that dog. - retreat from the sun (GBG deluxe edition)

THAT DOG

retreat from the sun

(GBG deluxe edition)

Original release: DGC/Geffen Records (1997)

• 13 original album tracks
• 25 (!) bonus tracks
• 7 bonus videos
• image gallery 
• additional multimedia

File size:  
part 1: 137.25 MB (RAR bundle): music files, image gallery, additional multimedia
part 2: 125.64 MB (RAR bundle): video files

NOTE: You must have the necessary software to be able to open and extract files from the RAR archive format to access the individual music files. To download a quick, easy and free application that will do the trick, click here.

All music files are in the MP3 format with a bit rate of 128 kbps.
Videos are in the MP4 format.
You must have necessary codecs installed to play these files.

PART ONE

http://www.mediafire.com/?p86vp5nyghbx2kc

PART TWO
http://www.mediafire.com/?dixt70p4y5v8zde 

tracklisting

01 i'm gonna see you
02 never say never
03 being with you
04 gagged and tied
05 retreat from the sun
06 minneapolis
07 annie
08 every time i try
09 long island
10 hawthorne
11 did you ever
12 cowboy hat
13 until the day i die

non-lp bonus tracks

14 fuck you  

15 little miss riding hood 

 16 gagged and tied (alternate mix) 
  

kcrw morning becomes eclectic interview and performance with chris douridas 1997:

17 never say never 

 18 kcrw interview (part 1) 

19 retreat from the sun  

20 kcrw interview (part 2) 

21 i'm gonna see you

22 kcrw interview (part 3) 

 23 being with you
 

k-rock 92.3 new york interview and performance with jake fogelnest:

 24 k-rock interview (part 1) 

25 never say never

 26 k-rock interview (part 2)  

27 being with you
  

28 hawthorne (live at spaceland) 

the go-go's featuring anna waronker:

29 head over heels (live at the petra haden benefit)
  

ze malibu kids (featuring anna waronker lead vocals):

30 you're so vain

31 sleep therapy (from the film sugar town)

32  shelly fabares 

33  don't go

34  i won't forget you

35 my christmas was in june 

rachel haden solo

37 poems, prayers, and promises 

 

petra haden solo

38 god only knows

38 ordinary girl 

(theme to the television show 'clueless')

written by anna waronker/charlotte caffey

 performed by china forbes

 

bonus videos
never say never (promo video)
mtv's 120 minutes interview (with matt pinfield)
much music interview (segment #1)
much music interview (segment #2)
mtv's house of style (with pat smear)
never say never  (oddville mtv performance)
fuck you  (spincyclemedia video recreation)

The third feature in a series of 4 by the Los Angeles based group that dog, and another in my line of 'albums that should get the bonus track and extras laden deluxe edition treatment but probably never will so I did it myself anyways' series, I give you Retreat From The Sun (GBG Deluxe Edition).

In 1997, that dog returned for their third album, Retreat From The Sun, a pop masterpiece of epic proportions, and while the band's name is still not capitalized on the cover, the band itself is all grown up. The backstory: Retreat From The Sun began life as a proposed solo album for lead singer/primary songwriter Anna Waronker. After the relative disappointment of the performance of 1995's Totally Crushed Out! and the exhaustion that came with the promotion and touring for that record, Waronker was ready to take a small break from the band, and the fruits of her most recent songwriting sessions had been sounding much more pop-oriented than what that dog had been known for. It was Luke Wood, her A&R rep at Geffen Records, who convinced her to try recording the material with the band instead. While initially bashful at showing the rest of the group songs that to her, sounded like 'show tunes', she found that they were incredibly enthusiastic in proceeding in this new direction. Additionally, an outside producer, Brad Wood (who had produced records by Liz Phair and Ben Lee) was brought in to co-produce the entire record with band. With the exception of a couple of tracks off their second album Totally Crushed Out!, this was a first for the group, who in the past had done most of their recording with Tom Grimley at Poop Alley.

The mixture of Waronker's finely crafted songs with Brad Wood's polished sheen yielded what is certainly the most cohesive album of that dog's career.  The album gently begins with "I'm Gonna See You", a 'love letter to the band' according to Waronker, that touches on the touring life and leaving loved ones behind for the duration. Next up is "Never Say Never": a shimmering combo of synthey new wave chords and crunchy guitar sounds propelled forward by a hook that wont stop, a violin solo way cooler than any guitar part could ever be, and guest synthesizer courtesy of singer Anna Waronker's future sister-in-law, Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Go's. "Gagged and Tied" is a sexy collaboration with S&M overtones between Waronker's then-boyfriend, future husband and Redd Kross bassist Steven McDonald, who wrote the lyrics to a full-band composed tune. Pillow talk, but this ain't your Rock and Doris kind. Title track and album centerpiece "Retreat From The Sun" is propelled forward by doot-doots, surf guitar, hand claps and lalalalalas brilliantly masking the lyrical content which appears to be about extreme depression. Fan favorite tune "Minneapolis" contains the quintessential girl in band-likes-boy in band rhyming couplet: "So we'd said we'd write or call, cuz i'll be touring in the fall..." and could very well have fit nicely on previous concept album Totally Crushed Out! due to it's subject matter. Charlotte Caffey makes another guest appearance here, this time playing guitar. (For those curious about the song and some names mentioned: 'The Jabberjaw' is the name of the tiny coffeehouse all-ages venue where that dog played their very first show and the Randy mentioned in the song is none other than Randy Kaye, long-time L.A. punk rock scenester, A&R rep for Slash/Warner Bros. Records and habitual Jabberjaw regular.  (Rest in piece, Randy.  You are missed!) "Long Island" also could have thematically fit on Totally Crushed Out! and in fact was actually titled "Totally Crushed Out!" before being changed at the last minute to avoid confusion.

