There was a birthday in the band the day that Ra Ra Riot visited us in July of this past summer, but the day ahead was not going to be overly celebratory, with a long haul south to meet up with Tokyo Police Club in Austin two days from this afternoon. They were going to try to get to somewhere where a friend had a place to offer in Oklahoma or Texas or Kansas or elsewhere. It was going to take them most of the night to get there, so the birthday needed to happen in a van and the meal was going to have to be fast. Some pie (Hostess or otherwise) would probably have to suffice for cake and candles. The pizza pie that we bought them was our offering to the big day. It was as cheesy as ever and we thought, now that’s a good birthday. Wesley Miles, the lead singer for the Riot outfit was informed that Vampire Weekend was coming into the studio two days later and he perked up, as he and VW lead singer Ezra Koenig were roommates in easily the most talented home in all of Brooklyn. Along with Koenig and Miles, the place is also where Ray Raposa of Castanets, Matthew Houck of Phosphorescent and David Longstreth of Dirty Projectors all rest their heads when they aren’t burning up the highways and midnight oils. We’ve now recorded everyone from that house of our new friends and it’s quite an odd thing to think about. We’re now doing round twos of everyone in the house, and nothing’s ever felt more natural. When I picture what’s going on in that house, every day, at all hours, it still doesn’t make sense. Cutting through the house with a giant carving knife, creating a cross section view and looking at it from the outside would probably give you something like Ray and Matthew putting together peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the kitchen, Wesley making spaghetti on another level, David making another insanely involved opus in the upstairs bedroom and Ezra geeking out to complex Afro beats elsewhere. Then three hours later it’s all switched up. It’s great picturing this home. – Sean Moeller

First song
Each Year (Ra Ra Riot) [3.44MB] [3227 downloads]
– original version appears on Ra Ra Riot
This was one of the first songs that we wrote for the EP. It was completed in August of 2006, with working lyrics. John and I wrote the lyrics in installments, but eventually settled on lyrics inspired by our summer tour of the south, and the Harper Lee novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. This version features an alternative version of the bridge that was originally conceived by our friend Rostam Batmanglij (of Vampire Weekend).

Second song
St. Peter's Day Festival (Ra Ra Riot) [3.32MB] [3245 downloads]
— unreleased
This is a song that John brought to work on with us back in May of this year. It was originally a song about the nefarious Scottish character named Sawney Beane, inspired by a song by a close friend’s father. But being the truly optimistic New Englander that he always was, he added a verse and instead wrote the lyrics about the St. Peter’s Day Festival in Gloucester, Mass. He recorded a quick demo acoustically in the last week of May this year, but the song wasn’t finished at that time. It is in a period of development and will likely be different on the final recording.

Third song
Suspended in Gaffa (Ra Ra Riot) [3.47MB] [3323 downloads]
— unreleased
We have all been fans of Kate Bush since the early days when we covered “Hounds of Love,” and although “Gaffa” was one of my favorites, I was expecting it to be a little too quirky for us. While rehearsing for our tour with Tokyo Police Club, I walked into the carriage house where all of our equipment was set up and found the rest of the band (to my delight!) running through the structure. Milo is using the piano in the Daytrotter studio instead of the usual Wurlitzer electric piano.

Fourth song
Dying is Fine (Ra Ra Riot) [5.46MB] [3119 downloads]
– original version appears on Ra Ra Riot
This was one of the first songs written by the band, back in January of 2006, and it has been evolving ever since. The verses have been subject to a few major changes; structurally, lyrically and melodically. The chorus was inspired by the E.E. Cummings poem “Dying Is Fine” (but Death and ultimately used words from the poem as lyrics. This version is nearly identical to the EP version, although we used whatever instruments were available in the Daytrotter studio.