Second Fiddles of the Silver Screen

In the music biz, it's a given that instrumental soundtrack albums usually appeal to a cult audience. Moonstone Records, a two-year-old division of the B-movie company Full Moon Entertainment, has taken that maxim literally. Providing the soundtrack to Full Moon's latest direct-to-video thriller, Bad Channels, are none other than aged rockers Blue Öyster Cult. With the soundtrack for the flick — set ''in a rock radio station with aliens zapping beautiful babes through rock videos'' — the Cult joins a growing crew of, well, fading rockers-turned-film scorers at Full Moon. David Bryan, who plays keyboards with Bon Jovi, scored the gleefully creepy Netherworld, and Stuart Brotman, of the '60s cult group Kaleidoscope, plays Romanian folk music for Subspecies, a vampire flick.

The label's most prolific composer is Richard Band, whose brother, Charles, owns the company. Band is already represented by Puppet Master I and II; he'll be back with the scores to Dr. Mordred and Demonic Toys. ''A lot of people who collect traditional scores want to own all the John Williams stuff,'' says Moonstone exec Dean Schachtel. ''We have quite a few people who are huge Richard Band fans.'' Say what you will about Full Moon's flicks, but the real shocker is that most of its soundtracks rate better than B.