Songs For The Terrestrially Challenged is the second album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 from The(e) Speaking Canaries

Speaking Canaries

The Speaking Canaries are an indie rock group from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...

, a Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

-based indie rock

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 band. Songs For The Terrestrially Challenged is the first Speaking Canaries album to be released on compact disc

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

, and the first to see worldwide distribution; therefore, it has often been erroneously attributed as The(e) Speaking Canaries' debut album. (The Joy of Wine, the band's actual debut, was a vinyl-only release on a small label and was limited to five hundred copies.) Nevertheless, Songs For The Terrestrially Challenged set a number of precedents for which the group would eventually become notorious: long songs, a long total running time, and multiple released versions of the same album.

Songs For The Terrestrially Challenged is probably best known for including not one but two Van Halen

Van Halen

Van Halen is an American hard rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. The band has enjoyed success since the release of its debut album, Van Halen, . As of 2007 Van Halen has sold 80 million albums worldwide and has had the most #1 hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart...

 covers

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

: "Girl Gone Bad" and "Secrets" -- a bold move for a band in an indie scene in which giving credit to spandex-clad arena rockers is generally frowned upon. (What's more, "Summer's Empty Resolution", a harmonics-drenched solo for acoustic guitar, is vaguely reminiscent of Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen

Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...

's "Spanish Fly".)

Track listing

1. "Houses and Houses of Perfectness" – 4:52
2. "Summer's Empty Resolution" – 1:37
3. "Terrestrial / Famous No Space" – 8:10
4. "Guitar Strings for a Holocaust" – 3:53
5. "Hall Of Force / Gone Bad / So Glad / Reprise" – 9:20
6. ""Little" Ice Queen" – 6:35
7. "Super Hit" – 2:38
8. "El Rancho" – 6:08
9. "Any Three Days" – 12:57
10. "Secrets" – 2:55
11. "Our War On Cool Pt. 2" – 3:59
12. "When Cats Fight / Let Loose of Me" – 4:55
13. "De-Effect / Diminished" – 6:40

Personnel

• The(e) Speaking Canaries:
  • Damon Che
    Damon Che
    Damon Che is a rock drummer and guitarist. He has made significant contributions to indie rock and progressive rock through his work with math rock pioneers Don Caballero since 1991...
    
     - Guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
    
    , vocals
    Singing
    Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
    
    
  • Karl Hendricks
    The Karl Hendricks Trio
    The Karl Hendricks Trio is a rock band from Pittsburgh. In the span of twelve years, they have released seven albums, toured, and even played as a four-piece rock band. Now firmly a trio again, the band's latest album was 2007's The World Says . The current line-up includes Jake Leger on drums and...
    
     - Bass
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
    
    
  • Noah Leger - drums
    Drum kit
    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
    
    
• Al Sutton - Recording engineer
  Audio engineering
  An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
  
  

"Low-fi version"

An alternate, lower-fidelity

Lo-fi music

Lo-fi is lower quality of sound recordings than the usual standard for music. The qualities of lo-fi are usually achieved by either degrading the quality of the recorded audio, or using certain equipment. Recent uses of the phrase have led to it becoming a genre, although it still remains as an...

 recording of Songs For The Terrestrially Challenged was released by Mind Cure Records in 1995, roughly concurrent with the release of the "hi-fi version" on Scat Records. The "low-fi version" is available only as a double LP in a limited, numbered edition of five hundred copies with the first 100 on yellow vinyl. Each copy has liner notes

Liner notes

Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...

 handwritten by Dave Martin of Mind Cure Records and 3x5" photographic prints glued inside the gatefold

Gatefold

A gatefold is a type of fold used for advertising around a magazine or section, and for packaging of media such as vinyl records.- LP covers :...

record sleeve.