, because we're the voice of the streets and we want to hear from you guys. Because what's better than hanging out with your crew and reliving the old glory days? Stories like ring me who put that guy's head through a popcorn machine in front of his five and six year old son eating chicken wings at the bar. It doesn't get any better than that. Everyone has a fight story. We want to hear yours.
Today, we’re cranking up the nostalgia and breaking down the legendary Pump Up the Volume soundtrack from the 1990 cult classic starring Christian Slater. This soundtrack was a defining piece of my youth, full of iconic tracks that pushed boundaries and opened doors to the alternative music scene of the '90s. This was also the soundtrack that introduced me to lyrics and themes that were edgy enough to upset my parents and make my teenage self feel rebellious and empowered.
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