The band typically releases an EP between studio albums. So following Five Score And Seven Years Ago - which debuted at #6 on The Billboard 200 in 2007, becoming Relient K's highest charting album to date - the guys decided to make their latest EP something of an alternate career retrospective, comprised of b-sides, demos and other rarities from its 10 year history.

"We were just trying to think of what our fans would want from a b-sides record," explains lead singer/guitarist/pianist Matt Thiessen. "We're like, they probably just want everything - so let's try to give it to them." Along the way, the band decided to include some new tracks, a concept that quickly morphed into "hey, why doesn't everybody in the band write a song?"

Thus the EP begins with a baker's dozen of original new tunes collected under the moniker of The Nashville Tennis EP. With all five members writing and taking turns on lead vocals, it's perhaps Relient K's most diverse effort to date, including Thiessen's alt-country "At Least We Made It This Far," bassist John Warne's "The Last, The Lost, The Least," which is explosive both sonically and in its social commentary, and new drummer Ethan Luck's punk rock reggae "No Reaction," to name but a few highlights.

Working in a Spring Hill, TN studio with producer Mark Lee Townsend and mix engineer J.R. McNeely, the team behind the boards for 2004's mmhmm, Relient K laid down the new tracks and raided its archives, remixing and re-mastering the 13 songs that comprise the second half of the EP, The Bird and the Bee Sides. There are tunes from The Vinyl Countdown, The Employee Of The Month EP, The Creepy EP, and, as Thiessen puts it, "a ton of other stuff that you can't even find on the internet - at least not yet." Rarities include several demos ("Here I Go," "The Stenographer" and "Jefferson Aeroplane"), "Hope For Every Fallen Man," a b-side from the Five Score and Seven Years Ago sessions, and an acoustic version of the Top 20 hit single "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been."

Tapped as a co-headliner for the Vans Warped Tour '08, Relient K is eager to get back on the road. "This is the first time we've been out for the entire endeavor - it's going to be a blast," says Thiessen, who relishes the Warped tour's "hot, dirty summercamp awesomeness." They'll be bringing along a representative from Blood:Water Mission http://www.bloodwatermission.com/, a non-profit organization working to promote clean blood and clean water efforts in Africa, tangibly reducing the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic while addressing the underlying issues of poverty, injustice and oppression.

The track listing for The Bird and the Bee Sides is as follows:

The Nashville Tennis EP

1. Where Do I Go From Here
2. The Scene And Herd
3. At Least We Made It This Far
4. The Last, The Lost, The Least
5. The Lining Is Silver
6. There Was No Thief
7. No Reaction
8. Curl Up And Die
9. You'll Always Be My Best Friend
10. There Was Another Time In My Life
11. Beaming
12. I Just Want You To Know
13. Bee Your Man
    The Bird and the Bee Sides
    
14. Up And Up (Acoustic)
15. Wits All Been Done Before
16. The Vinyl Countdown
17. For The Band
18. Nothing Without You
19. A Penny Loafer Saved Is A Penny Loafer Earned
20. Five Iron Frenzy Is Either Dead Or Dying
21. Five Iron Frenzy Is Either Dead Or Dying (Ska Version)
22. Here I Go (Demo)
23. The Stenographer (Demo)
24. Jefferson Aeroplane (Demo)
25. Hope For Every Fallen Man (Acoustic)

 

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