(The) Harvey Danger Database

As of 2025, Sean Nelson has worked diligently to clear almost Harvey Danger’s entire oeuvre for digital music platforms. What rare gems remain un-streamed are freely circulated among fans, and it seems most likely, at this point, that almost everything listenable has already been offered up for listening.

Nevertheless: sharp-eyed HD fans have, over the years, collected a series of titles, tantalizing mysteries about which virtually nothing else is extant. Some are known to never have been finished. Others were allegedly played live but went unrecorded. At least a couple are probably just jokes from the practice space.

Nevertheless…

1996 demo outtakes

The band began recording with John Goodmanson in early ’96, in sessions which produced their second demo tape, half of what became Merrymakers, and four other songs: Busker (which may have been performed once on KNDD), Wedlock (shortlisted for Merrymakers; see below), Holiday, and Stitches. There is no evidence any of these four recordings have ever been heard outside the band’s inner circle.

Merrymakers outtakes

An early shortlist for the album appeared in the “grab bag” section of the band’s website around 1999, captioned by Jeff:

This piece of paper (on the back of one of our homemade press releases) was posted in our living room, and was the list of songs under consideration for the album. The songs outlined in black were ones that made it (though some were eventually dropped); the black checkmarks indicated the songs were already recorded. Each member of the band voted (you can see the letters corresponding to our names) for the other songs they wanted to record; a circle over the initial meant that that person felt only so-so about recording the song.

(Based on known recording dates, this list was drawn up after June 1996 and before February 1997.)

Rolling Roads was an early title for “Problems and Bigger Ones.”

Lidsville Lunchbox and Foot-Controlled Activator may have been played at the OK Hotel Cafe in 1996.

On the old HD forums, Aaron said of Portland or Hell:

I’m pretty sure that song was never even finished. If it was, it was probably only played at one show back in 1996 or something.

A bootleg of Lester Ballard (named after a character in Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God) has been circulating since 1999 or 2000 with the following lyrics:

King James Version outtakes

An unfinished song called Something Else Again is mentioned in the liner notes to the 25th anniversary vinyl release.

“Mainland” was played live in 2000 under its working title Main Line.

Little By Little… outtakes

Two titles were mentioned in a pre-production blog post by Aaron but never saw the light of day: Deep Note (a “troubled” song shelved by the band prior to recording) and High-Tension Wires, later confirmed to have been abandoned by… someone? at some point? (source: my own memory; please email me if you can verify)

And the rest

The remaining titles in this section have been associated with Harvey Danger, at some point, somewhere, by someone. Sources are scarce, if they exist at all; additional information is practically nil. Included here, for the sake of posterity/gullibility/future gloating:

• Anna Said
• A Certain Prof
• (I’m) Down with Girlfriends
• Frank Black
• Hurried Love & Kisses from Tokyo, Love, Daddy
• If Irony Were Alcohol, I’d Be Blacked Out by Now
• Less than 12 Parsecs (may have been played at the OK Hotel Cafe in 1996; obviously a Star Wars reference)

Finally: Nervous Breakdown On-the-Floor-Style, a song about the Mary Kay Letourneau case. It may have been performed once on KNDD, but no recordings have ever surfaced. However, Sean posted the lyrics to the official forum in 2004 or 2005: