[Chris Tanz]

This song is very much a masterpeice, and again, BEYOND ME why "are you ready" and "throwing off glass" made it on to IVL but not this.

Hear, hear! Although for me it would be instead of Are You Ready or Beautiful Thing...TOG is an OK song by my reckoning. Nothing revelatory, but leagues better than Beautiful Thing and AYR in my ever so humble opinion.

that's what I like to see, a good ole fashioned AYR bashing session. Let's kick this puppy around a little bit longer. I don't even think you had to add Ultra Mundane or Problem Bears to reach the conclusion that AYR shoulda been dropped on its head. Just play a few more intro bars to Use it Up and call it a 10-song album.

Actually, I was especially enjoying Forest Edge the other night and thinking about how good all three unreleased tunes were.

ct

[The Horrible Esthete]

This song is very much a masterpeice, and again, BEYOND ME why "are you ready" and "throwing off glass" made it on to IVL but not this.

Hear, hear! Although for me it would be instead of Are You Ready or Beautiful Thing...TOG is an OK song by my reckoning. Nothing revelatory, but leagues better than Beautiful Thing and AYR in my ever so humble opinion.

that's what I like to see, a good ole fashioned AYR bashing session. Let's kick this puppy around a little bit longer. I don't even think you had to add Ultra Mundane or Problem Bears to reach the conclusion that AYR shoulda been dropped on its head. Just play a few more intro bars to Use it Up and call it a 10-song album.

Actually, I was especially enjoying Forest Edge the other night and thinking about how good all three unreleased tunes were.

ct

Well as far as I’m concerned, it’s official; Forest Edge, Problem Bears and Ultramundane are three compositions that should have made the cut for IVL. If it were up to me, they would replace Use it Up, A Beautiful Thing, and either Are You Ready or All Tore Up....hmmm... which one? I’m going with All Tore Up, because some of those guitar riffs during the verses in Are You Ready are pretty cool, in my opinion.

I recently visited a cousin (and HipHead) who, like me, plays guitar. We were just sitting around, talking, drinking, and trading licks when we started discussing these IVL ‘bonus tracks’....almost instinctively, we both started ripping out the catchy, simple little intro to Problem Bears - he was on his Telecaster and I was on his Guild acoustic - and we rifled right through a rather spirited rendition - he even improvised some great slide leads at the appropriate cues. We were both so pumped that we were nothing short of exultant by the close of the tune.

To me, this sort of casual, spontaneous, improvisational performance is the best test of a tune’s mettle - and when it so easily uplifted our souls in unison, how can it be anything but a perfect success?

[grooveless touque]

Great story, Esthete...that's testimony to how well crafted those unreleased songs are (except Forest Edge, which I have heard a hundred times if I've heard it once, and I have never liked it...I find it quite boring).

Obviously I'm one of the most prolific IVL detractors, so I can't be considered objective in any way, but if PB and UM had both been admitted to the album (I can easily name half a dozen songs I like a lot less on the album), I would have a harder time casting the album into the dregs of the band's worst output. For me it's not even the musical and lyrical superiority of the songs, it's the way they sound, too. Both UM and PB "sound" like tracks from the latest album, which I love - much more raw and less glossed-over than every song on IVL.

Makes me wish all the more we'd get more bonus tracks from IBE...hope they don't forget about we tired, we poor, we hungry masses, yearning for more from this album!

[emperor penguin]

I don't understand why they just couldnt have added these songs on the album without taking other ones off, there's only 11 songs on IVL. DFN has 14 tracks and IBE has 13. I like every song on IVL anyways and would have a hard time choosing ones to exclude. If I had to choose I would have excluded throwing off glass, but I will say Problem Bears is probaly in my top 5 hip songs period and definately should have been included somewhere as well as UM, and FE.

[j-monster]

I agree with penguin, I don't know why they didn't just add the three tracks to IVL to make it a 14-song disc. But of the three extra tracks I really have to put Ultramundane at the bottom of the list. It's a decent enough song, but it just doesn't move or grab me like Problem Bears or Forest Edge do. And I certainly would not sacrifice any track currently on IVL for this song... maybe for Problem Bears or Forest Edge I would consider dropping something, but definitely not for Ultramundane.

And personally I can't understand why anyone would want to drop Throwing Off Glass... I think it's one of the most beautiful songs the Hip has done, both lyrically and musically.

But it is interesting to hear so many different opinions about these songs, that's for sure.

[direwolf74]

That's one of the coolest things I've seen. Kudos to whoever made it.

[Cpt. Trips]

So I have this friend, who decided since she was going to see the hip she might as well make a hip mix cd. Since she had no idea what songs to put on it (she was a passive hip fan) she simplly searched for the band on kazaa and downloaded a bunch of tunes....

needless to say, her favorite hip song is ... Ultramundane...

I should also mention her cd also included some heavy hitters like nois, bones, blow etc... and yet, she picks Ultra as the best..