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Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the release of Scatterbrain’s Here Comes Trouble. I’m pretty sure I’m the only person celebrating this anniversary. But if I can get even one other person to do so, this post will have done its job.
Scatterbrain was a wacky thrash band in the early ’90s featuring ex-members of Ludichrist, itself a wacky thrash band. But whereas Ludichrist was merely funny, Scatterbrain took its humor over the top, both lyrically and musically. The band had serious chops and was afraid of no genre. Anything from rap to funk to doo-wop to neoclassical was fair game. One of Scatterbrain’s signature songs was “Down with the Ship (Slight Return)”, a medley of riffs from all over the map. Another was a shredding take on Mozart’s Sonata #3 in C Major. If Frank Zappa had had a thrash band, it would have been Scatterbrain.
Listening to Scatterbrain now is a trip because its sound is so dated. It comes from a time of “fun metal”, in which D.R.I., M.O.D., Anthrax, Suicidal Tendencies, Fishbone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primus, Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, and Ugly Kid Joe were all likely cohabitants in CD collections. Even Exodus had that goofy Elvis Costello cover with horns. I listened to loads of that stuff, which weirds me out since my metal tastes now have basically zero fun factor.
Did something cultural make metallers lighten up en masse? I don’t ever see metal returning to the anything-goes freedom of that time. That yielded a ton of bad music, but often the bad-ness was interesting. Now metal is so codified and rulebound that bad-ness usually is just bad. A beautiful trainwreck like “Don’t Call Me Dude” would never happen today — much less become a Top 20 hit in Australia.
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Yeah, man I was into this album. Had this album and one other I think. There was also that Sacred Reich song 31 Flavors. You’re right, there isn’t much fun metal today. I do think this Scatterbrain album went too far down the fun path. I still want my bands to sing about heavy topics, but at least have a smile on your face and don’t be so fucking serious.
I got this tape in my Easter basket when it came out; hard to believe it was 20 years ago. I wanted it because the cover was painted by the same guy that did the original Appetite for Destruction cover. There was a contest somewhere – Rip Magazine maybe? – to guess all the riffs that were sampled in “Down With the Ship.” I really liked the album at the time, but haven’t heard it in probably 16 years. Scamboogery was a big let down after this one.
I celebrate with you. “Don’t Call Me Dude” is brilliant…anytime someone calls me dude, that song pops into my brain and camps out for a day. “I heard the word dude, and I became unglued…slowly I turned…step by step…inch by inch…”
I saw Scatterbrain on the tour for this album. The irony of having them play with a Hardline HC band that served as the inspiration for Earth Crisis is quite hilarious to me now.
I always thought the metal bands with different stuff going on showed how diverse my tastes were. Granted I was 14/15, so granted I was a tad deluded on variety in music.
I will celebrate! As a 13 year old I had “Don’t Call Me Dude” on cassette single. I have a theory that the drugs were less deadly but more mind-bending back in those days
I remember my friend Chris bought this tape when it came out and played it almost religiously for a year. I liked it but I kind of hated it too, more or less because he played it almost constantly! Too much of anything isn’t always good.
Funny think is I haven’t heard this album since those days and I’m suprised at how I still remember these songs by heart. Just seeing the album cover when I came on to the website flooded me with memories of being up at 3AM, playing Mega Man and asking Chris to put something else to listen to on for once.
Props to Scatterbrain and your short commentary, Cosmo. What intrigues me about this, though, is how did you know that it was the 20th anniversary of Here Comes Trouble? I’m aware that you can find this information on Metal Archives and Allmusic, but one has to look for it specifically. And how often is anyone going to the Scatterbrain page on either of those sites? You’re keeping an anniversary calendar, aren’t you? You’re crazy, dude.
I’ve seen this album in the “Used” racks for years, and I honestly had no idea what its deal was. Now I know!
