Bands with Awesome B Sides

[Clawgrabber]

B sides are hit or miss really, and there aren't that many bands that have really stellar b sides that incite debate amongst fans on whether they should have been included on the albums proper.

Amongst the best bands for b sides, I would say

U2
Radiohead
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Smashing Pumpkins
Garbage
Coldplay

there are others, but there are also bands who don't even bother or put out bsides they know are crap.

Thanks to my favorite band for being the one band I know I can trust for stellar B Sides.

(before I get flamed, I realize not all of these are "B SIDES" but rather "non album tracks". so sue me if I have a general term for all U2 songs the Rolling Stone critics haven't written about.

A Celebration
Love Comes Tumbling
The Three Sunrises
Lady With The Spinning Head
North And South Of The River
I'm Not Your Baby
Mercy
Smile

Its nice to have a band who.... when you really start to get into them, you have all their albums to look forward to hearing and collecting, and then, when you have heard and own them all, there is still a massive amount of material still to hear. I remember the point when I had finally acquired all the U2 albums (up to Pop) and then discovered a website with their discography, and man was I excited.

It sure beats being a die hard Rage Against The Machine fan. I think they have 3 nonalbum tracks total.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

a celebration is a single, not a b side... and mercy has never been released... it's a no-side.

as for band with best b-sides? pearl jam... they have so many that they released a two disc collection of nothing but B-sides... u2 didn't even have enough b-sides to fill a second greatest hits disc and had to fill it with endless crappy remixes.

 

[LemonMelon]

u2 didn't even have enough b-sides to fill a second greatest hits disc and had to fill it with endless crappy remixes.

False. I once made a 90's b-side collection and it couldn't even fit on one disc. The people who compiled that collection are imbeciles, that's all.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

touche'

 

[Pop Pius V]

I can't believe clawgrabber still got flamed

 

[Pop Pius V]

All the b-sides is another reason that being a u2 fan is so easy.

you're blue room

north and south

slow dancing

two shots of happy

a bunch of joshua tree era b-sides I can't think of

ARE YOU GONNA WAIT FOREVER? (are you kidding me? I would have taken that song over several ones that made it on HTDAAB)

someone flame me.

 

[cdisantis83]

The best B-Side band that I have come across is Oasis. The Masterplan compilation alone is superior to any album that they have created since What's the Story.
Another thing to keep in mind is that prolificacy does not always correlate with quality (Ryan Adams).

 

[Clawgrabber]

a celebration is a single, not a b side... and mercy has never been released... it's a no-side.

yeah, I’m aware of that. And it’s a safe bet that most everyone else here is also privy. note the part of my first post when I addressed this already:

(before I get flamed, I realize not all of these are "B SIDES" but rather "non album tracks". so sue me if I have a general term for all U2 songs the Rolling Stone critics haven't written about.

Thanks for the not-so-needed correction though.

And LemonMelon is right on the money here. To say U2 didn't have enough b-sides to fill the second disc of the best of is insane. We all know that album was woefully executed from the get go, and the decision to have half the second disc be b-sides and half be remixes doesn't prove anything.

That disc could have just as easily been:

Night And Day
Alex Decends...
Where Did It All Go Wrong
Salome
Lady With The Spinning Head
Satellite Of Love
Paint It Black
Fortunate Son
Can't Help Falling In Love (Triple Peaks Mix)
Slow Dancing (From Stay Single)
Your Blue Room
Holy Joe
North And South Of The River
I'm Not Your Baby
Two Shots Of Happy
Pop Muzik
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Slow Dancing (w/ Willie Nelson)

That’s 18 tracks from the second decade of their career. Lost Dogs was what? A disc of 16 and a disc of 14 from their entire 12 year career? U2 could have easily omitted the remixes and included a full disc of b sides.

In fact, since they included Your Blue Room, they could have just as easily included
Always Forever Now
Slug
Beach Sequence

That’s up to 21 songs (and no live tracks…)


Getting into semantics over the term B-SIDE is ridiculous anyway now that vinyl is rare, and singles almost don't exist.

Lost Dogs isn't all B-sides either. There are unreleased songs and outtakes, and tracks from compilations and soundtracks on there too.

“B-Sides” is a useful term. And I will continue slapping Mercy and A Celebration on my B-Sides compilations for my friends and referring to them as such. Because essentially that is really what they are.

