Their first studio album was titled “Immaculate Deception” and produced by Randy Burns and began to catch the attention of fans and record companies alike. Drummer and founder Al Batross left the group after Immaculate Deception was recorded, which left just the two original members of the band in Christ and Cummings when they came around to writing and recording their follow up, “Powertrip”. By this time the band and its music had become far more metallic in style and had abandoned their early hardcore style, while retaining the range of musical influences and being more overtly humorous in lyric writing and stage antics.
Leading up to the release of their third album, "Here Comes Trouble" on In Effect Records, the band took the decision to rename themselves as Scatterbrain. In essence, this was a decision made to circumvent the very real possibility at that stage of having boycotts made of their album from conservative Christian elements in both their record distributors and the big-name department stores in the US, who felt that the name Ludachrist was offensive and blasphemous. In doing so, the band created a new identity, which also gave the transition and growing of its sound over the last few years a chance to now shine on its own under a new name, and hopefully to break new territory as a result.
Thus came the rise of Scatterbrain the band, and what became their debut album titled “Here Comes Trouble”.
The first thing that becomes noticeable about this album when you first listen to it is that there is a surprising amount of variety in the songs here. Not just musically but lyrically, in style and substance. The title track opens up the album and hit the ground running, their funk style of heavy and even thrash metal comes at you in charging style, announcing that they, as trouble, are coming. This track has some excellent changes in riffage and tempo without losing the wholesome energy of the song at any time as it continues to blast out of the speakers. It really sets up the album for the quirkiness that is to come. That appears immediately with a cracking cover version of Cheech and Chong’s “Earache My Eye”. Everything that you would expect from that duo is in the lyrics, and although other high-profile bands have also covered this song over the years, none do quite as good a job as Scatterbrain do here. The increased power of the guitars and funkability of the bass and drums draws out a different dimension to this track, as well as adding to the humour element that the band was looking to infuse into this album.
The funkier side of the band comes out on “That’s That”, with themes and tones that remind you Suicidal Tendencies especially with the bass guitar slapping throughout the song. Some of the great parts of Scatterbrain can be heard in this song, the funk bass and the wonderful guitar solos. Along similar lines is “I’m With Stupid,” a song about a guy who gets some justice karma for making fun of others. The lyrics tell a fun and epic story of a guy who grows another head on his shoulder – I'm with stupid! he’s with me! - and is backed by more awesomeness in the music. Indeed the opening guitar riffs almost remind you of some Marty Friedman magic ala Megadeth. The great pace of the first minute is then replaced by the tougher tempo and harder riffing as the tale is told. It’s a beauty, a fun song that does not skimp on the thrash funk either.
The band then pays tribute to some of the greats on the track “Down with the Ship (Slight Return).” Apparently, it is the reworking of a song that appeared on a Ludichrist record. The original part of the song is the chorus and the lyrics. The rest is taken from well-known guitar riffs and drums fills from some of the great songs of music history. It is mixed with the almost goofy lyrics of the captain not wanting to go down with his ship, but it is the fun of trying to place all of the riffs and fills while listening to the song that is the treat. And mixing in all of that from the artists of Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin (multiple times), Metallica, ZZ Top, Billy Squire, Aerosmith, Phil Collins, Yes, The Doors, Van Halen and Iron Maiden, along with the Star-Spangled Banner and the Woody Woodpecker theme, is quite the task. It is still a terrific song to sing along to. To back this up, they then unleash with a metal version of Mozart’s “Sonata No. 3”, which sounds as though it should have been in a Bill & Ted movie. In their live shows, Scatterbrain was often known to play medleys of Mozart, or Motorhead, or on occasions both together.
