How 'bout your dream track list for the 'upcoming' full-length album? Maybe this will prod the boys to give the fans their due. Here's my $.02:

1- Walk You Home
2- Circus
3- Kari-Ann
4- See You Through
5- Demons
6- Action
7- Leave it All Behind
8- The Design (w/ NaNaNaNaNaNas)
9- Temporary Blues
10- Don't Lie
11- Stagecoach
12- 'I Know You'- what IS this title?
13- 33 1/3

i think the 'i know you' song you're referring to is called 'burma.'
33 1/3 seems more like a mid-album song to me, probably because of the 'so we can hear side 2' line. makes you want to flip a record over.

you're forgetting god save r n r. unless that song should be a single only, which it should.

Nice picks, Lauren, and good idea for a topic.  It's a tough thing to come up with, because, as we all know, there are just so many good songs.  Oh well...

01  The Beginning
02  Leave It All Behind
03  Exorcising Demons
04  Kari-Ann
05  Temporary Blues
06  33 1/3
07  The Design
08  Don't Lie To Me
09  Stagecoach
10  Moonlight
11  Oh My Love
12  Circus

Then comes the not-on-any-album single of the millenium:

A)  God Save Rock'n'Roll
 'Open Our Eyes' - or whatever that song is called, the one with the really cool bassline after the chorus.

'Open Our Eyes'= Harold. I think those 2 actually were recorded as a single last summer. Is that what you were referring to or are you just unknowingly in tune with the band?

this is avery tough question to answer...too many good songs.....i've been sitting here contemplating this and came up with a solution...stop huritng my brain! so....i'm not going to post a tack listing and just leave it up to pure luck and hope that the band will put some of my favorite songs on it. anyways....they need to start playing 'serious' more.



(Edited by ghostflower at 1:30 pm on Mar. 31, 2003)

Lauren - no, I was not aware of the pairing of those two songs; I guess great minds truly do think alike.  But seriously, that would be a great combo.  They don't play that song often enough (or Temporary Blues or Don't Lie).

I'm not really sure about a particular listing just yet, but I would like to go on the record at least with what I think should go on an album.

Temporary Blues
Moonlight
Burma
(Turn on to) the Design
Circus
Walk You Home(I know it's on the ep, who gives a fuck?)
Leave It All Behind
Ooooooh, My Love
Exorcising Demons(but wouldn't it be great if it were Exercising Demons?)
Action
The Beginning (perhaps, though it also is on the ep)
+ any of the other new songs that they have churned out over the last year that I might not know the names of. They have been their best. I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

I actually FORGOT that Walk You Home was on the EP. So, in order to maximize exposure of songs, I think I'd replace it with Oh My Love (with Ooh La La Las that we heard once or twice), somewhere later in the list.

ok, no order:

bumble bee
walk you home
armani suede
kari-anne
god save rock n roll
circus
exorcising demons
your smile
see you thru
dark room
serious
thursday (close)

The new songs were good but I don't remeber their names so add them. To me, their choice of producer is more important than the track list. No Pelham/Bocher and for god's sake no Mahaffey. Maybe they should call B.E. Who am I kidding? I'd enjoy any album from them.

Here's my blow a speaker in your system listing. Some may call it 'hyper' but i don't care.

Side One

Walk You Home
Circus (its time for a new cut of the classic)
Leave it all behind
The Beginning
Temporary Blues
God Save R&R

Side Two

Action
Two by Two
Oh, My Love
The Design
Serious

This would be for a UK release or something. I don't think there is anything wrong with releasing stuff on the EP. The bottom line is the absolute best songs should be on the album.
Anyway, thats it, thats the number one, the platinum. Nevermind The Strokes, here's The Features.

Just stumbled onto this... if this is true, I'd really love to hear these, not that any of us have them. Which brings up a thought...