All that said, there is some great stuff on Lost Dogs, Yellow Ledbetter is certainly a classic (And really shouldn’t be buried here with lesser works) Dead Man is also an amazing track. But it certainly isn’t all great material, and the fact that there are 2 discs just says that Pearl Jam is more giving when it comes to releasing tracks from the vault.

I wish U2 would do the same, but the bastards like to sit on a song for a decade and rework it until it becomes something else. Someone clever on here said that someday when the plane crashes or the Popmart screen explodes, and the band is rocking in the next realm, we are destined to find ourselves with one hell of a box set of unreleased tracks, Nirvana-Style.

I suppose I can’t exactly say I hope that happens, because that would be the final notes we ever heard from the band. I just wish they’d do a more exhaustive release along the lines of the Unreleased & Rare “disc” from the iTunes boxset. That was great stuff, but I wanted more.

I’m sure we all do.

 

[LemonMelon]

Getting into semantics over the term B-SIDE is ridiculous anyway now that vinyl is rare, and singles almost don't exist.

Good point. For me, a b-side is any song not on an album, greatest hits, or soundtrack. This means that Hold Me, Thrill Me is not a b-side, but Love Comes Tumbling is.

 

[U2girl]

B-side is included on a single, in other words. For me a B-side is also original U2 material, not covers, collaborations or live material they have put on their singles in the past.

 

[Clawgrabber]

Good point. For me, a b-side is any song not on an album, greatest hits, or soundtrack. This means that Hold Me, Thrill Me is not a b-side, but Love Comes Tumbling is.

Ditto here. It is easier than getting all caught up. Some could argue Love Comes isn't a b-side just because it ended up on Wide Awake, but i say "Blah blah blah"

And I ALWAYS put HMTMKMKM on my 90s bsides disc, even though I know it was a single, because it fits well with the other songs, it puts the song in a album length context, and it is nice when you are one of my friends who is forced to listen to a b sides compilation to hear a song you know already.

(usually the reaction HMTMKMKM gets is "THIS IS U2?!")

There are also the cases like Yellow Ledbetter or Soul To Squeeze (Chili Peppers) when a b side ends up becoming a hit, (or in Soul To Squeeze's case, an actual single)...

Then what? I still refer to both of those as B Sides, even thou STS was on the Chili pepp's greatest hits, and if Pearl Jam ever released a Best Of (they won't) Yellow Led would be a required track. (since it got way more airplay than later singles like Nothing As It Seems and Love Boat Captain)

I have always heard that Oasis has some really amazing B Sides and that the reason they are so huge in the UK is that those songs recieved as much attention as the album tracks and singles, whereas in the US, some of these tracks are difficult to find. One critic said that for the most part the US has only been exposed to about 60 percent of what makes Oasis great. Maybe I should check out this MASTERPLAN cd

 

[The_acrobat]

I have always heard that Oasis has some really amazing B Sides and that the reason they are so huge in the UK is that those songs recieved as much attention as the album tracks and singles, whereas in the US, some of these tracks are difficult to find. One critic said that for the most part the US has only been exposed to about 60 percent of what makes Oasis great. Maybe I should check out this MASTERPLAN cd

You definitely should buy the Masterplan. I believe everybody should own it. I have a cousin who could never understand why I was such a big Oasis fan. All he knew was that they had 2 good albums in the mid 90s and then started making shitty albums. I burnt him a copy of the Masterplan, and now he is a fan. Songs like "Half the world away", "Talk Tonight" and "The Masterplan" make it worth the purcahse alone.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

no one was "flaming" anyone... i appologize for misreading that part.

u2's my favorite band, pearl jam's #2... however i don't think it's even remotely a comparison between the B-sides of the two, and that U2's B-sides pale in comparison to pearl jam's.

that's not a flame, that's my opinion.

 

[BVS]

For me a B-side is also original U2 material, not covers, collaborations or live material they have put on their singles in the past.

Well that doesn't make any sense, that eliminates a big portion of U2's b-sides...

The term b-side comes from when music was released on vinyl. The single was on the a-side, and a "bonus" song was on the b-side.

Since true singles will soon be completely eliminated the concept of the b-side will soon disappear...

 

[akann]

LEVITATE!!! Better than most of their A sides.

 

[Clawgrabber]

Levitate is awesome!

