STONE: Date? At least 7 years ago. The second No Code session. Jack i think had toured with us for Vitalogy in Japan and Aus, and we were desperate to get in and record some track that had his original flavour. The session lasted only a week, and was marked most notably by the city of Chicago's weather. This was the summer where a large number of people were officially killed by the intensity of the Chicago heat and humidity. It was the most overwhelming feeling of moisture and heat that i have ever felt outstide of the the men's bathhouse. You would walk outside and be blasted by this wall of air that seemed unearthly [more like a moist mars]. We would go into this air conditioned studio and then walk back to our hotel, so we experienced it throughout the day. All Night was a groove that we played and were in the process of writing when Ed, late one night i'm sure, started layering on all these harmony vocals like we had never heard him do .. ? This at least was one of the first times he really experimented with multi-layering vocals, which seem to be an early percursor to songs like "Arc", etc .. i think this version is now a little more stripped down but that was the original feel and besides the intense warm wind of Chicago, what i remember about it the most. Oh yeah wasn't that the home of the Lurker .. ????
ED: It was 110 degrees and people were dying of heat stroke at such a rate they had to store them in ice cream trucks until there was enough room for them in the morgue, .. ahh, memories.

MIKE: A song i wrote with Ed and Stone after seeing social distortion in LA.
ED: This was a Riot Act song, one of my favourites. It suffered from the "one thing is not like the other: syndrome, ..

ED: Matt Cameron write songs and we run to find step stools in order to reach his level, .. what comes naturally to him leaves us with our heads cocked like the confused dogs that we are, .. eventually getting it. Did we mention he's the greatest drummer on the planet?

ED: Nature has it's own religion, .. evolution, baby
Where the deer and wild pigs run, there are plants along the trails that attach spiny seeds onto the legs of anything passing, .. soon the plants are spread for miles. Ingenious.
On a hike with my brother we were covered from knee to ankle in these things, .. he called them "Hitchhikers"
Also a nickname for professional who harangue you for autographs that they turn around and sell, otherwise known as "blue-penners"

STONE: Not bad. This was the first song i wrote and sang that was recorded by PJ. I think in New Orleans just before the Chicago sessions. I was growing a little frustrated with my song writing experience and had just wanted to write something that i could finish and say this is me take it or leave it. Well they left it .. but now it's back. Pretty good rock chorus actually. The verses are a little weak. I could have had a little more to say now that i had the mic but i was just starting out .. soon after we recorded "Mankind" and my career as a part time singer was flourishing .. eh?

MIKE: From the Ten era. We played it live a few times. I always loved it. I don't know why it never made it.

ED: Matt, his family and i went to a far off place on vacation, .. the first two days we were writing and recording a song a day, .. then we remembered we were on vacation, .. "i'm a seed, wondering why it grows, .." sums me up.

ED: Written in a car on a ten minute drive. Had the trip been any longer i'm sure the song would ahve been more complex.

ED: I took a polaroid of Dennis Rodman's eyeball for the No Code cover, .. as the photo developed he looked at the emerging image and said, "Can you day, Octopus?" Sigmund Freud played by Phil Jackson

ED: Recorded for the Home Alive compilation record to fund women's self defense courses for cheap after the loss of Seattle musician Mia Zapata from the Gits, .. had an idea for a video that we never used, .. small party, band playing, kind of a mod scene. Drunk men harassing the girls, .. the end shot was to be an infinite line of women on their verspa scooters exiting into the horizon.
MIKE: We are always talking about who takes the first lead when we play live. Kick ass!!

ED: Jack Irons had heard that the heard of a whale was as big as a volkswagen, .. as if we weren't already in awe.

ED: There is a Matt Cameron song on Riot Act called "You Are", originally it was called "Undone", .. i ended up using that line in the chorus of this one and asked if i could steal his title, .. he obliged, but my song didn't make the record. We should have kept his his title and called this "Undone II"
This one sounds best in a car, ..it benefits from scenery passing at 40-60 mph [on the way to a demonstration of voting booth!]

ED: If you leove somebody, set them free, .. if someone loves you, don't fuck up.
Almost made it on the Vs. record? Close but no sitar

MIKE: A riff loosely based on .. something i had during the Ten sessions. I thought it was pretty. Eddie started making up words on the spot and we kept them. I still don't know what it's about and i don't want to! I love it. Fans like it too!

ED: Stone brought this one in complete, words and all, the original chorus said "The answers in plato," a philosophy reference. Just couldn't get around it sounding like "Play-doh," hence the change. Tchad Blake's favourite, and it didn't make the record

JEFF: The one started off being for my Mom and Dad. They've been married for 42 years and they've been my biggest inspiration. Over the couple of years that i wrote and reworked it, it turned into me and P. Partnerships are hard, lifelong ones are just absolutely mind blowing. I probably pushed a little too hard trying to get this one on the Riot Act because it means a lot to me and i really fell in love with how spooky and weird the demo sounded, .. demo-itis was it's name-o.
ED: If life is a cruise ship and death is to disembark to another shore, then this song is what it's like to be on land while your partner remains out at sea.

MIKE: A frequently held sign by fans over the years

MIKE: Eddie's take on Stone's song. Also similar to "Times of Trouble" from Temple of the Dog

STONE: One of, if not our earliest, compositions written as a band in the Potato Head gallery basement .. maybe? Right in there for sure. It's on that three song sampler right? Hell how knows. This one was instantaneous in its formation. Along with release, i think we played it once and th lyrics were done. I could be confused of course, but it sound good. I love the anti guitar solo by Mike. He sort of rubs his strings and with minimal effort colours the solo section beautifully

STONE: New Orleans session for No Code. How this song didn't make it on that soundtrack [or for that matter our record] we will never know for sure, but i'm very proud to have it finally gets it's spot. I think some of my favourite Ed lyrics of all time, although at the time i think i thought with some seriousness [not a lot, but some] t should say "Dead man walking .. around" because of the way the last syllable would fall across the beat. Maybe one of my worst ideas ever. Sometimes i look back and cringe. This song should have never been a b-side.

STONE: I think this sounds so much better not on a 45. I love this little song of mine. The Christmas spirit really tool hold of me one November night, what, oh a few years back. I went into Litho and laid down the basics and asked Ed to come in and help. He sang it and recorded Drifting on the same day. I think the keys on "Strangest" is Ed too. I always thought there could even be some harpsichord

ED: I sometimes wonder why there isn't a tee-pees r us.

MIKE: One of the early songs! I had an open tuning in G. Eddie wrote these really touching and sad lyrics. It was around Christmas time and it felt beautiful and melancholy ..

STONE: Your biggest successes come from the most unlikely places. "Last Kiss" should be the Greek God of that notion. I don't mean success like popularity and sales, but in the fact that this song helped earn about 10 million dollars for Kosovo Relief. It's been told, but if you haven't heard it .. Ed found these two old 45's at a garage sale and thought they would be cool covers for our Christmas single. I had heard "Last Kiss" a lot as a kid and never thought it was all that cool, but i was in, and i'm sure we were already behind the gun to get this recorded so the Fan Club could get them shipped out by February. Anyway, we recorded the tracks at Constitution Hall in Washington DC during a soundcheck for a Voters for Choice Benefit that we were playing that night. Is that right? Who knows .. anyway, they sounded fine at the recording and i don't think i thought about them one way or another for months till i heard some radio stations [Philly i think] were playing "Last Kiss" and people loved it. Wow! I think right as there was this buzz we were asked to donate a song to the Kosovo Relief Fund record and we thought this might be perfect as people had already shouted the song's approval. Anyway, it was the most radio air play we ever got for a specific single release. It was our biggest song ever! .. in the eyes of the illusive radio chieftains, we had delivered! and just to think i thought it was kind of boring. It has become a staple in our set and now is one of my favourites. Recorded and mixed expertly on digital tape by our wonderful and talented Brett [Blass] Eliason for a couple grand. You never know ..

JEFF: I loved - scratch - i idolized Lew Alcindor from 1970 until i met him in 1994. He was the abolute human being in my eyes .. that skyhook, getting to fight Bruce Lee in one of the "Dragon" movies, he was smart, mystical, and most important, he was 7'2". The day finally came and i introduced myself to him as one of his players in a dumb MTV basketball game and, with his complete lack of any reponse or interest, the bubble burst. I wanted to crawl under a rock, instead i wrote a song based on the urban myth that he lost all of his money investing in hotels for tall people. Anyway, i thought about that moment a lot, and wondered how many people i might have inadvertently snubbed because i was tired or just unable to speak .. sorry .. 5'11" is a long ways to fall.

MIKE: About a serial killer bus driver? Around the time of the Chili Peppers tour.
ED: Rob Zombie should make a movie based on these lyrics

JEFF: Ed and i were told to be at the studio on Capitol Hill around the release of Vs. to be interviewed for Rockline. I brought my guitar hoping to show everyone why i was the bassist .. two bottles of real cheap cabernet later[cuz the proceeds from Ten were in the pipeline], we were in the middle of our interview during a break when Ed asked if i "had anything," and if so,what key was "it" in .. so what you hear is the one time only version of a song we had constructed on the spot fueled by a couple of riffs, a page of notes, and the almighty red.
ED: Met her and her mother somewhere, .. she was ten or so? .. i was worried. I hope she's fine.