TRACK #378:

Fear No Evil by Trybe

1981’s Fear No Evil has a pretty wild soundtrack.

It also has a scene where a very conflicted Antichrist magically makes his bully grow a pair of tits. That’s pretty wild too.

But let’s get back to this music, huh?

So yeah, this soundtrack is kinda nuts. Like, I’m not sure if they knew it at the time (maybe they did, who knows?) but looking back it’s like a who’s-who of the late 70’s punk and new wave scenes. It’s crazy to see a low budget directorial debut just stacking tracks like this.

The Ramones, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, The Rezillos, the B-52s, Richard Hell, The Boomtown Rats, The Sex Pistols! It’s plays like a compliation album you used to only be able to by off a TV commercial that came of 4 Cassettes or 2 Compact Discs.

It doesn’t appear as though they released this soundtrack, though. They released the score, by director Frank LaLoggia and David Spear, but not this. That seems like a real missed trick to me. I’ll bet they coulda sold a metric shirtsworth of these things at that time. And then I wouldn’t have to pull the song from the end of the DVD. But at least it’s clean and clear and presumably complete. Can’t say that about a lot of In-Movie-Only songs.

Now, I’m not sure how any of this actually works, cause I’m just a dumbass that recklessly types potentially unsubstantiated nonsense onto the internet for people all over the world to not read. But I’m gonna blame this collection of songs on Soundtrack Coordinator Jonathan Brett.

Jonathan had just come off coordinating the soundtrack for 1979’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Highschool, which we know definitely featured the Ramones. Hell, the whole movie does.  That’s an interesting story too.

Apparently that movie was originally titled Disco High, and producer Roger Corman wanted Todd Rundgren, despite Todd not producing anything close to what I’d call Disco. But Todd wanted more money than the notoriously cheap Corman was willing to part with for the job. At least that’s how I read it. Wikipedia says it was a “scheduling conflict” but IMDb says they “couldn’t come to an agreement.” Oh yeah? An agreement about the scheduling, I’m sure.

So, they went to Roger’s second choice, Cheap Trick. As it turns out Cheap Trick isn’t quite as affordable as they bill themselves and not nearly enough for the miserly Corman, and they were summarily dismissed. Or rather, ya know, they just couldn’t come to an agreement.

However, The film’s director, Mr. Allan Arkush, had some connections over at Warner Bros. Music, and after poo-pooing both Van Halen and Devo, they finally landed on The Ramones,  because they recorded on Warner subsidiary Sire Records. Ahh interesting.

Ok, well that’s just fuckin’ swell, buddy. What the fuck does all this Rock ‘n’ Roll High School have to do with Fear No Evil?

Well, just about the entirety of the Fear No Evil soundtrack is Sire Record acts, including Title Tracker’s Trybe.

And outside of that fact, I can’t find a one lick of information about this fuckin band. Discogs list about 6 different Trybes and not a single one performed this Title Track.

I will say that Colin Jacobson over at DVD Movie Guide called the tune an “awful title song by some flop band called Trybe.” Nice!

This is good news, as it seems to suggest that he thinks they were some band that just didn’t make it. I wonder what he knows?

Me? I’m not convinced they’re even band at all and aren’t are just some one-off from writers Andy Paley and Erik Lindgren. We may never know.

Oh, but hey! What about the movie?

Well, I’ll tell ya, as derivative as it feels most of the time, it’s not terrible. It’s got some good moments in it, some creepy, some with fun FX or some that are just plain bizarre. It’s a weird movie, with a weird vibe.

I like the look of it. It’s hazy and warm, like comfort photography. This isn’t too surprising, directed as it is by Frank LaLoggia, the man behind the Class of 1988 alumni Lady In White. That movie have a spot on feel of fuzzy vintage Halloween, with a hazy glow of its on.

But that’s all a whole lot, so I’m gonna let y’all get the song already.

Here’s Fear No Evil from Trybe, whoever the hell they even are.