 

[gareth brown]

In fact, since they included Your Blue Room, they could have just as easily included
Always Forever Now
Slug
Beach Sequence

Not really Your Blue Room's only on the B-sides disc because it was used as a B-side (as U2) on 'Staring at the Sun' rather than U2 just taking an album track from 'Original Soundtracks 1'...

and Pop Pius V - High five if i may!!
"Are You Gonna Wait Forever" is such a great track, I was just saying the other day I would have put than in place of quite a few of the songs on 'HTDAAB'

I'm a bit puzzled over why there's such a mass debate over what makes a 'B-Side', to be honest... To me it's a track from a single that's not the lead track...simple as that.

 

[Pop Pius V]

Levitate is awesome!

sweet ass deal!

!

and Pop Pius V - High five if i may!!

you're right!

 

[Axver]

I think U2 was a great b-sides band in the eighties, especially in the UF/JT era, but ever since they discovered remixes, things have really gone to crap. The last ten years in particular have been especially awful in b-side land. I find this somewhat confusing as the iTunes Complete U2 rarities collection showed they had unused tracks that could have appeared as b-sides.

As far as favourite b-side bands go, I think The Chills, Porcupine Tree, and Pure Reason Revolution are all far better than U2 currently are. I suppose that has something to do with the fact they actually have real songs on their singles rather than dodgy remixes.

 

[SpaceBoy]

The Clash.

 

[powerhour24]

no one was "flaming" anyone... i appologize for misreading that part.

u2's my favorite band, pearl jam's #2... however i don't think it's even remotely a comparison between the B-sides of the two, and that U2's B-sides pale in comparison to pearl jam's.

that's not a flame, that's my opinion.

True, U2 does have some great ones, but just look at Pearl Jam's "Lost Dogs" collection...

 

[powerhour24]

Levitate, Smile, etc aren't really b-sides though, were they ever on any singles? They were just released on Unreleased & Rare as far as I remember, and Smile was used as a bonus track on the iTunes U218 (thus defeating the title).

 

[Clawgrabber]

sigh...

the "whether they are b sides or not" debate is so tiresome. everyone knows where the term "b-side" came from.

i feel it should be used as a term for any rare or unreleased track not on an album, or else we should come up with a term that is just as short and use that.

can't we just all get past the terminology argument and list other great bands that have great b sides, like the people who brought up Oasis, etc.

And those three Axver pointed out, i have never even heard of, I guess I will have to check them out. Awesome!

by the way, what is with Pearl Jam fans listing U2 b sides that "aren't b sides because they weren't on singles" and then citing Lost Dogs as a collection of "b sides"? (Said phenomenon has already happened twice in this forum alone)

Yeah, technically Smile, Levitate, etc weren't b sides, but guess what?

Neither were:

All Night
Sad
Hitchhiker
Don't Gimme No Lip

and 15 other tracks from that album.

I will always call Smile, Mercy, Levitate, etc B Sides.

Just like Pearl Jam fans refer to Hard To Imagine, Fatal, and Let Me Sleep as B Sides.
Even though none of them appeared as B Sides to any single either.

And if Mercy is on the next U2 album, when i say Mercy is a great b side, i will mean the version that leaked in 2004.

I'm off to download Oasis b sides and figure out who the hell those three bands are that Axver listed off and why i have never heard of them.

 

[powerhour24]

The last two album sessions' output makes me sad sometimes always feeling how much better the already pretty good Bomb and ATYCLB could have been and maybe the stupid "always sound the same" attitude the U2 hating public has could have been put aside, and makes the world wonder why the band and producers couldn't recognize true greatness, re-recording and over-producing is one thing but to let some of your best material fall through the crack is just depressing, you can make a mean mix CD "album" of 2000's U2 from just the stuff that got left off.

I'd have to agree on Oasis as well though in terms of their recent albums that for me have ranged from decent to mediocre, some of the leftovers have been better.

 

[BVS]

sigh...

the "whether they are b sides or not" debate is so tiresome. everyone knows where the term "b-side" came from.

i feel it should be used as a term for any rare or unreleased track not on an album, or else we should come up with a term that is just as short and use that.

No reason to take it personally. But there are a lot of purists and collectors, etc that do like to keep these types of things in order...

Not everyone knows where the term came from, there's a whole generation that never even owned a casette so "sides" is something they can't relate to. Someday there will be a whole generation that won't know what a CD is.

Personally I really think there should be a difference between b-sides and unreleased tracks, but maybe that's just the

in me...

 

[Clawgrabber]

No reason to take it personally. But there are a lot of purists and collectors, etc that do like to keep these types of things in order...

