Shortly before The Olivia Tremor Control released Black Foliage Animation Music Volume 1 (still...waiting...for volume 2...), they released a teaser single on Flydaddy for Hideaway. Back in 2000 or so...or was it Christmas 1999?...my brother-in-law gave me this single as a present. I remember playing it for my mother and she said, "They sound kind of like the Beach Boys." Not a big coincidence, there, as Brian Wilson (and what should have been Smile, had Wilson finished it in the 60's) was a strong influence on the band's second album. But I'm not going to share that trademark Olivia track, as you can enjoy it if you go buy their very-in-print album from Cloud Records. Today's Tuesday rarities are the single's B-sides, which depart strongly from the syrupy psych-pop of "Hideaway" to explore the experimental and improvisational side of the band.

This "Combinations" outtake is, like the "Combinations" tracks on the full-length, an attempt to scatter and recombine (or "animate") the song "Black Foliage" into an unrecognizable new shape. "Can You Come Down With Us?" is a live version recorded for Greater London Radio on the 18th of August, 1998. This twelve-minute-plus track is staged as they usually play it live: a slowburn build with the instruments almost tuning themselves as they rise slowly toward the song itself. Accompanying the band is Kirk Pleasant (Calvin, Don't Jump!) on trombone and Andy Gonzales (M Coast) on banjo. The single stayed in print for a long while and is probably still pretty easy to find online used, so Olivia completists are encouraged to track it down.

The Olivia Tremor Control - Combinations
The Olivia Tremor Control - Can You Come Down With Us? (Live on GLR August 1998)