While working on Kites, Gordo picked up a mandolin and recorded this alternative version of Weak & Splendid, as an experiment to see of one of our tunes could be done in a completely different genre (we think the answer is, yes, it can). Mike added some flavour to the song last month and the end result is so definitively non-Kinematic that it just had to be 2011's Christmas special. [close]
We discovered a secret cache of old demo's and rehearsal tapes just in time for Christmas 2010, and this acoustic demo of Mike's was another great stocking stuffer. Recorded live in 2003 and featuring a non-standard tuning (CGCFCE for you guitar buffs), we thought this introspective tune would make a good counterpoint to 2009's nonsensical Nar Nar Goon. [close]
This is the 'lost' track from our Time & Place album and was our inaugural Christmas giveaway in 2009. And it isn't your standard Kinematic fare ...
Back in November 2003 we spent a week recording the Time & Place album. Our engineer Kev was busy between takes one day, so we started noodling around with an impromptu tune. Kev laughed his arse off and said "Do it again!" and that was it. A little ditty written on the spot, recorded live in a single take and then put in the digital equivalent of a film canister and all-but-forgotten. The title hails from Mike's vodka-inspired take on the name of a small town we drove past on the way to the recording sessions. Mik supplies the surly grunts.
Several years later Gordo was tracking the Kites album when he came across the original session. He laughed his arse off and played some mandolin over the top for that authentic Eastern Bloc sound. He passed it along to our mixer Mick who laughed his arse off and worked his magic on the mix (fans of T&P may recognise the satellites). The result seemed like a perfect gift for all our punters at the festive end of 2009. [close]
Are You Leaving? was the closing track on our second album, but it was a last minute addition and Mike had to record it solo. This is the version we would have put on The 38th Parallel had time allowed, and is how we perform it live, with Gordo's guitar and backing vocals added in. [close]
Here's a "before and after" comparison for you. This is Gordo's original demo for Jefferson High, notable for it's completely different melody, lyrics and Ian Dury inspired outro. It was demo'ed a second time before we finally arrived at the version that appears on Kites. It's true, sometimes you write a song in ten minutes, sometimes it takes three years. [close]
Most Of The Time is one of Mike's demo's from the archives. We never even tried this as a band, Mike just wrote it, recorded it, then forgot about it ... lucky we've got this Punters Club or that's how it would have stayed. [close]
Another "before and after", this is Gordo's original demo of the song that wound up on Kites as Beat Poetry. It's a great example of how much a song can change once we start working on it as a band. [close]
Paraffin is one of Mike's 'lost' demo's, a strange-ish number that never found it's way onto a Kinematic record, and almost disappeared into the archives forever. Perfect for the Club! [close]
We wrote and recorded many songs during our first years as a duo that didn't make it onto the Starting Again EP. This acoustic version of Boris is one of them, and you'll probably hear, it's really just a 'template' for the full band version that appeared as a B-side to the So Green single in 2002. In retrospect, it might have been better as the A-side ... [close]
Another forgotten Kinematic track, we've got a lot of these! Canopy was briefly considered for the Time & Place album, but we ended up dropping it and it never got the full band treatment. Still, we've got a soft spot in our collective hearts for it, so here it is. [close]
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Weak & Splendid (Eggnog Mix) [2011 Christmas special] ... read about it
