Let's Get Close -1/28/00
I'd just gotten an E-bow, so that's all over this song and others from this time. The vocals are scrappy on this but I knew it was a good enough song to make the cut for the second P*S*K record. Stretched the last chorus on the album version and cleaned the whole thing up quite a bit, although I remember having a real hard time trying to re-program all those skribbly little drum bits at the end. In many ways, you can never better the original...although I do think we bettered this, significantly.

Let's Break Up -1/31/00
"Let's" this, "let's" that. In two weeks' time I wrote three songs whose titles begin with "let's." More cool E-bow guitar in this recording. "You talked a hole in my answering machine" is a line I like. But the minor key chorus/outro is my favorite part. Warm waves of gorgeous sadness...

Solid Gold -2/1/00
A bitter song, from a bitter time. Bitter, bitter, bitter!

Supa Satellite -2/4/00
I changed the chorus this one a little before re-recording it for the second P*S*K record. I think it's better now.

Let's Get Ready! -2/6/00
I wrote this in my head one afternoon, walking around the 'burg. Ran home and threw it down onto the 4-track very quickly. When I recorded it for The Rise and Fall record, I added a bunch of crazy drum programming and other bells n' whistles, which I love -- but the guitars are a bit more in-yer-face on this version, eh? Anyway, I felt like I'd written a winner. It wound up being the opening track on the CD. Five years later, we're still playing it.

Yer the $ -2/17/00
There are things about this lo-fi, original version that I like better than the "studio" version. I distinctly remember my inspiration for this song: I'd just finished listening to the new Cure album, "Bloodflowers," and it was so depressing, I reacted by writing the most whimsical and ridiculous thing I could come up with. "Yer the $" came out in about ten minutes. To this day, it is still ridiculous. I can't believe how much people love this song.

Saved My Life -2/22/00
Ooh, check those new wave keyboard sounds! Seriously, I've always loved this chorus, even though it is disturbingly reminiscent of Foreigner's "Feels Like the First Time." Perish the thought!

We Can Turn It Out -2/22/00
Wrote this in my head at a friend's house in Pennsylvania and jotted down some notes on a piece of paper so I would remember it when I got home (I can't write music). Somehow the idea survived. It's inspired by a song on Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie album Can you guess which one? Do you care?

Do the Crash -3/17/00
Here's your pop song in under two minutes. The version we did on Rise and Fall is way better, with the sequencer and all. But it holds up ok here, too.

Yo Yo -4/8/00
A sweet song, with a chorus that can be sung in any language. I like how, again, the song sounds like its title. When I originally recorded this song, I didn't have a working drum machine, so I threw down a really scrappy version. I wound up re-recording the song in 2005 (with proper drums), which is what you're hearing.