Not everyone knows where the term came from, there's a whole generation that never even owned a casette so "sides" is something they can't relate to. Someday there will be a whole generation that won't know what a CD is.

Personally I really think there should be a difference between b-sides and unreleased tracks, but maybe that's just the

in me...

Well the thing is, I agree to an extent. And I see where collectors are coming from. But there should be an informal 'bsides" term for conversational purposes that just means "new studio songs not released on a full length LP" for a given band, and with

EPs, Christmas & Fanclub singles, digital extra tracks, soundtracks, compilations, charity albums, etc...

there are just too many variations to keep track of. And by the purist rationale, a whole boatload of live tracks and remixes should simply be considered "B Sides" by U2 fans (especially in the last decade), because THOSE are the tracks they have been releasing on their singles.

But in my mind (and in most other people's i would imagine) , when I say B Side, I am talking rare studio material

I just feel the logic of the purists and collectors (and I am one, believe me, I have a large amount of vinyl, cassette, and cd singles by U2 and other groups) is flawed, especially at the dawn of a new musical era where the term B Side may actually not apply to anything...

When was the last time anyone in the US on this forum went to the shoppe and picked up a cd single? (those were the good old days)

Sadly, it just doesn't happen anymore. I remember picking up stuff like the Even Better Than The Real Thing Maxi Single, or the Block Rockin Beats (chem bros) single, or Singles by Massive Attack etc and being really pumped to find another piece for the collection.

It has been years since that has happened. (i know many are available as imports, but in my mind CDs are obsolete... maybe it is just me)

for some reason though, Coldplay CD singles are easy to find in the US though, and I have seen them at strange places you wouldn't expect, like Best Buy...

Point being... I wasn't taking anything personally. Just adding to the debate... and asking for a little consistency from the Pearl Jam purists.

 

[Axver]

I'm off to download Oasis b sides and figure out who the hell those three bands are that Axver listed off and why i have never heard of them.

Because I'm into music that's obscure around these parts.

Porcupine Tree are the most popular and successful of the three I mentioned, and are probably my favourite band at the moment. Their latest album, to the surprise of pretty much everyone who follows the band, actually hit #31 in the UK in April. Through the nineties, they were pretty obscure and played a spacy, progressive, atmospheric style of rock reminiscient of Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd but with more beautiful vocals. Over the last few years, a heavier sound has developed and the band is really at the forefront of modern progressive music. If you head over to B&C, we're running a Prog Island contest and multiple tracklists feature Porcupine Tree. Anyone on EYKIW who doesn't normally go to B&C really should check it out if you have even a passing curiosity; leave your e-mail address in the thread there and you'll get links to ~30 hours of free music. Everyone's contributed some great stuff. But now I'm getting off topic ...

Pure Reason Revolution are a much more recent band, also with a Pink Floyd influence but this time with beautiful, almost Beach Boys-esque vocal harmonies.

The Chills are probably the most obscure band I named. They were the leaders of the Dunedin Sound in New Zealand, a lo-fi jangly rock movement of the eighties that was somewhat proto-indie. They had a top fifty hit in NZ but none of the Dunedin Sound bands managed to break foreign markets at all. That's no reflection on their quality though, just a general curse on every Kiwi band. Kaleidoscope World, their earliest release, is an "album" of their EPs and singles and is a great work. The song Pink Frost should appeal to fans of Joy Division or The Cure. It's like what you'd get if Ian Curtis or Robert Smith had grown up at the freezing cold bottom of the earth, only partially in touch with the Northern Hemisphere's music scene.

Well the thing is, I agree to an extent. And I see where collectors are coming from. But there should be an informal 'bsides" term for conversational purposes that just means "new studio songs not released on a full length LP" for a given band

I have always simply used "non-album tracks" as an umbrella term to group studio songs that haven't appeared on an album. I prefer to use b-side to exclusively refer to an original track (not live recordings or remixes) used on a single. I'm not so sure that usage will be consigned to the dustbin of musical history soon either. Sure, the single you buy in shops is disappearing, but bands have been releasing singles online with b-sides (with a distinction made between them and rarities packs and such), so the term may live on that way.

 

[Utoo]

I have an awesome Backside.

 

[BVS]

I have an awesome Backside.

Best post in this thread!

 

[Screwtape2]

How has no one mentioned The Cure in this thread!

Splintered In Her Head
Breathe
A Chain Of Flowers
Babble
Twilight Garden