Description
We Never Broke Up, We Just Got Lazy is a mix of unreleased demo and cover tracks the North Side Kings recorded through the years. Many have never been released or were used on random compilations and I felt they were going to waste in a box. After listening to them one evening, I decided to put together a collection of recordings that shouldn’t be collecting dust.
1) Lowlife (2003 Demo Track)
2) Right or Wrong (2003 Demo Track)
3) The Bad Guy (2003 Demo Track)
4) The Finer Things in Life (2003 Demo Track)
5) Home of The Brave (2002 Allied Forces Split)
6) This Means War (2004 Demo Track)
7) Cheating the Cheated (1998 Demo Track)
8) A Lesson in Family Values (1998 Demo Track)
9) Hustle Don’t Stop (Instrumental Version for Remix 2006)
10) Guess What (JFA Cover Song 2006)
11) Homesick (2000 Demo Track)
12) Just Can’t Hate Enough (Sheer Terror Cover)
Album Details:
We did the first four demo tracks before we recorded our third album, Organizing Our Neighborhood. Richie had moved from playing bass to drums a few months before we ventured into the studio and we wanted to test the new dynamic. The demo was four songs and we were really happy with Richie making such a move and we went back and re-recorded “Lowlife,” “Right or Wrong,” and “The Bad Guy.” We also re-recorded “The Finer Things in Life” which was originally featured on A Family Affair.
Speaking of the album A Family Affair, the next track on this new release, “Home of the Brave,” was recorded during the A Family Affair recording session but not used on the album. We included it on a local Phoenix area compilation and it ended up on a covers split with Stampin’ Ground called Allied Forces. The song was originally from Luke’s old band, The Mob 40’s, and we just changed it a little. A Family Affair was supposed to actually be titled Another Family Affair but it got messed up and I approved the artwork without even noticing it was wrong!
“This Means War” was a raw track that was recorded and finished in maybe three hours. Rig Ross (Madball, Skarhead) played drums and Ryan Butler and I did guitar and bass. I wrote the song with Rig while we were jamming Skarhead stuff for a one off show and it was re-recorded and released on Suburban Royalty.
The oldest two tracks date back to 1998 and are “Cheating the Cheated” and “A Lesson in Family Values.” They were taken from a compilation before we even had the name North Side Kings. Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed paid $200 for these two songs to be recorded with a split with a killer Connecticut band called Voice of Reason. The split was meant to be on his label, Stillborn Records, but it never happened and we donated the two songs to a compilation called 74 Minutes of Brutality. Proceeds of the compilation went to help veterans. I have a cassette sampler of this album that we made it on.
Unfortunately, there is a digital skip on “Cheating the Cheated” and I don’t even remember where we recorded the song. It was a screw up passed through during the mastering of the comp.
I include an instrumental version of “The Hustle Don’t Stop.” I wish I still had the band room recording we sent Puerto Rican Myke that he used when he was writing the lyrics. I was mixing together songs some time ago and I originally planned to put an a capella track of Run-DMC on this for fun, but I never did. Maybe someone else wants to have fun with it. Be my guest!
The JFA and Sheer Terror covers were not released on the actual CD’s but both appeared on the very limited Suburban Royalty Vinyl Release. We recorded “Just Can’t Hate Enough” on a whim while recording Organizing Our Neighborhood. It was late in the evening and Richie and I jammed it out together in one take. I did 2nd guitar and bass. Jay Hofer of Greenhaven came in a few days later and did the guitar solo. Richie and I had already been playing it during band practice as a warm up so we said why not record it. Tommy Quiet picked out “Guess What” from JFA to cover and we recorded the track during Suburban Royalty.
As for “Homesick,” the demo track was recorded before we recorded A Family Affair. The lyrics were sung by Mike Oxley (Oxley’s Midnight Runners, The Fatskins) and it has a crazy diss to one of my friends. The guy in question, Rich from the band Pelvic Meatloaf, and I were beefing back then and I took a big shit on him in the middle of the song. We are cool now. As it turns out, I even officiated his wedding.
How’s that for making up?
