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[Koremora]

So, I've been thinking about this a lot while listening to The Hawk is Howling by Mogwai. The bonus track Dracula Family actually serves as a better closer than The Precipice (in my opinion), but that leaves Stupid Prick and Devil Rides (which I'm not sure fits anywhere). So, does anyone think they have a good idea where Stupid Prick would fit on the tracklist? Or, alternatively, does anyone else have some good examples of B-sides that should fit on the record they "came" from?

[the_pied_piper]

'The Culling of The Fold' ended up as a B-side to The Decemberists lead single from The Crane Wife, 'O Valencia!'. Originally it was a B-side for the album and personally i would've used it to replace either 'Sons and Daughters' or 'When The War Came'.

[Johnny C]

Stylus Magazine used to have a truly excellent running feature called "Playing God" where they did this. Check it out here.

[TheFuriousWombat]

"Broken Window" from the B-Side of Arcade Fire's "Keep the Car Running" single is brilliant. It's massive, driving and powerful. Musically explosive and chaotic and lyrically great as well, it really should have been on the album itself. In fact, a lot of the B-sides from that album are really terrific. "Surf City Eastern Bloc" is another incredible track (also over 6 minutes long) that is epic as hell with all sorts of horns and choral style vocals. It's brilliant. Not sure if it really fits on the album though. It's sound is a little too...well I don't know how to describe it but 'Neon Bible' is pretty unrelentingly dark and sounds pretty menacing until some of its later moments. Maybe this song would work well before 'No Cars Go' but that might be too much "Epic" all at once, thus sorta drowning out the rest of the album.

[Bearer]

'The Culling of The Fold' ended up as a B-side to The Decemberists lead single from The Crane Wife, 'O Valencia!'. Originally it was a B-side for the album and personally i would've used it to replace either 'Sons and Daughters' or 'When The War Came'.

Man, I saw this topic and was going to post this EXACT same thing.  Well done sir.

[Tom]

I remember we discussed this at length once. If you were to use 'Culling of the Fold' it should replace 'When the War Came'. 'Sons and Daughters' was great way to finish imo but if you were to replace that you could use 'After the Bombs'.

[squawk]

All the unreleased things for Elliott Smith's From a Basement on the Hill should have been on the album. But they weren't finished, so... oh well.

Radiohead and Belle and Sebastian are masters at great B-sides, I don't really know where to start with those guys.

I also really love "No Key, No Plan" off of Okkervil River's Black Sheep Boy Appendix. I'm not sure where I would stick it on Black Sheep Boy, but it'd probably be like. Before "Get Big"? That's a hard one.

[spoon_of_grimbo]

why Idlewild left "a distant history" off "the remote part" i'll never know.  the chorus is fucking epic.  it'd work well at the end of the album, with the current closing track acting like a long build up and intro to it.

[Tom]

"Broken Window" from the B-Side of Arcade Fire's "Keep the Car Running" single is brilliant. It's massive, driving and powerful. Musically explosive and chaotic and lyrically great as well, it really should have been on the album itself. In fact, a lot of the B-sides from that album are really terrific. "Surf City Eastern Bloc" is another incredible track (also over 6 minutes long) that is epic as hell with all sorts of horns and choral style vocals. It's brilliant. Not sure if it really fits on the album though. It's sound is a little too...well I don't know how to describe it but 'Neon Bible' is pretty unrelentingly dark and sounds pretty menacing until some of its later moments. Maybe this song would work well before 'No Cars Go' but that might be too much "Epic" all at once, thus sorta drowning out the rest of the album.

I've always thought that the album would have benefited from having only 10 tracks finishing with either the new 'No Cars Go', 'My Body is a cage or any one of the b-sides after 'Windowsill'.

[Thrillho]

Why Nick Cave left 'Swing Low' off Nocturama is beyond me, it's by some distance the best song from those sessions and could've replaced almost anything on there. It'd certainly make a better closer than 'Babe, I'm On Fire.'

[Kyros]

The Thermals have 4 B-Sides that I'm actually aware of(Capture With a Magnet, Everything Thermals, Product Placement, and My World) and all 4 of the songs should've been on their respective albums.

So I'd put "Capture With a Magnet" and "Everything Thermals" on More Parts Per Million replacing "I Know the Pattern" and "My Little Machine",

Then put "Product Placement" snug between "A Pillar of Salt" and "Returning to the Fold" on The Body, The Blood, The Machine without taking any other track out.

Finally "My World" could have led off Now We Can See pretty nicely.

[Lexington, 125]

Radiohead and Belle and Sebastian are masters at great B-sides, I don't really know where to start with those guys.

I think for the most part Radiohead's B-sides were better left off of albums.  The B-side to Paranoid android Pearly was a solid enough track to warrant getting on OK Computer, though I really don't know where I'd put it.  Love the jangly guitar.   At least it made it's way onto the Airbag ep.   Radiohead's b-sides from Hail to the Thief on have pretty much been crap. 


Seems criminal that Animal Collective's Fickle Cycle didn't make it onto a proper album. 

[spoon_of_grimbo]

"the cowboy song" by faith no more is frankly jaw-dropping.  it should have been on "the real thing" in the place of either "the morning after" or "woodpecker from mars."

[Koremora]

So, after careful deliberation, I have determined that Stupid Prick needs to go in between Kings Meadow and I Love You, I'm Going to Blow Up Your School. It just fits well with the understated twinkle of Kings Meadow's ending, and segues nicely into the more ominous I Love You. If you have that song, I recommend you place it there. Also, Dracula Family makes a much better album closer than The Precipice.

[Johnny C]

Radiohead and Belle and Sebastian are masters at great B-sides, I don't really know where to start with those guys.

B&S always intend for their B-sides to stand on their own, to be fair. Like, they know they're B-sides and then knock them out of the park as B-sides.

[E. Spaceman]

To be extra fair, most of their B Sides proper are not very good, that is since they started releasing album tracks as singles. Before that they were usually EP releases where all tracks were given more or less equal standing, the majority of their bsides since they moved to Rough Trade have not been very good and usually left off albums for good reasons, the big exception here is Your Cover's Blown which is a goddamn astounding track.