Rare, Unusual or Just Bad Songs

A compilation of a bunch of songs never put out anywhere. They didn’t belong anywhere, so they belong together. You can see why.

Rare, Unusual or Just Bad Songs is a self-released compilation by Lisa Germano, issued in 2002 through her own website. Gathering outtakes, unreleased demos, and hard-to-find tracks from across a decade of recording, it functions less as a greatest-hits package than as an honest rummage through the vaults—exactly as the tongue-in-cheek title suggests. Several of its thirteen tracks have never officially appeared anywhere else, making it an indispensable document for serious listeners and an unusually candid look at Germano’s creative process.

Background

Rare, Unusual or Just Bad Songs emerged from one of the most uncertain moments in Germano’s career. After Slide failed to find a commercial footing and 4AD’s distribution deal with Warner Bros. expired, Germano was dropped from the label. The combination of professional setbacks—including being hired and then fired by the Smashing Pumpkins on the day a major tour was set to begin—led her to step back from the music industry for several years. By 2002, she was preparing what would become Lullaby for Liquid Pig but had not yet secured a label to release it.

Rather than waiting in silence, Germano offered fans two self-compiled CDrs directly through her website’s PO box. For $13 per disc, buyers could write in and receive a hand-assembled copy in return. Rare, Unusual or Just Bad Songs was issued alongside Concentrated, a more conventional best-of whose track selection had been curated by Robin Hurley, the former head of 4AD. Where Concentrated surveyed her official 4AD output, Rare, Unusual or Just Bad Songs went in the opposite direction: demos, cast-off recordings, and tracks that had appeared on limited or obscure compilations. Both releases now surface only rarely on Discogs and secondary markets.

Themes

The compilation’s title sets the tone: self-deprecating, curious, and aware of its own oddness. Across thirteen tracks spanning roughly a decade’s worth of sessions, the material circles the same emotional terrain as Germano’s studio albums—fragile intimacy, uneven relationships, longing—but in a rawer, less finished form. The brevity of several tracks (“Oh… Just a Melody” at 1:17; “Ice Cream Truck” at 1:08) gives the collection a sketchbook quality, as if listeners are being allowed into a notebook rather than a completed work.

Thematically, the compilation also reflects the breadth of the recording periods it draws from. Tracks from the Slide sessions share space with outtakes from the Excerpts from a Love Circus era and a song rescued from the original Capitol Records pressing of Happiness. The result is less a narrative arc than a mosaic: moods and textures from different creative phases placed in loose proximity. The title’s wry self-assessment is part of the charm. Germano has always been her own most skeptical critic, and the very act of releasing this material suggests she thought better of that judgment.

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No.	Title	Length
1	Oh… Just a Melody	1:17
2	Starfish	2:38
3	Fun, Fun for Everyone	3:22
4	I Love a Snot (instrumental)	1:53
5	Dreamland	3:39
6	Angels Turn to Devils	5:20
7	Cat Mask and Cowboy Hat	3:06
8	…Breathe Acrost Texas	1:31
9	Offering	3:05
10	Ice Cream Truck	1:08
11	Guardian at the Exit Gate	4:07
12	Fun, Fun for Everyone!	3:48
13	Bud’s Theme	2:15

The tracks on Rare, Unusual or Just Bad Songs were not recorded for this compilation but drawn from sessions spanning roughly 1992 to 1998. Four tracks (1, 2, 5, and 10) date from the Slide sessions, which were produced by Tchad Blake and took place in the late 1990s. Three tracks (3, 4, and 12) were recorded during the Excerpts from a Love Circus sessions, produced by Bill Bottrell. Track 8, “…Breathe Across Texas,” was included on the original 1993 Capitol Records pressing of Happiness and subsequently dropped from the 4AD reissue the following year.

“Bud’s Theme” is an instrumental she composed for the 1992 John Mellencamp film Falling from Grace, on whose soundtrack it appeared alongside contributions from Nanci Griffith, Dwight Yoakam, and John Prine. It is a particularly early example of Germano’s instinct for understated, melodic composition separate from her work as a session violinist.

“Starfish,” which features drums by Jerry Marotta, guitar by Joe Gore, and horns by Melissa Ferrick, was recorded during the Slide sessions and had previously appeared on Pet Sounds Volume One: A Benefit for Alter, a charity compilation. The six tracks listed as exclusive to this release—”Oh… Just a Melody,” “Dreamland,” “Cat Mask and Cowboy Hat,” “Offering,” “Ice Cream Truck,” and “Guardian at the Exit Gate”—have never appeared on any other official release.

Packaging & Design

The packaging reflects the circumstances of the release: hand-assembled, personal, and deliberately low-fi. Germano appears to have designed the cover herself; both the front and back feature her own handwriting, lending it the feel of a note slipped inside a package rather than a commercial product. The disc itself is a standard TDK CD-R, labeled with a handwritten thank-you message from Lisa personally—a detail consistent with the spirit of the whole project. The release had no label, catalogue number, or conventional retail presence; each copy was, in effect, a direct exchange between artist and fan.

Personnel

All songs written by Lisa Germano except “I Love a Snot (instrumental),” written by Lisa Germano and Paul Mahern.

“Starfish”
Drums: Jerry Marotta
Guitar: Joe Gore
Horns: Melissa Ferrick

Session origins by track:
Track 13 originally included on the soundtrack to Falling from Grace (Mercury, 1992)
Tracks 1, 2, 5, 10 recorded during the Slide sessions
Tracks 3, 4, 12 recorded during the Excerpts from a Love Circus sessions
Track 8 originally included on the Capitol Records release of Happiness

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