The Starting Line - 'The Make Yourself At Home' Acoustic EP/DVD

In November of 2003, The Starting Line released The Make Yourself at Home EP which featured 6 acoustic tracks. “The Best Of Me,” previously released as a full-band track on Say It Like You Mean It (2002), was given the acoustic treatment. The 4 remaining songs were new.

Tracklist:

1. Make Yourself At Home 03:57
2. Selective 03:35
3. Playing Favorites 04:02
4. The Night Life 04:01
5. The Best Of Me 04:45
6. Lasting Impressions 03:17

From the liner notes:

Thank you to all of our families and friends. We would list everybody but it would be longer than the lyrics.

Everyone,
Thanks so much for checking out our acoustic EP, we hope you enjoy it. I just wanted to clarify what this recording is, for anyone who is curious. The first three songs of this EP were written while touring in the summer of 2002. With some time off we spent at home, the songs were recorded by my good friend Bob Jones of The Prize Fight in his bedroom. For convenience, the songs were recorded from an acoustic guitar and the beats were taken from an 80's Casio keyboard. Between the positive feedback we received from our friends and our desire to get the new songs out, we decided to release a five song EP including a new song and an acoustic version of The Best of Me. The last two song[s] of the CD were recorded in my basement during March 2003 and this EP was completed. It was a great experience to work on this recording as independently as we did. So thank you again, we hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed making it.

Love, Kenny and The Starting Line.

P.S. We added Lasting Impressions on quite awhile after the EP's completion. This song was recorded on my own in the back of the bus. It will appear on our next album as a full band song.

“Lasting Impressions” was demoed with the rest of the band during the Geffen Sessions, but would never see an official full-band release.

In addition to the EP, there was a lesser known companion DVD as well, The Make Yourself At Home Acoustic DVD. This release contained a live-recorded acoustic performance with a slightly different tracklisting. The set on the DVD was recorded at the Skate & Surf Festival in late April of 2003.

Tracklist:

1. The Drama Summer 03:18
2. Make Yourself At Home 04:50
3. Playing Favorites 03:45
4. The Night Life 04:21
5. The Best Of Me 05:28

As far as I am aware, this DVD has been out of print for a long time. On Discogs, the number of Wants exceed the Haves and, although it's not historically expensive to pick one up second-hand, the opportunity to do so is fairly uncommon.

So here's the video. I hope nobody associated with the group will mind. It's a fun set that those who have attended the band's 20 year anniversary tour this year should appreciate.

You can purchase The Make Yourself At Home EP digitally on Bandcamp along with the rest of The Starting Line’s discography.

As a bonus, here's a ~6 minute tour bus interview with Kenny Vasoli that came on the DVD, as well as two enhanced CD live videos of “Classic Jazz” and “Surprise Surprise.”

The Make Yourself At Home Acoustic DVD

The Make Yourself At Home EP