Hey there,

I don't know if "Wash" was ever released as one of the Ten Club Xmas singles. Could you possibly instead have a copy of the "Alive"/"Wash"/"I've Got A Feeling" promo cassette that was sent out to Mother Love Bone and Soundgarden Fan Club members right at the onset of Pearl Jam/Mookie Blaylock? That's the only thing I can recall that was ever sent out to the Fan Club containing "Wash". Do you recognize this?... http://www.xs4all.nl/~groenf/images/1.gif 

Oh, and you're definitely not ignorant of that "vault" material! I have no idea what the bulk of those songs are, but here's what little I might have a clue about...

- "Anything In Between": I've read that this is a song they worked on during the Riot Act sessions.

- "New Light Years": I have reason to believe that the "New Light Years" is actually the Binaural version we're all familiar with. The story behind "LY" is that they initially did one version of it that everyone was pretty satisfied with, but that Ed later determined was a bit "too catchy" and a little too similar in structure to "Given To Fly". Ed and Mike then revamped things a little bit over about half and hour to an hour, resulting in the band creating a second "Light Years", which is actually the one that made the album. Meanwhile, the original "LY" leaked over the Internet a couple of years ago and it sometimes known as "Puzzles And Games".

- "Morning Song": In Jan. 2001, Mike McCready posted a handful of messages on the Synergy BBS, and in one of these posts, he mentioned that "In Hiding" was originally known as "Early Morning Song", based on the time of day that Stone came up with the initial riff that formed the tune. So, my guess would be that "Morning Song" = "In Hiding."

That's all I really have any idea about, sorry! Hope this helped a bit!

Hi! You're very, very welcome! I happy to provide what little assistance I can... In no way am I an encyclopedia, though!! You're giving me far too much credit!

I hadn't looked at the Lost Dog art/liners in a while when I first answered, but I see now what you mean about "Anything In Between" being on a Binaural reel. I have no clue whatsoever about what album session that song might have originated in, but I think your idea about it maybe dating back initially to Binaural and then being worked on again during Riot Act makes total sense. For instance, if you look at the photo, within that same grouping of tapes, you can see there's a reel with "Glorified G." (as we know, obviously, being from the Vs. sessions) paired with a copy of "Brother" (from Ten), so I'd guess for some songs, there are different versions done over the course of making different records... For example, "Hard To Imagine" from LD is a version done during the Vs. era, whereas "Hard To Imagine" on the Chicago Cab soundtrack is a take from the No Code sessions. The only "connection" I have linking "Anything In Between" specifically to the making of Riot Act is from a post on the Synergy Board from about Jan. of 2002 by someone named stonegroovesme who seemed to have a definite "in" with the band. The Mods allowed some very "insider" posts of his/hers to remain up, while a lot of similarly speculative posts are usually not allowed to continue to the degree that this stonegroovesme person'swere; they even got a "thank you" credit (with a winking smiley, no less) on the site. Anyways, in the months following this, the fan-run site you may be familiar with called the Pearl Jam Recording Sessions Guide (which I believe right now is actually down for maintenance) posted this stonegroovesme info in their outline of what was done when. So, that's the only real "proof" there is, I guess. Probably best to take everything with a grain of salt unless the band themselves come out and confirm/deny.

"Puzzles And Games" is "out there", although when it initially leaked, the Mods made it known that the band -- or maybe more accurately, the band's "people" (as IMHO based on the guys' general comments about leaks, they don't really seem to care) -- weren't totally thrilled with it making its way out into the huge domain of the Internet. But it's certainly "around" and from what I gather, pretty easy to locate. I think in a lot of places, it's just called the "Light Years Demo."

Finally, I certainly would not recommend spending much time on Synergy's BBS. I don't want to speak for anyone but myself, but I think Laura might agree with me that it certainly is not the fun, informative place that it once was, especially circa 1999 through 2001. I tend not to visit there anymore because I can't stand the general vibe and only one or two of the friends I made there are still posting. By pure fluke, my main phase of posting there happened to be around the time Mike made his appearance -- and coincidentally, his initial posts were made in a thread a friend of mine had started. Otherwise, I would have had no clue about what he'd said, nor did I ever write to him at the time.