Wow. Time warp back to 8th grade. Not sure it still holds up (or ever really did) but thanks for the memories..
still love this album. in brazil, it got some media coverage because of faith no more´s huge succes around here. so everything slightly similar would get attention. it was one of the first metal cds i bought and it was a good start. mr johnson; goodbye freedom, hello mom and dont call me dude are immortal classics for me. you forgot to add mucky pup and head´s up to that jurassic list.
I remember being terribly disappointed in this album when it came out. I was a huge fan of the first Ludichrist (Immaculate Deception) album, which had Tommy Christ’s sense of humor on top of the NYHC kick-in-your-teeth attitude. I remember reading that Ludichrist was now called Scatterbrain and being super psyched that they were touring through Columbus. I didn’t know at the time that there was a second Ludichrist album, Powertrip. Remember, this was pre-internet times, when metal/hardcore info was hard to come by.
To get ready for the show, I hit Magnolia Thunderpussy and picked up the new CD. In eager anticipation I plopped into my CD player and then… meh. I remember thinking they have become an all humor band and had sanded away all of the HC edges that made them great. I don’t know if it was “growth” due to age, greater technical ability with their instruments, new rhythm section, but they completely crossed over into a joke metal band. To wit, Earache My Eye anbody? Puh-lease.
I was down with the humor in Ludichrist, Dr. Know, Mentors, et al. But Here Comes Trouble was too much for my former heroes in my ears. That being said, Down With The Ship was good and I still have my Scatterbrain tour shirt stuck somewhere in a storage bin, hidden safely away from my wife’s “when are you going to get rid of that old thing” pogrom.
Man, Scatterbrain seriously sucked. I remember buying that tape as soon as I could get my grubby paws on it, being a big fan of Ludichrist at the time. So fucking watered down and disappointing. Ugly Kid Joe metal. Looking back at Ludichrist now I see the roots of Scatterbrain, and I’m still not sure what made Ludichrist seem so great – probably the anti-religion stance – but ugh. This kind of shit should be buried deep or put out as an example of how terribly wrong things can go when metal gets too fun and happy.
These guys were absolutely horrible. I remember seeing a video for this band, a friend of mine had taped it from headbanger’s ball and took it back to south america. I thought it was a joke, which it is, of course. Everyone knows that.
Wow, these guys are really all over the place!
The “Frank Zappa of Thrash” label isn’t inaccurate at all.
Both beautiful and painful. Even if I’m old enough to have had the opportunity to hear/see this kind of bands (I remember having read a review of one of the last Scatterbrain’s album back in 1994), I happen to “escape” them. Even Mordred’s cover of “Superfreak” is less embarassing.
Yet, it’s true that it makes one regret these times of joy, happiness, immature humor and naivety, before Vikernes and Euronymous had some arguments or before Faust went to the forest…
Paul – I have kept an anniversary calendar in the past, though I haven’t done so for a while. As for Scatterbrain, I stumbled across their metal-archives entry recently and saw that this “occasion” was coming up.
this album still rules after all these years! i will be celebrating with you for sure.
I had this cassette ‘back in the day’. For some reason this brings to memory of Wrathchild America. I had that cassette too. Good times.
Of all the “bad” music I’ve ever loved, and often still do, I NEVER could get into this band, and still can’t in any way, shape, or form. They just do nothing for me. Yuck.
Coincidentally I was just remarking to someone a few days ago about how the cover songs on Exodus’ “Force of Habit” were inexcusably atrocious as well (and I really like that album otherwise), ha…
I did revisit Fishbone recently for the first time in YEARS, though – and quite enjoyed it!
Great, now I have them and Green Jelly going through head.
I’m not going
Down with the ship!
Little pig little pig
Let me in!
“A beautiful trainwreck like “Don’t Call Me Dude” would never happen today.” But if it did, it would undoubtedly be titled “Don’t Call Me Brah”. No?
