Pump Up the Volume is a 1990 American comedy drama film written and directed by Allan Moyle. The film stars Christian Slater, Scott Paulin, Ellen Greene, and Samantha Mathis. The film Pump Up the Volume is about an High school student Mark Hunter, who lives in a sleepy suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, starts an FM pirate radio station that broadcasts from his parents’ basement and functions as his sole outlet for his teenage angst and aggression.
His pirate station’s theme song is Everybody Knows by Leonard Cohen and there are glimpses of cassettes by such alternative musicians as The Jesus and Mary Chain, Camper Van Beethoven, Primal Scream, Soundgarden, Ice-T, Bad Brains, Concrete Blonde, Henry Rollins, and Pixies.
By day, Mark is seen as a loner who has to force himself to be sociable around others; by night, he expresses his outsider views about the problems with American society. When he speaks his mind about what is going on at his school and in the community, his fellow students increasingly tune in to hear his show.
Pump Up the Volume (Music From the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to Allan Moyle’s 1990 comedy-drama film Pump Up the Volume. It was released on August 14, 1990 through MCA Records. The album peaked at number 50 on the US Billboard 200 chart. Music being central to the plot of a film about a young pirate radio station DJ, the soundtrack featured a diverse number of artists. The official soundtrack release had eleven tracks.
Tracklist:
- Everybody Knows (performed by Concrete Blonde)
- Why Can’t I Fall in Love (performed by Ivan Neville)
- Stand! (performed by Liquid Jesus)
- Wave of Mutilation (performed by Pixies)
- I’ve Got a Miniature Secret Camera (performed by Peter Murphy)
- Kick Out the Jams (performed by Bad Brains & Henry Rollins)
- Freedom of Speech (performed by Above The Law)
- Heretic (performed by Soundgarden)
- Titanium Exposé (performed by Sonic Youth)
- Me and the Devil Blues (performed by Cowboy Junkies)
- Tale O’ the Twister (performed by Chagall Guevara)
