Well, well, well. Here is a bit more from the back of the catalog. And a track by track, for those truly interested.

But first, I have to ask, what is the state of demos nowadays? Is it a lost art? For example, we used to do as much as possible to a) communicate the idea, b) give things a shape, c) leave open possibilities. If we were to demo the song to be a fully realized number, there would be no room for collaboration or the mark of the individual musician. Yes, you could provide an "insurance policy" for your vision by just playing everything, but is a "demo" the forum for that (?) -- some hasty sketch by the artist to just get the idea out of the head and onto tape? Not really. The last 20 years, I've had a studio in my house (as has my son and daughter) and the demos we make are really the final tracks, released as we recorded them at home (though sometimes punched up in a big studio to overcome physical or technical limitations). So, I ask... would a new band even be able to release a compilation of demos? Unreleased songs, maybe, but actual demos? One does wonder.

OVERNIGHT
One of my favorite lost WA songs. We always intended to extend it, do a second verse, but didn't bother for the demo (I often did this when I was running out of sequence memory, which was precious gold in the pre-PC days).. We never even tried to work this up w/ the band, though. It came after the release of SCREEN KISS and, I think, everyone thought it sounded too much like a track that would have been on that record. I remember commenting that if we were doing the same record or a similar record again then we would be set. However, by that time, the band was moving in a different direction and this didn't make it further. I liked it so much, though, that I used the back half for another song, TEENAGE BLACKOUT's "The Morning of Our Departure" from 1999's "Theories of Jet Propulsion." (1993)

SMART GIRLS
The raw original demo of this appears on 1999's PARTY FAVOR. It was Nick on vocals, Morgan on guitar, me on drums. I always felt that the song was unfinished. In my head, I had a much more grand arrangement, but the song stalled at one point and it never recovered. I have a vague memory of trying it at a practice; unsure what happened. When A/V suggested this comp they asked for "something spectacular," like a reunion track. Well, that's never gonna happen, so I tried to do the next best thing. I took this one unfinished number and added 60 overdubs. It was a nightmare, though, because the original track had flaws in it. First, the guitar was out of tune (one string was sharp). Second, we didn't record it very well -- just one and done. So the surgery it took to make it sound even as consistent and pro as you hear in this took, literally, weeks. I was just gonna knock it out and it turned into a major project. I used some prior samples of Belinda and Monica, threw in a live kick from Mike, a guitar riff from Cory, and a bass line (reversed) from Danny and, voila, it's all of us again. The strangest part is that it sounds EXACTLY like this band sounded from 1990-1993, in the "Screen Kiss" era. In fact, this track could have been on that album (except that it was written after the record was delivered). Really pleased to present this as a final thought, though. Now I can sleep. It is officially done. (2020)

FOREVER & I
This is, I feel, one of our very best songs. However, I've always found the demo slightly closer to my intention than the final song (available on ROCK N' ROLL VALHALLA as well as SCREEN KISS as a bonus track). We never did a studio version, but the live version from 1992 was a very good recording. This demo, though, has a sadness that was never recaptured in the slightly happier final arrangement. One quick story, though. I wrote this song and "Train Robber" on the same day. Nick came in, sang it, but didn't like it very much. Morgan liked it, though, so he asked to take a pass at the vocal with lyrics he had written. It was a very cool take. Suddenly, though, Nick was inspired on it, so we wiped Morgan's vocal and record the one you hear here instead. Since it was a 4-track, we couldn't keep the original, which is a shame. I would love to hear it again. Not sure if Nick was, like, jealous and was like, "Oh no, this one's gonna be ME," because that's not really how he rolls, but he came in real strong in that second round. The last 40 seconds of this song is one of my favorite pieces in the WA catalog. (1992)

MY OWN HERO
This is a catchy number from Nick Eddy. Me running the 4-track and just seeing if there's potential here. I am not sure why we didn't develop this one further, except that maybe it was nearly the same song as "Best Boyfriend Ever," which was demo'd, I think, the same day. The two sorta canceled each other out. (1993?)