Here are a few more upcoming anniversaries of varying importance, should you care to raise a beer or a horned hand:
April 14, 1980 (Iron Maiden, self-titled)
April 23, 1980 (Judas Priest, British Steel)
April 25, 1985 (Exodus, Bonded by Blood)
June 12, 1985 (Megadeth, Killing is My Business …)
Paul – Duly noted, thanks! There seems to be more support for the belief that British Steel came out on April 14, not 23, so I’ll go with 14.
Oh man this is cheesy, I was only 6 when this came out so no wonder I missed it when it came out
“Did something cultural make metallers lighten up en masse?” yes, this ‘we have a sense of humour too!’ aspect to a specific period of metal was a result to some types of metal becoming the most popular youth music in the USA for some time. As that spectacle was exsanguinated by the industry, so did all the funny people go home, or just move to the next prime-time type of music to give a sense of humour to. Check metalcore/mathcore and now the ‘funny’ version of crab/slam whatever.
Now that metal is becoming more high profile again, there’ll be bands like Scatterbrain again, oh wait, they’re already here. Check out all these joke black/death/tech bands co-opting metal technique while writing songs about food and cats or how ironically grimm they’re not. Not saying that these trends were/are bad, everyone gets what they deserve.
I don’t know Helm, that seems a little esoteric. Are you speaking directly to exposure? ‘Cause Gwar was magical then and Ghoul is great now. The bands have always been around.
I do not find Gwar magical or Ghoul great so I wouldn’t know.
Wasn’t their big live gimmick to pretend to do the encore and exit the stage at the very beginning of their set? I only read about it, but I seen to remember something like that.
Anyway, I was really into this at the time (I was also way into “I’m the Man” a little bit before this), but like the jokey Anthrax stuff, the appeal just didn’t hold up over time. In any case, nice job with the pleasant nostalgia trip!
What a great post! I actually wrote up something about Scatterbrain on my own blog recently, but not about this specific album. I was such a huge fan of Here Comes Trouble when it came out that I joined the Scatterbrain fan club and received two autographed 8×10 photos from the band and the guitarist Glen wrote me a little thank you on the form letter that was sent with them. Pretty sure I bought a hat and a t-shirt too. Ah, youthful enthusiasm. I remember not being to wild about the follow-up album Scamboogery, but my tastes may have also started to change by then. Here Comes Trouble has been sitting by my stereo for two weeks now…time to finally give it a listen (again)!
This, along with Surf Nicaragua, were awesome back then. Both have aged terribly, which adds to the charm. Still… all the thrash garbage coming out made me realize that I don’t like thrash anymore.
Loved this band when I was a teen. Saw them play live in Huntington WV at a teen club called Burke Allens. In the middle of the set the lead singer said that he had to take a shit and left for 10 minutes and went to the bus. The band proceeded to play Freebird while he was gone.
I have to agree that it was a better time for metal when bands were funny on purpose and fans could tell the difference.
I never listened to Scatterbrain but I have been seriously obsessing over my old INFECTIOUS GROOVES tapes recently. Soon I will blog about them, and Last Crack.
One should probably survey the late 80s/early 90s youth culture/entertainment industry moment as a whole to see where the lightheartedly eclectic version of metal comes from. It seems to me that it’s an offshoot of the media’s juxtaposition of different identities defined by class and race, moreso than an example of metal reacting to itself…obviously I have been thinking about Infectious Grooves too much..
I actually found myself playing in a funk metal band a few years ago. All I’d been interested in for years as a guitar player was Razor/Holy Terror-like thrash calisthenics and black metal, but then this neohippy-bred jam/funk rhythm section moved in next door. We ended up kinda like Chaos A.D. with an assload of virtuosic slap bass and bad Prince impressions for vocals. It seriously kicked ass.
Cosmo,
i’d say that Nachtmystium is a band doing that anything-goes, throw-it-against-the-wall-and-see-if-it-sticks vibe. i get your point, but, oh yeah, nachtmystium totally suck now. you heard the new one w/ the new wave keyboards and emo choruses? ouchee. i used to love ludichrist back in the day though. cool blog dude!