While some of the material here so far on the album has been brought in from other sources, there is still plenty of wholly original material here, mostly utilising the humorous aspect of the bands character. Juvenile humour is in steady supply, as on “Mr. Johnson and the Juice Crew,” which starts out ina real thrash metal vibe before transforming into a swinging and grooving hard rocker. Lyrically, it is pretty much as you would expect from the song title, but that great heavy vibe and chanting of the song makes it a beauty. And though the following track is also based in humour, “Goodbye Freedom, Hello Mom” actually seems like a prediction from Nostradamus in the past, as the song speaks about censorship and the desire from the top to control everyone else. Lyrics such as “We'll ban that book and T.V. show, forget that movie, no you can't go, can't sell that record, don't like that song, we know what's right we know what's wrong, can't have abortions, what's yours ain't yours, just obey the laws” and “1984 has past, forget about Big Brother, welcome to the 90's where the government's your Mother, they'll tell you - don't do that, they'll try and tell you - it's for your own good” and “Goodbye Freedom, Hello Mom
The Bill of Rights just disappeared, there it is - whoops it's gone! Goodbye Freedom, Hello Mom, All your rights just disappeared, Everybody stay calm”. Sound familiar?! Scatterbrain just Nostradamus’ed 2025!
The band could take on some serious subjects, too, though they tended to veer away from it. “Outta Time,” for instance, despite its upbeat sound, is a hard-hitting tale about drug addiction and its aftermath, and really hits all the right spots. Another case of terrific songwriting.
If there is one song that anyone might remember from this album when it was released, it is the song “Don’t Call Me Dude”, which apart from its constantly changing time structure and genre hopping had an amusing and highly watchable music video that went along with it, telling the tale about a guy who snaps when his girlfriend leaves him for a burly lifeguard on the beach, triggered by being called ‘dude’. The song goes through several movements, with the band mimicking various eras of rock ‘n’ roll from doo-wop to 1980s glam. It’s a fun track, one that was a big hit in Australia when it was released, reaching #14 on the singles charts, which drove the album up to #54. The album he concludes with “Drunken Milkman,” a spoken word “poetry” piece over bongos and sparsely strummed guitar about the unfortunate results of a drunk-driving delivery man.
What Scatterbrain deliver here is an album that no doubt had some trouble being sold to the public. It’s a thrash metal-based band that introduced a funky beat as well as lyrics that border on a comedy album, all thrown together to create a reasonably unique masterpiece, one that was probably always going to be a hard sell in the first place, but one even harder to follow up.
I can’t say with any accuracy when I came across this album let alone bought it. I remember seeing the video for “Don’t Call Me Dude” on the music video shows that were around at the time this was released and enjoying both the song and the video, but I don’t recall rushing out to buy the album. I know I had it well before May 1992 though, because my mate and I – my heavy metal music dealer in fact – went to see them play at Waves in Wollongong at that time and I know I knew the album very well at that point. So, there is a two-year window when I must have purchased my CD copy of the album that I still own, and that is the best I can narrow it down.
I do know that when I had the album, it sat in a period of my life when I had several albums that I listened to together because they had a similar style – Faith No More’s, “The Real Thing”, Suicidal Tendencies “How Will I Live Tomorrow When I Can’t Even Smile Today”, D.A.D’s “No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims”, and this album. I had them all clumped around my stereo in my bedroom, and remember changing between them often.
As I said I was lucky enough to see them live in 1992, where they played the entire album and a couple of other pieces, and I thought at the time “wow, I can’t wait to see them live again!” Of course, that was never to be.
I’ve always loved this album. I love the humorous lyrics and the way they are obviously having fun in the songs. I love the clashing of styles within the music, and the way they chop and change within the structure of the same song without ever losing the intensity of what they are playing. And yet, even now, where some of their lyrics touch on serious subjects, they are still relevant in the modern day.
Breaking out the CD again for the past week has been amazing. Every day when I’ve come home from work, I have pressed play and let its short but sharp access flood the metal cavern with its goodness. It has been an album that has never sat on the shelves for long before getting another chance in the stereo. It is an album that I can put on at any time and in any mood and enjoy every time I do. Albums like that don’t come along every day.
Scatterbrain didn’t quite catch on as they may have liked. They released another album, “Scamboogery”, and album that is equally as enjoyable as this, before they split and went into other areas. That’s a shame. But as we have seen in the music business, it is rarely for lightning to trike once left alone twice. In the case of Scatterbrain, at least the one strike was well worth it.
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