3 out of 5

Label: self-released

Produced by: Various

I thought, maybe, that this release – a tribute to Frank Henenlotter’s Brain Damage – was put out in time with the Arrow bluray edition in 2017, or perhaps linked to an anniversary, but The Statutory Apes’ same-named album came out a couple years prior, and the flick came out in ’88, so… just kind of random, I suppose? (And is furthermore different from a ‘soundtrack’ of sorts put out by the band in 2004, which also doesn’t seem timed with any kind of media release or notable date.) I also can’t find much info about the group, now referred to as the The [REDACTED] Apes on bandcamp, just adding another layer of weird to this.

Which is kinda sorta where my ultimate take on this lands: though the music mostly falls into a kind of Ramones or no-wave adjacent punk that seems about right for tributing to a counter culture 80s flick – i.e. not really that weird – the novelty of this thing, which features a Mike Diana cover and, if you own the physical, was signed by Henenlotter, is totally the kind of oddball back-of-magazine order that only Brain Damage dedicants would seek out.

The tunes are pretty solid, with The Apes sticking mostly to a kind of crunchy synth-punk, with other groups / artists jumping in on 14 out of the 21 remaining tracks and flipping between punk variants ranging from aforementioned Ramones monotone jams to pseudo hardcore, and screechier emo. A couple of well-sequenced breaks in the rock n’ roll are used for electronic-lite beats with some samples.

Because the lyrics mostly stick to talking about the movie, it’s hard to say how deep any of this stuff can possibly cut; any time I thought I was getting something maybe a little off book I’d glance at the lyrics – awesomely included; how rare that is for what’s essentially a compilation album – and see that, nope, we’re still talking about the flick. And I think that focus inevitably affects the music as well, and prevents us from getting tracks that are more than just a catchy melody. For those that do offer some more unique sounds – like the psychedelia of Acid Peach – good luck finding other material from them, if they’re not a band from your hometown.

An album of limited appeal, for sure, and not one I return to often even though I’m the type to which it appeals, but definitely an appreciated, passionately put together addition to the kooky stuff that encircles Henenlotter.