The White Elephant Sessions

Description

The White Elephant Sessions is a rarities compilation by the American alternative pop band Jars of Clay, released on Essential Records in 2000, a division of Brentwood Music, manufactured and distributed in the US by Provident Music Distribution. This release was originally bundled with copies of If I Left the Zoo and was also given free to fanclub members in late 2000. All tracks on this collection were produced by the band (except track 11 produced by Stephen Lipson, with Heff Moraes engineering and mixing).

This album is a collection of demos and outtakes from the band’s recording sessions for ‘If I Left The Zoo‘ and ‘Much Afraid‘. It also contains a few previously unreleased tracks, although these too are in their demo forms – «Headstrong» would later appear on the ‘Roaring Lambs‘ compilation album. A live version of «The Coffee Song» previously appeared on ‘Stringtown‘ and this version also appeared on the limited ‘Seatbelt Tuba’ edition of ‘Much Afraid’. «Kaylos» was a jingle the band wrote for a restaurant of the same name they frequently visited while recording. «New Math» has never appeared on any other release, but is notable because it features Stephen Mason on drums, instead of his usual role on guitars. «Fly Farther» was intended for ‘Much Afraid’, but the band felt they had too many slow songs to chose from already. It, too, has only ever appeared on this release.

This is a collection of beginnings. These are songs in a form we typically won’t even play for our families… mostly because playing them results in a desperate self-inflicted pep rally ending with the phrase ‘I know it doesn’t sound like much now… but it’s going to be brilliant!’ Or ‘Yes, I know there are no drums.’ It is only after you have heard these songs in their mature adult state that you can now be presented with their childhood photos. This is the musical equivalent to your mom showing your girlfriend or boyfriend the picture of you sleeping in your Spaghetti-ohs in all your naked glory when you were 9 months old. We hope you will enjoy hearing how these songs have weathered the creative process. [Excerpt from the album liner notes]

CD tracklist:

01. Unforgetful You (Remix)
02. Crazy Times
03. Goodbye, Goodnight
04. River Constantine
05. Grace
06. Headstrong
07. Coffee Song
08. Can’t Erase It
09. Kaylos
10. New Math
11. Fly Farther
12. Collide
13. Frail

Note: For Promotional Use Only, Not For Resale.