Dead Sea Scrolls metadata analysis
In April 2025, Harvey Danger released King James Version on vinyl for the first time, accompanied by a long list of bonus material available for download through a QR code in the liner notes.
One of these files, “Pity and Fear” [Cruel Intentions version], included some interesting metadata:
id3v2 tag info for Pity_and_Fear_(Cruel_Intentions_version).mp3: TT2 (Title/songname/content description): Pity and Fear (Cruel Intentions version) TP1 (Lead performer(s)/Soloist(s)): Harvey Danger TAL (Album/Movie/Show title): Dead Sea Scrolls TCO (Content type): Indie Rock (255) TRK (Track number/Position in set): 17/18 TEN (Encoded by): iTunes 11.0.3 COM (Comments): (iTunPGAP)[eng]: 0 COM (Comments): (iTunNORM)[eng]: 00000B8C 00000AFD 00005475 00004F0A 000226D0 0003235E 00008F75 00008400 0000FECB 00029E4E COM (Comments): (iTunSMPB)[eng]: 00000000 00000210 00000B58 0000000000BD8298 00000000 0090D2FF 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 COM (Comments): (iTunes_CDDB_1)[eng]: F6121512+347383+18+150+23132+46860+61985+96200+122895+129273+152766+178135+181072+197498+214845+231172+245476+266779+279630+300035+321160 COM (Comments): (iTunes_CDDB_TrackNumber)[eng]: 17 PIC (Attached picture): ()[JPG, 0]: , 114881 bytes PIC (Attached picture): ()[JPG, 0]: , 4659 bytes COM (Comments): ()[eng]: A collection of b-sides, c-sides, and everybody-look-at-me-sides, released in an extremely limited edition in 2009.
The TAL tag shows the CD was titled Dead Sea Scrolls, and the TRK tag says this song was track #17 of 18.
The TEN and iTun{PGAP,NORM,SMPB} tags indicate the file was imported from a CD, and encoded to MP3, by iTunes v11.0.3. That version of iTunes was released on May 16, 2013; therefore, the CD was ripped on or after that date.
The very last COM (Comments) field contains an alternate description of the album which was otherwise never published.
Most interesting, however, is the tag iTunes_CDDB_1, which contains a representation of the original CD’s TOC:
F6121512+347383+ 18+ 150+ 23132+ 46860+ 61985+ 96200+ 122895+ 129273+ 152766+ 178135+ 181072+ 197498+ 214845+ 231172+ 245476+ 266779+ 279630+ 300035+ 321160
It starts with the disc’s hexadecimal CDDB ID: F6121512, where F6 is the checksum; 1215 is the total running time of the album in seconds (0x1215 = 4,629 seconds ≈ 77 minutes), and 12 is the total number of tracks (0x12 = 18).
The ID is followed by the LBA offset of the disc’s lead-out sector (347383) and the total number of tracks again (18, this time in decimal). The remaining values list the LBA offsets of each track’s starting sector: notice that they only increase, and that the sequence ends by wrapping around to the offset of the lead-out sector, i.e. the end of the disk (321160 → 347383).
Converting LBA offsets (in sectors) to timestamps (in minutes and seconds) is simple arithmetic. There are 75 frames per second, and the disc begins with a two-second pregap (150). The duration in frames of each track n is the difference between the offsets of track n and track n−1; the duration in seconds is that difference divided by 75.
Using this method, and cross-referencing with the actual durations of known demos and b-sides, the following tracklist can be inferred—the larger the magnitude of the “±” column, the less confident the guess.
| track | offset | frames | seconds | mm:ss | possible title | actual | ± |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00 | 150 | 150 | 2.000 | 00:02 | [pregap] | — | — |
| 01 | 23132 | 22,982 | 306.427 | 05:06 | Cold Snap [demo]1 | 05:08 | +00:02 |
| 02 | 46860 | 23,728 | 316.373 | 05:16 | My Human Interactions | 05:18 | +00:02 |
| 03 | 61985 | 15,125 | 201.667 | 03:22 | Plague of Locusts | 03:24 | +00:02 |
| 04 | 96200 | 34,215 | 456.200 | 07:36 | Defrocked2 | 07:41 | +00:05 |
| 05 | 122895 | 26,695 | 355.933 | 05:56 | You Look So Happy [demo] | 05:49 | −00:07 |
| 06 | 129273 | 6,378 | 85.040 | 01:25 | Ballad of a Broken String [cut]3 | 01:54 | +00:29 |
| 07 | 152766 | 23,493 | 313.240 | 05:13 | Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (Sometimes) | 05:12 | −00:01 |
| 08 | 178135 | 25,369 | 338.253 | 05:38 | The World’s Greatest Living Dancer [demo]4 | 05:43 | +00:05 |
| 09 | 181072 | 2,937 | 39.160 | 00:39 | Goodmanson Goes Insane [voicemail] | 00:39 | — |
| 10 | 197498 | 16,426 | 219.013 | 03:39 | Sad Sweetheart of the Rodeo [demo] | 03:39 | — |
| 11 | 214845 | 17,347 | 231.293 | 03:51 | Why I’m Lonely [demo] | 03:51 | — |
| 12 | 231172 | 16,327 | 217.693 | 03:38 | Thrilling Conversation [demo] | 03:38 | — |
| 13 | 245476 | 14,304 | 190.720 | 03:11 | Carjack Fever [‘99 demo]5 | 03:08 | −00:03 |
| 14 | 266779 | 21,303 | 284.040 | 04:44 | Pike St./Park Slope [demo] | 04:44 | — |
| 15 | 279630 | 12,851 | 171.347 | 02:51 | Authenticity [early mix] | 02:51 | — |
| 16 | 300035 | 20,405 | 272.067 | 04:32 | Pity and Fear | 04:32 | — |
| 17 | 321160 | 21,125 | 281.667 | 04:42 | Pity and Fear [Cruel Intentions] | 04:42 | — |
| 18 | 347383 | 26,223 | 349.640 | 05:50 | The World’s Greatest Living Dancer | 05:50 | — |
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If correct, this is the only 2001-era demo on the disc. ↩
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The version of “Defrocked” that appears on Unreleased Stuff is 7:41; the version on Dead Sea Scrolls was trimmed to 7:31. ↩
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Removing the studio banter from the beginning and end of the released version results in an exact length of 1:25. ↩
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Removing dead air from the beginning and end of the released track results in an exact length of 5:38. ↩
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Could also be “Louisiana, 1927” (exactly 3:11), but its position between two other KJV demos and the apparent absence of other live tracks makes this seem unlikely. ↩