Best of IPECAC may have seemed like a premature ego-trip from our (nonexistant) audience's perspective, but it was actually a humble attempt to improve some of the original recordings by adding better solos, cleaner production, etc.
We stuck with the original recording of "Better Drumsticks" since it was so hard to play (Jon tended to write difficult jazz songs whereas I wrote simple pop/rock) but we re-recorded four of our favorites and added two new songs.
From a 1989-02-15 journal entry:
With all these unpolished, incomplete songs circulating, we decided to re-record the ones with the most potential on a Best of IPECAC album. This was a good idea, because the success of the newly improved songs inspired us to work on writing music instead of improvising all the time.
In other words, Best of IPECAC made us appreciate our well-written songs. At the same time, though, we still were in love with improvisation. We needed to find a balance between formula and fun.
Kim Edition
In 2007 my cousin Kim gave me a box of tapes that I had sent to her in the late 1980s. One of those tapes was a special version of Best of IPECAC. It omitted "Coup d'Etat", "Cacaphony and Euphony (2)", and the first set of between-song "Chatter", but included an "interview" and the "Good Earth Sequel" on the end. It also had its own tape cover, designed by Jon:
