Music

Saosin, pronounced ‘say ocean’ (meaning ‘careful’ in Chinese), has been one of my favorite bands ever since I first heard their music in the early 2000s. Given my love for the band, you can imagine how stoked I was to see a new song appear on Spotify after several years of complete silence. Even better: the song is a true head-banger:

“But wait, hold on a second! This song sounds familiar. I’ve heard this song before! But it’s brand new according to Spotify? Where have I heard this song before?!?” These were the thought going through my mind after listening to I Can Tell There Was An Accident Here Earlier.

Searching Spotify revealed nothing and so did searching Google. However, in the Google search results I noticed that there appeared to be a song by Saosin titled I Can Tell that was released around 2006. These two songs must be related! Sure enough, they are the same song. Some further digging turned up everything I needed to know.

When Saosin first formed in 2003, they recorded their first EP, ‘Translating the Name’, with the lead singer Anthony Green. You might recognize Green’s name from another well-known rock band: Circa Survive. In 2004 Green left the band and was replaced by Cove Reber. Under Reber, the band recorded a self-titled debut album in 2006 followed by another full length album called ‘In Search of Solid Ground’ in 2009. In 2010 Reber left the band and it didn’t look like the band would continue to exist until Green rejoined the band in 2013. In 2016, Saosin finally released another full length album titled ‘Along the Shadow’.

What seems to have happened is that Saosin recorded ‘I Can Tell’ as a demo track back around 2003:

After Green left the band and Reber joined, they re-recorded the demo for ‘I Can Tell’ with Reber as the lead singer:

And then finally in 2020 with Green back as the lead vocalist, the band finally decided to record a studio-produced version of the song with a longer track name. I knew I had heard this song before, but I had no idea the band had gone through two different lead singers. Green and Reber sound so remarkably similar. Whatever the case, I am stoked to see this new song on Spotify since it indicates that another full length album might be released sometime this year.

A band produces a great original song: somewhat rare. A band produces a cover of their own original song: remarkably rare. That cover then turns out to be even better than the original song: exceedingly rare.

When ‘The Real Thing’ came up in my Weekly Discovery playlist, I sworn I had heard the song before but couldn’t recall where. Only after some Googling of song lyrics did I figure out the connection.

The cover:

The original: