2 out of 5

Produced by: Jean-Philippe Thomas (live tracks engineer)

Label: Touch and Go

Great song!  …Questionably necessary single.  I’ll preface by professing a general shoulder-shrug to live recordings: I generally don’t understand their necessity except as filler.  And when the live versions don’t diverge much from the originals, I understand them even less.

I’d also incorrectly assumed that an indie label like Touch and Go would be above back-loading a single with live tracks, but here we are with Kill the Sexplayer and three accompanying live recordings.  Sure, it’s always rewarding to confirm that band X can pull off their shtick live, and GVSB absolutely do, and with gusto, but there’s still no reason for me to return to these recordings, especially given that I can listen to the single buried amongst better recorded tracks on a full album.