Following are some pretty randomly scribbled-down notes about every single track on "Kids Find 'The Boot' Buried in the Trash." Anyone who enjoys the album (read: YOU) will find them very interesting.
| Intro Act One
Opus #1 Sean McNall Puts in his Two Cents Hey Leidi-Lo Our More Introspective Side RA! Ben's Message Opus #2 Intro Act Two Opus #5 (The Christmas Opus) Opus #4 (The Missing Opus) e-opus The Social Experiment Opus #3 (The Camper Opus) Everyman's Opus ------------------------- Cover Art/Concept Macintalk Voices "Bells" and "Fred" deliver the flow of Outkast, followed by the alienating weirdness of OK Computer-era Radiohead. Some words ("Clean your plate," "Be in bed by ten") inspired by the tag in Aaron's T-shirt. The intros of "Kids Find" were among the last things recorded for the album. Aaron - Turntable As evident by the title, this was the first original tune conceived
by BGL. At the first real meeting in June 2000, Ben, Aaron and Mike
struggled in search of ideas and fell flat. That is, until a legendary
trek to McDonalds, where thoughts flowed like orange Hi-C from the soda
fountain. Before we knew it, Opus #1
Ben - Lead vocals, Guitar, "Rolo!"
Sean McNall Puts in his Two Cents Late Summer 2000: After hours of begging, young Sean McNall borrows Mike's recordable microphone keychain. After several hours of screaming into said microphone, Sean Finally puts it down, leaving behind this strange masterpiece. Sean - Talking, Yelling, Sound FX
A lot of people really love this song, though we aren't quite sure why. It's a traditional sing-along song, and we brainstormed our verses on another McDonalds trip. There were some verses ("The mailman has a hot tattoo, if you ask you can see it too," "I know a guy who's really dippy, I like to call him Earl McDrippy") that went unused for obvious reasons (they sucked) (well...they sucked worse than the ones we used). The vocals were recorded all at once, along with the digeridoo. We got so energized that one of us actually "WOOF"-ed at the end of the take, though we haven't figured out who it was... Mark - Bass, Vocals, Digeridoo
All ballads should be this long. Created, for the most part, in an open letter of Ben's. Recorded by Mike and Ben in about 20 minutes. Ben - Vocals, Guitar
After a long night of recording, we get up at about 9 am and blast out this fabulous track in one live and amazing take. Parts were inspired by Vanilla Fudge, Nirvana, and ketchup commercials. At the end of the track, we hear our friend Lizzie laughing. This is good because it puts forth the impression that we actually have some friends. Aaron - "RA!"
Ben gives Mike a call when he is sleeping. Mike accidentally hits the wrong button, or something, and the answering machine makes the most horrible sound imaginable. He finds a way to make it stop...for a second... This was the first full length track that we completed for the album. It was recorded in three sessions: Drums/Mike and Ben's vocals, Mark's bass track/auxillary percussion, and Aaron and Tera's shared vocal track. This last track was recorded at about 2 am on a Sunday Night. Once the tracks were all good, we sat around and listened to it repeatedly, laughing deliriously until about 4:30 am. That night really raised some of our expectations about how good the rest of the album would be. Tera - Female Vocals
The return of Macintalk! This was really three tracks of the same voices played over one another, one a little slow, one a little late. All in all, this track really kinda creeps me out. Of all the songs on the album, this one took the longest to write. Believe it or not, we had a debate over whether it was ok for our fake band to actually put serious time and effort into our lyrics. We decided it was ok, of course, and the Christmas opus became one of our catchiest songs. At the end of the opus, the idea of crying and wailing was totally improvised. I guess we kinda figured that no BGL holiday track would be complete without crying children. Ben - Guitar, Lead Vocal
After the success of Opus #3 (The Camper Opus) we made the mistake of trying to repeat ourselves and get another bunch of campers together for a similar session. The problem was that we didn't have as much time as we thought, and we ended up with a very strange piece of writing with no chorus or theme to tie it all together. Soon, even this piece of writing was lost and Opus #4 turned into the BGL smash that never was. For a while, we were accepting ideas for an opus that would be created completely from fan's e-mails, guestbook submissions, and IM conversations. The vast majority of the words on this track came from a rhyming conversation that Mike had with his friend Catherine over the internet. Words at the end inspired by Eric Weissman and Alec Meyer. To record, Mark and Mike stayed up one night until 6 am and put down the background music using a "Boomerang," a handy little music machine, and Mike and Ben shared the vocal track in a later session. Originally clocking in at about six minutes, this track came pretty close to being left off the album. But, after chopping off the first four minutes, and adding vocal effects, a loop from a toy keyboard, an out take from Mark's personal experimental recordings and a distorted heartbeat sound, the e-opus found a colorful place on the "Kids" album. Mark - Background Loop (Bass), Additional Bass
Truly written as a social experiment, this has become known as one of the most infectious tunes in the BGL catalog. In true "Louie Louie" fashion, the whole thing was recorded at once onto one mic, which hung from the ceiling. It took about four takes to get this one perfect. In an early take, the whole group exploded in laughter, but managed to complete the song. This hilarious disaster is documented on the "First Super-Hard-to-Find" EP. Aaron - Mandolin, Backup Vocals
This track took the most work in the recording stages. We started with the drums, bass and loud-quiet-loud guitars heard in most rock songs. Then we added banjo and a phaser-treated guitar to the second verse, some piano (which was later dropped when we realized that it was ridiculously out of tune) and enough harmonies to make us feel like the Beach Boys, but with fewer connections to serial murderers. Opus #3 is a great song and we were all happy with the arrangement, but the audio quality of each instrument got lost in the multitude of tracks. Still rocks, tho... Ben - Vocals, All Guitars
Ben and Mike set out to write the worst song imaginable.
Mike - Guitar, Vocals
When it came time to name the album, the band was divided between two names: "The Boot" and "Kids Find the Music Buried in the Trash." The only logical solution was to combine the two titles and form one, "Kids Find 'The Boot' Buried in the Trash." This amalgamation would come to life on the cover as the Good Looks would find what is assumed to be their own CD, called "The Boot." The fake CD, really just a hastily thrown-together cover slipped into the case of a Pavement CD, was found in the garbage of --where else-- McDonalds!!! The picture on the inside of the booklet is a combination of three photographs of band members, taken in Mike's backyard. This is similar to the inside of Weezer's Pinkerton album booklet. Mike - Booklet and Back
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