A collection of outtakes from 2015-2021.

Half-Remembered Context/Paused

"Insex" is a song that dates back to Darlingchemicalia's "Spun In White" days. Ironically, the song was written during a rehearsal that did not include Michael and Stephine (the two members that left the band, which necessitated our name change). It quickly became a band favorite and was part of every DC set from that time on (even our ill-fated final show). Grave Lake's first show was in September of 2015, and "Insex" was chosen initially to pad out our very short set. It was mainly chosen due to the relative ease that we could translate it into the new 3-piece line up, but (to my surprise) it became a minor crowd favorite at the time and we ended up playing it a lot. We left this recording off of EP 1 because I wanted the first Grave Lake release to be an all new statement.

"Hangwire" was covered in the early days of Grave Lake mostly because Andrew & I have always had a fixation on the "Bossanova" album by the Pixies. A couple of years prior to this recording, Andrew & I played an acoustic set at a Davis house show that included a cover of "Velouria" (you can hear Andrew tease that riff at the end of this recording). Similar to "Insex", "Hangwire" was learned to pad out the short running time of our very first show. It turned out to be the only time we performed this song to an audience and the recording presented here was initially completed for the sake of having it documented. I'm glad we did as I quite like hearing it now.

"She Possessed" was written and re-written over the better part of a year during the EP II era. For reasoning that I can't quite justify now, it was left off of the release of the second EP. When it came time for the physical release, Julian asked us to provide and exclusive track and this song was chosen. If I had to provide some context now for this song's initial relegation to outtake status, it's partially due to our decision to overdub acoustic guitar on the recording, which changed the vibe of the song. Lyrically this song also describes a very low point in my life during the "Spun In White" era, and I was still shaking off old (uncomfortable) ghosts. Listening to it now I still feel this void, but I do really think the guitar and drum playing on this recording are on point.

"Inhabit" was one of the first songs written for EP II and was played live frequently during that era. As a song, I really think the music is quite good, but lyrically and vocally it suffered from being overly worked on for too long. I omitted this song from EP II because I have always thought that the vocals should be better.

"Queen Victoria" was worked on/written because we had been asked to contribute to a Leonard Cohen tribute show shortly after his death. I had always been enamored with his original version of the song, which is on the "Live Songs" album, because it sounded like it was merely a poem recited over very minimal guitar accompaniment. This left a lot of room for us to re-imagine it as a pop song (with very good lyrics). We took the very basic chord progression and turned it into more of a Grave Lake-sounding song.

"The Partisan" was covered for the previously mentioned tribute show. This song was Andrew's choice, and while I cannot speak for the song choice itself, it could be due to the fact that he was actively studying the French language at the time. All of these Cohen covers were also recorded simply for documentation at the time (Andrew and I had performed a number of covers in the years prior - the above mentioned "Velouria", as well as an entire Pavement covers set which were never recorded). I think we just did not want them to be lost in the very clouded memories of those times.

"Diamonds In the Mine" was another Cohen song chosen as a representative of my deep love for "Songs of Love and Hate". I had actually wanted to cover "Dress Rehearsal Rag" for years, but have never felt like I could properly capture the power of that song. "Diamonds..." seemed more attainable. I really like Andrew's noise-guitar work in this cover.

"Iodine" was chosen due to another instance of Andrew & I really connecting over our love of Cohen's "Death of a Ladies' Man" album. We had spent the better part of 2009-2010 cementing our relationship over our mutual appreciation of the more obscure works of Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen. I have to give Andrew credit for figuring out the rather complex Phil Spector musical arrangement for this song.

"The 15th" was also in our set from the beginning. The template for Grave Lake as a band was essentially laid-out by Wire years before any of us were born. The album "154" has always been a favorite of mine and Andrew and I spent countless mornings opening the store at our shitty job studying that album. This song had been demoed for many years, but was never properly recorded until our 2020 EP III sessions. Our version of this song is actually based on the early live (at Rockpalast) version of this song. There's also a tag-on generic riff at the end that was our "Doritos Chug Contest" joke of many years.

"Ziggy" was brought into a rehearsal one day by Andrew and was practiced frequently during the "Pure Fear"-era. This song was even performed live one time at our very last show (to date) in February of 2020. This recording was demoed with the intent of recording it properly as a bonus track for our planned EP IV, but when this EP idea turned into the full-length "Lime Version", the planned cover song was scrapped. Fun fact: Grave Lake had been asked to provide a Bowie cover to a planned Sacramento-based tribute album, and we almost covered "Boys Keep Swinging" before the idea was left behind unfinished.

In the weeks following the completion of "Lime Version", our time was fading fast, and we decided to devote our limited time to covering songs that were important to our lives. The "Boom Boom Mancini" connection dates back to the "Spun in White" days when Andrew & I were also obsessed with Warren Zevon. This song is forever cemented in my memory by a drunken walk we took across midtown Sacramento to attend a (still unpublished) interview to promote the soon to be released "Spun in White". We jammed this song on a phone speaker literally all across town.

"Field Day..." also dates back to the beginning of Grave Lake. The previously mentioned fixation with Wire in our early days led to the desire to cover this song. We decided instead to focus on new material at that time, but revisited this song when we were more capable.

"Caitriona" was chosen because of our very obvious fixation on Protomartyr from the late DC era to the entirety of our time in Grave Lake. I'll never be able to shake the memory of DC touring "Spun in White" and the band walking around Olympia jamming their new album at the time ("Under Color of Official Right") over and over through a phone speaker. This band laid the blueprint of everything we could hope to be.

"Bonzo" was chosen as an homage to the connection that Justin & I had always shared with the Ramones. In rehearsals, we have jammed on "I Don't Want to Go Down to the Basement" for years, but when it came time to actually record a cover, we chose "Bonzo". While the recording and performance are a little rough, I think it captures our live sound pretty effectively.

These songs represent everything that was left laying by the wayside during our first years as a band...an emptying of the vaults was in order. Here's to the next seven years...

Ian (September 2022)