YACHT - Don't Put Out [7-inch] (Cover Artwork)
Staff Pick

YACHT

Don't Put Out [7-inch] (2010)

Marriage Records


For a made-for-TV movie, Ladies and Gentleman, The Fabulous Stains is a surprisingly smart punk flick (featuring a very young Diane Lane and Laura Dern) that predicts the riot grrl movement. It chronicles the rise and fall of Lane 'n' Dern's band, the Fabulous Stains, and the impact their violent feminist music has on America's lady-youth. At a slight 87 minutes, it's not a perfect film--the rise/fall dynamic is forced and naive and there are some really stupid movie clichés--but the soundtrack, which blends glam rock, punk and reggae, is spot-on, perhaps helped by a bevy of icons, including but not limited to Paul Simonon from the Clash and Steve Jones and Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols. Lane, for her part, is affecting in one of her first film roles, playing fucked-up teenage orphan Corinne Burns with a mix of anger and fragility, determination and nihilism.

It is because of this silly yet awesome little cult flick that synth-pop act YACHT saw fit to record Don't Put Out, which takes the songs "Waste of Time" and "Professional" and tweaks 'em a bit. Singer Claire Evans mimics the apathetic vocals Lane used in the film but add in a poppy disco groove. For those who haven't seen the movie, "Waste of Time" is originally a sparsely arranged song with just guitar ‘n' vox, but the YACHT version doubles down on dance beats, resulting in something that sounds just as jaded but way trippier as a result.

"Professionals" gets the same treatment, which is a far more drastic shift considering the original version had a real Pistols vibe, while "Waste of Time" also gets an extended remix, because why not? Waste of Time is an obscurity within an obscurity, but those who have seen the film are in for a treat.