OCEAN IN THE DARK
I think Morgan had a big hand in this sound. It certainly sounds like him. Morgan and I play everything on the demo and Nick came in and sang but, if I remember correctly, the song existed as an acoustic number before, as I had arranged it following some pattern, I'm sure. The horns, by the way, were ALWAYS meant to be replaced by real horns. They sound very cheesy but, I knew, if we had a real horn section, it would be much better. The horns, though, is probably why the song never happened. We had no horn players, nor could we afford them; but without the part, the song didn't have much pep. So we shelved it. This was a period where I really wanted to have some horns on some songs! I'm probably shoe-horning it in where it doesn't belong. By the way, Morgan's part was supposed to be a guide vocal for Belinda and Monica. He wouldn't have really been singing on it. The demo recording is a bit distorted, and we are pretty hesitant in our playing, but you get the idea. On the arrangement, I think I was kinda into BURNING SENSATIONS at that time, so it has some of that feel. (1992)

PATIENTS TO THE STARMAN
This alternate recording is a rough beast with a vocal that is not as good as the other version on ROCK N' ROLL VALHALLA. However, I always dug this version because you can hear my damn keyboards. In the final version, I'm totally buried! This song title, by the way, was a joke title, one made when we each were riffing on song titles that sounded like GUIDED BY VOICES titles. Somehow, it stuck. It's probably our most Bowie-esque number. (1994)

PERFECT JACKASS
An alternate recording. I prefer this one to the one on HODGEPODGE because it's the right tempo and I play a different piano. Plus, that snare is better. (1993)

30th OF FEBRUARY
A "one joke" song, but it's a darn good joke. (1994)

CHURCH IS OUT
One of the very first songs, pre-SCREEN KISS. It may, in fact, be our first ever 4-track demo. The drumming is Nick's roommate Andy, who had a Simmons electronic drum kit. I love the lyrics. It never made the cut for SCREEN KISS, though, because it was an older song for Nick and I think he wasn't that into it any more. If I recall correctly, it was supposed to sound like "Sister Madly" by CROWDED HOUSE. (1990)

TRAIN ROBBER
This demo, like FOREVER & I, is much different in tone from the final recording. I was trying to write a BLUE NILE song and that guitar part (which got buried in a track mixdown) is right in that band's style. Oddest thing to me is that the chorus has a weird resolve note which did not work when we did it with the whole band. When the bass part changed, that note clashed, so I made is more melodic. I wrote this the same day I wrote "Different." (1992)

FIVE SMALL STONES
A sweet little number by Nick about kids. I think Mike N. didn't like this one, so it went nowhere. (1993?)

THERE'S NO CURE
I tried to write this rock song for the band, when we got all guitar-like. This was probably in early 1995. The band was already fraying and it's not a great song. I thought we could save it in the delivery, but, when we tried to rehearse it, there were stares of boredom. I ended up doing much better rock work later with TRAVEL. Much, much better. (1995)

GIVE ME THE CAMERA
When writing melodies, Nick would sing using any novel he could pull from my bookshelf. We did this many times with great success. Then he would go back and write the lyrics to that trial melody. Here, he read from Whitley Streiber's WOLFEN. Probably some copyright violation here, but it was in good spirit to release it with all this backstory. The song, like "Overnight" was considered too dance-y compared to where we were going at the time, so never was worked up. Couple weird things, though -- first, the b-part ("whisper in my ear...") is actually from a song I wrote for a previous band (THE LIFE AND TIMES, "Something Left Unsaid). I lifted it into this one, but I don't remember why I would have thought to do that; it's a very weird choice. The singer is Kelly Loudermilk, who sang a bit on SCREEN KISS, but didn't go on the tour, so my guess is that this was like 1991 or so; second, the main riff was a sequence I used to test my keyboard set up before concerts, so the band got really sick of hearing it, I'm sure, even though we never played the song. (1993?)

ANGELS (LIVE)
A nice live cut I uncovered. We didn't play this one live much. It got dropped early in the tour. We were kinda sick of it and it meant we needed to have a second keyboard set up for Morgan to assist, so it was kind of a pain. Nice recording, though, and the performance is fun, though very close to the original recording. (1992)

VERTIGO JOE
This one speaks for itself. It makes me laugh, though, because I've always wondered what the hell the rest of this song was to sound like. (1993?)

HATS OFF
One of the bands favorite songs and one that usually ended the show. However, we have no good recordings of it. If the recording is good, we played it like shit, and the ones we played well sound like two cups and a string. This one is a boombox tape for a rehearsal. Still, gotta love those lyrics. (1992)

So... that's the whole backlog. Well... almost.