Later Days and Better Lays

The first 14 tracks on Later Days and Better Lays comprise a demo tape that the Queers had recorded in May 1991 with producer Jim Tierney.[1] The band had gone through a number of lineup changes and periods of inactivity since forming in 1982, before the lineup of singer, songwriter, and guitarist "Joe Queer" King, drummer Hugh O'Neill, and bassist Chris "B-Face" Barnard solidified in 1990.[2][3] By 1991 King was co-owner of a café and bar in Exeter, New Hampshire called Joe's Place, where O'Neill and Barnard worked as dishwashers.[1] Around this time King befriended Ben Weasel, whose band Screeching Weasel soon signed to Berkeley, California-based Lookout! Records.[2] The Queers' goals at the time were modest: "Things were desperate", King later recalled, "I made no money to speak of. We just wanted to do one great punk rock album that we'd release ourselves and play with Screeching Weasel at least once."[1]

To this end, the band recorded the demo tape of new material and sent it to Weasel, who passed a copy on to Lookout! head Larry Livermore and suggested that he sign the Queers to the label.[1][2][3] "The songs were irresistibly melodic;" Livermore recalled in his 2015 memoir, "a couple of the slower numbers, heavily influenced by doo-wop and the Beach Boys, were almost heartbreakingly beautiful. Joe King was ten years younger than me, but we'd obviously grown up listening to a lot of the same music."[3] He felt the demo was almost good enough to put out itself, but thought it worth getting the band into a studio to re-record it with better production.[3] The Queers signed to Lookout!, and recorded their 1993 album Love Songs for the Retarded at Sonic Iguana Studio in Lafayette, Indiana with audio engineer Mass Giorgini, produced by Weasel and with Livermore present for the sessions.[2][3][4] Nine songs from the 1991 demo were re-recorded for the album ("Granola Head", "I Hate Everything", "I Won't Be", "I Can't Stop Farting", "Night of the Livid Queers", "Monster Zero", "Teenage Bonehead", "Hi Mom It's Me", and "Feeling Groovy"). In the liner notes for Later Days and Better Lays, King opined that the material on the demo tape was better in some respects because the band had been more relaxed and not as rushed as they were during the album session.[1]

Another song from the demo, "Nobody Likes Me", was written during the band's formative years in the early 1980s.[5][6] A version recorded in January 1993 with original member Wimpy Rutherford (real name Jack Hayes) on lead vocals was released on the 1994 EP Look Ma No Flannel![5][6] Three other songs from the demo tape ("Too Many Twinkies", "Half Shitfaced", and "I Live This Life") were re-recorded for the band's second album for Lookout!, 1994's Beat Off. The recordings of "Nobody Likes Me", "Too Many Twinkies", "Half Shitfaced", and "I Live This Life" from the 1991 demo were included on the 1996 compilation A Day Late and a Dollar Short.[1]

The remaining seven tracks on Later Days and Better Lays were recorded just prior to and during the sessions for the band's fourth Lookout! album, 1996's Don't Back Down. "Born to Do Dishes" was recorded in a late-night demo session with Tierney; the band wrote the song in the studio in only 5 minutes.[1] The next day, fellow Lookout! acts the Mr. T Experience and the Riverdales were performing in town (along with Boris the Sprinkler), so King invited Mr. T Experience frontman "Dr. Frank" Portman to record harmony on the song's chorus.[1] An early demo version of "No Tit" is also included on Later Days and Better Lays; both "No Tit" and "Born to Do Dishes" were re-recorded for Don't Back Down.[1] Also included on Later Days and Better Lays is a new recording of "Junk Freak", a song from the Queers' 1990 debut album, Grow Up; this version was recorded prior to Don't Back Down when the band needed a song for inclusion in a video, but they never finished the recording and King did not add his vocals until completing the track for inclusion on this compilation.[1]

The Don't Back Down outtakes include three tracks previously released on 1996's Bubblegum Dreams EP: the original song "Never Ever" and cover versions of the Beach Boys' "Little Honda" and the Muffs' "End It All", with Lisa Marr of the band Cub singing backing vocals.[1][7][8][9] Later Days and Better Lays also includes an alternate vocal version of "I Can't Get Over You": On the version used on Don't Back Down, Marr sang the lead vocals and King sang the backups; on this alternate version, King sang the leads and Marr the backups.[1][7] Finally, a cover version of the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" (another Don't Back Down outtake) is included as a hidden track.[10]

The success of Don't Back Down attracted the attention of Epitaph Records head Brett Gurewitz, who offered to sign the band.[11] This led to a dispute with Lookout! and disagreements between the band members, resulting in the dissolution of this lineup of the Queers.[11] Barnard, who had been with the Queers since 1990, joined the Groovie Ghoulies.[11] O'Neill, who had been with the band since 1986 (minus a forced leave of absence in 1993–1994 to deal with heroin addiction), completed drug rehabilitation but was diagnosed with a brain tumor and died in early 1999.[11][12][13] The Epitaph deal having fallen through, Queer, who had also completed drug rehabilitation, formed a new lineup of the Queers and signed the band to Hopeless Records.[11][13] The band was still under contract to do one more album for Lookout!, however, so King put together Later Days and Better Lays to fulfill this obligation.[11] The Queers returned to Lookout! for the 2001 Today EP and 2002 album Pleasant Screams, but chose to again leave the label, which by that time was floundering.[13]