On Thursday, July 9, we released our second album, Extra Lives, Vol. 1. While you’re reading this, perhaps the best thing to do would be to put it on in the background! You can purchase it through iTunes or Amazon Music, or stream it via Spotify or Apple Music (if you like it, please consider supporting the music by purchasing it rather than by solely streaming!).
The album features six live cuts from two of our 2019 shows, including four arrangements that are being released on record for the first time. If you followed us last year, you may have already heard these tunes via our YouTube page—now you can play them wherever you go with ease!
Truth be told, releasing these cuts was relatively impromptu. We had planned to be in the studio to record an album in December, which was delayed to March due to an act of God, and then was delayed again due to another, very different, very global act of God. Since the current delay that we’re facing—surely you know of it!—is indefinite, we wanted to put out some content out there to tide us over. Luckily we had recordings from a few shows in our back pockets that have decent audio quality and that feature some great playing from the guys.
For this release we focused on cuts from two sessions: our performance at Free Play, the VGM/jazz festival we put on in late August, and our radio-broadcasted participation in local Charlottesville radio station WTJU 91.1 FM’s annual Jazz Marathon in October (special thanks to Gary Funston and Peter Jones for organizing and Lewis Reining for engineering this one). Both feature a high level of raw energy from the band and stand as great representations of what it’s like to be in the audience of one of live shows.
Some insight into the tracks:
1. “Sigma Stage 1” (Mega Man X) - WTJU session
I actually wrote this arrangement back in early 2018 for a project that the OverClocked Jazz Collective had started. My intention was not to have the Modes play it until after the project’s release, but when it started facing serious delays, I decided to release it. We first played it at our first performance at C’ville’s legendary jazz hotspot, Miller’s and since then it’s been in our set list for most shows.
Setsuo Yamamoto’s original has three distinct feels: a moody intro, a few rocking sections, and a break that has a deep groove to it. My arrangement focuses on the last idea—instead of highlighting the feel of the desperate place the world is in as X and Zero approach Sigma’s fortress, I focus on X’s swagger. After handily taking down the eight initial bosses and completing his new armor, he’s confident and ready to face the ultimate baddie. That’s what the feel is here. Also, side note: I think I must have been listening to a lot of Snarky Puppy, particularly “Lingus” from their killer album We Like It Here, around that time because I think some of the elements are clearly influenced by their grooves.
2. “Uwa!! So Temperate” (Undertale) - Free Play session
Toby Fox’s iconic soundtrack from his iconic masterpiece of a game had to be represented in our repertoire. Instead of going for a more practiced VGM cover band anthem like “Megalovania,” I had decided to arrange one of his deeper cuts.
This arrangement, which we debuted at our “Level 2” show in February 2019, features two distinct solo sections based on the two feels of the original, one ambient and one grooving. It also features a round played by the horns between the two solo sections and at the end of the piece, with each round starting at a different place that results in different dissonances.
Andre (bass) and Trevor (vibes) hit the sections perfectly in this cut. Andre’s solo is very melodic and open for the first section, and when Trevor enters after the first round, he comes in blazing. Love to see it.
3. “Into the Thick of It / Did You See the Ocean?“ (Secret of Mana) - Free Play session
Another “Level 2” arrangement, Kikuta’s classic theme is a favorite of the band’s. Even for a more restrained performance—for Free Play we had an hour to fill and opted for less solos and more tunes overall—, it lasts for over ten minutes. If you catch us playing it out, it is infamously known sometimes to take up to thirty :)
My favorite part of this tune is when we play the wild hits in Did You See the Ocean? and Pat takes a drum solo in 7. When we come out of his solo, we even add an extra two beats in for good measure (ha, pun), which you can see below. When we nail it, as we do in this recording, it produces some real in-your-face energy.
4. “Beneath the Mask” (Persona 5) - Free Play session
At the time of writing, our version of this on The Cemetery Session has 4,110 streams, making it easily our most popular release. Both versions I think are really solid in their own way, but if I were to choose, it would be this one. I love how more settled in we feel (even if we do mess up the hits over the drum solo again lol) and how there’s a huge amount of sustained energy from beginning to end. I think this take was towards the middle-end of our Free Play set, and we were really riding high—I can feel it on the head out every time I listen.
5. “Cosmo Canyon” (Final Fantasy VII) - Free Play session
“Cosmo Canyon” was my first arrangement ever for the band before it was a band, so it holds a special place in my heart even outside of the feels it brings from playing Final Fantasy VII. When Nick (keys) was in the band, I always had to have him solo over this tune because he makes it his bread and butter. In the limited-solo environment of Free Play, it was only natural to have him be the star of the track. This version is just another killer representation of what he would always bring to it.
6. “Radical Dreamers ~Unstolen Jewel~” (Chrono Cross) - WTJU session
While “Beneath the Mask” may be our greatest hit on the internet, ever since we closed our “Level 2” show with it (a version which was nominated for a G.A.N.G. award in 2020!), “Radical Dreamers” has become our go-to ending piece and an audience favorite. That vibe was no different for our WTJU broadcast, which I think is one of our best performances of it—afterwards a couple of the engineers were pumped up and wanted to know more about the tune. The funny part about this take was that our spot at the Jazz Marathon was an hour long and being broadcast live over the radio, and since we didn’t want any dead air, I kept motioning for the band to keep repeating the solo sections over and over and over until we wore enough time down on the clock X)
This album is labeled Volume 1 because we intend to release more live tracks in the future. There are a handful I still have that I’m interested in releasing, too! A couple of those were going to be on this album but we couldn’t get them licensed. Unsure if by the time we’re ready for a new release they’ll be good to go or not, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Regardless, you can watch them on our YouTube channel (“K.K. Cruisin’” from Free Play and “Mysterious Woods” from Link’s Awakening).
As for what’s next in quarantine, we’re hoping to do the remote video thing. At first I was reluctant since so much of our identity as a group involves in-the-moment communication and improvisation, but we have a lot of material that we just want to play and get out for you to hear! Hope to get that going soon, and hope even more that we will be able to play for you live again in the near future.
Until then, happy listening, stay safe and healthy, do good work, and be well.
Peace,
Greg
