Tell me if you’ve heard this before: After getting “really stoned” on a hike, OFF! guitarist Dimitri Coats approached friend and bandmate Keith Morris with a big task: making a film featuring the band, with the former Circle Jerks singer’s erectile dysfunction being the catalyst. “I was a little bit worried (Keith) wasn’t going to do it,” Coats told IndieWire.
As the legendary dreadlocked punk singer detailed in his 2016 autobiography, My Damage, he struggles with diabetes; as Morris previously revealed to Coats, erectile dysfunction was an early warning sign. In the film Coats envisioned, Morris never followed his musical dreams and became a dejected elderly porn shop clerk who is inspired by a bout of erectile dysfunction to seek out a “penis doctor” (David Yow of The Jesus Lizard).
This leads to a hallucinogenic “antidote” created by aliens using albino bees, and reveals his true destiny: Morris will form a band so great that their music will alter human consciousness. That is, if a relentless AI race of assassins doesn’t stop them first.
The logline style of Free LSD is a fever dream, but something even stranger happened: With the help of punk rock and Hollywood veterans like Jack Black and Coats’ own experiences studying acting at Julliard, he created his midnight directorial debut that is funny, exciting and at times surprisingly moving.
Before dropping out of Juilliard to pursue music, Coats said he learned how to write character arcs and exciting roles by studying a lot of great plays. “People come up to me and it usually starts like this,” Coats said. “‘I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but I wasn’t expecting much from this movie because it was made by a band. But, holy crap!'”
The script, pacing and direction of Free LSD are on point, as are the performances. Morris goes all out, while Yow has worked as an actor for years (though The Jesus Lizard is now preparing to tour for the first time in 26 years). The film has much of the late-night California craziness, offbeat humor and punk sensibility of the 1984 classic Repo Man – which, incidentally, features a hilarious cameo by Morris and The Circle Jerks.
Coats said the film would not have been possible without his relationship with Morris. “Our friendship and our creative process force us to push boundaries in ways we probably wouldn’t otherwise,” he said.
Coats was 40 when he joined Morris in OFF! in 2009. They recorded three albums of what Coats described as “very black and white” hardcore punk. He felt the band was “in a box” and needed a way out. Writing the soundtrack for a science fiction film about aliens and consciousness expansion was part of that plan.
“I pushed everyone to be as brave as possible musically, especially Keith,” Coats said. “It really opened up new avenues for us creatively.” The album “Free LSD” is a quantum leap for OFF! – imagine avant-garde saxophonist Albert Ayler teaming up with prog-rock musicians to create a hardcore album. It was very well received.
None of that helped them actually make the film, though. The directors of the band’s music videos said they thought it was impossible. The days of “Purple Rain” and the Monkees’ “Head” were long gone. A Kickstarter failed. “We had so many doors slammed in our faces and so many no’s, and we just didn’t give up,” Coats said.
Coats considered abandoning the film and claiming it as a success that it had produced “all these incredible songs.” However, he said Morris became very emotional one day over lunch, even for a gruff punk rocker, and told him, “Dimitri, we have to make this movie.”
At that moment, Coats said, “I realized he was right there with me, and I promised him that we would make the movie, even if we had to shoot it on a damn iPhone.”
In the end, it was the music that brought the film together. OFF!’s music is loved by many Los Angeles film professionals, including cinematographer Christopher Raymond, who shot the second unit on “Avengers: Infinity War.” Producer Kurt Kittleson (“The Canyons”) wrote Morris a fan letter when he was a teenager. One of the first to take the project seriously was editor Jonathan P. Shaw, who started in the editorial department of “Blue Velvet” before editing the television series “Twin Peaks.” Coats said these industry professionals signed on for a fraction of their usual hourly rates because they enjoyed working on something new and unusual.
In addition to Morris and Yow, the film also features Chris D. of the Flesheaters, Davey Havok of AFI and Don Bolles of the Germs as musicians turned actors. What was particularly touching for this music fan was that the late DH Peligro, drummer of the Dead Kennedys, stepped in when the band’s drummer Justin Brown was held up by a long tour. “We wanted to put all the freaks we knew from the LA scene in the film,” Coats said. “It turns out they’re really entertaining to watch on screen.”
In fact, playing in a band is good preparation for filmmaking. Band life is a collective work of love and struggle – I once heard a musician compare it to “having three girlfriends”. This is something the film captures well and even portrays as heroic.
Coats, who directed OFF! and produced its records, tried to make the set “like a band experience” and give everyone involved a lot of freedom, “and we took that fun seriously.” He also found there was “a musicality in terms of structuring a script,” and organizing tours taught him to write on budget. The crew managed 18 days of filming during the pandemic. Their friend Jack Black made his cameos via iPhone.
By pursuing a dream that many thought was impossible, the band created a heartfelt paean to the self-actualization that comes from following your creative dreams, regardless of age or background. Coats said, “We take a lot of pride in that: Look at what these older people, this Generation X and the baby boomers, can do.” He said audiences respond strongly to “these more human films that are made by human hands, because there’s something more authentic about them.”
A reaction, incidentally, not unlike the reaction many of us had when we first heard bands like Black Flag and the Circle Jerks, who played far away from the commercial music system. During the filming of the movie and album, OFF! decided to retire as a band and “leave our fans the ultimate parting gift,” Coats said.
They remain close friends. Morris is touring with the reunited Circle Jerks, while Coats has formed a production company with Kittleson, Yes Way Films. Coats is currently writing his next feature, a black comedy called “Pie Night,” and said he is in pre-production on an adaptation of Terry Southern’s first novel, “Flash and Filigree,” with Rhino Films.
Coats said indie filmmaking is “what I’m going to dedicate my life to. I feel like all roads lead here.” And for this viewer, the film did something I never expected: It made me want to start another band.
“Free LSD” is now available on VOD platforms.
