THE LONG OF IT: (To skip to the short of it, scroll down)
The first few b-sides Advantage left behind: 'Idle Tears', 'Celestial Shell', 'Over Harbors' and even 'Let's Go with Alice' were far from completion. 'Celestial Shell' had no drums but sounded pretty much okay without, so it became the hidden track on Advantage's first edition. 'Let's Go with Alice' ended up on Advantage but was accidentally a drum-friendly mix I had made Trevor to critique his performance before moving on. 'Idle Tears' just never sat well and 'Over Harbors' was never mixed properly. So we had a few extras there off the bat to either come back to or tidy up some for release down the road. The songs deserved it anyway. I just wish we had taken a little more time with it all, but that's sort of what you sign up for when you bring in outside help or even try to re-ignite what was left of an abandoned idea in the first place. 'Let's Go with Alice' is seen here with new texture and a fresh mix with waaaaay less thunk to the ear-ducts.
Onto the original takes (or Nu Wave versions as we called them) of 'Shapeless and Round' and 'Anyone'. These were basically part of the last rough mixes before working with Ken on the album. A bit more synthesizer on both with quirks that never made it to the final; but the performance is there and I like these versions just as much if not more. The "demo" versions are fairly similar in that they were pre-post-production if that makes sense. Basically skeletal forms of some of the more epic tracks on Advantage. These and a few other demos not found on 'Extras' were part of a disc I had made for Trevor in 2011 called 'Solar Bear and Other Tales'.
'Untitled' (also known as 'Mission Impossible'), 'Thumper', 'Please, Save Room For the Water' and 'Digitalis' were finished, or barely finished I should say before the band's last little hiatus when Roscoe and then Trevor would end up leaving the band. They were the last few songs we worked on together and would be the saving grace to what 'Extras' really needed: a fresh breath of air. 'Untitled' features Roscoe on main vocals and the rest we just had fun with. You can hear all of us on there at some point or another. 'Thumper' like 'Idle Tears' and 'Over Harbors' was intended for Advantage but fell off the radar as well. 'SRFTW' and 'Digitalis' are my favorites though, they brought us back to the spontaneous side of things, back where Lunatic Frame and Pixie Junk left off.
Two other fairly important tracks here are 'Interference 2' and an alternate of 'Shebore'. The first song I remember debuting of (any of this new material) was a quiet version of 'Shebore' with just vocals, bass, and guitars. It sounded clean and fresh and like us, but not like us, all at the same time. Like a slightly more-mature us. Later, I had the benefit of collaborating with my childhood friend Youlee Park (who works at the Levine School of Music in D.C.). She is an outstanding and classically trained pianist and came up with the accompaniment almost immediately. It's a bare bones mix but it sounds so natural with her on there. 'Interference 2' was the dark horse of the b-sides. Again, looking back it had the performance qualities of something that could've ended up on the main album but never did. The pace might have even been better for the song too! It's more calm and collected sounding, even with the tagalong overdubs added later on to fill things out. There's even a guitar-and-vocal only version of this floating around that holds it's weight just as well.
THE SHORT OF IT:
So that was the beginning of the end, members left and everything sat once again. Luckily, and through a chance encounter with Jordon Zadorozny best known for his band Blinker the Star (among other various projects and production work) it looked as though the tracks might spark bright again. For the most part the songs were already mixed and just needed a real boost (or mastering that is); and that's what they got. 'Extras' turned out to be more fulfilling than the album from which they were unintentionally rejected. And that would be the long and short of this weird little album. I won't be too hard on myself this time around. I know some people thoroughly enjoyed/enjoy 'Advantage' and I don't want to take that away from them. Although it exposes some stretch of what 'Advantage' might have been, I think 'Extras' holds a more positive light over what could've been a big messy disgrace and gives some insight to the band underneath, that could've been.
-Ian
ps. All of our albums are now offered in CD form via Velvet-Ants.com and here's the non-deluxe artwork for 'Extras'
