The soundtrack to the upcoming Germs biopic, “What We Do Is Secret” is coming out July 29 on Lakeshore Records in tandem with the film’s release on August 8 (in limited release).
Featuring Shane West (“A Walk To Remember” with Mandy Moore) as seminal L.A. punk figure Darby Crash, the flick also stars Hollywood tart Bijou Phillips as Lorna Doom, and that kid, “Spanish” from “Old School” plays Pat Smear (sporting the most amazing Afro; he’s actually quite good in the film too).
The soundtrack naturally features a lot of Germs tracks, plus songs by David Bowie, Alice Cooper, L.A. punk icons X, and The Weirdos (all of which can be heard in the movie; especially the Bowie which is featured rather prominently), plus Germs tracks as performed by the actors (West, Phillips) with help from Lukas Haas and Michael LeBlanc (“Forming” for example, which you can hear below, Smear produced the sessions too).
‘Secret’s has been seemingly finished for almost two years now and the trailer has been out for ages (the film itself premiered at the Los Angeles film festival in June 2007, but the trailer recently got yanked off YouTube for some reason cause MTV got the “premiere” 😉 ). It took practically 10 years to make the film according to director Rodger Grossman.
West performed the part of the deceased L.A. punk icon so convincingly, that the surviving members of the Germs – including ex-Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear – have decided to go on tour with the kid for their upcoming reunion tour starting August 8 (check out the calendar synergy!).
All of this is rather coincidental since we finally watched the film last night. We can’t say it’s great, but it was better than we expected and of much higher quality than early trailers suggested (one of the early, early ones made it look super budget). Most of the acting is solid especially West who does an admirable job in the lead role. The film is entertaining to a point, but it also overstays its welcome and we began to tune out in the last act; it just didn’t have a ton of sustainability. We should probably write a proper review at some point. Anywho…
“What We Do Is Secret” Soundtrack tracklist
01. David Bowie – “5 Years”
02. The Germs – “Forming”
03. Alice Cooper – “You Drive Me Nervous”
04. The Germs – “Lexicon Devil”
05. The Avengers – “We Are The One”
06. Mae Shi (w/Paul Roessler Of the Screamers) – “Sex Boy”
07. The Bags – “Survive”
08. The Germs – “Circle One”
09. The Weirdos – “Life Of Crime”
10. The Germs – “Manimal
11. X – “Nausea”
12. The Germs – “We Must Bleed”
13. The Germs – “My Tunnel”
14. David Bowie – Rock And Roll Suicide”
Listen: The Germs – “What We Do Is Secret”
Trailer “What We Do Is Secret”
