'Easter eggs' and hidden extras on recordings

Fassa Albrecht · #1 03-29-2008, 05:25 PM

How many hidden features or/and hidden features have Talkbassers found on recordings/CDs?

worker201 · #2 03-29-2008, 05:54 PM

On the Less Than Jake cd "Losing Streak", the first track is a song called "Automatic". The song begins with a recording of some old guy saying "This is the old dude, Howard J. Reynolds, and you're listening to Less Than Jake". If you start from there and rewind, you will find further conversations with Howard. The liner notes from the album actually hints at the existence of this content, and offers free swag to the first 100 people who write in with instructions on how to find it. As the album was released in 1996, I'm sure that offer has long since expired.

Other than bonus tracks, this is the only 'true' CD easter egg I know of.

the_thriller · #3 03-29-2008, 05:59 PM

There are hidden tracks on both Queens Of The Stone Age's "Songs For The Deaf" and Armor For Sleep's "What To Do When You Are Dead". Both are found in the same way as the Less Than Jake example above. Go to the first track and (depending on your CD player as it doesn't always work) hit rewind and you'll go to a -1 or 0 track.

The QOTSA hidden track is called 'The REAL Song For The Deaf' as it's supposed to be a song that someone who is deaf could enjoy due to the heavy percussion/bass in the song.

I didn't actually 'find' these, but I was informed of them before anyone else I knew.

MonetBass · #4 03-29-2008, 07:05 PM

Toad The Wet Sprocket's Coil album has a bonus track as a QuickTime .mov file, called "Silo Lullaby".

tom once dead · #5 03-29-2008, 07:17 PM

I'm not too sure, but I think on System of a downs self titled album if you let it play on the cd player a song goes for half an hour.

I heard it once but i cant remember which one it was

There is also an extra track at the end of arials on the Toxicity album

f'nar f'nar · #6 03-30-2008, 04:52 AM

The last song on opeths 'deliverance' album called By The Pain I see In Others has a weird hidden section if you let the album continue to play for a while after its finished.

Tools song Opiate has a weird bit about 5 minutes after the end of the song where maynard sings about satan, urinating, fire trucks and acid. Pretty funny.

I think the Mars Volta also have a few similar instances.

Wissen · #7 03-30-2008, 11:16 AM

Similar to worker's find on the LTJ album, 311's Transistor has some content placed before the first track. This little instrumental ditty was their live show intro for a while in the mid-late 90s before the "Are You Ready?" Intro.

Tons of albums have extended last tracks that include other songs. One of my personal favorites is the jam with Dave Chapelle at the end of the Roots' album The Tipping Point. This album also includes their cover of Din Da Da, which is included on Vol. 2 of their greatest hits compilation from a few years back.

CHILDISHGAMBINO · #8 03-30-2008, 11:28 AM

If you let Kyuss "And the Circus Leaves Town..." play for about 17 or 18 minutes @ the end of the last song you get a bonus track.

RavynWolf · #9 03-30-2008, 11:36 AM

Pretty neat.
On the Marilyn Manson album Mechanical Animals, there is 14 tracks, but pop it into your computer and a 15th appears.

Woodchuck · #10 03-30-2008, 12:14 PM

On our (El Pus) first CD, "Strange Cowboys", there were 12 tracks listed, but the cd player read 36, because there were 2 hidden tracks @ 35 & 36.

the_thriller · #11 03-30-2008, 03:15 PM

There's also the Tool Mega Track off of 10,000 Days that combines three different songs off of the album together. It's pretty ridiculous if you find an mp3 of it.

I don't know if I really consider hidden tracks at the end of CDs (by letting the CD keep going) true 'Easter Eggs', only because half the time they are listed on the album liner notes anyway.

Plus, I hate hidden tracks that come 20 min after the last track as it makes playing the CD in the car on repeat or somewhere similar next to impossible without having to either skip the hidden track or scroll forward to get to it. ANNOYING!

worker201 · #12 03-30-2008, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_thriller

Plus, I hate hidden tracks that come 20 min after the last track as it makes playing the CD in the car on repeat or somewhere similar next to impossible without having to either skip the hidden track or scroll forward to get to it. ANNOYING!

That's one of the reasons I rip all my albums to mp3 or m4a. I can edit out all that blank space!

the_thriller · #13 03-30-2008, 04:21 PM

Heh, it'd take way more time to edit those tracks than I would like to put in. I am in the process of ripping all the cds I own for when I ditch the country, but I don't think that I'll get them all done (or will care to).

Deluge Of Sound · #14 03-30-2008, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_thriller

The QOTSA hidden track is called 'The REAL Song For The Deaf' as it's supposed to be a song that someone who is deaf could enjoy due to the heavy percussion/bass in the song.

Yeah The Real Song For The Deaf is one of the coolest hidden tracks I've come across.

Baryonyx · #15 03-30-2008, 05:24 PM

I remember discovering a hidden track on The Berzker's "Dissimulate" album. If you clicked back from the first track on your CD player you would get to hear a guitar only take of "Compromise", which was one of the best tracks on the album, Very cool to hear!

On Marilyn Manson's "Antichrist Superstar" album, track 99 was some weird piece of music with the "Antichrist Superstar" character ranting over it about suffering an betrayal.

If you let the first disc of Today Is The Day's "Sadness will Prevail" album run to the end, after a few minutes of silence a barrage of human screams starts and runs for a few minutes.

There was also the hidden track/camcorder audio sample at the end of Slipknot's self titled album, but that was pretty well known about.

bassist324 · #16 03-31-2008, 05:03 PM

During "In the Name of God" on Dream Theater's Train of Thought morse code for one of the things the drummer likes to say ("Eat my ass and balls") can be heard somewhere a little before the 6 minute point.

the_thriller · #17 03-31-2008, 09:01 PM

Mike Portnoy likes people to eat his ass and balls?

**SoComSurfing** · #18 04-01-2008, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by worker201

On the Less Than Jake cd "Losing Streak", the first track is a song called "Automatic". The song begins with a recording of some old guy saying "This is the old dude, Howard J. Reynolds, and you're listening to Less Than Jake". If you start from there and rewind, you will find further conversations with Howard. The liner notes from the album actually hints at the existence of this content, and offers free swag to the first 100 people who write in with instructions on how to find it. As the album was released in 1996, I'm sure that offer has long since expired.

Other than bonus tracks, this is the only 'true' CD easter egg I know of.

Wow! I'm REALLY surprised that the Howard J. Reynolds story is the first response this got on TB! Awesome.

The old CD "Songs in the Key of X: Music from and inspired by the X-Files", or something along those lines, had a similar track. I believe it was track # -99 or something to that effect.

chroma601 · #19 04-02-2008, 01:30 PM

Gerry Rafferty's "Another World" has a hidden track at the end. One of those four minutes of silence then the music starts again kind of things.

iridiumrocks · #20 08-07-2009, 09:52 PM

The songlist on my "Rush In Rio" DVD says "Easter eggs, find 'em". I think the same thing is also on the "Snakes and Arrows" DVD. Has anyone found them?