This compilation contains every song BeachHouse – aka Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand – has made that does not exist onone of their albums. The band explains:
When we announced that we were releasing a B-sidesand rarities album, someone on Twitter asked, “B-sides record? Why would BeachHouse put out a B-sides record? Their A-sides are like B-sides.” This randomperson has a point. Our goal has never been to make music that is explicitlycommercial. Over the years, as we have worked on our 6 LPs, it wasn’t the“best" or most catchy songs that made the records, just the ones that fittogether to make a cohesive work. Accordingly, our B-sides are not songs thatwe didn’t like as much, just ones that didn’t have a place on the records wewere making.
The oldest song is “Rain in Numbers” and wasrecorded in 2005, during the summer when we formed the band. Wedidn’t have a piano, so we asked our friend if we could use his, which waspretty out of tune. We used the mic that was on the four-track machine torecord the piano and vocals. It was originally the secret song on ourself-titled debut.
The next couple of songs are from late 2008.We were so excited about “Used to Be” that we quickly recorded it and put it ona 7” for our fall tour with the Baltimore Round Robin. The same sessionbegat our cover of Queen’s “Play the Game” for a charity compilation benefitingAIDS research; we will continue to donate all profits from the song to thatcharity. As fans of Queen, we thought it would be fun and ridiculous to try toadapt their high-powered pop song into our realm. These songs were recorded atthe same studio where we made Devotion.
There are a bunch of songs written andrecorded in the 2009-2010 window. “Baby” was written and recorded in October2009 with our friend Jason Quever. “10 Mile Stereo” was recorded duringthe Teen Dream session in July 2009. Sincewe used tape, we often slowed the tape way down to createeffects while recording, which led to “10 Mile Stereo (Cough Syrup Remix).”
“White Moon” and “The Arrangement” were bothsongs that we didn’t believe fit on TeenDream. “WhiteMoon” originally appeared on our iTunes live session. Since that was recordedand mixed very hastily, we have remixed it to better match our currentaesthetics. We have also remixed and included the version of “Norway" wedid at that same session. We wrote and recorded “I Do Not Care for the WinterSun” during a break between tours and released it on the internet for free,unmastered. Well, it’s finally been mastered…
“Wherever You Go” is another song from thatera. We always loved this song but thought it sounded too much likeour old music. We didn’t finish it until 2011 during the Bloom recording session. Itappeared originally as a secret song on Bloom. “EqualMind” was also recorded during the Bloom session,but we left it off the record after realizing it had the exact same tempo as“Other People.” “Saturn Song” is built on a pianoloop we wrote while recording Bloom,and contains sounds recorded in deep space. It originally appeared on acompilation of songs incorporating space sounds that was released in 2014.
Finally, there are two previously unreleasedsongs from the DepressionCherry/Thank Your Lucky Stars sessions. They are called“Chariot” and “Baseball Diamond.”
