"A Matter Of Degrees" is the second and final film directed by W.T. Morgan, who is notable for having previously directed "X: The Unheard Music". I've never seen it, probably on account of it having been released before THE YEAR PUNK BROKE, and thus being a bit of a forgotten film. It features a few A+ character actors in the form of Tom Sizemore and Wendall Pierce, with Michael Imperioli making a very early, unnamed appearance. John Doe, Kate Pierson, and Fred Schneider all show up as well, apparently. The plot revolves around a college student refusing to sell out and go to grad school, and rebelling against a corporate takeover of the college radio station. I assure the Gen Z'ers amongst my readers that, yes, this is something we were concerned about in the 90s. It actually mattered.
The soundtrack, however, is best described as "mad solid"...very representative of where the majors were fishing in the pre-Nirvana, post-Replacements college rock pond. fIREHOSE contributes an exclusive track to this soundtrack, as do Yo La Tengo. This, along with the misconception that Lou Reed had something to do with this movie (due to the cover), were the reasons I plunked down a dollar for this. Additionally, you get the Pixies song everyone put on a tape for me in the 90s, a Lemonheads track from their contemporary release, and a Miracle Legion cover of Mission Of Burma that only appeared on the Japanese release of their debut LP. There's a token hip hop track from Schooly-D, and even the great Alex Chilton shows up with "Rock Hard" from his classic 1979 record "Like Flies On Sherbert". Shout out to Jim Dunbar, who was music supervisor on the movie, did A&R for Columbia in the 90s, and also played in Wylde Ratttz for "Velvet Goldmine".
All of this is to say that I'm not going to chase down a copy of "A Matter Of Degrees", but I would probably throw it on one Sunday morning when my wife is still asleep and I'm doing laundry.
