Skinny Genes’ recent post about the Strokes’ demos prompted me to write about another one of my favorite bands, Hockey, and the songs that didn’t make it to their album. The Portland-based indie-pop outfit has been around since the early-2000s but only ascended to popularity in 2009 with the official (albeit delayed) release of their debut and thus far only album Mind Chaos. Mind Chaos has since been one of my favorite albums; it’s one of those albums that I continually go back to. They’ve got this Bob-Dylan-meets-The-Strokes vibe mixed with their own funk. They’re overall talented musicians. Supposedly they’ve been in the studio recording what will be one of my most anticipated albums ever. Meanwhile the album and the following songs will have to tide me over. “Bullfight” and “Reading to an Elephant” were both released on a mixed tape in 2005, separately from Mind Chaos so they were pretty easy to miss. These songs are pretty different from anything you’d find on the album but they’re super catchy in their own ways. “Mercenary Days” was released in an early version of Mind Chaos but not with the official album, though I don’t know why. It’s great and the lyrics are awesome.
Bullfight
Reading to an Elephant
Mercenary Days
This version of “Work” was recorded live at Wendyhouse and I much prefer it to the album recording (which is still great); this has a little added umph.
For a while I refused to listen to any sort of remix of a Hockey song. It was blasphemous to me. I don’t think you should mess with something that’s nearly perfect on its own. However this RAC remix (sort of) changed my mind. It’s the only remix that I think can even touch the original track, probably because RAC doesn’t try to remaster a song, he just embellishes it a bit in such a way to compliment the song instead of destroying it. It’s still probably the only remix of a Hockey song I can appreciate though….