Three Non-LP studio outtakes from the sessions with Brad Wood are included here as bonus tracks: "Fuck You", from the Japanese edition of Retreat which pears to be a 'fuck you' (both figuratively and literally) to DGC, their record label at the time (making it no surprise as to why it wasn't made more widely available); "Little Miss Riding Hood", a b-side from the "Never Say Never" promo single; and an unreleased alternate 'violin' mix of "Gagged and Tied", which got shelved in favor of the album version.

Tracks 17-23 come from an appearance the band made on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic on April 8, 1997. While the interview segments are a bit rushed, host Chris Douridas is charming as ever and playfully interviews the band between songs in their on air set which includes "Never Say Never", "Retreat From The Sun", "I'm Gonna See You" and "Being With You". Following that (tracks 24-27) the band is interviewed on WXRK 92.3 FM New York (or K-ROCK as they were known) by SquirtTV star Jake Fogelnest, and the band performs "Never Say Never" and "Being With You", while a rendition of the song "Hawthorne", written by Waronker after visiting the hometown of beau Steve McDonald, and recorded live at Spaceland in Silverlake on December 23, 1996, follows.

While the decision to record the songs originally conceived of as a solo effort at first appeared amicable amongst the band members, it ultimately made everyone unhappy, and greatly added to the inner turmoil the band had already been experiencing. In late 1997, after the promotional and touring duties for Retreat had been completed, singer Anna Waronker called the other members from Europe (where she was traveling with boyfriend Steve McDonald) and anounced she was leaving the group, putting that dog to sleep for good. Waronker would, however, remain on good terms with most of her former bandmates, even performing at a benefit for Petra Haden in late 2000, joining a Belinda Carlisle-less Go-Go's on stage for a rendition of their hit "Head Over Heels" (track #29). (The insurance-less Haden had been hit by a car earlier in the year, and the benefit was to raise money for Petra's medical and rehabilitation fees incurred.)

The first post-That Dog Waronker songs that would make their way to consumer ears would be as part of the supergroup Ze Malibu Kids which consisted of Waronker, her husband Steve McDonald and his brother Jeff (both from the band Redd Kross), as well as Astrid McDonald, Jeff's ten-year old daughter with the Go-Go's Charlotte Caffey. Although originally credited to just Anna Waronker, the first taste of Ze Malibu Kids came in the form of a cover of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" in 1998 via a Scandinavian Polygram Music Publishing compilation called Chartbusters: 20-I-Toppar, which featured contemporary artists and their renditions of classic from the Polygram Music Publishing catalog. The following year, the Jeff McDonald-penned "Sleep Therapy" featuring vocals by Waronker found it's way into the Allison Anders film Sugar Town (which also featured a small acting part by McDonald). Not counting a free download release of the Waronker sung "My Christmas Was In June" via Redd Kross's official website just prior, The first official release as Ze Malibu Kids was the double A-sided single "I Won't Forget You"/"Your Bed" in 2001. A full-length album Sound It Out followed in 2002 which included both A-sides of the single; the previously mentioned "You're So Vain" and "Sleep Therapy"; as well as new Waronker-penned and sung songs "Shelly Fabares" and "Don't Go". In 2002, Waronker issued her debut solo album Anna By Anna Waronker on her and Charlotte Caffey's own label Five Foot Two Records and her long-delayed second solo offering California Fade is finally set for release later in 2010. She (along with frequent collaborator Caffey) composed the music for Lovelace: A Rock Opera, a musical based on the life of porn star Linda 'Deep Throat' Lovelace, and has become in high demand for her work in writing and composing music for television and films, a field that that dog drummer Tony Maxwell has also seen some success in, working as a composer/music consultant for the films Star Maps (1997), Chuck & Buck (2000) and The Good Girl (2002).

Following the demise of That Dog, bassist Rachel Haden focused on performing with other artists including The Martinis, Jimmy Eat World, The Rentals and Todd Rundgren, and appeared on recordings by Ozma, Dntel, Lucky Pierre, Fightstar, Neil Hamburger and Asian Kung-Fu Generation. As a solo artist, she contributed a strikingly beautiful cover of "Poems, Prayers and Promises" to Take Me Home: A Tribute To John Denver on Badman Recordings in 1999 and continues to work on a collection of solo demos. Currently, she is playing bass and singing back-up vocals for long-time inspiration and Dead Can Dance member Brendan Perry on his 2010 Ark tour.

Meanwhile, Petra Haden (here represented with her solo acapella rendition of the Beach Boys classic "God Only Knows"), probably the most prolific of former That Dog members, has not only appeared on recordings by The Twilight Singers, Beck, Mike Watt, Luscious Jackson, Jimmy Eat World, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Queens of the Stone Age, Weezer, Victoria Williams, Tegan & Sara, Yuka Honda and The Gutter Twins, but has also released 2 solo albums (Imaginaryland in 1999 and Petra Haden Sings The Who Sell Out in 2005), 2 albums with Miss Murgatroid (Bella Neurox in 1999 and Hearts & Daggers in 2008), a collaboration with Bill Frisell (Petra Haden & Bill Frisell, 2003) and a collaboration with Woody Jackson (Ten Years, 2008). She is currently working as vocal coach/arranger for the upcoming NBC acapella reality tv show, Sing Off, scheduled to air in December.

As a bonus, i've included "Ordinary Girl", the theme to the television series Clueless and an early collaboration between Waronker and Charlotte Caffey. Here it is performed by China Forbes (in an extended arrangement from the original single release), but it very well could have been performed by that dog. When the song had been accepted as the theme to the show, Paramount executives offered Waronker the chance to record the song with her band. Waronker declined the offer, but a quick listen to the song and one can imagine the band performing it.