BrianW, Peacefrog, Michael, and anyone else that ever talks with the band: an idea that might be worth presenting... I know I'd pay good money ($15-20) for a CDR of things like the studio Harold and other studio recordings that never got released and are of songs that aren't likely to see the light of day. Clearly the God Save Rock 'n' Roll that was purportedly recorded in conjunction with Harold would be something that they'd not want to release, since it'll likely be rerecorded for the album. But if this Harold recording does in fact exist (along with, perhaps, recordings of Burma, Stagecoach, etc) I know we'd all pay to have a copy of it, and unless the band is completely unhappy with the recordings, it'd be an easy way for them to make some cash. No fancy packaging or anything, just a consumer CDR with studio recordings of songs that won't be on future releases. Hell, I'd pay to have non-mp3 versions of Dortch and Mahaffey recordings like Your Smile and Jurley... songs that are officially dead. I imagine others would too, and since we're a captive market, we'd all likely be willing to pay full retail style prices for a CDR shipped in a padded envelope, sold only via the website. Especially with the lost sessions, they are recordings we already have, but that (I suspect) many of us would rather have in a natural, uncompressed form. It'd be a good way for the fans to get material that would otherwise be lost, and a good way for the band to make some dough for the upcoming album. Just food for thought, and wishful thinking, but I can't see why not, right?

Will

Funny how this thread looks like it could be current, minus Eno2.

It sounds like a great idea, and I second that request. I doubt it would happen, though. But if it did, they could call it "The Features Anthology." When I found out that there was a recent Features session in the studio of recording demos that they have no intentions of releasing, it got me thinking about just how much stuff they have out there. Eno speculated 100s of songs, 2-5 versions of each. I believe that this is quite possibly true.

Amen, Will. I know I'd pay good money.

By the way, ya'll should click on St. Eno2's signature, "1985." That is absolutely fucking hilarious.

Shit, I remember that commercial and jingle, which is surprising, since I was 3 when it aired. I think it explains my childhood obsession with Juicyfruit Gum, since I lived in New Orelans and often joined my folks when they went water skiing, and so had a inflated image of that activity.... it was great to see that.

Will

From what I've heard, the "secret" nature of the lost studio sessions has nothing to do with the cost of releasing them. I think they were all intended to be rough demos. I've heard that the band has never been that happy with any of them. (Apparently, they're quite the perfectionists.) That's probably what's keeping them from releasing them.

I hope I'm wrong, though. It would be very nice to have some (or, dare I dream, all) of the studio stuff. Maybe they could even spend an afternoon writing some brief liner notes, like Peter Buck did for Dead Letter Office.

And I think the Features should cover the song from the Juicy Fruit commercial.

That commercial was hilarious. I remember the jingle, too, Wiyum. And, I was born in 1983. I think they kept using it for a couple more years. I think they should re-air it; I'm sure it would get a reaction. Man, the 80s ruled me.

From what I've heard, not all of them are...

I, too, remember the Juicy Fruit commercial vividly. Is it just me, or did they usually repeat "the taste" instead of "gonna" at the very end? [The taste the taste the taste is gon-na mooove ya!] instead of [The taste is gonna gonna gonna mooove ya!] That's how I remember it, at least.

Wow, I didn't realize this was an old thread and I was getting kinda pissed off that no one was adding the new songs to the track listings.

What about the commercial for "Crossfire"?..."you get caught up in the...crossfire!!" then the crescendo into "CROSSFIRE!!!!!!" and then the kid who lost orbited away into oblivion. That commercial was so intense.

Almost as intense as the commercial for "Hungry, Hungry Hippos." The whole thought of feeding hippos was abstract to me. Maybe if had been "Hungry, Hungry Dogs" or "Hungry, Hungry Humans", I would have been more inclined to understand it. Are Hippos really that hungry?

I know a guy that knows all of the words to the ribbon dancer commercial.

Very cool

you're right. i never would have remembered that. mad props.
now all we need are the doublemint twins.

I definitely remember it as you say, and was put off by this change.

Will

I would definitely buy The Features' Anthology. Call me lame, but the thoguht that there are recorded versions of GSRnR and other versions of Stagecoach, etc is enough to keep me up all night worrying that I'll never hear them. Rough demos or not, they have to be more clear than some of the live recordings we have (which are all great and much thanks to Blightman and all the others who have put MP3s on the site). I HAVE to know the lyrics to Temporary Blues and a demo would solve that.

But yes, I would pay a lot of mulah for those recordings.

And the "crossfire" commercial was shown forever it seems. I remember it being shown as late as 1995 or so. I also always hated the "how many licks to the center of a tootsie pop" since the owl blatantly lied to the kid. He licks it three times and then bites it, and says it's three. It is not three. The three licks did not get him to the center of the pop, the bite did. So really, it should theoretically take three licks and a bite. I hate that owl.

This is, so I've always heard, the reason that Dortch and Mahaffey sessions were never released. The other sessions were never intended for release. I think the pressure for recorded material from the public has made the Mahaffey sessions pretty available (i.e. Oh My Love as a b-side).

