Home Alone

Jaret: I think he wrote this after some girl blew Gary out in a bar. She had really given him hell and because we were so cruel to each other (not really) we just laughed our butts off while Gary stood there looking like crap.

Joe: Yeah this has always been one of those songs that i regretted not putting on our CD's. I love the riff at the start of this.

Gary: I have no comment on this song. Not ever. Ever.

Almost Had You

Jaret: Fuckin' awesome dude! This is one of the first songs we ever jammed. One of Lee's best songs. Funny yet touching.

Joe: What he said.

Gary: When you hear 100's of people singing the chorus to this then you know you've got a good song. Every time we played this live i enjoyed it more.

Halfway 'Round The World (R' n B Drunk Version)

Jaret: Oh shit! I forgot all about this until recently. Halfway was one of the bands most requested songs. I guess people identify with it because it's about being apart from somebody you love. This version was done one night when we were all drunk in the studio.

Joe: Jeff had arranged for us to go and spend some time in a recording studio in Flower Mound. The place was awesome. It had bedrooms, a game room and everything. So one night Butch our producer had left and we're sat in the TV room drinking when this show comes on about N-Sync and all those other boy bands. i remember Gary saying "Fuck dude i could do that shit" so we all started singing our songs in a boy band style. One of us started singing the chorus from the song and the others just joined in trying to do harmonies. We were so drunk we decided to quit Punk and become a boy band. So we all staggered back into the studio and came up with this. Each of us took it in turns to sing a line and then did harmonies for the chorus. Sure it sounds sucky but it was probably the funniest night we'd ever had. The next morning Butch wakes us banging on the door going "What the fuck is this?" We all stagger down to the mixing room and play it back. We thought it was hilarious. Butch thought it was a waste of tape but we managed to keep it. It was only meant for our ears but i think it's a good thing it's finally getting onto a CD. It shows how much fun we had and how close we all were.

Gary: That's me doing the speaking parts. They slowed down my voice to make it sound more deep and more like a Barry White or some shit. The beat came from this crappy keyboard we found in the studio. I remember Butch being really pissed off when he heard it. We thought it was the greatest thing ever. We all sound so drunk and out of tune but you gotta admit it's funny.

Much More Beautiful Person

Jaret: We got a call from the local newspaper asking if we'd give a song for a CD to raise money for victims of High School bullying. At first we were just gonna give one of our old songs but then i get this call from Lee at like 3am or something and he's going "Dude you know that song they wanted us to give? I came up with this awesome new song. You have to come over and hear this." So i drive over there and it's like 4am i'm sat there half asleep with a cup of Coffee listening to this song he just wrote. It fuckin' moved me to tears i swear to christ.

Joe: Every time i hear this song i get this lump in my throat. Not only is it a song about the shit kids go through at High School but it sends them a message of hope too. It's almost like he's saying to them "Yeah i know it's shitty right now but you're a better person than they think you are. So don't forget that." I just wish he'd have taken his own advice.

Gary: What can i say? It's a moving song.

Sugar Coated Accident

Jaret: Yeah i know who this song is about but i'm not gonna say a word.

Joe: My lips are sealed dude. But it's a great heartbreak song. And also a big fuck you to the person it's about.

Gary: Lee was never a vindictive person and he doesn't hold grudges. Otherwise he'd still be after me for drinking his beer. His songs were his way of getting his own back. This is a perfect example of that.

When We Die

Jaret: Written for somebody very special to Lee. It's all about second chances. Recording this was a nightmare because Lee was back in England so he did his guitar parts over the Internet. But when it all came together it was mind blowing. We even got some of the students from the UMKC music program to play strings on it.

Joe: My wife Steph works at UMKC and when we played her the song she suggested we should put strings on it. So she called up a bunch of the students from the local University music department. This was meant to be a gift for somebody really close to Lee but i'm so happy she let us use it because it shows just what a talented guy he is.

Gary: This is why he should come back to us. An amazing song about heartbreak but with hope right smack bang in the middle of it.

Guy Who Gets The Girl (Val Kilmer)

Jaret: Awesome song that came from us talking about how life is kinda like a movie. We had asked each other about who we'd like to play us in a movie. Lee chose Val Kilmer because he loves the movie Top Secret. We then got into an argument about how he sucked in all of his movies and Gary said "Yeah but he was really funny in Top Gun" it stopped the conversation dead.Then we all fell about laughing. A few days later he came back with this song and the comment about Top Gun is actually in there.

Joe: My favourite song. We worked so hard on this in the studio and i hope it shows.

Gary: I still think Top Gun is funny. No really. I do.

This Song Sounds Like A Dance Song

Joe: During the sessions for the Great Burrito Extortion Case we had a discussion about bands like U2 selling out and getting dance remixes of their songs made just to sell a few more records. So, being the drunken assholes we are, we decided to do our own. We got back into the studio later that day and began to jam this really funky beat. I remember Jaret singing "This song sounds like a dance song" over and over again. Then they (Jaret and Lee) both went away and co-wrote this. A few days later they came back and showed us the lyrics. We loved it right from the start. It was meant to go on to the CD but we could never make it fit anywhere. So it went into the archives and was forgotten about. I began looking through a bunch of Digital Tapes when this CD was first thought about and this was one of the first things i found. Listening to it again reminds me just how funny we were. I'm glad that it's finally made it's way on to the CD.

Looking Up

Jaret: It's been a pleasure to work on these brand new songs. Lee's writing style has change a little. This is a song of hope for somebody who means the world to him.

Joe: As soon as i read those lyrics i knew what i had to do i went straight to the piano and came up with the intro. Then Jaret and Chris added the guitar parts. We had this done almost right away. It just flowed almost like Lee was here with us.

Gary: It's good to see he still has the same passion for writing as he did when he was here. But he has to stop writing things that make me cry!

Do You Still Think About Me?

Jaret: I hope we did this justice. A fine song about heartbreak and loss.

Joe: We wanted to make the song upbeat to try and take away from the sadness of it all. I think Lee's going to be very proud of this. It sounds like we did when we first started.

Gary: This takes me back to the old days. Simple and effective. A great rock song.

Love And Beer

Jaret: I freakin' love this song! We were so pissed off when we wrote this that we just wanted to write something that lifted our spirits. It's a message to the whole world that says "Hey look no matter what problems you have just love each other and everything will be OK"

Joe: I always thought this sounded like that Coke song "I'd like to teach the world to sing" in fact i'm pretty damn sure we wrote it like that. It was gonna be called "Love and Ice Cream" but that sounded like some bad porn film so we decided against that and let's face it you can't go wrong with Love and Beer right?

Gary: This is our summer song. We never got round to using it though which is a shame. I came up with the idea of mixing it into Looking Up. Because after the sadness of that song this lifts you right back up. I'm so glad it works!

Bitch

Jaret: Another big fuck you from Lee to a certain lady who fucked him around. She doesn't even know it's about her. But that just makes it even more funny!

Joe: Really fucked up relationship song. It's a shame it never got beyond the demo version as i think it would have kicked ass!

Gary: I laughed my ass off when i read this. You have to admit it's a great song.

My Emily

Jaret: The demo version of this was done in Joe's Garage. We spent what felt like a freakin' liketime working on this because nobody could come up with a good enough tune. In the end we settled on a three chord thing. Funny how sometimes simple is the best way right?

Joe: I don't even know if we actually know anybody called Emily. Whoever she is though she sounds like a real bitch!

Gary: Our pain in the ass song. We loved the lyrics but were never happy with the music. In the end we just got this really simple thing going and it all fell into place.