Let's Turn the Record Over

B-sides and bonus tracks allow artists the opportunity to showcase covers and toss-offs they would otherwise save for the occasional encore, as well as precious gems that didn’t end up meshing with the rest of the album. And, of course, absolute crap, stray live tracks, and pointless remixes. Yet even the most banal of bonus tracks becomes an absolute necessity to the obsessed fan.

The first b-side I encountered was a bonus track on the Japanese version of Fastball's 1998 release, All the Pain Money Can Buy. "Freeloader Freddy" seemed like the perfect name for the perfect, laid-back power pop song. Unwilling to dish out $30 for the imported release, I simply “visited” the album every now and again at the now-defunct CDNOW.com. The more artists I became enthralled with, the more forbidden tracks I had to pine for. Why, why did all the bonus tracks have to go to Japan?

When Napster burst on the scene in 1999, I suddenly had hundreds of these b-sides and bonus tracks at my fingertips. * I finally heard the opening riff of "Freeloader Freddy" after more than a year of waiting, and I was not disappointed. It's still one of my favorite pop songs today. I have roughly three discs of Everclear b-sides, non-album tracks and tracks from members’ preceding groups, and songs like “Gay Bar Song” and “The Swing” were a huge part of my high school experience.

I was born into an area when the b-side was transitioning out of the collective conscious of the record industry. What used to be a way to promote 45 rpm singles became bonus tracks on cassette and compact disc singles in the 1980’s and 1990’s, always accompanied by a completely worthless remix of the song (in case you didn’t want to hear the repeat of the chorus after the second verse; see Aerosmith’s Livin’ on the Edge radio promo for an example). Nowadays, finding a hard copy of a mainstream single outside of the checkout line at Walgreen’s is a feat, though various indie and hipster groups still release 45s and CD singles like it’s 1983.

What used to be a reward for buying a single track has now become an expectation with the purchase of every album. Most often, independent record labels reward listeners for pre-ordering albums by throwing in a 45 or several free downloads. Independent record stores will sometimes have a limited quantity of bonus discs, buttons and stickers to hand out on release days. DVDs of performances, too, have become quite popular. Since 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco has made a habit of releasing non-album tracks within about six months of an album’s release.

And it is in examining Wilco’s various bonus offerings that we encounter the bastard child of the Unnecessary Remix, the Needlessly Included Live Track. Whereas the bonus EP More Like the Moon, released in conjunction with the Australian edition of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot contains six studio tracks, the AGIB and SBS EPs include (what I find to be) rather bland live interpretations of several of the album tracks. Perhaps I’m just a completist, but I can’t see the interest in hearing one song from a single concert (see my upcoming post on live bootlegs).

The digital era does not itself lead to more songs per album (though arguably the prevalence of digital studios and recording technologies can decrease producing costs, increasing the amount of studio time artists are able to use), but it does definitely decrease the cost of making extra tracks publicly available. Therefore, the artist is able to pass on to the customer even the most banal studio riff raff (see Ryan Adams) free of charge.

And so I suppose you and I are both wondering what the moral of this story about b-sides is? Like the studio instantiations mentioned in my previous post, these extra tracks become evidence of the time that exists outside of the 42 minutes on any given album. While some of the songs seem like toss-offs – bridges to better songs and 2:30 of life lost – others are honestly compelling music that wouldn’t have fit on the album for which they were recorded.

My two favorite examples are Wilco’s excellent “The Thanks I Get,” left off of 2007’s Sky Blue Sky, and Sleater-Kinney’s powerhouse track “Everything,” left off The Woods. (Seriously, listen to how Janet alternates between the snare riff and the hi-hat riff depending on whether Carrie or Corin is singing.) Both of these tracks are fair assessments of where the respective bands were creatively during these times, but neither of them are particularly suitable for the albums. See also, “Kicking Television,” the Wilco track that is shit-kicking live, but fell incredibly short in the studio.

While the b-sides of the past were hard to track down because so few surfaced, and then nearly disappeard altogether as 45s went out of style, the bonus tracks of the present are more elusive simply because those that aren’t official leak in the strangest of places. Nevertheless, they have always had the elusive appeal of a forbidden fruit. Even when the song is crap, the hunt often renders them all worthwhile.

Well, except for this.

[*] Well, not my fingertips - too chicken to 'break the rules' as it were, I had my dear friend Alyssa download and burn at least 100 bonus tracks for me during high school. Bless you, Alyssa!