The National Lampoon Movie You’ve Never Seen Is A Must-Watch On Streaming

Electric Apricot was conceived, written, and directed by Les Claypool of the band Primus. If you’re familiar with Primus, or any of Claypool’s other projects for that matter, then you know what kind of strange adventure you’re about to get into. If you’re not too familiar with Les Claypool’s overall vibe, he’s the guy responsible for writing the theme music for South Park, as well as Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken. 

We’re first introduced to Electric Apricot as they’re slowly but surely making a name for themselves in the local jam band scene. Each member has the kind of alias that you’d expect to find within the liner notes of any jam band bootleg tape making its way around the festival circuit.

The core members of Electric Apricot are Steve “Aiwass” Trouzdale on bass guitar, Steven “Gordo” Gordon on lead guitar, Lapland “Lapdog” Miclovich on drums, and Herschel Tambor Brillstein on keyboards. 

In the true mockumentary fashion, we learn about the band’s lore and cult following through street interviews as they play their first several shows under the guidance of their manager, “Smilin’” Don Kleinfeld, who can’t afford to keep his cell phone connected. 

The second act takes us to the recording studio, where Electric Apricot works on their debut album. If you’ve ever played in a band, you know how tedious the recording process is, especially when every single aspect of the production is nitpicked to the point of agony. Lapdog, who spends an entire day tuning his drums, constantly reassures everybody that he’s doing the right thing, because, in his words, “you only make your first record once.” 

As tensions mount, it becomes clear that Electric Apricot is on the brink of falling apart. With Festeroo just around the corner, the band has to race against the clock to complete their album, load up the motor home, and hit the road. 

Electric Apricot is a satire that’s executed so flawlessly that you’ll forget you’re supposed to be in on the joke. To make the humor even more meta, Electric Apricot, as they appear in the film, actually played a number of unannounced shows in California to shoot footage for the movie.

The movie’s soundtrack features original music from the band, along with notable performances from other real-life jam band mainstays like Gov’t Mule, Stiff Dead Cat, Jerry Garcia, and Bob Weir. 

As you would expect, this mockumentary made by the guy from Primus about a fictional but also real-life band called Electric Apricot was destined to be a cult classic.

Distributed by none other than Troma Entertainment, Electric Apricot made its rounds through screenings at festivals like the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee and The Raindance Festival in London.

Though this wavy gravy, sage burning musical odyssey garnered a 72 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, critics probably never got the memo that this movie even existed. 

Now that you know about Electric Apricot, you might as well head over to Tubi and see what it’s all about. The grooves are infectious, the story is ridiculous, and not unlike This is Spinal Tap, the jokes are dialed up to 11.