Indeed.

IRRELEVANT!!!!

Again, I'd pay top dollar for such things, but I'm not holding my breath for this to happen.

(Edited by YaDaDaDa at 5:31 pm on Mar. 31, 2003)

I don't think there are any plans to release any current "studio" stuff at all, at least in a massive CD-R dumping as you would suggest. And while certainly there have been the attempts at full-length records in various sessions, many of these recordings have been essentially canned due to issues of quality, lack of satisfication, etc. And, though I can't speak with 100% certainty on this point, there might be issues with Spongebath and the ability to release certain songs. Someone can correct me on this I'm sure.

The most recent sessions with Krampf started out with dual goals: 1. to have high quality demos to shop around to lablels and 2. to have high quality tracks that could be used for a record if the Features went the DIY route and did it on their own. A few of these have surfaced on the SxSW sampler, or on the webpage for the show at SxSW, and you might have an opportunity to hear a few of them yourself in the days to come (hint, hint), but this is probably as far as these songs will go, at least in their current form.

Ultimately I think it's the goal of this band to release "legitimate" records for everyone to buy. I think it would be great to have a back-catalog release, but this would come (if it comes at all) after a full-length release and not before.

And here's the tough part -- we're fans of this band and would love that everything they ever did in the studio were released, but this probably will never happen. We have to respect the wishes, and of course, the rights of the band to not want certain material to ever "see" (or should I say hear) the light of day. Ultimately things get out there and they're jewels to behold, but I don't think we can expect the band to release songs simply because we want them, they have to first find it worthy to be heard.

This is all my opinion of course.

(Edited by BrianW at 8:30 pm on Mar. 31, 2003)

Understood and it's all cool.

But geez Brian, you must really want to improve our eye sight with all the carrots you've been dangling in front of us! Yes that was a bad pun but someone had to say it....

Yeah, sorry for all the carrot danglin'. Of course a few people here probably know what I'm talking about now so, and someone amongst us here has a program that scans domains for hidden, non-linked pages and has seen all the goodies that awaits us all. But for the rest it's just a matter of days now, then our eyesights will all improve greatly.

Yes, this is what I was sort of thinking about this topic. Sure, pretty much every member of this message board would buy any and everything that comes down the pike - but it seems that the real need right now is to spread the gospel of The Features far and wide by getting an album out and heard by/sold to the public. The time for releasing catalogs of old stuff will only come after others can hear their "new" (or just more polished)stuff so there is a broader interest.

However, it would still be cool if we could somehow get said stuff now.

A pun tied to a bad extended metaphor that I think I'm to blame for.

Will

Not at all objectionable or unexpected. As I say, it was simply wishful thinking. But it was wishful thinking borne out of the following...

I'm in possession of a few Features cds purchased for I think $7 apeice and two Vinyls that cost that or less. All had some modicum of packaging and a professional pressing, and were probably pressed in low quantities. What that means to me is that, despite being as "loyal" a fan as possible with my purchases, I've done little to help the band I love so much financially. So I wouldn't object to being taken advantage of for once.

And Brian, forget revealing what these goodies are in full, but when will we be seeing them? I was about to reburn a Features mix cd to bring to work this quarter but I don't want to waste it if new stuff will be available very soon...

Will

A matter of days, indeed!! If all goes well I've got my fingers crossed for a Wednesday launch. However, all dates are subject to change.


Michael

Thank you for clearing this up. We'd sort of been led to believe that this was the stuff which would make the album. Were the plans changed, or what?

I think you're right, initially the goal was to go in and record the songs for a full length. My memory seems to recall they would only record a handful of songs and shop those around to get completion money to finish the rest of the album. But things changed and they ultimately became used simply as demos.

The early March sessions have also served this purpose and were slated as demos from the get-go.

an anthology or back catalog release will never happen partially because spongebath owns the masters to all the stuff that was released on the label.

I didn't think that such record label red tape existed among indie labels, but I know nothing about the industry. Assuming that's true, they would only own the 12 or so songs that the Features released...and maybe the Dortch sessions. This raises questions of what happens when the label goes bust.

Are you kidding? I thought they already did. Who's on it?

On the new album, I would like an mpeg movie of Rollum discoing to Armani Suede.

I'm not sure what you're asking.

I thought Spongebath already went bust. Is the label still around and who is signed to Spongebath records?

spongebath is gone......

i believe i was told that they owned the masters to the dortch sessions. i could be wrong.

ghostflower? is that you?