The soundtrack to Downtown 81 (a.k.a., New York Beat Movie) was released earlier this week, and it features a ton of bands from the Lower East Side art scene of the late ‘70s/early ‘80s on which the film was based. The film features the late Jean Michel Basquiat basically playing himself as a young artist who is evicted from his apartment and sets off into the streets with a painting, intending to sell it for enough money to reclaim said apartment. Along the way he runs into a motley cast of characters, mostly played by key figures of said art and music scene, at one point featuring Debbie Harry as a bag-lady-turned-fairy-princess.

The soundtrack consists of an über-exciting array of bands, even including Basquiat's own band Gray, which also featured skeezy filmmaker Vincent Gallo. Other bands and people on the soundtrack include Lydia Lunch, James Chance, Liquid Liquid, Tuxedomoon, DNA, Suicide, Chris Stein of Blondie... the list goes on.

Tracklist: