Unreleased recordings, soundtrack recordings, and other stuff
liner notes for the Unreleased Stuff compilation
1. Save it for Later (version from the soundtrack to the film “200 Cigarettes”)
2. Beautiful World
This is our version of the Devo song we originally submitted to London Records for the 200 Cigarettes soundtrack. For some reason the label rejected it – perhaps because they didn’t think it was radio-friendly enough or something.
3. snippet #1
Taken from the basic tracking session for “Plague of Locusts.”
4. Plague of Locusts
From the King James Version sessions. Previously released on the Circuit City promotional EP.
5. My Human Interactions
From the King James Version sessions. Previously released on the Circuit City promotional EP.
6. Defrocked
Most of this recording was actually finished in late 1997 and rather than try and re-create the whole thing, Sean re-cut the vocal and Grant Lee Phillips added his backing vocals over the old tracks during the King James Version sessions. Originally there was an idea to put this song as the “hidden” track on King James Version, but “The Same As Being in Love” seemed to work best as the final track, without something following it. Previously released on the Circuit City promotional EP.
7. snippet #2
Ladies and gentlemen, John Goodmanson. (for context: when “Flagpole Sitta” was starting to blow up, several radio stations in Texas and the Bible Belt refused to play the song because of the “Goddamn you” line. Several radio edits – from running the vocals backwards, to just deleting the offending word – were tested out; in the end I believe they just ran a version with the word bleeped out.)
8. Pity and Fear
B-side released on the U.K. single for “Flagpole Sitta.”
9. Please Please Tell Me Now
Another song we tried out as a possible submission for the 200 Cigarettes soundtrack. For obvious reasons, this never got submitted to the label, since “Beautiful World” wasn’t deemed “commercial” enough. I’m not sure if we did this as a joke or not.
10. snippet #3
The one day we had in the studio to record “Sometimes You Have to Work on Xmas” we also had to record some radio IDs for a couple stations in France. By the time we finished the song, it was around 3 a.m. The last bit is just a bit of spontaneous stuff – I was playing the Optigan, and Sean tried his hand at some freestylin’…
11. Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (sometimes)
Previously released on KROQ Christmas album and also as an MP3.
12. Carjack Fever (original version)
This is the original version of Carjack Version, which was recorded in either ’94 or ’95. It’s the only publicly-available recording that wasn’t done with John Goodmanson.
13. Save It for Later (altered solo)
This is the version of “Save It For Later” that features Pearl Jam lead guitarist Mike McCready kicking out an “Evenflow”- style guitar solo in the middle. The first iteration of the solo had a backwards guitar solo that not everyone was sure about. Just for kicks, John called up Mike (Pearl Jam had been at John & Stu’s demoing songs for Yield, I believe, the previous week) and had him come in and play a couple passes. For fun, I asked him to bust out a classic “hot dog” solo. Here it is. (Eventually we went with a Rhodes piano solo in that section.)
14. Authenticity (original mix and intro)
This is the mix of “Authenticity” that was going to be on King James Version, which features the original intro and abbreviated beginning. However, Sean was unhappy with the vocals at the very beginning and when it was remixed months later, we tried out starting the song from a different point – which worked great; that’s the version that ended up on the album.
-jeff