Bad Vibes OST Track-By-Track Breakdown

ULTRAVIOLENCE

Sal: It's a song I wrote about a really traumatic situation…oh god, I don't want to do this. Anyone else? Comments on “Ultraviolence”?!

Hana: No.

Fifi: (shakes head)

Jacky: You wrote it after I prompted you to listen to a Scientists song.

Sal: No, that was “Feed Machine”.

ANTI-SATANIC DRUGS

Sal: I originally wrote it about my dead cat Aristen, but I changed it after Jacky gave me a prompt with only the song title. I like having an idea to work off of whether it's a lyric, song title, or riff, it’s more collaborative that way. Now, it's about having to take pills to be sane but also being in a manic, pseudo-religious, delusional state.

JUST LIKE JOHNNY AND MORRISSEY

Jacky: “Johnny and Morrissey” is a song about my friend Gideon - not his real name - whose girlfriend used to beat him up when he was sleeping and was just a really, really, a nasty person to be with. He was telling me about it and I said, “Why do you date people like this?” He said, “I used to, but I don't hate myself anymore.” And I thought that was really cool.

CAN’T DO THAT

Jacky: That is a feminist anthem that I wrote after I misheard something Lenny Kilmer said in a documentary. He was high on LSD and they gave him a bass guitar, and they said play something in E. This one is called, “You Shouldn't Do That,” but I heard “This one is called ‘You Can’t Do That’.”

Fifi: This one and “Just Like Johnny and Morrissey” are the busiest and most fun to play, but “Dima” is my favorite.

FEED MACHINE

Sal: I wrote this after Jackie prompted me to listen to a Scientists song. And I liked the idea of just playing one thing over and over again forever. I hate guitar solos. When we started this band I said I ain’t playing any guitar solos, Hana’s got to play them all on viola. It’s about this whole capitalist dystopian nightmare bullshit we’re all trapped in.

Jacky: “Feed Machine” used to sound like a male orgasm. It used to build and build then explode!! But now it’s similar to a female orgasm where there’s multiple explosions / orgasms…

Fifi: … It’s a little boring for me because I’m playing an open A almost the whole time… but then I eventually get to play two more notes!

Video directed by Jonathan Howard

BABIES

Jacky: The second verse of babies is a word for word lift of “Bodies” by The Sex Pistols. 

Sal: I want to make a music video for this where we’re busking in front of the supreme court and heckling cops. And then we’re at a party, decorated like a little kid’s party with a cake and pinata and stuff but with all adults throwing food around, drinking beer, snorting PCP and generally being degenerates. And a moon bounce. Every local director/filmmaker I’ve asked so far has said no, so if there’s anyone out there who wants to do it, hit us up.

S.C.U.M.

Jacky: The “Society for Cutting Up Men” is a feminist Anthem that I wrote while riding my bike on New Jersey Avenue thinking about all the nasty, scary, brilliant women in the world.

Hana: Nasty women. (cracks up)

Sal: Jacky gave me the title and first verse then to finish it I went and read the S.C.U.M Manifesto by Valerie Solanos and was like wow, this is based as fuck and completely unhinged. So it’s a real just fuck the patriarchy riot-grrl Bikini Kill inspired fight song. Really fucks up my voice when I sing it so I need a break after. Usually “Special” comes next.

SPECIAL/LAME

Jacky: It’s about people who fancy themselves but we all know they ain’t shit!

Comfort Man

Jacky: “Comfort Man” is a song about someone who's so nasty that, even when he dies, the worms refuse to eat him.

Sal: That’s an African insult. I love it. They're so poetic.

O MY DIMA!

Jacky: “O My Dima” was written by Sal Go. Sal Go is a very famous writer, a polymath, if you might, and it was based on a movie in which Jude Law plays a Russian sharpshooter. What's the name of that movie? It's awful.

Sal:  Enemy At The Gates.

Jacky: Fun fact: Two other bands have been inspired by this song, one of them is called Franz Ferdinand. They have a song called “Take Me Out”, which is based on this song. It is bizarro. Guitar players are fucking mad! I've watched Enemy At The Gates three times, and all I get out of it is, “Why is Jude Law acting like a Russian? This is weird. Will they discover he’s English?” No, they never do. It's just Jude Law, who's very English, looking English, sounding English in a Russian uniform, and you're like, why is Jude Law playing a Russian? It's WEIRD.

Hana: He’s shit at accents!

James Osterberg

Jacky: James Osterberg is a song about Iggy Pop. 

Sal: When Jacky told me the song title I was like, “Why is it called that, isn’t this about Iggy Pop?” I’m really bad with celebrity names, especially band people. Jacky didn’t talk to me for like a week.