Not that anyone asked for this, but here we have a funky one that compares boinkig to eating candy (Rocky Road), with one of Matt’s wildest maximal-minimalist rhythms to boot. “She’s a Diamond” is an Opal cover as well as a display of Ruari's exquisite bottleneck skills. The inclusion/not-inclusion of "Gravel" in the live-set was a bone of contention, mainly because I thought it sounded like Parkay Quartz covering Lynyrd Skynyrd, but who knows, to some that might be a good thing? Watch out for marbled 7" on RSD 2031. Just sixteen pounds ninety nine! Our belated answer to VU's "Ocean" (Salts) was the last song we've written and in my opinion one of the finest ones, and with cymbals to boot. Trippy! "Beak" on the other hand has been compared to "something by Paul Weller and/or Oceancolourscene" and that again might go down well with some, Jess's keys definitely save the day here. "Eins" is an improvised one from the first Demo which was half eaten by my four track and half rather dull (guess which half this one was on?). However, it has real German lyrics and can easily be covered - it's just one chord (E). Lyrics are complete Lacanian garbage, you’ll probably make better ones up on the go yourself. "Landlord" is Manuel stealing Jack White's thunder, if he ever had one. Thunderbluss! It is also ca. 4 minutes too long, but a bit of patience is crucial when spending time with a jam band, right? Case in point "Traffic Jam" (pun!) was probably the ultimate practice-room jam, shame I kept mixing up the two chords the song consists of. "Girl", my personal favorite, lyrically and musically, got instantly dropped because others found it unbearable, lyrically and musically. One of my other highlights is Ruari's Mad Nanna-esque stream of consciousness in "Hoodies" - if I remember it right he also rocked this on a 12-string. I mean, just listen to that solo at 3:45! So good! It was also completely improvised ... remember that we were a jam band? Classic MW jam and live-favorite "Guru" ends this collection, this take I liked particularly because it was a bit more condensed than other ones. You can hear people giggling at the end but Manuel holds it all together as usual.

As much as rock bands are probably one of the sillier inventions of the 21st century, this one has been and is very dear to me and sometimes I like the sound of an I-Phone voice memo so much more than any other type of recording, so here you have it. I think with Mordwaffe it was always essential to be a bit off, and to do the wrong thing, and we were definitely doing a lot of things wrong on these cuts, which of course is the only and right thing to do, especially when playing in a band that sounds like "your dad and his boring friends jamming to Lou Reed in the garage" (MK).

xx
David