Listening Room
Have fun listening to this progression of the Sneaks creative journey featuring the rarest of rare tracks and demos. Much of this has been buried for almost 30 years, and most of it never was heard beyond the band's close circle of friends.
Brief notes on the songs and recordings are constructed from personal memories and may deviate slightly from reality.
Song Title |
Song Notes |
|---|---|
| Aikens-Perkins Rap | Rob's home re-mix mashup of 1970s prank phone calls to Jack Aikens and 1980s Brett vocal demos. Publicly played only once, when Rob was guest DJ at the Ice House. |
| At Ground Zero | Perkins and Schilling demo vession as recorded by Brian Vessa. Brett plays bongos. |
| Billboard Girl | One of eight songs recorded in 1983 for possible inclusion on "Success The Hard Way." |
| Caught In The Act I | From the band's first post-O'Toole demo session. Recorded in Brett's garage in 1981. |
| Caught In The Act II | A revamping of the original arrangement (note Rob's flanged guitar intro). Recorded during a 1982 garage demo session. |
| Count Me Out | From the 1983 pre-production demo session. Ultimately was "counted out" of the band's 2nd EP. |
| Down N' Out I | Early demo version recorded at Rob's home studio. Features Jeff Van de Wege and Brett on backing vocals, and Woody Smith on bass. Hear Rob on lead vocals! |
| Down N' Out II | This was recorded at the 1983 pre-production demo session, just prior to the song's inclusion on Success the Hard Way. |
| Hard Woman | Another R&B creation from Rob's four-track home studio. Brett sings lead and Rob plays keyboard bass. |
| I Was The One | Recorded at the 1981 Perkins garage session. |
| I'll Be Around | Another 1983 pre-production demo. |
| Knowing You're Mine | One more from the 1981 garage session. |
| Lastra Party | An edited version of a 1982 high school graduation backyard-party at Laura Lastra's (of Laura's Song fame) house. Greg took out all of the music and left only the between-the-song comments. Brett fights hard here to maintain his "cool." |
| Laura's Song | B-side of the (blue vinyl!) 45 released under the name of Vande Perk (Jeff Van de wege / Brett Perkins), but featuring all members of the Sneaks. The recording engineer accidentally erased Rob's guitar solo on this track and Rob had to return the next day to re-record it. A-side was Tonight & Forever. |
| Lay It On The Line | 1983 demo. The band argued over including this on "Success...", but ultimately it was discarded. |
| Leave It Alone | Recorded at Rob and Brett's "lost weekend" in San Clemente, where they rented a house for a week and wrote songs all day, every day. |
| Lonely Girl I | This version is from the 1981 garage session. |
| Lonely Girl II | Here's an updated rendition from the 1982 garage session. |
| Modern Love | From the 1983 pre-production demo session. This version includes the "heavy metal" break, which was edited from the release-version. |
| My Time | A rare, Jim O'Toole composition. This song was dropped soon after Jim left the band. |
| Nothing From You | Recorded at the 1981 garage session. |
| Ripped & Torn | The Perkins and Schilling acoustic version. Recorded by Brian Vessa. |
| Run I | 1981 garage version. |
| Run II | 1982 garage version. |
| Save Some For Later | Unreleased demo from Rob's home studio. |
| Some Kid Went Crazy | Ultra-rare 1983 garage demo. Dig Pat's bass solo. |
| Star Spangled Banner | Features Greg on multi-track, falsetto lead vocals. Recorded at the infamous San Clemente demo sessions. |
| Survivor | From the 1982 garage recording. |
| Take It Slow | Demo from Brett's home studio. Features Sneaks members. |
| The Calling | |
| The Love I Lacked | 1990 demo recorded at Sean Fullerton Studios in Altadena, CA. Features Brett and Rob, all other instruments are synths and samples. |
| The Why Bye Boogie | Rare non-released demo. This is the Butch Magnum remix version. |
| This Love Is Dead | Another contender for "Success...", from the 1983 demo session. |
| Uncle Freddy Comment | The original comment as spoken by Uncle Freddy at Oasis Park in Palmdale, c.1980. |
| Weekends | Recorded at the 1981 garage demo session. |
| Why Do You Run | This 1983 demo cemented the song's inclusion on the EP. |
| Wrong Side Now | Another rare demo from Brett's home studio (Yamaha MT44 four-track) w/cameo appearances by band members. |