Dragonfly Descending - HUM Unreleased Material header art

"The storm has gathered vines, strong and luscious ones."

"The storm has gathered vines, strong and luscious ones."

The good news is, there are some unreleased HUM songs out there.

The bad news is, given HUM's track record at releasing albums and songs, chances are slim that we may ever get to hear and experience the aforementioned material.

Pre Fillet Show  −  Around 1990, a 5+ song demo, titled (Is Like Kissing an Angel, She Said), was recorded with engineer Steve Albini. Fans, and the Internet have been kind in the interim years, unearthing, and sharing the material. Thanks to MJ at Mission Control.

Post You'd Prefer an Astronaut  −  Prior to recording their second album for RCA (possibly fall / winter of 1997), HUM made a demo, titled: It's Gonna Be a Midget Xmas. Thanks to Andy Switzky and MJ at Mission Control.

Downward Is Heavenward  −  Mark Rubel (DIH engineer) has hinted that there are some unreleased songs and / or outtakes from the DIH sessions at Pogo Studio. Hopefully the band and RCA will give permission to release these someday, perhaps as B-side fodder. Of course it is equally possible that the band, or Keith Cleversley might have similar material as well, as YPAA was recorded (possibly in its entirety) with Adam Schmitt at Pachyderm Studios, prior to the final released version made with Keith at the Playground. Who knows? Maybe Brad Wood (E2K engineer) has some unearthed HUM material.

Covers  −  HUM has been known to perform a cover of The Police's "Invisible Sun". In fact, they were originally scheduled to record it at Pogo Studio (and may have completed it) for the soundtrack to the 1998 movie X-Files: Fight the Future. Unfortunately, Sting swooped in at the last minute and decided to do a reggae version of the song instead, thusly replacing HUM. We'll never know how much exposure the band lost out on because of this. HUM's response? "Fuck Sting."

Post Downward Is Heavenward  −  Several tracks were recorded by HUM in their own home studios with, possibly, a Roland VS-880. The exact number of songs and their official titles are unknown. Rumor has it that they reside on Jeff's hard drive. However, a few fans have managed to catch glimpses of set lists from recent shows that drop clues as to what the titles are, or will be. Here are a few, in no particular order:

Unreleased Songs

Inklings
Cloud City
Power
New Pop One
Hip Hop
Jeff's Fast
Jeff's 3/4
Creepy
Frozen Style
Jungle Boogie

It is interesting to note that the song "Inklings" was inspired by the mythical, subterranean, acoustic-responsive creatures called "INKlings", from Haruki Murakami's book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Below are some tentative lyrics for the song:

Inklings

love on a stairway spills me, down
the inklings have left me with no trace, without a sound
this backwards expanse through the old ways
keeps me inside
so follow the blips, and the strips of...
strip of light

let's be together
let's be forever
and crush the inklings from our spines

let's be together
let's be forever
and move the inklings from our minds

love on a stairway spills me down
the inklings have left me with no trace, without a sound
this backwards expanse through your own way
keeps me inside
to follow the blips and the strips of...
strips of light

let's be together
let's be forever
and crush the inklings from our spines

let's be together
let's be forever
and move the inklings from our minds

let's be together
let's be forever
and crush the inklings from our spines

let's be together
let's be forever
and move the inklings from our minds